Page 60 of Knot Dead Yet

“You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.” It was an old saying ourBonne-Mamanused to say to us whenever we got into trouble. With everyone else, Ewan used to charm his way out of punishment, but our grandmother would never fall for his act. She’d encouraged me to go to university and find my own way without him, but I had been taken in by Ewan’s charm too.

Not anymore.

My heart wept as I ran away down the hall to catch up to the Alphas. If something happened to Kienna because of Ewan, he wouldn’t have to worry about Maddox killing him. I would do it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR – Kienna

It was the pounding in my head that woke me. A headache so powerful it could yank me out of unconsciousness. My mouth was dry and had a gross tang to it. Like alcoholic puke or, oh fuck, right. Like gasoline.

No! I tried to scream it, but there was something over my mouth. Sticky and tough. Tape.

What the fuck? I thought I might vomit, but where would it go? I’d choke and die on my own bile. Swallowing several times, I tried to calm my frantically beating heart.

I thrashed, but my wrists were tied firmly behind my back and so were my ankles. Maybe even hogtied to one another. And I was squished into something that was sturdy canvas. Whoever had taken me must have stuffed me into a bag of some sort. Not a suitcase because this had flexibility, and it also had a long thick zipper.

All I could imagine was a body bag. I was wiggling like a zombie trying to get free. Stuff like that in horror movies was scary, but being inside the bag in real life, it was terrifying.

Be smart, Kienna. Don’t be the stupid girl.I had to figure out where I was and give myself some options. There were always options.

Forcing open my crusty eyes, it was dark. I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear and feel.

It was cold and everything around me rumbled. A big motor. A truck!

Was I stashed in my stalker’s trunk? This couldn’t be Ewan. No way would he be able to get away without anyone else noticing. Plus he didn’t own a truck. The pack all rode together in Tiergan’s SUV, which ran a lot smoother.

Okay, so I was tied up and stuck in a bag in a running truck. I couldn’t feel any of the sides of the trunk—because I assumed I was in the back with how cold and loud it was—but my movement was limited. There was other traffic too. So we weren’t in the middle of nowhere.

But I couldn’t scream. Fuck, I wanted to screech to the high heavens.

Tied, trapped, and being transported to God knows where. And then what? This psycho could torture me for days or sell me off to a vicious Alpha. I’ve read horror stories about what happened to Omegas around the world. To a lot of people, we were just breeders meant to be owned.

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. Yet my Alphas—and Beta—weren’t like that. I’d gotten so lucky with the pack in that they not only respected me, they practically worshiped me. They made me feel like the most important person in the world. With my father and now with my friends finding their own packs, I felt forgotten. Something that was always there since my mother passed away, but had grown more suffocating over the years.

As good as the pack was for me, was I any good for them? Sure, they were fighting for me to stay with them, but that didn’t make me good for them. I did distract them from hockey, and if they weren’t on top of their game, the whole team suffered.

But as I was being taken from them, I didn’t want to leave. Not just because I was scared, but because they were the only thing holding me together. Casimir called me his slayer, and they all said I was brave and strong. I needed to be that warrior. I wanted to not only live, but I wanted to have a life with them.

Ah fuck. Why did my heart decidenowit wanted to be with the pack?

The truck shuddered to a stop and the engine shut off. I remained absolutely still, listening to everything around me. My heart thundered in my ears. Someone got out of the vehicleand walked away. I could hear city noise. We hadn’t driven long enough to be out of Winnipeg.

I couldn’t scream or break out of the bag. To do any of that, I needed my hands free. The nylon rope around my wrists wasn’t the softest, but it had a little give.

Holding my forearms together, I tried to make my hands as little as possible. I gave them little tugs and attempted to stretch the rope. If I could work the knot the right way…

The crunch of footsteps had me sucking in a breath. The truck beeped and there was a whoosh as the trunk opened. Despite being inside of a bag, I could feel the cold bite at me.

Someone slid me along the floor and lifted me out of the truck to lay me gently on the ground. No, not the ground. It wasn’t cold.

The trunk was slammed shut and then I was being pushed forward. A cart! My kidnapper had planned on transporting me and had the cart ready. Wait. Did that mean he did this regularly? Fuck. That probably meant he did have experience and this was part of the Omega black market.

No way was I going to be a sex slave and breeder for anyone! I let out as loud of a muffled cry as I could and threw myself back and forth. I had to get away.

“Be calm now, sweet girl.” The man’s soft voice made me want to retch. “No one can see or hear you. Everyone in town is still at the arena and will be for a while.”

The cart rolled from the concrete outside over a bump to enter a building. It was immediately warmer but not at all comforting.

I didn’t know how long it had been since I passed out. It could have been a few minutes or an hour. There still had been two periods left and then the team had to change and deal with the media. So even if it had been an hour, there would still be at least another hour before any of the pack realized I was missing.

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