Page 4 of Stolen Choices

The voice came out of the darkness, and Katia looked around the room trying to figure out who was speaking. A man emerged from the darkness. If Katia thought the man with the devious eyes was scary, this man was pure evil. His eyes were almost black. He could have been Satan himself if she didn’t know better.

“She’ll do what you need her to,” Katia’s father responded. “I’ve taught her good manners, unlike those of some other people I know.”

“I wouldn’t speak that way to me, Mr. Morgan. I can make this punishment even worse.”

Her father finally let go of her hand and sagged into a chair beside her.

The man came over to her and pulled her roughly up from the floor.

“Hello, Katia.”

She stared at him, waiting for him to introduce himself.

“Hello,” she finally replied, “I’m afraid I don’t know what to call you? I’ve not had the pleasure of learning your name.”

The man was smartly dressed in a black suit—expensive cufflinks completed the dominant show of power he portrayed.

“You don’t need to know who I am, Miss Morgan. It’s not of any importance to you.”

She opened her mouth to admonish the man for his lack of manners, but he turned his attention back to her father.

“You can leave now. I want to get to know Miss Morgan better.”

Katia looked at her father, willing him not to leave her with this man. What the hell was going on? Why were they here? Her father was a respectable man? How could he even know someone as dangerous looking as the man in the black suit?

Her father was ignoring her, though. He simply got to his feet and mumbled,“I’m sorry, Katia—it’s the only way.”

Before she could respond, her father exited the room, and she was left alone with the man in the black suit. He grinned at her, and she gulped, the air thickening with tension as he bore down on her. He grabbed her and turned her around, pushing her up against a drinks bar in the room. She felt something hard digging into her ass. She knew immediately what it was and released her claws ready to attack, but something was prodded into her neck. It sent a shot of electricity through her body, and her claws retracted. It was then she noticed that the man was no longer alone. There were other men in the room now bearing down on her with cattle prods.

The man holding her laughed again.

“I don’t think so, Miss Morgan. Keep those claws sheathed and don’t fight. Your father has a massive debt to pay, and you’re going to work it off.”

Katia woke from the dream, screaming. The sound filled the air. At some point, while she’d been sleeping, she’d turned back from her tigress form to human. Memories she hated had returned—too vividly this time. That was the first time she was raped. Sadly, it wasn’t the last. It happened almost daily for over a year before Kas found her and saved her. By the time she returned to the Glacial Blood pack, her mother had disappeared, and her father had been cast out of the pack, never to be seen again. But even though they were no longer there, she couldn’t forget that her father had sold her, his only daughter, to pay off his gambling debts.

Chapter Two

“Jackson, get in here,” Nuka bellowed from his office.

Jackson’s alpha was clearly in one ofthosemoods again. He seemed to be in them more often than not lately, and it was becoming increasingly frustrating. If they were going to destroy the humans, Jackson just wanted to get on with it. He wouldn’t rest until every last one of them had suffered what he’d been subjected to as child. He couldn’t think about that now, though. His alpha must have a task for him—that much was obvious from the way he’d been summoned.

When he walked into Nuka’s office, there were papers flung all over the polar bear’s desk. Ciaran, the beta and resident druid of the pack, sat in the corner of the room with his head buried in a book, but Nuka’s newly reincarnated grandfather was nowhere to be seen. Jackson was thankful for that. It creeped him the fuck out to think that Samuel and Nuka’s grandfather were the same man and could interchange at will. He wasn’t sure what purpose this ability would serve in the big fight, but he trusted Nuka with his life—it belonged to the polar bear alpha.

“Yes, boss.” Jackson lowered his head slightly in deference to Nuka’s place in the pack. Ciaran looked up and gave Jackson a quick nod of acknowledgement before returning to his book.

“It’s time to put our plan into place. I want you to go and retrieve Katia,” Nuka instructed without even looking up from his desk.

Jackson’s heart sank. He didn’t like this task one bit. It went against everything his conscience told him was right, but he couldn’t deny Nuka when they were so close to destroying the humans. It was the only thing that had kept Jackson going these last few years.

“Are you sure this is the right thing to do, boss? I don’t see why we should be getting involved in something that’s none of our business. The debt belongs to Katia’s father and has nothing to do with us.”

Nuka dropped his head a little and let out a long sigh before looking straight up at him.

“I’ve told you this before, Jackson. Katia is one of the best fighters in the Glacial Blood pack. I tried to get rid of the other one, Emma, but that failed. If we’re going to complete our objective of destroying the humans, then we need to get rid of as many of my brother’s pack as possible.” Nuka glared his way, and Jackson felt guilty for questioning his alpha’s decision. “Now, if you can’t do it, then I can always relieve you of your position and home here and send you back out onto the streets. I’m so close to achieving my goal, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get there. I thought you were on board with that. I know the little boy I rescued was, the one covered in the blood of his dead parents.”

Nuka got to his feet and stormed around his desk toward Jackson. The black panther didn’t flinch. Nuka wasn’t as scary as a human...

Blood, it was everywhere, and they were coming for him next.

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