Wolf's Promise (Caedmon Wolves) (5 page)

“In the dungeon.”

The dungeon?

“It’s occupied, Sir.”

“I
don’t care. Lock that bitch up.” Scarface
ran
to
the o
pposite end of the room toward the
sink and faucet.

“I won’t do it.” Her protests turned into cries.
“
Kill me now!”

Selene meant it. No way would she allow someone to dis
respect her body that way. T
o bring a
n innocent
baby into this world under these circumstances were out of the question.

“You have two choices…your body or your life.”
Scarface turned to glare at her.
“You want to act like a rabid bitch…
then I’ll lock you up like one.
”

As they hauled her away, she tore and pushed at anything she could get her hands on. She grabbed up a lamp and hurled it at the maid, as she was carried toward the door.
The maid ducked and the lamp crashed
into a hundred pieces
on the floor behind her.
She
clawed at the door frame and clutched at the
hook
hanging
o
n the wall
. Her struggles didn’t seem to faze the man
who
carried her
. He kept taking her
away
. To where…she had no idea.

Finally they were outside and night ai
r blanketed her. Her lungs
burned from screaming. S
he
lifted her head
, and
look
ed
out across fields of absolutely nothin
g. Was there anybody out there to help her? Her prospects didn’t seem too good.

Her shoulders slumped
in defeat,
and she l
et the man carry her like a sack
of potatoes across the field.

Selene tried to contain her agony and impatience, but her entire body was consumed with it. Tears fell down her
face
,
and
she balled her hands tighter into fists
.
Her fingers met a solid metal object. Her heart jump
ed when she glimpsed
a small key
with a piece of broken chain hanging from it. In her fit of rage, she’d grabbed something.

A key.

Nick raised his head in alarm as he heard the doors overhead being slid open. The voices were muffled, but he made them out to be the
man who guarded the cell and Jonathan, the man who’d caught him
.

He pushed himself of
f
the stone wall
and came to stand by
the bar
s
as the men moved closer. There was no use in them bringing him any more food. He’d rather rot in this cell than accept something they’d poisoned.

The door to the dungeon flew ope
n and fresh night breeze flowed
inside. He inhaled deeply, savoring what freedom would taste like. Wolves were never meant to be caged. It w
as a dreadful
punishment. The punishment for trespassing
.

Jonathan came down the stairs, an
d Nick immediately flashed fang
. When he saw a body over the man’s shoulders, he withdrew them just a bit.

He carried a female
.

Nick couldn’t see her face, only long black hair cascading down as she hung her head toward the floor. She wasn’t even moving.
Was she dead?

One of the men unlocked the cell door
. T
hey brought th
e woman’s limp body into view.

He sh
ould
have made an escape for it then, but s
hock had him frozen to the spot
.

They
threw her on the floor and slammed the doors shut.

“Lookie there, you’ve got a cell mate.” Jonathan chuckled as he trekked back up the stairs.

The woman whined, but
still made no move to get up
. Her long thick hair still covered her face. She was half n
aked with only a matching floral
bra and panty set on. There was a
n
undressed wound at her side and
a wide
scrap
e
down the left side of her arm. She curled into a ball facing away from him and started to cry.

“I should have killed him,” she whimpered. “God, I should have killed him.”

Ni
ck shrunk back. The woman didn’
t
seem to
know that he was in the cell. She was talking to herself.

“Why didn’t I listen to
you, Dad? You
told me not to go anywhere alone,” the woman continued.

He didn’t know whether to leave her be or answer her.
Her scent wafted toward him. It was
a delicate blend of nutmeg and brown sugar
. An underlying scent also told him that s
he was human.

“I’m so scared.” She cried some more.

Nick cleared his throat. “Hello?”

The woman jumped up like a leopard, scrambled into a corner of the cell, and scream
ed. It was a high pitched shrill
that should have shattered the glass windows in the room above them.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You’re one of them!” she shouted. “What kind of people are you?”

He pressed his lips together and ran his tongue across his teeth willing his fan
gs to disappear. “No, I’m not.”

“You better not
come near me!”

He stepped closer. “Sssshh…
please. You’ll draw attention.”

“I’ll kill you!”

He tried to hold back his amusement.
No woman
had ever uttered those
three little
words to him.
“I’m locked up in this cell with you. Do you really think I want to harm you?”

“Just stay right there.” She held up a hand. There was a
jagged
cut on the palm and her fingers were covered in blood.

From the scent of it, it was her blood and someone else’s.
Someone familiar.

He wasn’t taking any chances; h
e didn’t want his blood
added to the equation
.
“Okay, okay. I’ll stay back.” He took a few steps back.

