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One
Lincoln
Water filled my mouth. My lungs screamed as I tried to take a breath. I thrashed against my captors. My wrist snapped, transitioning. My razor-sharp wolf’s claws tore into flesh, making my brother Mikey cry out, but he didn’t let up on his assault.
My nails retracted, and my arm transformed back to my human one. I didn’t have the strength to stay shifted for long. Poison coursed through my veins, draining me of energy when I needed to be at my strongest.
Mikey shoved me farther under the water. I grasped the edges of the bucket and pushed up with what strength I had left. Mikey pushed harder, shoving me deeper.
The icy water poured into my mouth, nose, and ears, drowning out his shrill yells. I didn’t know why he kept asking me questions when my head was two feet under water. It’s not like I could answer him. At the rate he was going, he’d kill me.
I couldn’t breathe. My body convulsed. White dots blurred my vision, and I struggled against his ironclad grip. I gnashed my teeth together so hard, blood filled my mouth.
He pushed me farther under until my head collided with the bottom of the barrel. Pain exploded just above my left eye. The water turned crimson as I bled out.
My body spasmed, fighting to draw a breath. This was it. I was going to die. My pulse raced at the revelation. I struck out, trying to hit something, anyone, so I could free myself.
It was no use. Mikey was on top of me, pushing my face against the bottom of the barrel. My vision tunneled. My heart pounded so fast I thought it might beat out of my chest.
I pictured my wolf, willing it to come fully to the surface. He couldn’t. The wolfsbane pumping through my veins made it impossible to fully turn.
My lungs ached, desperate for air. I couldn’t give up.
Don’t stop fighting. Don’t you ever stop! Do you hear me, Lincoln?
Someone was yelling my name, encouraging me to keep fighting. They sounded like they were miles away.
I didn’t want to give up, but my body was betraying me. I couldn’t make my rubbery limbs move.
Just when I thought I was done for, Mikey yanked me out of the water. I gasped in a breath. It was a raw, shaky sound that made my lungs burn more. My body trembled, and I coughed, spitting water out of my mouth.
My knees gave out, and I toppled forward onto the dirt floor. The ground bit into my trembling body, and the dried debris stuck to my face. Rivulets of blood rolled down my nose and trickled over my cheek. I stared at the mixture of dirt and leaves as I rasped, trying to catch my breath.
Mikey kicked me from behind, hitting me right at the base of my spine. “Who else is working with you?”
I curled in on myself, wrapping myself in an embrace. My eyes slid shut, and I sucked in large gulps of air, imagining for a moment it was Sloane holding me. I could almost feel her warmth and the soft caress of her fingers threading through my hair.
Sloane gasped. “Lincoln!”
A weight pressed against my chest. My eyes popped open, and I stared up at the woman I loved.
My mate, my everything.
She was here. Well, not really. I’d willed her to me, allowing our minds to connect. She was safe at her home a few hundred miles from here.
I struggled to sit up. I didn’t want her to see me like this. I was broken, bleeding, and weak. Worse, Mikey was still here, his beady eyes staring at me. If he had even an inkling that Sloane and I were mated, he would make my torture a thousand times worse, and hurt Sloane more in the process.
Sloane pressed her lips to my forehead and held me tightly. “What did they do to you? I should have never left you. I’m so sorry.”
She peppered kisses over my face as she continued to murmur her apology.
I could hear the emotion in her voice, even though I couldn’t see her face.
Mikey walked around to the front of me and leered before kicking me. “Who are you working for?”
Pain exploded in my abdomen. The air whooshed out of my lungs, and I couldn’t breathe.
Sloane screamed as she clung to me. At first I thought maybe Mikey had kicked her somehow, but the way she was rocking me back and forth… Maybe not. Thank God. I’d kill him if he dared touch her.
