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He grasped a handful of her shirt and dragged her to her feet, pressing his face against hers. “Don’t call me crazy.” For emphasis, he shook her before shoving her away.
Baylee stumbled backward, but managed to catch herself in the pile of hay bales that had long since turned to straw, which kept her from sprawling on the floor again. She eyed him warily as he paced in front of her.
“I only need one of them alive, so I’m going to kill the other one.” He stopped and faced her with a cold smile. “I’ll even let you pick which one lives and which one dies. Since you’ve been in bed with both of them, you should be forced to choose, you disgusting whore.”
She glared at him as she straightened her spine and stood upright. She was still a little woozy, but she didn’t think she was in danger of collapsing. “I’m not a whore, and they aren’t beasts.”
“I’ve seen the proof with my own eyes.”
She shrugged. “Fine, but how do you think you’re going to trick them, or capture them? They’re too smart for you.”
“But maybe not for you.” His grin was chilling as he marched toward her, grabbing her with one hand as he started to hit her with the other. She tried to block his blows, but had little success. Soon, she could taste blood in her mouth and feel it dripping down her forehead and into her eye.
Finally, he stopped hitting her and pulled back. One of her eyes was swelling shut, and the other had blood in it that obscured her vision, but she was certain he looked smugly confident.
He sounded it too when he spoke. “The smell of blood should draw them in. All animals respond to that. It’s almost dark, so it won’t be long. I guess I’d better get you in position. If they don’t devour you in their beast forms, and you survive to the end while they’re eating you, I’ll even shoot you between the eyes when it’s over. I’ll give you a quick end in honor of what we once had.”
“You’re a real prince.” Her lips throbbed when she spoke, and a cut at the corner of her mouth wept freely with blood. She brought up one of her hands to try to wipe it away, but he intercepted it before she could. She tried to tug away, but only delayed him in fastening a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.
Using the cuffs, he dragged her behind him, not allowing her any quarter even when she stumbled. If she wasn’t on her feet marching with him, he dragged her along on the ground. When they left the stables, he pulled her to a tree, where there was a section of chain lying beside it.
She struggled to escape, and he pulled her head forward before slamming it back against the tree with casual cruelty. Baylee wasn’t completely unconscious, but she also wasn’t aware enough to keep fighting him as he wound the chain around her several times before finishing off by wrapping it around her neck twice to the point where it restricted her oxygen, but didn’t quite suffocate her.
He sounded pleased when he said, “I should still be able to hear you scream. You
owe me a few of those.”
She would have been brave and told him to go to hell, but it hurt too much to talk with her lips broken open and bleeding.
They stayed there for several minutes, and she grew progressively more uncomfortable. She could make out dusk descending into nightfall with her one semi-good eye, and a few minutes after he had chained her, she heard howls unlike anything she’d ever heard in her life. They weren’t wolf-like, or like any other creature. Since there were two of them, she was certain they were Nick and Duncan in beast form.
They were either calling out to her because they hadn’t found her, or they were calling out because they had scented her blood and were following her trail. She fervently hoped it was the latter, because she was certain they wouldn’t hurt her, but they might be able to rescue her from Sam and thwart his plans for them.
Thinking of the other man’s name forced her to open her eyes as far as she could, blinking away blood as best she could as she searched for him. She didn’t see him out in the open, and she figured he was hiding either in the stables or in the trees. The howls came again, this time closer, and she held her breath for a moment before exhaling as they called out a third time, closer still. She was certain now that Duncan and Nick had detected her scent, and they were coming for her.
Unfortunately, they didn’t know what they were walking into. They probably thought she had been injured in some way and were coming to rescue her, planning to get her medical attention. It was unlikely they would suspect Sam’s involvement, especially since she’d never mentioned a crazy ex-boyfriend.
Would they detect the scent of another person? Would that be enough warning for them? She didn’t know. When they were closer, at least close enough that she thought she could hear them crashing through the forest in their haste, she summoned her last reserves of strength enough to yell, “It’s a trap,” as they burst into the clearing.
At her words, Duncan and Nick skidded to a halt, their claws scrabbling on the ground as they took defensive positions, their rumps against each other to guard the other’s back.
Her voice was thready, and she realized her neck was swelling against the chain, likely from some damage inflicted during the beating Sam had given her. “He has a gun. Tranq darts. Probably bullets…” She trailed off, unable to continue speaking with the chain pressing against her neck and the pain each word caused her.
A shot hit the earth inches from where Nick stood. They moved apart, and she winced when she heard the crack of the rifle preceding another shot. This time, the bullet appeared to strike Duncan, and she whimpered in protest. He didn’t fall, so if he had been struck, either it wasn’t too serious, or adrenaline allowed him to push through it.
She slumped against the tree, not able to track the motion of the men as they became the hunters. She could feel a difference in the air, and she wondered if Sam felt it too. Was he currently shuddering with fear as he realized he had betrayed his position by shooting at them, and that while he had bullets and tranquilizer darts, they had vicious claws, sharp teeth, and a determination to protect their mate on their side?
She let her eyes close, but she could still hear rustling in the forest. Less than a minute later, she heard Sam cry out, and it was a shrill shriek. At first, it sounded like fear, but as it prolonged and intensified, it took on a sharp edge of pain as well. Listening to him scream and plead for his life, she could well imagine what Duncan and Nick were doing to him, but couldn’t seem to summon the energy to care. They were simply doing to him what he would have done to them, and to her. In her mind, it was strictly self-defense.
When they emerged into the clearing a few minutes later, she could see blood on their coats, and she hoped it wasn’t theirs. Duncan walked with a limp in his front right paw, and as he drew closer, she could make out a wound in his shoulder. That appeared to be the worst of it, and Nick looked unscathed.
Despite the pain in her lips, she managed a small smile for them. “I knew you’d come, and I’m glad he didn’t get you.”
Trapped as they were in the beast form, they couldn’t speak, but they leaned against her for a moment. Then Duncan went to one side of the chains, and Nick to the other. They clawed and hacked the tree and the chains until the links finally broke as the tree made a splintering sound. A jolt shot through her, but then she collapsed forward and onto the grounds, the broken chains around her.
Working together, Duncan and Nick carefully took mouthfuls of her shirt between their jaws, dragging her away from the now-unstable tree. When she had reached a safe distance, they stopped and allowed her to lie down to rest. They curled up on either side of her, and she appreciated their body heat and the softness of their fur.
Their heads were on either side of hers. She turned to look at one, then the other. She reached out with her hands to stroke their sides. “I love you both.” After that, it was a bit of a blur. Time must have past, because she was suddenly lifted into a pair of male arms instead of cradled by beastly paws. Baylee managed to force open the eye that wasn’t completely shut, looking up to see a nearly full moon above them. Something about the fact it was still night while Nick carried her teased the back of her mind, but she couldn’t make the connection of why it was strange. Instead, she snuggled against him and surrendered to the need to sleep.
