Rescuing Their Virgin Mate[Pack Wars-Book 3]

Chapter One

“Can anyone hear me?” Elena
Sanchez’s voice cracked. She dropped her head against the rusty cage and her
stomach lurched. “Help me. Please.” As she rattled the metal bars of her five-foot-by-five-foot
cage, her sweaty palms slipped.

Her voice echoed off the
cavernous walls of the warehouse, sounding as empty as the hope in her heart. Had
it not been for two small windows at the top of the tall building, she’d have
been in total darkness. The stench of mold found its way into her nostrils, making
her sick and weak. She sneezed and then groaned, “Why me?”

She sank back, lifted the
cross from her neck, and kissed the head of Jesus. “Please, God. Tell me what
to do.” She would have cried, but the tears had dried up two weeks ago when
those bastards kidnapped her.

Every day she yelled until
her throat grew dry and her voice disappeared, but no one ever answered. Never
had she been so alone. Hungry, sweaty, and filthy, despair was her constant
companion, but she refused to give up hope. There had to be a way out.

Even after hours of
self-reflection, nothing made sense. Why were they keeping her alive? What did
they plan to do with her? She was glad they hadn’t killed her, but making her
suffer by keeping her crammed in the cage defied logic.

Had the stranger who’d
approached her after work been responsible for her capture? The pretty girl had
seemed rather desperate herself. She’d come out of nowhere and stopped Elena
less than a block from her office. She said if Elena
was
willing to quit her job that day, the woman would give her five thousand
dollars. Her mind couldn’t even comprehend such an amount of money. On her
secretary’s salary, it would have taken her forever to save that much.

She jumped at the offer.
Working for Couch had been a nightmare. Twice he’d groped her in his office and
even insisted she stay late several times without compensating her for her
overtime. She’d already decided at the first of the year she’d look for another
job. The woman’s offer appeared to be an early Christmas present.

Even
at the time, it seemed too good to be true, but did she listen to her
conscience?
No
. And, that was the
problem. Greed was the root of
all evil
—a sin.
Now, she understood why she should have turned down the stranger’s offer even
if that kind of money would have helped her mother’s family in Costa Rica. Her
grandmother was ill. Since her mother met her father after high school, her
parents had lived in Gulfside. Last year, her parents had given up their jobs
and moved to Costa Rica to take care of
Abuela
.

Elena gave up questioning why,
because there never were answers.

Her thin pillow was crammed
in the corner, and she lay back down, waiting for the sullen guard to come. He
never said a word and didn’t seem to understand English. He fed her three times
a day and let her use the bathroom.

Her captors had already confiscated
her money and her suitcase on the day they’d taken her. They hadn’t violated
her. Yet. She wasn’t naïve enough to think they wouldn’t.

Her stomach grumbled. She
lowered her head to her pillow as sleep won over the hunger pangs. She was
about to doze when the metal garage door leading to her prison squeaked opened.
She bolted upright. No one had used that door before.

Sunlight streamed in. She
squinted to stop the light from piercing her eyes, desperately trying to focus
on what was outside. Cars passed by, but she didn’t recognize her location. She
was tempted to scream, but the sight of two burly men with guns affixed to
their shoulder holsters made her throat close up.

Heart pounding, she believed
this was the day they’d rip her from her cage and kill her. Her stomach tumbled
and her muscles shook. The cool outside air made her skin prickle, but the
scent was sweet and salty like maybe she wasn’t far from the Gulf.

“Put those two next to the
other bitch.” The command came from a skinny dude with the nasty goatee.

As he got closer, her breaths
quickened. She recognized those tattoos on his arm. He was the one who’d taken
her.
God have mercy
. She hadn’t seen
his face during the abduction, but when he’d stuck the needle in her arm that
day at the airport, she’d spotted the unforgettable snake and devil design on
the back of his hand.

She shifted her gaze away
from him and, only then, spotted women inside each of the two cages. One had
dark hair like hers, and a second was a dirty blonde. Both girls looked close
to her age. Though at twenty-three, she hardly considered herself a girl
anymore.

Neither moved and Elena
suspected they’d been drugged, too.

The skinny dude came up to
her cage and kicked it. “I’ll be back. A good soak in the tub and I bet you’ll
be ripe for the plucking.” He spit and walked out.

Bile tinged her throat, and
she covered her mouth to keep the vomit from erupting. She made the sign of the
cross and prayed for a miracle. She was going to die. Now there’d be no man in
her life or little ones running around. Tears finally spilled from her eyes, and
she wiped them away.

Elena dipped her head. There
was only one thing left to do. “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed
be
thy name.”

When the big door closed, and
they were once more shrouded in semi-darkness, she kept watch, not only for the
men to return but also for the women to awaken. With the addition of these new
girls, it probably wouldn’t be long before they eliminated her.

