Baby Got Bear - Milly Taiden Page 0,28
my cuffs. Must’ve stolen them from a hospital or a looney bin.”
Clicking her tongue, a habit she’d picked up in her younger years as a way to keep from screaming at her dad, she sighed. “Sounds about right. Terrance probably had his goons steal them off some old lady. I wouldn’t be surprised if they ate her jelly and pocketed her cookies, too.”
Feeling the sheepskin around her ankles but needing to see for herself, Lucy lifted her head. “Yep, I was always good at guessing games.” Eyes landing on the thick strap of leather around her middle, she scoffed. “And lookie there, they put a belt around my waist this time. Guess I scared the little shits with my amazing athletics and kung fu action the last time. Do they really think a belt here or there will stop me?” Rolling her neck and shaking her head, she went on. “Or maybe this is Terrance’s idea of fun.”
Shivering as the icy fingers of dread skated down her spine, she groaned, “Note to self, Terrance is a freak. A scary, slimy freak that makes my skin crawl.”
Going on with her running commentary to keep from losing her mind, Lucy snorted, “I mean, I do not want to know why the sick bastard has restraints of any kind, much less in the bedroom, and even more the kind that came from a psych ward.” She laughed. “But then again, mental patients may be the only girls old Terry can get.”
Blowing the bangs out of her eyes, she stared at the ceiling. Counting to five, Lucy took a deep breath, and then counting backward to one, she slowly let it out. The same nasty magic that had been in the first creepy room was also contaminating the air in what she remembered to be Mrs. Bergerman’s sewing room. Thank the goddess, her new prison was larger with more space to fill. The evil residue wasn’t able to fill the entire area and was dissipating by the moment.
“What self-respecting alpha uses black magic? I know for a fact, or from the stories Miss Judy used to tell us, which are as good as fact, that the only way a shifter can use evil mysticism is by making a deal with a demon.”
Biting the inside of her cheek, she shuffled through everything her magic teacher had taught her. Miss Judy was the best. There wasn’t anything about magic the old spinster wolf didn’t know.
“Or maybe Terrance made a deal with a witch. But why? That makes no sense. He’s an alpha. He has power and magic. If not his own, at the very least, what he inherited after killing Alpha Bergerman.”
Calling to her wolf, Lucy smiled as warm fur rubbed the underside of her skin, pushed through her follicles, and covered her extremities like a thin blanket of soft down. Stretching her fingers, she allowed the razor-sharp claws of the alter ego to replace the nails that had been torn off during her fight with Terrance.
“Holy shit, now I get it,” she groaned. “That’s why he’s using black magic. As long as the nasty shit’s in my system, I can’t complete the shift. Wonder how many others he used this shit on.”
Bending her hand at the wrist, she’d just begun to cut through the sturdy leather and thick lamb’s wool of her restraints when the door to her prison flew open, and in walked the wolf she was calling Cue Ball carrying a tray of food. Pulling back her fur and claws, Lucy smiled sweetly and mockingly cooed, “For me? You brought food for little ole me? How sweet. I didn’t know you cared.”
Waiting for a response, a snort, the tiniest groan of irritation, she watched the huge wolf lumber across the room. What was his problem? Didn’t he know it was only good manners to humor the prisoner?
Still thinking of what insults she could throw at the behemoth to get a rise out of him, Lucy instead ended up staring toward the door as the shuffle of footsteps wafted into the room. Watching as the other two wolves she’d seen before sashayed in with four more males and two females in tow, she whooped. “A party? For me? I knew y’all couldn’t resist. I’ve been told I’m a great guest. Take off the cuffs. Let me wow you with my wicked dance moves. I promise to be good.”
Grinning like a loon as they all tried to look menacing, Lucy looked each wolf in the