Page 95 of Rogue Wolf

“Come along, dog.” With a single tug, the chain bit into Kodiak’s wrists, burning into his skin. He yelped as they forced him to follow them out of the room.

He hated the fucking chain but it was more bearable than the fucking net. That…that was something else.

“Hurry up,” one grumbled as they tugged him up the stairs.

His muscles struggled to obey him, but Kodiak kept slipping, the confinement and silver having already weakened him more than he’d thought possible.

Gritting his teeth, Kodiak tried to keep up. His skin glistened with exertion as he followed the vampires up the stairs.

Didn’t they say something about a tasty treat? The altar lay this way, to the right. But they didn’t turn that way, instead, they turned left.

At least they were leading him away from the altar where he’d watched them drain Tamaska’s friend of blood.

He wanted to say it was a good sign, but his instincts suggested otherwise. Obviously they weren’t going to drain him, but at least they didn’t want him to watch them murder someone else.

At least…

His mind started to swim and a coldness touched it, sending him spinning into numbness, but he managed to drag himself back into the now. It didn’t matter if he wanted to be somewhere else, if the numbness of the vampires trying to probe his head made him lightheaded and feel less pain, that wasn’t a place to be. That way led to unconsciousness, subservience, bending to their stinking will.

So he silently gathered himself, made himself sharp, and dove into the pain.

He hated it, but there was something there they didn’t like either, and if he had to be nearly driven mad with silver’s bite, then he’d take it. Especially if it kept part of him from them, kept him in the moment.

And he suspected they wanted him half out of it all.

Kodiak endured.

The vampires pulled him through the door toward a big open space. The dance floor—or at least it was a dance floor at night, when the Blood Moon nightclub was open to the public.

Kodiak noted the private room to his left where he’d taken Tamaska for the first time, right there in the nightclub. Hot, lustful thoughts burst into his mind, adding to the inner well of strength he needed. Even memories of sex had power.

He deliberately dragged his feet and stumbled to soak in the memories as he went by that space completely.

And they loosened their hold a little as they slowed down, snickering at his weakened state. The urge to try and fight swept him but he clamped it down.

He needed to know where they were going, what they were doing, and he had to let them think he was weak. That part wasn’t hard; he was, but he wanted them to think the weakness had him beat.

The only thing to beat him would be death, and he didn’t want to tempt that until he had to.

He walked a tiny bit faster, stumbling and the vampires slowed some more.

They snickered even more and started to go at a snail’s pace, clearly thinking they were hurting his ego. And he stored up the pathetic amount of energy that pace gave him.

“What, is this your idea of a walk? Pathetic,” Kodiak said with a growl, hoping they’d go even slower.

They looked at each other, then at him.

“Poor doggie feeling sad?”

They slackened his chain. He cupped himself, trying to look like he needed to feel less vulnerable.

He didn’t enjoy them looking at him, but that stood for when he was clothed, in wolf form or naked. And it struck him. Suddenly, horribly. His wolf. The silver had weakened him so much that his wolf no longer pushed to the surface, demanding freedom.

He could feel it, the pain and the fight that it only weakly held. Like an injured creature it curled on itself a mirror of what his mind wanted him to do.

Maybe his wolf part was taking all that on to give him a chance at survival.

But they tugged him again, to get him moving, and he had no option but to do so.

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