Seren was very conscious of how much she was slowing the group down. What might have been a two hour lope had turned into an agonizing three and a half hour ordeal.
Hopping on one front leg only jarred her torn up shoulder and made her good leg tired. Seren wondered how much farther they had to go because she wasn't sure that she could make it.
However, it was clear they were making a point of having her walk on her own, even if she was injured. They wanted her to know they were unsympathetic to rogues and Seren got the message loud and clear.
A few more painful steps and her supporting leg simply gave out beneath her, making her collapse with a yelp on the ground. Her vision was swimming from her head injury and though she struggled to get back up, her legs shook beneath her too hard to put any weight on.
Alpha Liam growled and turned around, filling Seren with anxiety and embarrassment. One of the other wolves took a few steps towards her as if to force her to stand, but another cut him off, Seren recognizing her scent. Kate. She seemed to communicate with her alpha and then the beta left her side, sprinting away the direction they were headed.
Seren swallowed nervously, panicking, suddenly very conscious that she was lying in the open, completely vulnerable. She didn't move a muscle as she waited in the thick silence, feeling Liam's gaze on her back. Perhaps if she had not been injured, she might have tested the alpha's speed, though she knew if he caught her the consequences would be disastrous.
None of the wolves said anything to her, but a few of them sat as they waited. For what?
Soon, Seren could hear human footsteps crunching heavily over the leaf litter and she turned her head, concerned. The beta had returned in human form wearing a pair of jeans, a thin sheen of sweat on his tanned skin. His hair was brown and shaggy just like his wolf- typically most wolves had fur matching their human hair and his eyes were a pleasing green.
He nodded to Liam who promptly turned and left. Seren exhaled in relief. The beta moved back to her side and she worried that he was going to do something to her. She stiffened as he crouched and zip-tied her front and back paws before he slid an arm under her chest and around her back legs, swiftly scooping her up. She had been walking too slowly and instead of stopping to interrogate her out in the woods, they were determined to get her back to their house one way or another.
She felt pathetic that she couldn't walk, ashamed and weak. But as her head pounded, she also felt grateful to not have to limp along, even if his forearm pressed painfully against her shoulder.
He strode confidently onward, the four other wolves trotting ahead knowing that their prisoner was safely secured. Seren must have drifted off, because it seemed only a second later that her eyes opened to the crunch of gravel underfoot. They were approaching a huge three storied stone house, with bright windows framed in mahogany. Window boxes with yellow flowers hung below them, but it was the people standing around that drew her eye. At least fifteen teenagers, children and young adults were playing in the yard, lounging on the screened in porch or standing by the many parked cars, observing the arriving members and her with curiosity.
Seren was so uncomfortable and her heart beat faster with every step he took toward the door. Being in that house would be like being in a cage with all those faces leering in at her. They would want to see the rogue. She had to prepare herself for the beating she would get, for them to take turns taking out their vengeance. She could almost feel the sting of the silver blade nicking her arms and legs and face.
The Wind Runners would want answers, but if Seren wanted to keep herself safe, she could not say anything, not a single word. If they heard her voice, they would be able to recognize her when she was human. She would just have to hope that they didn't have some way to force her to shift because her human form was now her last and only means of freedom. Freedom. That could only happen if she could get out of the house and off the grounds before they noticed she was missing.
Someone opened the door on the side of the building facing the driveway for the beta and he carried Seren inside into the cool interior. The floors were a shiny dark mahogany as well, the walls exposed stone with beautiful paintings hung over them. There was an open and giant kitchen to the left, all stainless steel and black and white tile beneath the cabinets, with a dark marbled counter top. The beta moved passed it and on toward a hall. On the right was a massive living room with a large entertainment system and several leather couches resting on cream carpet. A man and his mate sat on one, staring at them as they passed, concern in their eyes. A child, no older than six toward Seren and the beta.
"Derrick!" She cried sweetly. "Did you find a dog?"
The woman on the couch quickly scooped up the girl before she coudl get to close to the dangerous zip-tied rogue. Seren almost laughed.
"No, sweetie," he said, his voice as relaxing to Seren as his presence. "She is not a dog, she is like us."
"What's wrong with her? Why is she all red? Why doesn't she shift?" The girl, all innocence, seemed perplexed. If only the answers were easy to explain.
"She is in trouble," Derrick growled, moving out of sight in the hallway. He opened the first door on the left and flicked the light on with his elbow, descending the steps down to a basement.
Seren's breathing turned rapid, she could sense that this would be where the brunt of her tortue would happen. Derrick passed a long bar, a pool table and an entertainment area, moving down another hallway lined with doors. He opened the very last, revealing a large storage closet that was relatively bare except for a stash of provisions on some heavy black steel racks.
Derrick laid Seren on the cool floor, but did not untie her or say anything about the hours to come. He simply straightened and looked down at her with some unfathomable emotion- regret, hatred, pity or all of them together, before he turned and left, locking the door behind him.
