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“Don’t.” She crossed the room with a tray and set it down on the nightstand next to Shae. “You didn’t follow procedure, Shae, and got yourself into this. I heard how that one protected you. You were lovers, weren’t you?” Her disgust radiated.
“Where’s Eiji?” Shae demanded. She rattled the handcuff. “How long have I been asleep?”
Gladys picked up a needle from the tray and flicked it. Shae stilled.
“You are not using that on me. Gladys! When I get free, I’m going to—”
“What? Kill us all?”
The calmly spoken words were the strongest proof to why they had been doing what they’d been doing all this time. Shifters were violent. They had no qualms about killing humans, but Shae knew that was wrong. She did have qualms—and pain and loss. She lay in this bed in her father’s home with her family around her, yet there couldn’t be a wider chasm between them.
“You were only out since last night when your brother brought you in. It broke your father’s heart to learn you’d been whoring with those things. Well, you’re going back to sleep until he comes to his senses and has you put down.”
“Don’t do this!”
The needle pierced Shae’s arm. She jerked away, and the bed frame bent. Gladys’s eyes widened. She stumbled backward. Shae might not be able to break the metal cuffs, but the frame wasn’t real metal. She tugged hard again, but her brain had already begun to fog over.
“No,” she mumbled. “You have to let me go. Tonight…tonight is the…” Full moon. I need an alpha. I need Eiji. She hadn’t the strength to say it out loud. Sleep claimed her once again.
* * * *
Shae opened her eyes to low light. The room had begun to darken, and the knowledge of what that meant scared the crap out of her. Already, she felt it inside, that stirring of something wild and inhuman. The beast strained to take control, and she knew her grip would slip.
“Eiji,” she cried out in longing.
“Hai.”
She started and scanned the room. There he stood in the corner near the window. “You were here. You’re alive.” Her babbling grew worse as he approached, and her heart pounded. Her fingers ached to touch him. She needed to look him over to make sure he was okay. When he bent beside the bed, something clinked, and she realized he was using a lock pick on the cuffs.
“How do you know how to do that?”
He paused long enough to cast her an amused glance. Damn, she’d missed that handsome face, even if it had been merely a day since she’d seen him last.
“I was not always a policeman.”
“Hm, I bet.”
The cuffs fell away, and she launched herself into his arms. They both winced in pain, and she drew back, alarmed. “You were shot.”
“So were you.” Rage appeared in his gaze. “It is my right to kill them. You belong to me, and anyone who hurts you must die.”
She grinned. “Thanks, baby, but now is not the time to go all caveman—or wolfy, I guess. Then again, it is. The full moon will be in the sky soon. Eiji, I don’t mind admitting I’m scared.”
He drew her close and raised her from the bed to set on her feet. The dress she wore did not include underwear, and she saw no shoes in the room. Thanks a lot, Gladys!
“I have taken care of you from the start, and I will continue. We will go somewhere safe.”
“There’s security. How did you even get in here?”
Eiji appeared affronted. She had visions of him doing some ninja moves on the guards, and would have laughed if the situation weren’t serious, but what about the security system?
“As I said, I was not always a policeman, and even in my line of work, I have learned how to get around certain barriers.”
She studied his handsome face. “Okay, I’ll take your word for it.”
He took her hand, features becoming set. “Stay close. You will be free soon.”
In a short while, they were on the road, driving to who knew where. Shae clenched her jaw tight and crouched in her seat, at the same time taking peeks at the sky. On one hand, she willed the moon to come. On the other, she wished it would never appear. The dread knotting her stomach and making her feel like throwing up was the human side. The chomping at the bit, a sense of freedom coming soon, she knew had to be her wolf. Still, that wasn’t all the beast felt. She also craved Eiji. She actually wanted to be his mate, strained in a way that had Shae wanting to raise her chin and expose her neck to him. What the hell did that mean? Another bite? Hell no. She would not give in. Every fiber of her being pleaded for it.
