“You’ll have to go through me,” she ground out.
She wasn’t sure what she expected, but the peal of delighted laughter wasn’t it.
“Yes, that’s part of the plan as well,” Nadia said, suddenly abnormally long fingers reaching out to tease the palms of Samantha’s hands.
The effect of the slight contact was immediate, cold and tingly, like electricity running through her body and Samantha jerked away, earning yet another laugh from Nadia.
“Hope your boyfriend wakes up soon,” she said. “Wouldn’t want you two to waste this little private time I’m giving you.”
As Nadia walked away, Samantha dropped back down beside Trey and pulled his head into her lap, gently tracing her fingers along his scruffy jaw, praying he did wake up soon. Even if she was terrified of what would happen when he did.
Chapter 21
As he slowly woke, Trey couldn’t help thinking that maybe it was time to get a new mattress. Because this one was uncomfortable as hell. Like he was sleeping on a damn rock. The pillow was comfy, though. Not to mention smelled absolutely scrumptious.
His eyes fluttered open, confusion hitting him as he caught sight of his old friend Kyson strapped to some kind of rack across the room. Less than a second later, the memories came rushing back and Trey was up and charging the lightweight metal door of the cage, claws and fangs extending fast. There was no way in hell that grating would keep him from reaching his friend. Then he’d find that vita and deal with her once and for all.
“Stop!”
The words were so urgent that Trey’s boots slid across the concrete as he pulled up short of the door. The scent that Trey had thought merely part of a dream turned out to be real and he spun around to see Samantha sitting on the floor, looking absolutely terrified but, thankfully, alive. The sight of her took his breath away.
He saw the heavy leather collar around her neck before he took a step in her direction, and the rage that filled him made a savage growl rumble up from deep in his chest. He reached out, intending to shred the damn offensive thing off her with a single swipe of his claws.
When she backed away from him with fear in her eyes, it was like a ton of bricks had been dropped into the bottom of his stomach. That was when he realized his fangs and claws were out and he’d partially shifted, and that in his anger, his eyes were glowing frigging neon yellow.
And Samantha could see it all.
Trey jerked his hands back, trying to force his fangs to retract so he could tell Samantha that he’d never hurt her. Then he’d tell her how sorry he was, that he should have told her that he was a werewolf earlier, and how he wasn’t the monster she must certainly believe him to be.
Then he heard the soft buzzing coming from the collar and saw Samantha’s body stiffen. Her face went deathly pale.
“You can’t touch the collar,” she hissed in a painful gasp.
Her eyes slid to the side and she looked into the room beyond. Trey followed her gaze, finding the stocky man from his apartment with the beady eyes and the wide shoulders standing outside the cage, a smile on his face and a little black box in his hand.
“That’s right,” the man said. “Don’t touch the collar and don’t touch the door. Or your girlfriend pays the price. Though I’m not too sure she’ll want to be your girlfriend anymore. Not now that she knows what you are.”
The man turned away from the cage, his finger brushing over the top of the little black box in his hand. Samantha immediately slumped sideways, her body relaxing and a sigh of relief slipping out. Trey was immediately at her side, catching her before she could collapse all the way to the floor. He threw a glare at the man across the room, making sure the asshole could see Trey’s hands were nowhere near the collar.
Trey paused for a moment to take in his surroundings, confused and concerned in alternating degrees by the creepy medical equipment, the big vat of red goo with the heavily scarred teenager inside, a living, breathing Kyson strapped to a rack on the far side of the room, and an exhausted young woman on the floor next to him. He couldn’t see her entire face, but Trey was almost certain the woman was the woman who had a thing for Kyson, Shaylee Bright. He couldn’t fathom how she’d ended up here. Then again, he had no idea how any of them had ended up here.
Wherever here was.
It was only when he looked back at Samantha and where his hand was rubbing little circles in the middle of her back that Trey realized his claws were still extended. So were his fangs. He’d been so freaked out that he hadn’t even considered shifting back.
“So you’re a werewolf?” she said softly as she gazed up at him, not looking quite as freaked out as he expected her to be.
Still, the question caught him off guard so badly that all he could do was sit there and stare, head spinning as his mind tried to come up with something coherent to say. Finally, when nothing rational would come, he gave up and simply nodded, surprised when she didn’t skitter to the far side of the cage.
“How long have you known?” he asked, finally getting himself under control enough to banish his fang and claws.
“I’ve known that you and your SWAT teammates were hiding something big from the rest of the world for about two years now.” She gave him a small smile. “But the werewolf thing? Louis dropped that particular bomb on me a few hours ago, after his minions dragged your unconscious body into the room. I have to admit, it’s a secret I would have rather learned from you. But if I’m being honest, I can’t complain too much since I’ve been keeping a lot of secrets from you, too.”
He’d suspected as much. But since he’d been hiding things, too, he couldn’t hold it against her.
Trey sighed, knowing it was time for a full confession. Unfortunately, there were a few other things they needed to talk about first. He tugged Samantha closer, moving them back toward the crappy mattress near the wall, carefully pulling her into his lap. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the guy with the collar remote eyed them suspiciously. Trey kept his hands where the man could see them, not wanting to give him a reason to push the button on the remote. The thought of Samantha getting hurt because of him made him want to throw up.
“Look,” he whispered softly. “I know we have a lot to talk about when it comes to the secrets we’ve been keeping from each other, but could you maybe bring me up to speed first? I’d really like to know who that man with the remote is, where we are, and how you ended up here. And if you happen to know how the hell Kyson is alive when we both saw the paperwork declaring him dead, that would be nice, too.”
Trey thought she might complain, considering the fangs and claws he’d been flashing not thirty seconds ago. But all she did was throw a quick look at the dumbass with the remote for the collar, then leaned in closer. The move made it nearly impossible to miss how good she smelled. Damn, he couldn’t believe he was thinking about how distracting her scent was at a time like this.