Beneath a Blood Moon (19 page)

Water cascading over my head woke me. I jerked to escape the scalding heat and discovered my arms were bound over my head. Someone gripped my forehead and held me in place while a hand ran through my hair. I screamed, but something in my mouth muffled the sound.

I recognized the stench of hair dye.

When I managed to force my eyes open, an arm covered in dark fabric obscured my vision. I thrashed, kicking out. My bare feet slipped on wet tile, and all of my weigh hit my arms as I stumbled. Pain rippled through my arms and shoulders.

“Ah, awake now, are you? Excellent.” I was released and left to dangle. Breathing through my mouth was impossible, and I struggled to catch my breath. Getting my feet under me relieved the pressure on my arms.

The delivery man from my apartment stood in front of me. His soaked suit clung to him, and with a smile, he grabbed hold of my chin and forced me to look him in the eyes. “You really are a gorgeous woman. I’m going to have so much fun with you over the next few weeks. Maybe, if you’re really good to me, I’ll keep you around after I’m done with the business side of our transaction.”

Fury burned through me, and unable to snarl curses like I wanted to, I growled in my throat.

Releasing my chin, he removed the gag from my mouth. I drew a breath to speak, but he stepped to me, forced his mouth over mine, and kissed me.

His lips were ice cold and sucked all of the warmth out of my body. Grabbing hold of my waist, he held me in place, and the chilling sensation intensified. My legs trembled and buckled under me, leaving me hanging by my wrists.

When he finally pulled away from me, it took every bit of my strength to breathe. The warm water streaming against my back and head scalded me. I whimpered, unable to muster a scream.

“My name is Kent, Miss Madison. We’re going to be very, very intimate friends for the next while. How will it be? Shall I enjoy your pain or your pleasure?” His smile chilled me even more than his touch.

While I couldn’t force myself to stand, I found the will to spit on him. His smile broadened to a grin.

“I like a woman with some fight in her. I’ll be blunt with you, Miss Madison. You’ve been friendly with the wrong crowd, and I don’t like when a pretty broad moves onto my turf without my permission. I am going to educate you on why you’ve made such a mistake. Still, I am a generous man at times, and I will forgive your infraction. You’ll have to forgive me for taking advantage of what you’ve done, however. It’s one thing to kill an Alpha’s mate, but another to capture her and make her mine. I look forward to feeling his reaction when I steal his bond with you.”

I sucked in a breath, and a thousand questions stampeded through my head. My wolf’s fear surged. I didn’t understand what Kent meant about stealing a bond, but my wolf did.

Through her, I felt a faint and subtle warmth in my head, reminding me of everything I loved about Sanders. My wolf’s fear shifted to desperation to protect what we had claimed.

Kent smiled, seizing my chin in his hand. His touch burned, and I hissed through clenched teeth. “You can’t hide it from me. You’ll try, but I’ll take it from you all the same. I’ll begin with your ties to your new pack. It will be interesting to see how it affects so many wolves when I take a bitch from them slowly. Their rage will be exquisite.”

“What kind of freak are you?” I blurted.

Kent’s mouth thinned to a narrow line. “That’s amusing, coming from a dog pretending to be a human.”

The cold sensation inside of me intensified, and I shuddered at the shower’s heat on my back. “What have you done to me?”

My tongue didn’t want to cooperate, as unwieldy and shaky as my legs.

Stepping to me, Kent slid his hands up my sides, tugging at the silky material of the white dress Sanders had purchased for me. He shoved me against the shower’s wall, pinning me to the tiles with his body. His mouth brushed against my cheek on his way to my ear.

Ice filled my veins, and I cried out from the pain of it.

“You’ll survive, Miss Madison. I’m just giving you a taste of what you’ll enjoy for so long as you defy me. How long will you last until you beg me to make the pain go away and replace it with better things? A few hours? A day? Might you last as long as a week? I can only hope you’ll be such a magnificent specimen.” Kent laughed, released me, and stepped back. I stumbled, and all of my weight pulled on my aching wrists and shoulders.

It hurt even more than Kent’s freezing touch.

I panted until I could breathe through my nose. The stench of my own fear and pain made it difficult to sniff the man out, but when I did, the sickening sweetness of rot curdled my blood. “What are you?”

Kent smiled, once again brushing my cheek with his fingertips. “So much pain you’re feeling right now, so much fear. It’s truly exquisite. How long can I make you feel so much before you break?”

I found the strength to snap my teeth at his hand.

All he did was laugh. “For that little bit of defiance, I’ll reward you well. Your ilk call my kind sorcerers, Miss Madison. Like you, I am a predator. You are my prey, and I will enjoy every moment I hunt you until it is time for me to feast. Yours will be a harvest I will savor for years to come.”

He smiled, spun around, and left me hanging in the shower.

Time lost meaning. The shower water chilled, and no matter how I stood, I couldn’t escape the spray. My arms were bound high enough over my head I couldn’t lift myself up; the leather cuffs bit into my wrists when I tried, until my blood ran freely down my arms.

To keep the pressure from my shoulders and hands, I had to stand on my toes. I cursed so much I lost my voice. Long after I could no longer stand on my own, Kent returned.

He lifted my chin with a finger and smiled at me. I bared my teeth at him in a silent snarl.

