I run my hands over every inch of the metal crates. It’s solid steel, with a tumbler built into the door, and bars only at the top, not even the sides. No weaknesses I can exploit. My eyes venture in, trying to avoid seeing her bruised, crumpled form so I mayfocus on the crate’s construction. If I let my eyes drift to her, I’ll lose it, and then I’ll be useless. I have to get her out of here.
The truck starts up again. The first one must have cleared the top of the hill. We have to get out of here. Now.
“I don’t suppose you know the combination,” I say. Nothing’s worse than a panicked victim.
“232.”
I don’t bother asking her how she knows. My fingers fly over the mechanism. It clicks and the door opens. I reach in and carefully pull her out.
As I’m lifting her, I see the burns on her back and hips. It’s not the first time I’ve seen these marks. Burns from a cattle prod. Her wolf hasn’t healed them, which means she’s struggling to keep Angelina alive. The amount of energy just to warm Angelina in this freezer of a truck would be enough to drain the strongest of shifters.
When her arms circle my neck, I can get my arms under her legs and lift her the rest of the way clear of the crate. Her skin is ice-cold. She needs to warm up, fast.
“Shift,” I order as I set her on her feet
“Can’t.” Her legs buckle and I catch her. Her pained expression ties me in knots, but she doesn’t utter a single cry, even though I’ve inadvertently grabbed her by several wounds. Despite my eagerness to leave, I have to give her a chance to stretch and acclimate. I wait while she flexes muscles and works on her balance. I can carry her, but not in wolf form. Our chance of escape is better if we can both shift.
When she appears steady, I remove my arms, but stay close in case she wavers. A slight smile appears through a wall of blonde hair. “I’m good now. Thanks.”
“Good. Shift. I’ll get you to a safe spot in the woods, then return for the other shifters.”
A graceful arm lifts and slides her hair aside, revealing afucking metal collar… with spikes pointing inward! If she shifts, she’ll slit her own throat.
I don’t bother holding my curse. “Fucking animals.”
“Funny, that’s what they always call me. An animal.”
“Nothing about this is funny, Angel.” Gently, I gather and pull her hair up so I can get a better look at the spiked collar. It looks like some torture device from medieval times.
When my fingers accidentally brush over one of the burns on her back, she cries out in pain, then quickly silences herself. I hate everything about this. That she’s been tortured, locked up like an animal, and that she doesn’t even have the freedom to cry out in pain without risk of alerting the humans she’s loose.
“I’ll be more careful.” I caress her hair once, hoping to give her some sense of comfort before I resume examining the collar.
It’s solid steel, with a hinge at one end and a lock at the other. How the fuck do I get this off?
“I knew humans could be cruel, but this… this is downright… Fuck, there’s no word for this.”
“I think the word you’re looking for is inhumane.” A bitter edge creeps into her otherwise spirited voice. “Ironic, isn’t it? They callusanimals.”
I tip her chin up slightly, all-too-aware of how she has to move carefully with that spiked collar on. “Don’t go dark on me, Angel. Stay with me.”
She presses her lips together and nods, but I don’t miss the wetness pooling in her eyes. She’s scared, and right now, I am too. If I don’t get this off her…
“Tell me how you knew the code,” I say, to distract her. We both need to think clearly.
“Usually they shoved me in the crate backwards, so I couldn’t see, but one time they forgot. I pretended to be sleeping when they unlocked it. It did me no good, though. I could never fit my hand through the bars.”
I slip a finger inside the collar to test the hinge, but she winces. The tight space pushed her into the spikes.
“I didn’t want to trap anyone.” I hear the sorrow in her voice, like she needs me to believe her.
I glance back at the fucking dog crate…. “No one could possibly think that.”
“If we can’t get the collar off, and more guards come, you need to leave, Garrett. Don’t risk yourself any more than you already have.”
“I’m not leaving you here, Angel, so stop thinking like that.”
“I can’t shift with this on?—”
