Page 65 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

I’m able to move my wrists, though. Just a little bit, skin rubbing against skin, but I can do it. I’m not completely immobilized.

So that’s promising.

I try to separate my hands, to create a gap between my wrists, but I can tell immediately that that’s hopeless. The chains are binding me too tightly, and when I pull at them, they only seem to grow tighter. Also, they rattle unpleasantly.

Harley looks over at me. He’s got a suspicious expression on his face.

I hold still. I don’t want him aware of the fact that I’m trying to escape here. He’d probably just mock me for it, but there’s always a chance he’d do something that would make my work more difficult, like chaining up my feet. I want him thinking that I’m feeling hopeless.

I’m not going to be able to loosen the chains, though. I have to figure out something else.

I turn my wrist slowly, gradually, until my left hand is cupping the back of my right hand as if my hands were spooning.

I feel a pang, and for just a moment, I interlace my fingers with one another. This is so familiar. This is how Wilder holds my hand—he catches it from behind and threads his fingers through mine. Neither Milo nor Nate do it like this—it’s something specific and intimate that Wilder and I share. Suddenly, I’m aching for him.

He’s nearby,I remind myself.He’ll be here soon. And I have to be ready because if my mates do attack, they’ll be badly outnumbered. I have to be able to help them quickly when the time comes. I have to be able to join in the fight.

Because of the way my hands are positioned now, I’m able to slide my right hand upward just a few millimeters.

It’s hard work. I have to contort my hand into painful shapes, bringing the heel of my thumb in to press against my pinky. I have to pull hard against the chain, so that it digs into my skin, and it hurts. And at one point, I get myself stuck, unable to move my hand forward or backward. I struggle to keep the pain off my face and to swallow my terror that someone will come to check my chains and find me halfway through a jailbreak like this.

Then I manage to move my hand a few more millimeters—and suddenly it’s sliding free.

My fingertips reach the edge of my chains, and I catch them just in time before they drop to the ground. Now I’m holding them instead of the other way around.

Everything in me wants to fling them away. I know I could get my left hand out now that my right hand is free. And without these chains, I could do anything—shift, do magic, hell, just run for the tree line.

But I know just as surely that I shouldn’t.

If it was just Harley, maybe I would. I like my chances against him. But it’s not just him. Because as soon as a fight began, he’d let out a howl of warning, and the rest of the pack would descend on us.

It would be like the fight with the Ravagers all over again—except that shifters are ten times smarter than Ravagers. They’d fight with intellect.

They’d win.

I can’t start the fight. Not when I know my mates are close by, coming to rescue me. I’m just going to have to pretend that I’m still chained up for a little while longer.

But I hope they come soon. Because if anyone looks closely, they’ll see that I’ve managed to free myself, and then tighter chains will be the best-case scenario that I could hope for.

In all honesty, it’s more likely my jailbreak would lead to me being killed.

39

MILO

Wilderhasonlybeenup in the tree for a matter of less than a minute when he drops back down beside us. His eyes are wide with alarm, and for a moment, I fear the worst. Without waiting for him to explain himself, I spin around so I’m looking at Emlyn again.

No. She’s still just kneeling beside the tree, leaning against it, looking tired but unharmed.

I turn back to Wilder. “What?” I ask urgently, keeping my voice as low as I can. He definitely sawsomethingthat wasn’t right, or he wouldn’t look like that.

Moon Drinkers, he mouths.

My heart springs into a gallop.

Moon Drinkers will ruineverything.

I don’t know what they’re doing here. I don’t know if they’re here to attack us, if they’re here attack the pack, if they know we’re here at all—the only thing I know is that every encounter I’ve ever had with Moon Drinkers, and everything I’ve ever heard about them, has left me feeling anxious and fearful.

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