Page 50 of Claimed By Blood

I spin on my heel, trying to keep an eye on all the entrances at once as my mind works furiously. We must be deep underground, too far for whatever signal the tech uses to penetrate.

Did they get all of us?

Even Frost?

Perhaps not, since he crawled rather than dropping down as the rest of us did. Although there’s a chance that Samuel might have people who saw us come in and realise he’s missing, I’m going to assume he saw Morwen get captured and stayed hidden. Which gives us one person who can call the others for reinforcements if needs be.

I attempt to check on my three missing thralls using their bonds, but all I can feel is Silas’s tiredness. The other two aren’t mature enough for such a deep connection.

Biting my lip, I search the shadows for any hint of our attackers.Why can’t I see them?

Samuel wanted me to come down here. He led us all this way through the tunnels with those arrows, practically signposting his front door.

Vane wasn’t stabbed or killed, just restrained and hauled off.

Kidnapping rather than death suggests that Samuel—and whoever his accomplices are—have cause to keep us alive. I just have to hope it’s because they want to talk, and not because they’d prefer to torture us before killing us.

“I’m taking a leap of faith,” I whisper, raising my hands up above my head in a universal gesture of surrender.

The sack covers my face and pulls tight around my neck. It smells sweet—herbal, almost. A fist collides with my gut, forcing me to suck in the sickly, disinfectant type air until my head goes woozy and I can’t think clearly. Another breath and I’m done for.

Everything goes black.

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

FROST

When I wake up,my head is pounding like I’ve been on a week-long bender. My face is smooshed into Silas’s stinky armpit and there’s a knee pressed uncomfortably into my spine. A second later, the scents of rotting rubbish, alcohol, and piss filter past my beta’s body odour, along with other unwelcome—yet familiar—notes of death and decay.

Looking over the contorted pile of limbs, it doesn’t take me long to find them. They’ve lined up along the entrance to the alley like silent sentinels.

Damn.

It never takes a ghoul pack long to find me. They always gravitate towards my pheromones, no matter what I do. And this group is looking at my companions like they’re dinner. Their jaws click together as their emotions bombard me.

Hunger.

Aggression.

Eagerness.

They want to feed, and they’ve chosen my pack as their next meal. Which means I’ll have to work hard to change their minds.

I reach out with my still-groggy senses and soothe the edges of the aggression. When that doesn’t immediately make them back off, I snarl low under my breath.

They scarper, unwilling to challenge me.

With them gone, and their feelings getting duller and less demanding with every step they take away from us, my mind is free to remember what happened.

Eve.

I shove at Silas’s abdomen, and my foot connects with a different body as I struggle to free myself from the pile.

I can’t scent her, so I know without looking that she’s not here.

How the fuck did we end up like this? I was crawling towards the bottom of that tunnel. I saw Morwen get dragged away, and then… nothing.

My hand goes to the side of my head, looking for the earbud which isn’t there any longer. Only, the second my palm gets too close, I grimace.

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