Captured - Cara Wylde Page 0,59

them look almost demonic. I’d thought the Woodward brothers had been scary, but I’d been so wrong. They had been beastly, yes, but their anger had always been normal, like a part of life I could understand. The Redwoods were different, unnatural.

They all dumped the torches at the base of the pyre, and the dry wood went up in flames. Even drugged as I was, I started to struggle.

“No! Please, stop! Please, let me go.”

It was pointless. They didn’t care about my tears or my terror. Cancel that, they did. They reveled in it. Milton shot me a wild grin, and when he looked at me, his eyes were no longer golden, but a terrifying crimson.

“That’s it, offering. Sob. Your tears will feed the Pale One. Let me hear you scream.”

I wanted to be brave and defy him. I wanted to spit in his face and stop crying, just out of spite. But the fire was approaching me so quickly, consuming the wood. Smoke filled the air, and before long, I couldn’t see the werewolves at all anymore. I could still hear their voices, their chanting growing louder and louder.

“Pale One. Pale One. Come to us.”

I caught a glimpse of a glow rising in the distance. I could barely distinguish it, but it was certainly there, and it was coming from the lake. A memory of my childhood swims flashed through my head. The black surface of the water rippled, as if it was alive.

By now, the fire had almost reached me. The smoke was getting so thick it was beginning to suffocate me. I wanted to go back to the Woodwards. I wanted to see them. I wished I’d spoken to them properly before I’d left. Maybe then, I wouldn’t have landed myself in this situation. Maybe then, I wouldn’t have died.

The blaze was getting so very bright. I tried to shy away from it, to tug on my restraints. It didn’t work. Somewhere below me, the Redwoods were still chanting and laughing.

“Cry, sacrifice. Scream for us.”

What could I do? I screamed. “Help me! Please, help me!” It was a terrible idea to listen to them. The fire itself responded to my desperation. The flames became so hot they were practically blue. Sparks flew over me, and I sobbed as they hit my skin. It hurt so much. “Help me! I don’t want to die…”

“Pale One,” the werewolves continued to chant. “Pale One!”

A fierce roar sounded in front of me and suddenly, a curtain of water fell onto the pyre, extinguishing the flames. My head cleared, the drug-induced dizziness melting away. The pain coming from my wounds started to fade.

It would have perhaps been better if that hadn’t happened, or if I’d fallen unconscious. From the waters of the lake, a massive creature emerged. It looked like a cross between a wolf and a Cthulhu-like monster, a Lovecraftian horror that had no business existing in the real world. Its head was lupine, like that of a white wolf, but its lower body was a mass of wriggling, black tentacles. When it looked at me, its eyes were like galaxies. I felt smaller and more pathetic than ever before. And I stopped screaming.

I didn’t want anyone to try to help me. I would die here. I knew that now. Maybe that was always going to happen. Maybe my fate had always been sealed, from the moment my family had taken young animal cubs and turned them into decorations. The Woodwards had never been my punishment, not like I’d thought. I’d been born into a family of killers, and now I had to pay the price. The Pale One would be my executioner.

I could only hope that Jax had been telling the truth, and that he and his brothers truly didn’t need me. Because after today, there would be no part of me left to share with my lovers.

Razor-sharp fangs flashed above me like stars. I snapped my eyes shut and thought about those last moments of pleasure and warmth I’d found in the arms of the Woodward brothers.

I wished I could have been what they’d needed. I wished I’d stayed. But I hadn’t, and now, I was being sacrificed to a monster.

Twenty

Thorn

We attacked with all we had. After we’d spotted the Redwoods by the lake, Jax, Reid and I went back to our pack and told them what was going on. Jax was the one who gave the orders. We couldn’t wait a minute longer. Our wolves had to be