“Pretty thing all alone outside the city,” one of the vampires said leaving the line of them to approach her.
When he got closer, he sniffed the air, and his eyes narrowed. “You aren’t a human.” He grabbed her by the shoulders as if to shake her. “What are you,” he demanded.
A wolf jumped up and bit him on the arm, and the vampire let go of her. It wasn’t one of the wolves from the group. It was her cell neighbor. He put himself between her and the others and growled something to the other wolves. They growled back. And Sydney might be going crazy, but it seemed like they were actually talking to each other instead of just making random angry sounds.
One of the wolves struggled to reclaim a human form. It was a female wolf. She had a black snake tattoo that wrapped around her upper arm, slithering all the way down her forearm. Not that the smirking vampires were looking at her tattoo. She was attractive and naked, and occasionally vampires could be pigs.
The woman rolled her eyes. “Shut up.” She turned to Sydney. “Sydney?”
“Umm, yes?” Sydney wasn’t a hundred percent sure she wasn’t in her cube dreaming all this.
“You guys come with me. I’m going to take you some place safe. You can stay with my pack.”
“We aren’t just letting them go,” the vampire that had grabbed Sydney said as if he were upset his only entertainment of the night was being taken from him. “That thing shouldn’t even be alive.”
Her wolf—because it was all Sydney could think of him as, now that there were about twenty of them all standing around snarling—growled at the vampire. But then a second vampire said, “Shut up, guys. There’s a LOT of dinner coming right for us.”
The vampires lost interest in them as unit B showed up. They and the remaining wolves converged on the humans as the female wolf shifted to lead Sydney and the guy who’d inexplicably saved her life, to the den.
5
The makeshift den was only about five miles outside the city’s perimeter, but Sydney felt like she might drop at any moment. The sun would be up in a few hours, and she couldn’t remember ever feeling this exhausted.
The den was an old train station that looked to have been converted into a hotel and restaurant before it became a werewolf den. A large connected building rose behind the main lobby that no doubt had accommodated human guests at one point. When they got through the first set of doors into what had once been the station, the two wolves shifted back, neither of them concerned with their nudity.
“This guy is staying with us while he forms a plan to get his girl back to their place. I’m sorry, what was your name?”
Sydney hadn’t cared what the surly werewolf’s name was a few hours ago. She’d only hoped she never had to interact with him again. But now it was getting a little weird. She couldn’t call him “5856” or “Hey you”. And if she called him “her wolf” in front of anybody else for lack of a better naming convention, she might just go greet the sun in her embarrassment. Better to roast to death than to have to suffer through his nasty sneer again.
Before mystery wolf could reply, several other people—werewolves—filed into the main lobby. “What the hell is that?” one of the males asked, pointing at her.
When she’d spent all her time in the compound, she’d known she was weird, but it hadn’t been driven home just how weird, until everyone else in the outside world seemed able to pick up on it instantly. And whatever they were picking up on, they didn’t like.
The woman who’d brought them caught a pair of pants and top mid-air when they were tossed at her and began to dress. “They are our guests until tomorrow night. They need some place safe for when the sun comes up.”
“Oh, no,” the guy said. “That is not staying here.”
Her wolf, now in his human form and very very naked, growled and moved into the other wolf’s space. “She is mine. She goes where I go.”
“Oh yeah?”
The female wolf stepped between the posturing males. “Cool it, Rafe. This one is strong. You don’t want to challenge him.”
Was she their leader? Sydney wasn’t sure. Maybe she was part of an alpha pair, but she was obviously strong to be able to reclaim her human form under a blood moon. A full moon by itself would have been impressive enough.
“If she’s his then why hasn’t he marked her?”
The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed off the walls of the old train station lobby as she slapped him. “That’s enough, Rafe. I said they stay. Unless you want to challenge me?”
He dropped to one knee and offered his throat. “No, Ma’am.”
Shit, she was the leader.
“That’s better.”
Sydney’s wolf spoke up, then. “Can I borrow some clothes, and I’d like some privacy. I haven’t had a chance to explain things to her. I just found her.”
“Of course. We have a few rooms built against the original structure that don’t have windows. That would be safest.”
“Thanks.”
The look she gave him made Sydney wonder if the alpha wanted Noah leading beside her, but the female wolf seemed to shake herself out of it. “No problem.” She barely spared a glance to Sydney.
A pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt sailed through the air, and he snatched the clothing and put it on.
When they reached the windowless room, the alpha said, “I’m Shira, by the way. You never told me your name.”
Was she flirting with him?
“Later,” he said. “I need to talk with her first.”
Her smile was tight. “Sure, no problem.”
When she’d disappeared down the hallway he shut and locked the door, then shoved a chair under it.
Sydney took a step back. “Ummm.” He’d better start explaining something fast.
He put his hands in the air. “Relax. Without a window, we don’t have an alternate exit. I need a warning if they decide to come in guns blazing. I think she’s only helping us because she didn’t want me to challenge her for her pack. I have no interest in her pack. I just want to go home.”
“I’m sorry, but who the hell are you? And why did you take me out of there? You made it pretty clear you hated me. I can’t figure out why you’d bust me out with you if you find my very existence so vile.”
He kept staring at her mouth. She didn’t like the way he kept staring at her mouth. Or maybe she did. No she didn’t. She didn’t know. If he turned out to be only moderately crazy, maybe she did.
“I’m Sorry. Everything I said to you, everything you think you saw was only to protect you. There was surveillance everywhere, and I couldn’t risk them thinking I cared what happened to you. I had to wait on the moon. When everything started happening, there wasn’t time to explain, and then once we were here, I preferred privacy to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“Sydney, do you not remember me at all?” He looked almost hurt.
She shook her head slowly, but a hope started to bloom in her chest. She wouldn’t let the name form in her mind. If she thought it and then it wasn’t true… And it couldn’t be true, anyway. He couldn’t have survived this long.