“What are we going to do?” Thorn asks the question softly.
Krall has been sitting on the lower bunk bed for a while now, his jaw clenched in frustration and anger. He thought he was in the process of dominating her thoroughly, but he was actually losing control while she was gaining it. It was fascinating to watch. He still hasn’t come to terms with it.
And this gives me an opportunity.
“We need to make our escape,” I say. “We need to get off the train, and we need to circle back and do our best to find her again. I think you and Thorn should run now. I will slip up onto the top of the train and ride it to the next stop. I’ll retrieve herthere once she runs—and we know she is going to run. And we can meet up somewhere wild enough to tame her properly.”
“Train’s going too fast to jump from,” Krall says.
“It is now, but I’ll get up on the… wait. A new idea is coming to me. What if I go up on the train, sever the last carriages. That will force the train to stop. You and Thorn start running. I’ll grab our mate while everyone is distracted.”
“Fine,” Krall says. “Do it. Do it.”
He’s impatient. He’s angry. He’s confused. It’s perfect. I could not have scripted this any better if I tried. The magic mate I dreamed of is being just as difficult as I thought she would be.
I climb up and out of the broken window, clutching at the trimmings of the train to pull myself up and onto the roof. It’s not easy work, but I am animated by what I am going to do to Tabby once I retrieve her. My cock is hard even now, imagining the punishments she is going to endure. I am going to fuck her tight little asshole so damn hard once I get her. I am going to pin her beneath me and make her beg for mercy as I fill her up over and over, showing her body what her mind will not yet accept—that she is ours and nothing she does now, and no amount of human sympathy, will change it.
I move up and over the carriage, to the one in front of ours. There are still three or four back there, and I work my way down to the connectors, which are rattling along with the motion of the train. There’s a lever down there that is not supposed to be used while the train is in motion. I know this because it saysDo Not Use While Train is in Motion.
I yank the lever as hard as I can, and I listen to the screaming of an annoyed train as the carriages behind react to the loss ofconnection and automatically brake. The rest of the train keeps going.
Thorn and Krall will be able to escape out through the window now. Night is gathering, and there is a good chance they will not be seen as they leave. Even if they are, nobody will believe that wolves left the train. We have an almost endless supply of plausible deniability when it comes to our animal selves.
I open the rear carriage door and start moving my way through the train, trying to avoid security and such. It’s still going, though I think it might have started to slow. Train carriages with the brakes on stop relatively quickly. Engines take longer to slow apparently.
I find my mate via scent. Her dress has been clinging to her for days now and smells of her body and our seed. I could find her absolutely anywhere.
I slide open a door and slip into a bathroom. This is the first class portion of the train, through the dining car. They have hot water here, apparently. I suppose it’s heated by the same coal that makes the engine run.
“Tabby?”
I say her name through the thick mist that clouds the air.
“What do you want?” She asks the question bitterly. “How did you get in here?”
“There are no lengths I would not go to in order to claim you,” I say, stepping closer and finding a copper bath full of sudsy water, containing my mate.
She looks up at me with annoyance.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” she says. “You’re supposed to be getting arrested and going to a human jail.”
I crouch down next to her and smirk. “Did you really think we’d let that happen? We are soldiers, pup.”
“Don’t call me that,” she scowls. “I am no puppy. I have proved that time and time again. Not that any of you seem to care.”
“Krall is an old-fashioned wolf, with old-fashioned beliefs about how mates should behave,” I say.
“I don’t care if he’s a thousand years old,” she pouts, splashing the water unintentionally as she makes a motion with her hand. “He can fuck off.”
She sounds like Thorn. Already she is bonded with us, though she doesn’t understand how deeply. I am enjoying this. I wanted a challenge. I wanted to feel her power, and I wanted to bend it to my will.
“I’m going back to the mountains once I have had a bath, washed my dress, and gotten some new clothes.”
“You know that’s not happening,” I say. “You’re coming with us.”
“You’re going to jail.”
“We’re not,” I say calmly. “Do you want me to help wash your hair?”
