Page 85 of So I Won a Werelion

They’d taken me to my own fucking basement!

It was so evil and perfect I could cry. No one would think to look for me at my own damn house. I’d been all overThe Mating Gameforums talking about bunking in Bibi’s spare boudoir and how she was giving me such a total life makeover there was no reason for me to go home.

“Looking good, Wendy. I have to say the first time I saw you at Ranchero Hills, I imagined having you tied up, but the reality of it is even better than the fantasy.” Derek held his arms behind his back. The bastard was dressed in one of his wannabe cowboy outfits, like he was doing Garth Brooks cosplay.

“I like the gag the best,” one of my former coworkers said, and too many familiar faces laughed. Fuck, I hated these people so much.

Derek ripped the tape off my face, taking at least a layer of skin with it. I spit the nasty gag out of my mouth, and it landed in my lap.

“Fuck you. Fuck all of you,” was all I managed to get out before I started coughing.

“It can be arranged.” Derek gave me another disgusting wolfy grin. “Like I said, this is all up to you, Wendy. A simple transaction. It can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be.”

“What do you want?”

“I was hoping to tap into your expertise.” He paced back and forth in front of me. “You’ve done extensive research on the area’s history. A very specialized study, if I do say so myself. Especially for a human. The legends have it that no human should ever know about the Sempiternal Scepter. It wasspelled in a way that only shifters would have access to that information, because any animal worth his claws knows that humans will destroy anything that’s important to us. They ruin our land, drive us out of our habitat, and are our most dangerous predators. So my first question is, what are you?”

My stomach flooded with bile. That was the same explanation Lars had given us. Was it common knowledge among shifters?

“I’m pissed off. And human.” I didn’t add Lars’ theory that I had access to the Scepter because of my mate. I wasn’t so sure how much weight that held, since Marissa knew all the same things I did.

I was about to puke. Wanda and I saw eye to eye on pretty much nothing, but if he hurt her… Who was I kidding, I had nothing. I was mostly naked and tied up in my own basement.

But those visions. They’d felt like I’d lived in that village back when it was thriving. Could I be human and do that? I had to be. I’d never had any reason to believe I could be anything else but. It would be my shit luck that I’d reincarnated mortal AF.

“Maybe you don’t know as much as you think you do.” I shouldn’t have taken any validation in those snickers. They weren’t laughing with me, they were laughing at me.

“Since you’re not willing to answer questions about yourself, let’s talk a little bit more about that Sempiternal Scepter,” Derek said. “I recovered the piece that the reporter found. He was much more cooperative than you were. It’s a powerful piece, don’t you agree?”

“It is.” I’d give him that, even though I was fairly certain he was full of shit. I’d had a chance to go over my notes from the abandoned dig all those years ago, and they reinforced the theory that we’d actually found the Hudaknocker.

But if the ‘Knocker had the same effect on him that it had had on everyone on team Mating Game, I was in big trouble.

“You’ve found a piece of it, and I’ve found a piece of it.” He rubbed his hand over his chin. “And they both have power, but imagine how powerful they’d be if they were reunited. I’ve found some other fragments of the Scepter, and I’m hoping to restore it to its former glory. Return the power to where it belongs.”

“That’s too bad that you’ll never get your hands on what we found.”

He lunged toward me, clasping his hand around my neck. His eyes glowed red. Definitely not fucking human. “So you want to make this hard.”

“I want to make this over,” I gritted.

He was lying. If he really got the artifact from the reporter he’d know what its powers were.

“If you’re that powerful, you don’t need the whole thing,” I added.

His brows rose, and he let go of me. I was going to bullshit my way through this, doubling down on the bet that I was too valuable to him to kill. Of course, there were a lot of things between here and dead that would really suck, but if he did any of those, I’d make sure he paid.

In the meantime, I’d keep talking.

“The shifters in my circle—the Colorado Ranch wolves, the Woodland Park pride, and the Green Mountain wolves—” That was a stretch. Those shifters had mostly shunned me. But in case Derek hadn’t bothered to read up on me before he chose me as his target, I’d let him think they had my back. “They’re really excited about the Scepter. Many of them have already reaped the benefits of its discovery. Its power. They’re stronger and healthier than they’ve ever been. I’d hate to go up against them in a fight, especially since one lion was able to outwit about a half dozen of your wolvesbeforethe discovery of the Scepter.”

“You already had a piece of it, you sassy-mouthed bitch.”

I’d take that as a compliment. “You’re barking up the wrong tree. Surely you know a thing or two about that, too. My question to you is this—why do you want to build a housing development if humans are your greatest predator?”

“Because if I own the land, I can control them. And we had reason to believe that all the artifacts had been buried on that land. Land that your wolves stupidly gave away. To humans.” He scoffed, shaking his head. “I’m taking back what belongs to us.”

Shit. He said artifacts. He knew there was more than one, and I wasn’t so sure that I had the upper hand anymore.

---