Page 75 of The Weakest Wolf

I’ll hit the bus station early and grab a list of all the bus routes. Maybe someone there will have even more information about Eden. And then I go home. I could use Dom’s help to figure out where Eden might’ve run to.

After I’ve checked into a nondescript motel room, I dump my bag on the floor beside the door, draw the curtains, and stretch out on the bed with my shoes still on.

I know I should sleep because the drive I have ahead of me is going to take most of the day. Probably most of the night, too.

But I don’t close my eyes, and I don’t kick off my shoes.

I lay there on top of the sheets, staring up at the ceiling as I think over everything Derek told me.

One phrase plays on repeat.

“I know how to deal with animals.”

What did she mean?

17

SIERRA

It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d struggled or how much I fought. Between Neale, Bowen and Mitchell, I wouldn’t have gotten far.

Once they tossed me in the cage, and the black iron door slammed shut, it was over. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Leave,” Bowen snaps, his voice a pale imitation of Galen’s.

Neale and Mitchell file out of the dimly lit cabin, leaving me trapped in a cage with Bowen.

He isn’t empty-handed.

My eyes take in the iron chain in his hand. I haven’t seen it since Jaxon, our old leader, used it. The dried blood and stink of terror that drifts from it reminds me just how many people Jaxon had used it on before. Now it’s my turn.

I lift my gaze from the chain he’s wound around his wrist and meet his eyes. “I’m not afraid of you.”

I’m going to die in this cage, but I refuse to beg or cry. Bowen won’t see how much terror lives in my heart.

He smiles. “Of course, you are, Sierra. Anyone would be, and that’s okay. It’s okay to be afraid.”

I push myself to my feet. “Well, I’m not. So whatever the fuck you brought me here to do, let’s just get on with it.”

His smile turns darker. God, I fucking hate his face. “We have all night for that.”

If I could somehow manage to get the cage door key from Bowen, I have to get past Neale and Mitchell, who are waiting outside. All I can hope to do is piss Bowen off enough that he skips over the torturing part and goes right to the killing me part.

When he dips his hand in his pocket, I know what he will pull from it before he does. Silver metal glints under the one light bulb overhead. My necklace.

Of course, he’s going to bring it out and rub the fact he has it in my face before he tortures me to death. Why wouldn’t he?

The silver chain dangles inches from his face as he holds it high. My jaw tightens as I watch it swing back and forth. “Give it back.”

“She was a beautiful woman,” Bowen murmurs, his eyes on the chain. “I took a peek when I liberated this from you, and the photo doesn’t do her justice.”

I take a step toward him. “Shut up.”

He continues in the same low tone as if I hadn’t spoken. “I think she was a little more beautiful than you. Though, maybe it’s just my preference for blue eyes that makes me feel that way.” He sighs as if disappointed. “But she had that same need to fight. Shame about that.”

For the first time since he pulled the necklace free, he shifts his gaze from it to me. “If she’d been a little meeker, I think she could’ve stayed.”

“It won’t work,” I bite out, “you won’t upset me, you won’t make me cry, so if I were you—”

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