“I have been thinking long and hard about what to do with you, Miss Madison. How can I best make use of a beauty such as yourself? I could harvest your fury, your fear, your passion, and make your strength mine. It’d be a delightful use of my time, and one I would enjoy very much. But, after much consideration, I think I’ve found a better way to utilize you. A gorgeous bitch like yourself must be highly desired among your kind; that’s how you sank your teeth into an Alpha, isn’t it? You lured him to you with your beauty. I can sense him through you, you know. I can feel his anguish, his fear, and his rage.”

When I said nothing, he frowned.

“It must have been your looks. You really aren’t that bright, are you? Pity, I would have enjoyed a conversationalist for a partner.”

My wolf wanted the sorcerer’s blood. She wanted to rend the flesh from his bones and leave bits of him scattered across the continent as a warning to those who would dare touch us.

I was too weary to feel anything. I stared at him in a numb daze.

Narrowing his eyes, he pressed his hand to my throat. I flinched, expecting the chill of his touch. All I felt was a light pressure against my skin and the slow, weak pulse of my heart.

“Ah. I let you get too cold. How unfortunate.” Circling his arm around my waist, he lifted me up and leaned me against him. I hung limp in my bonds.

His throat was so near my teeth, but I couldn’t find the strength to tear into him, and neither could my wolf. Reaching around me, he turned off the shower. Instead of releasing me, he reached up and freed my hands. Once I was loose, he let go of me. I slid to the floor, unable to support my own weight.

“It’s no fun if you lack the strength to fight me,” he grumbled. “My mistake. Is beauty all that is needed to catch an Alpha? Pathetic. Had I known that, I would have made a move long ago. Lesson learned.”

I drew a deep breath, and the stench of his anger and irritation singed my nose. Pulling back his foot, he kicked me in the ribs hard enough to force the air out of my lungs. I gasped, writhing from the blow. Before I could recover, he grabbed a handful of my hair and dragged me out of the stall.

Once again, the paralyzing chill of his touch swept through me. His dry chuckles taunted me while his words burrowed deep inside to tear holes at my heart.

Kent was right, and that hurt most of all.

The sorcerer hung me from the ceiling of a concrete cellar. Instead of a cage, thin chains of silver surrounded me, so many in number they obscured what lay beyond. I didn’t need to see to know who—or what—waited for me.

The arousal of male wolves filled my nose, so strong my wolf was helpless to resist the burden of the rut. Her desire for our mate burned until the smell of my own desire mingled with the other scents in the room.

Somewhere beyond my silver cage, Kent laughed.

“It’s sad, in a way, what we humans have lost and you wolves have retained. You have so many instincts, don’t you? What is it you smell that makes you flare your nose like that and breathe so deeply? Is their lust such a wonderful perfume for you?” Pushing his way through the silver, Kent approached me, brushing my cheek with the back of his hand. “You long for your Alpha to come satisfy you. Your aura is so bright with your desire.”

Skimming his hand along the line of my jaw, he teased my sensitive skin. My wolf’s need to mate left me helpless and trembling at his touch. I jerked, but the leather cuffs around my ankles kept me from going far.

The chains behind me brushed my back, and the burn of their touch tore through me. I cried out, my legs collapsing beneath me. Smiling, the sorcerer caught me in his arms, holding me against him.

His hands clutched at the burns on my back, and it hurt so much I couldn’t breathe, let alone scream. The way my wrists were bound overhead kept me from falling far, leaving me helpless as his mouth sought mine. The chill of his kiss numbed me to the pain, sapped my strength, and left me unable to lift even a finger against him.

My wolf’s presence faded until all I could sense of her was a faint warmth in my head.

“So intense,” he murmured, pulling away from me. “A single kiss from you is more than all those rutting males combined. You recover so quickly, too, for all you seem like such a young wolf. Pay attention, Miss Madison. I will teach you something interesting.”

I gasped to catch my breath, and once my lungs ceased aching with the need for air, I choked out, “I’ll kill you.”

He smiled. “By the time I’m finished with you, you will wish you possessed the strength to kill me, I’m certain. You won’t. You’ll try, but you won’t. You will do as I want. If you cooperate, I will turn your pain and anguish into pleasure. Otherwise, you will suffer. It’s really up to you.”

“Disgusting,” I spat.

“It’s not the first time I’ve hunted an Alpha—your Alpha. Did he tell you he had another woman before you came along? She wasn’t worth much. I enjoyed her before I killed her and fed on their dying bond. It sustained me well. I feed on him even now, though your bond won’t last, not for long. It’s too weak of a thing to survive what I will do to it. Still, I look forward to what it will do to him.” Kent laughed. “Once he breaks, I will capture him, bring him here, and he will join my collection of males. His body will remember yours, and he will be a rich harvest for me. When I claim you as my mate while he watches, it will break him, and I will have all of the power I need.”

“It’s bad form to gloat,” I hissed through clenched teeth. Somehow, I would find a way to kill the man standing before me. I would kill him for touching me. I would kill him for hurting Sanders.

I would murder him in cold blood for using me to hurt my mate.

There were so many things I didn’t understand, but question stood out to me. How could I have so much power over Sanders? My wolf had claimed him as our mate, but we had only been together one night—one night filled with our mutual enjoyment of each other.

I knew so little about him, but my wolf and I craved his presence. I wanted to return to him.

When I did, I would give him a present: the head of his Mary’s killer.

I stared the sorcerer in the eyes and hoped he could see his death in my gaze. If he noticed my desire to end his life, all it did was make him smile.

“It’s fun. You can’t escape me. I am merely letting you know what you will take part in. Consider yourself lucky. You live, for now.”