The woman hugged her body with her arms
in an attempt to cover up. She shivered as well. He figured the combination of fear and cold had taken over her.

“Here.” He pulled his shirt over his head and offered it to her.

The woman eyed him like a hawk, her gaze sliding from his face to the shirt he offered.
Stepping
forward,
she
snatched it
, ran
in
to
her corner
, turned her back, and
pull
ed
it over her.
She sat down, bringing her knees to her chest with her
bloodied
hands balled into fists.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. Following suit, he moved to the other corner and sat down facing her. He wanted to go over to her and comfort her, but figured that wasn’t the wise thing to do given her threat to kill him.

“I was attacked. How can I not be afraid?”

“Of me, I meant. Don’t be afraid of me.”

She looked up to level her stare at him. “I don’t trust you.”

Her lips were pursed in fury. They were a perfect set of lips. Rosy in color and plump and sexy. Her feral gaze nearly hypnotized him.

He shook his head.
“That’s okay. I’m a stranger. I know.” He studied her. Even in her state of stress, she was clearly a very beautiful woman. “My name is Nick.”

“Why are you locked up?”

“I was captured, and brought her
e
.”

She returned an ambiguous stare. “Me too. They brought me here and will not let me go.”

“How long have you been here?” He had no idea that Darius kept human servants nowadays.

“
I was traveling to visit a friend when I swerved to miss an animal in the road.
My car crashed off th
e main highway. I must have blacked out. Next thing I kno
w, I wake up on a cot
with Mr. Mangled Face staring down at me.
It’s been a day or two, maybe.”

“Mr. Mangled Face?”
His gaze dropped to her bloodied fists. “What happened
to your hands
?”

“I stabbed Scarface.”

“Scarface?”
Who were these people she was talking about?

“He attacked me. They called him Darius.
He had the ugly
,
mangled
scars on his face.
”

Nick ground his
teeth. The nerve of him to attack an innocent woman. “Are you alright?”

“No.”

“I can help.”

Her eyes filled with tears, but she managed to shed not one of them. “This was a mistake. I want to go home.”

“I’ll g
et you out of here,” Nick said.

Hope filled her eyes, replacing the tears. “Hi, Nick. I’m Selene.”

“Selene,” he whispered.

“Yes, but not like the singer. Mine’s spelled with an S.”

He smiled.
“Right. Pretty name.”

She shrugged. “It’s alright. My dad named me.”

The casual conversation seemed to calm her, so he carried on, all the while examining her slowly. “What would you rather be called then?”

She raised an eyebrow. “That’s an odd thing to ask someone.”

Her eyes were a deep brown. Bedroom eyes. Eyes you could get lost in for hours on end.

“You have an
accent. Northern and maybe Spanish?
”

Selene cracked a small smile, and lowered her thick eyelashes. “There’s no disguising this accent. I’ve tried many times, but I always slip and most people figure it out.”

“
I like your accent.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Since this afternoon, but it seems like forever.”

She scanned the
room outside their cell, really
observing their surroundings for the first time
with a
trouble
some expression
on her face
.
What had Darius done
to her
?

The only light in the room was
from the moon be
ams that snuck through a tiny barred window
. It was dark inside, and if it wasn’t for his wolf eyes, he would not be
enjoying how lovely she looked despite her distress.

“Do you have a plan to get out of here?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“How?”

She was relentless.

“The guards are sloppy. I’m just waiting for the right moment.”

“
You’re patient, then?
”

He nodded. “In order to defeat an enemy, you must kno
w him thoroughly
.”

“Makes sense.”

From across the room, Nick heard her stomach grumble. It wasn’
t gas. Evidently
she was experiencing hunger pangs. “You haven’t eaten since you’ve been here, have you?”

She didn’t answer.

Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of jerky wrapped in a plastic. It was the last piece he had. He’d been saving it for tomorrow just in case his plans backfired. He handed it to her, arms outstretched.

Surprisingly, she came forward and accepted it. “Thank you.”

He inhaled her scent again as her small fingers opened the package and extracted the jerky. She tore the
dried meat in half and handed one
to him.

He smiled and accepted his piece, eating it in one bite.

She sat beside him
and nibbled hers slowly.

Her toes were painted a bright red, the same color as her nails. His
shirt barely covered her
and hi
s gaze ran over long shapely calves and plush thighs
. She was a light cinnamon complexion, just like her smell.
It would be difficult keeping his eyes off her.

After eating the jerky, she rested her head on the wall of the cell and yawned. “Talk to me some more, so I don’t fall asleep.”