A sob escaped. Her mom’s
birthday was in a month and she really wanted to be there with her. Now that
wouldn’t happen and her heart trembled. A mother should never outlive her
child.

One of the girls moaned and
Elena faced her. She rapped her knuckles on her cage bars. “Hello? Can you hear
me?” After dragging the pillow to the end of the cage, she knelt on it waiting
for the first one to rouse. When Elena had first arrived, the drug they’d given
her took a long time to wear off.

The blonde pushed up on her
elbows then dropped back down. A trickle of hope surfaced. Three could think
better
than one.

“Hey. Open your eyes. It’s
okay.” Not really, but any reassurance would help them cope once they found out
what happened.

She needed to speak with them
before the guard returned to tell them resistance was futile.

After prodding the new women
for several minutes, the blonde opened her eyes and looked around.

She licked her lips. “Holy
fuck. Where am I?” She grabbed the bars and rattled them. “Hey!”

Her anger at the injustice
must have struck home.

“No one can hear you,” Elena
said with an eerie calm.

The girl faced her. “Whoa.
You look like shit. What the fuck’s going on?”

The girl swore too much, but
given the situation, Elena understood people weren’t always at their best under
these circumstances.

“Do you remember how you got
here?” Perhaps all three of them had been abducted the same way.

“Fuck, yeah.” She brushed the
hair from her face. “I was leaving the club out the back door like I do every
night when this dude stumbles toward me moaning and holding his stomach. I’m
thinking maybe he’s been shot or something, so I go to help him. That was when
he straightens and freaking sticks a needle right here.” She rubbed the back of
her arm. “Doesn’t pay to be helpful.”

The girl’s experience kind of
matched hers. Her mind spun at what that might mean. “Then you woke up here,
right?”

“You’re a real genius.”

Why was the girl being nasty?
Didn’t she understand their situation was quite dire? They’d be better off
working as a team. “I’m Elena Sanchez.”

The blonde studied her. Given
she was wearing a too short skirt and a top that barely covered her breasts,
she might have been an exotic dancer or worse, a hooker. “Barbie Lassiter.” She
leaned against the bars. “I could use another round of whatever they gave me.”

“You want drugs?”

“Girlie, there is nothing
better than a little coke. You should try it some time.” Barbie rubbed the
inside of her arm. “So, you want to tell me how the hell you got here? You homeless
or something?”

“No. I was at the airport
about to get on a plane to surprise my parents when a man who I thought was a
security agent asked me to come with him. The same man who delivered you here stuck
me with a needle. I’ve been here two weeks.”

“No shit. That sucks.”

At least the blonde was
capable of some sympathy.

The brunette rolled over,
draped an arm over her face, and coughed. She then pushed up on her hands and
looked around, her hair in total disarray. She spotted Barbie. “Who are you?”

“Well,
ain’t
this a regular circus. I’m stuck here with two princesses.”

Elena had had enough. “What
is your problem? Don’t you understand we could die soon? Be nice.”

“Sure, Pollyanna. That and a
buck will buy me a cigarette.”

Elena refused to rise to the
bait and kept her mouth shut. She turned toward the brunette. “I’m Elena.”

The girl faced her. Her
pretty, heart-shaped face was accented with gorgeous blue eyes that looked like
they belonged to a wolf rather than a human. “I’m Cheryl Johnson.”

What a stark contrast to
Barbie. The soft way Cheryl said her name made her sound fragile. “What’s the
last thing you remember?”

She rubbed her arms. “I came
to Gulfside for a job interview. I’m a paralegal from Muncie, Indiana. Moving
to Florida has always been my dream.”

“Did you get the job?”

Her chin trembled. “No. There
was no job. I am the dumbest person alive. I had the cab drop me off at a
rundown building outside of town. I stupidly ignored the little person in my
head
who
told me that no respectable law firm would
have a building out there. When I arrived, there was this nice woman sitting at
a desk in a decent enough office, so I thought my paranoia was due to nerves.
She smiled and then escorted me to a back room, where I thought I’d meet the
lawyer.” Cheryl shook her head. “All I felt was a prick to the back of my arm
and then nothing.” She sniffled.

Elena’s heart ached. That was
so unfair. “Your poor parents. They’ll be worried sick.” As would her own when
she didn’t call.

Cheryl glanced down. “I’m not
on the best terms with them. Only my landlord will be upset when he doesn’t
receive his rent check in three weeks.”

Both girls looked exhausted,
but if Elena could just figure out why they were taken and what they had in
common, she might be able to bargain with these horrible men.

Elena wet her dry lips.
“Barbie, where do you work?”

Her chuckle came out harsh.
“I’m an exotic dancer at Mons Venus.” She jerked her shoulders forward as if
ready for a fight.