“Cullen will kill you, Arthur,” she told him, her voice bleak. “You’ll never get away with it.”
“Why do you think that?” The taunting smile on his face was actually scary.
Carefully taking in everything around her, Chelsea began quickly formulating the best way to escape. Her options were actually rather limited, though.
Arthur stood next to the Runner parked just behind them; Ranger sat on the hood, his booted feet propped on the metal brush guards as he watched her with hard, hate-filled eyes. To his side was another Runner, the running lights at the sides of the vehicle actually lit and glowing dimly in the darkness of the night.
There were two Coyotes hunched next to the fire, sipping coffee silently, their gazes hooded as they watched her. The third Coyote stood by the Runner, anticipation gleaming in black eyes, his scarred face highlighted by the flickering flames.
“You didn’t answer me, Chelsea,” Arthur snapped, frowning at her as he walked toward her, the hatred in his face causing her stomach to sink. “What makes you think Cullen will kill me? Do you think he knows either Ranger or I was there?” His smile was triumphant. “Word will reach Cullen in a few days that you were taken by the dogs that killed the Cerves brat. And your body will never be found. But he can sense you, can’t he?” His look was filled with pleasure now. “And he’ll know the hell you’re experiencing. A hell even these dirty dogs can’t compare to.”
Arthur missed the looks the two Coyotes slid
his way at the insult. She had a feeling they might end up killing him before Cullen ever managed to arrive, if the looks the two Breeds shared were any indication.
“He’ll smell you,” she told him wearily. “You and Ranger both.”
“Not so.” Arthur smiled, the flickering firelight throwing a reddened hue over his expression as he stood above her. “We used a scent blocker ourselves. His animalism may be active now, but it’s distinctively weak. Otherwise, he would have caught the fact that I’ve been staying in the house across from him for months.”
The bastard was crazy and it was obvious neither he nor Ranger knew anything about Breeds or how their instincts worked.
And those Coyotes sure as hell weren’t helping them out.
“You can give up hoping for a rescue,” Ranger called out to her then. “Cullen has no idea where you are or who took you. And by the time the effects of the paralytic he was shot up with wear off, you’ll be long gone.”
Oh God. The paralytic was one of the most horrifying drugs created to use on the Breeds while they were in captivity.
“She’s figuring it out now,” Arthur said quietly. “She’s not as stupid as we thought she was.”
That paralytic could last up to eight hours, in some cases longer. She could be dead by the time he found her. Or what he said? Long gone?
She wasn’t going to make it easy for them. She would have her chance, she promised herself, and the longer they fucked around, the greater her chances of actually managing to get away.
It wouldn’t be easy, but she’d take whatever she could get.
“He’ll kill you the hardest, Ranger,” she warned him. “Cullen trusted you.”
“Of course he did.” Ranger shrugged, unaffected. “I made sure of it when your uncle Ray told us what he was. If his Breed status changed, then we needed to know so Council soldiers could reacquire him.”
There was no way she could hide her surprise.
“Yes, the Genetics Council.” Arthur smiled cruelly at her look. “Covering our tracks when Ray died wasn’t easy. Do you really think he was the only one watching those bastards? Your Breed Underground is good, but the Council is better, and they’ve been at it far longer. You could never guess the men and women you meet almost every day who are part of a very organized network to keep track of those fucking animals and the dumbasses who support them.”
The Coyotes glanced at each other, their expressions flickering with distaste. They didn’t like being called animals. Go figure.
“With you gone, his mind tormented by that little gift you have to communicate with him, especially while you’re screaming in agony I bet, then we’ll have our revenge. When we’re tired of tormenting him, then we’ll take him out. Or the Council will come for him.” Ranger grinned, the thought of it evidently giving him a large measure of satisfaction.
“Lauren really didn’t want Cullen hurt.” Arthur sighed, his voice saddened as he stared down at her. “She had a good heart despite his betrayal. He could have saved her, though, but he let her die instead. He has to pay for that.”
Chelsea shook her head desperately. “He would have saved her if he could.”
Fury instantly transformed Arthur’s face. “How could he save her when you refused to allow him to do so?” he burst out, enraged.
Before she could avoid the blow, he backhanded her with enough force to throw her to the side, her mouth filling with blood as waves of dizziness began washing through her.
“She knew you were the reason he wouldn’t mate her. She knew you were his mate.”
“I was twelve,” she gasped, weakly spitting out blood and trying to breathe through the pain.