Page 49 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

Carefully, I start to creep back the way I came.

But as I step out of my aisle and into the main stretch of floor between the racks and the front door, I almost collide with someone I don’t know.

We stare at each other for a long moment. He’s just a boy, really—maybe seventeen or eighteen years old. Definitely born after the Reversal, which makes him a rarity.Still, he’s fully grown. He probably outweighs me by fifty pounds, and that’s all muscle. He’s a foot taller than I am. And I feel a flash of fear.

For a moment, the world around us seems frozen.

Let me go,I think desperately.Just let me go. I don’t know you. You and I have nothing against each other.

But I don’t dare to speak. If I do, Harley and his friend will hear.

After several moments, I start to edge to one side.

The boy’s hand flashes out. He catches me by the upper arm.

It hurts. Involuntarily, I let out a gasp of pain.

“There’s someone here!” he shouts. “A spy! A Moon Caster!”

I kick at his shins, twisting in his grip. He lets out a cry and releases me. I start to run—

And I feel a violent tug at my scalp, as if my hair is being ripped out. My eyes water. I almost go to my knees. My hands fly up to grab my head, and I realize someone is holding me there.

I turn into the new grip and sink my teeth into the muscle of the arm that’s holding me, but he doesn’t let go. I hear him grunt in pain, and I bite down harder, tasting blood—but now he’s grabbing my arm, wrenching it so far behind my back that if I were to shift my bones would break.

I can’t help it. I cry out, releasing the arm, blood dripping down my chin.

Harley comes around the corner and sees me.

For a moment, he just stares. Then his face breaks into a grin.

“Well,shit,” he says. “Emlyn. Figured you would have left town by now.”

“Let me go, Harley,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Put these on her.” He hands the man behind me a pair of iron cuffs.

I curse myself as I feel them lock around my wrists. Why didn’t I try magic when I had the chance? I panicked and forgot all my training, reverted to the kind of physical fighting I grew up with. Now it’s too late. I’m cut off from the moon.

“What happened to those men you were running with? They finally get wise to you and run off?”

I glare at him. I’m not going to give him anything on my mates. He can go to hell.

“What should we do with her?” the boy holding my arm asks.

“Edgar!” Harley calls.

Edgar comes around the corner. I never knew him quite as well, but I do recognize him now that I see him. He leers at me as if I’m something to eat, and my skin crawls.

Harley gestures to me. “Grab her,” he says. “Help David with her.”

Edgar takes my other arm. “Are we killing her?”

“We’re taking her back to the pack,” Harley says. “Victor is going to want to deal with her himself.”

I’m shocked into silence as they begin to march me out of the store.\

Victor?

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