Page 59 of Wolf's Forbidden Curse

“It’s a shame though,” she went on. “Because he did seem to really like me, and it’s been a long time since a decent man showed me much interest. As you can probably imagine, I don’t often run into sweet, sensitive guys in my line of work.”

I raised my eyebrows in response and continued to subtly work on the knot, which was now so loose I could almost pull my left hand free. “Is there really not even a single part of you that feels bad about using him?”

“I think I’m missing that part,” she said in all seriousness. “But don’t get me wrong. I’m not completely unfeeling. As I said, I liked Al. I still do.” She laughed cheerily. “Maybe, if I make enough money selling you, I can retire from this life and go settle down with him for real. He would never have to know.”

“You really think he won’t find out?”

“People don’t ask questions they don’t want to know the answers to.” She looked out the window thoughtfully. “So yes, I do think I could get away with it if I wanted to. But no. I’m not ready to give this up.”

With her looking the other way, I wrenched my arm upwards and pulled my hand out of the bind, only she caught the movement out of the corner of her eye.

“Oh no, you don’t.” She got up and ran to my side. I swiped my arm wildly, but she was in a much better position than me and easily dodged me. I only got one or two hits on her, and they weren’t nearly hard enough to slow her down. She reached into her boot and took out a little glass vial of clear liquid. “Looks like your body is fighting off the first dose faster than I thought it would. No problem. That’s why I always bring extra.” She waited until my arm was in the right position, then kneeled her knee onto my lap, pinning my forearm against my leg with so much force I feared she might break the bone.

“The less you struggle, the faster I’ll get off you.”

She grabbed me by the hair and pulled my head backward over the back of the chair. I refused to open my mouth at first, but she pinched my nose closed so that I didn’t have a choice. It was either that or suffocating. My mouth fell open almost against my will, and she brought the vial up to my lips. She was at the wrong angle for me to hit her, but I did whatever I could to knock the chair over. Missy was stronger than she looked, and soon, I had to face the music. She was going to drug me again, and the next time I woke up, I would probably be in some human cage.

This was it. This was the end of my life as I knew it.

I closed my eyes and succumbed, feeling the first drop of the liquid hit my tongue.

Then the doors to the abandoned school burst open, flying the rest of the way off their hinges, and a wolf the size of a small car came barreling into the room.

CHAPTER 25

RORY

Missy had taken Daphne a lot further away than I originally anticipated.

Cornelius was able to pick up on the scent after we drove around town for a little bit, but only barely, and we had to drive for hours before the rest of us smelled anything. Just before sunrise, I was losing hope when we came across a man walking down the road, muttering angrily to himself.

On pure instinct, I told Matt to pull over so that I could question the guy. The second I stepped out of the car, I could smell Daphne’s scent all over him. I grabbed him by his shirt and screamed in his face until he told me where Missy was headed and why she had taken Daphne. He admitted to having helped kidnap her, and that was all I needed to know. I slugged him as hard as I could across the face, knocking him out cold, and threw him in the back of the car with Nic and me. There was no way I was letting this piece of shit get away scot-free.

After that, we made a beeline for the abandoned school building a few miles east, getting closer to Daphne with each passing second. When we spotted a car parked in the lot, I knew we’d located her. I leapt out of the back seat before Matt even put it into park and shifted immediately, crashing through the doors before my friends could suggest a more subtle approach.

I saw Missy gripping Daphne by the hair and trying to pour something into her mouth and didn’t hesitate to pounce on the woman. She didn’t have any time to react, so when I made contact with her side, she went flying across the room. Her limp body slammed into the far wall, and she screamed in pain. Daphne let out a scream as well before spitting out whatever had been put in her mouth. The sound of her fear only added fire to my rage.

Missy slid to the ground and slumped over, still alive but not looking very good. I ran across the room and sunk my teeth into her ankle, pulling her back into the open so that I could look her in the eye when I made my next attack. She hissed as my teeth hit bone and the blood dripped down my jaws. The sound she made when I started to drag her was like a wounded animal.

“Don’t!” Daphne yelled. “Stop!” She didn’t know it was me, so the fact that she hadn’t taken off running the second she freed herself from her binds was quite impressive. She stood up from the chair and put a shaky hand up in the air. I growled and turned my attention back on Missy. Nobody was going to stop me from putting an end to this woman, not even Daphne. I’d let the wolf take over, and just like when I was a kid, there was no getting control back.

Missy shook violently as I advanced, and she begged for her life between breathy sobs. I put a paw to her chest and brought my nose right up against hers, baring my teeth and dripping her own blood back onto her.

“P–please,” she said, trembling. “Don’t kill me. Please.”

Her pleas weren’t working on me, but just then, I saw a flash of fur out of the corner of my eye and was distracted by Nic’s crisp white coat. She came on the other side of Missy and locked eyes with me, shaking her head.

I snarled, speaking through gestures, Fuck off.

Don’t do this, her growl said. You’ll regret it.

This situation, the way we were standing and the look she gave me, felt eerily similar to the last time I had a human in my grips like this.

Despite my efforts to push them back, memories of the day I killed that defenseless kid came rushing back to me. The school we attended even resembled this abandoned one, and when he saw me transform into a wolf, he begged me to spare him. Nic had been screaming at me not to go for the kill. But back then, everything had happened so fast, and my friends weren’t able to stop me in time. The rage had already taken over me, and nobody had taught me how to control my wolfish instincts when that happened. If anything, I’d been taught to give myself over to the wolf, to let it have the reins.

But a lot had changed since then. I didn’t have to give myself over completely—not if I didn't want to.

I wasn’t the same person I used to be, and that was a good thing. That was why I left the pack in the first place. If I killed this woman now, that would mean I was no better than the vicious, heartless shifters I worked so hard to distance myself from.

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