Seren craned her neck to look around. That was the only door out, but there was a small window near the ceiling that would be level with the grass outside, but she couldn't tell if it even opened. She moved her mouth down to her paws and began trying to chew off the painful plastic bindings when a key was shoved into the lock with a muffled crunching sound. Seren felt her limbs numb in fear and she made sure to stare fixedly at the floor as the door opened and someone entered, taking up the small room with his immense frame.
His scent reached her nose, purely male, musky and almost smokey sweet at the same time. There was rain and the wind there, wild, but also the sun on his skin, a combination that threatened to lull Seren into a state of relaxation, to pull her in the sleep her body so desperately wanted. Unfortunately, her body's reaction to such a wondrous smell was instantly overpowered when she felt his aura. It was not the beta who had returned to speak with her, nor any of the other wolves.
It was Alpha Liam.
A blanket plopped to the floor and he tossed a first aid bag on top of it, but she refused to look up. "I need you to shift, rogue."
Before he could turn to give her privacy, she stiffly shook her head in defiance. Her heart was racing. What she was doing was dangerous, very dangerous. She had to be careful how much she pushed him. He could very well make it his mission to break her.
"No? Did you...Did you just refuse to shift?" His voice sounded incredulous and furious at the same time. Seren doubted anyone had ever said no to him before.
She nodded once, steadfastedly keeping her eyes on the floor.
He growled, the sound rumbling through his chest and she trembled. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be. I just need to ask you some questions. If you don't cooperate we will have to assume you are an enemy. Do you understand?"
Another shiver answered him and she licked her lips nervously.
"Shift now!"
His snarl made her jump and she whimpered, trying to alleviate the pain in her shoulder from the muscle contracting. Liam sighed heavily in exasperation. He had to get answers out of her before he took any kind of action. "Why are you dead set on staying in your wolf form anyway? You must not want me to see you. Do I know you?"
The thought had not occured to him at all, but as he watched her blink as she stared and her paws and give a dishearted wag of her tail, he knew that he must. Seren had seen him at the store once and she was sure that he knew McGreggor had a helper, so her answer was close enough. Liam stood there, confused and suddenly feeling guilty, wracking his brain for any small blonde female whose hair matched her coat color in the town.
He squatted, resting his weight on his heels and frowned as she tensed and pressed herself against the wall in terror. Her fear was as obvious as her attempts to be as submissive as possible. Liam's wolf side did not feel threatened by her whatsoever, in fact, he was even a little protective after what his pack had gone through to get her from the Gray Paws. She was his to deal with.
"You know," he said more softly, making her tremble. "I recognize the scent of your blood."
Seren swallowed, but her throat felt like dust.
"You don't have a scent for some reason, or at least your wolf doesn't. But your blood, I could find you anywhere now," he whispered. Seren was right on the verge of giving in to him, to doing exactly what he said just to make sure she wasn't killed by this giant and terrifying man and he knew it. "That was your blood on Ian's kitchen table. He knows who you are."
Liam stood and Seren's heart pounded so fast, she was sure that it would explode. Liam was so close to finding out who she was. He wouldn't hurt McGreggor would he? Seren couldn't bear the thought of being responsible for that, she couldn't let the alpha leave.
As he turned, she did the one thing she thought to do. She growled at him.
He stopped. All the muscles in his broad shoulders tensed, his back straightened and his fists clenched at his sides, anger rolling off of him. She had openly challenged him, defied him, but damn if she had not gotten his attention. Slowly, he turned to look at her, though she still refused to look at him, her bared teeth and raised fur sent the message she wanted him to receive.
"How dare you! Your life is reliant upon my mercy! If you want to live, you will shift now," his voice had turned hoarse and he shook with the effort not to turn wolf and teach her what it meant to respect an alpha's authority.
Once again she disobeyed, blinded by rage that he would threaten the man that had helped to protect his pack and gave it four of its best wolves.
"Look at me!"
In her fury, Seren turned her head up to meet his seething glare, his eyes illuminated an electric pale blue and his canines enlongating as he fought the anger that threatened to change his human form. Something passed between them, instant and yet timeless, sending all of her nerves from her face, down her spine to the tips of her paws and tail into a tingling frenzy. She didn't know if she was a solid being at that moment, but then felt both adrenaline and some other primal essence shoot through her veins, turning her stomach over and scrambling her thoughts, pressing her back into the cool floor. Every hair on her body stood up in recognition of the fatal attraction, the very unwanted bond that had just been created between them, yet had existed all along.
Seren watched his face change to shocked surprise, his brows lifting from where they had slanted together above his nose, his pink lips parting slightly, before wrenching her eyes from his. A new fear filled her body, a weighted and panicked dread.
Alpha Liam was her mate.