The Wolf's Surrender - By Kendra Leigh Castle Page 0,80
had been pushed out and fallen harmlessly to the ground as the flesh had knit back together. Though her body had ached terribly at first, the sensation had vanished while they were riding in the SUV, she with her hands bound laying down in the back, and the three men who had abducted her keeping an eye on her from the front and middle row.
She had been warned that to try and escape would mean a long and painful death once they were through with her...as opposed to the quicker version they’d been planning for her, she supposed. She had no reason not to believe them. After all, they had killed Jenner...and laughed about it.
A wave of nausea roiled her stomach at the memory, and Mia tried to block it out. She wished she could block everything out. Especially the sight of Jenner, covered in blood, suspended upside down in his truck. Outwardly, Mia showed no emotion, because she knew to do so was to invite attention from her abductors. Inside, however...inside was another story. She had only begun to mourn, and the pain was beyond anything she had ever imagined. “Maybe we should cut her,” one of the men suggested, sliding Mia a look that chilled her. He thought of her as less than human, somehow. Just a tool. And if it was entertaining and useful to cut her, he’d be happy to do it.
“Not yet. Not until it’s time. It’s just a waste of blood, and besides, she’s being a good girl now, aren’t you, Mia?” Jeff growled, standing with his arms crossed over his chest. Mia could only see his profile, as he was turned to his side, but it was easy to see that his excitement was growing, and that his grip on reality was slipping. His eyes were wild when he glanced at her to give her what was probably meant to be a warm smile.
“But won’t the Shadowkin get here more quickly if we spread some of her blood around? Just a little?”
Jeff bared his teeth at the man, who Mia thought she’d heard called Sy. Both Sy and the others of Jeff’s thugs were big and intimidating, mainly because she could tell their loyalty to this cause, if not to Jeff, was unwavering. They wanted power. And their eyes were cold, dead when they looked at her.
“You idiot. They know we’re here. I’m just waiting for them to tell me where to go. They’re preparing a place...I know it.”
Mia sat on the ground, leaning against the knobby bark of a tree. She watched as Jeff turned his attention to her and started over. Mia wanted to recoil, but managed to simply look passive. She was terrified. They’d left the truck at an abandoned gas station outside of town hours ago, and then trekked into the woods. She would have felt confident that the Blackpaw could sniff them out...but no one was coming. No one knew what had happened. And by the time they figured it out, it would be too late. Jeff had been very clear.
And despite his madness, she knew that when it came to his plans with the Shadowkin, he was telling the truth.
“Mia,” Jeff said, stopping just a foot away from her and looking down at her with what might have passed for friendly interest, if she hadn’t seen the cruel glint in his eye.
“Call the shadows.”
Her breath stilled in her throat.
“I...I don’t know...”
The smile turned into a sneer. “Yes you do. Yes you do, you bitch. They’ll come a lot faster when they feel how powerful you are. Call them with that fae blood of yours. Call them!”
The open-handed slap rocked her head back, slamming it hard into the tree. Mia cried out, both from the pain and the miserable fear. She didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to do this. She wished she were still with Jenner, that he was alive and they were trying to talk things out. She wished everything was going to be all right, but it wasn’t.
It was never going to be all right again.
Jeff’s eyes burned like fire when he looked down at her, glowing in the half-light of the forest.
“Call them, you stupid little feral bitch. I don’t have time for this. The wolf in your blood will pull them as strongly as the magic. You’ll be irresistible.”
His voice was barely human. Mia closed her eyes, partially in self-defense. If she looked at him too much longer, she was afraid she’d