“Who’s out there?” Benjamin yelled, as the others in camp jumped to their feet and gathered close by. Several of the males had guns. Benjamin leveled the shotgun at his shoulder, pointing into the woods.
“No!” Marco yelled, and Benjamin glanced sharply over at him.
He smiled at the desperate look on Marco’s face. “No?” He raised the barrel of the gun and fired into the trees. The report reverberated around the small clearing. “Come out, or next time I’ll aim lower. ”
“No!” Marco and Cade yelled at the same time, as the bushes near them shook. Whether they were yelling at Benjamin or at the person crouched behind the rhododendrons growing next to the clearing became irrelevant as a small blond boy straightened up and stepped out into the clearing of the camp. Jax stood there nervously for a few seconds, glancing once at Cade before looking back at Benjamin.
Benjamin lowered the barrel a little and smiled. “Well,” he said with satisfaction. “Who do we have here?”
Jax could barely concentrate on what Benjamin said to him for the jumble of feelings and images in his head. The overwhelming emotion Cade was projecting to him was fear, heavily laced with anger and outrage. He had to concentrate to filter it all out and focus on the wolf in front of him. He had asked him a question.
“My name is Jax,” he said s
oftly, answering him. “I-I need your help. ” He heard Cade suck in a sharp breath and was instantly flooded again with fear and outrage, so much that he took an involuntary step backward.
Benjamin raised his eyebrows, and moved his gun in a little sweeping motion, urging Jax forward. Jax came to within an arm’s reach of Benjamin, and Cade strained against the ropes that held him. The young gamma sniffed at him. “What are you? Not werekin, but not human either. You smell like an alpha. Do you belong to one of them?” He glanced over at the wolves behind him and focused on Cade, whose face was pale and shocked.
“I see,” he said. “But what exactly do you need my help with? Are you alone, by the way? Any friends with you?” He peered around behind him, but Jax was shaking his head.
“No, I got away from them. You have to help me. ”
Benjamin kept his gun slung low across his arm, looking Jax up and down. “To do what, exactly?”
Jax took a step closer, causing Cade to strain against his bonds. “Jax, what in the hell are you doing? Getout of here!”
Benjamin glanced over at him, seeming to be amused, but he kept his finger firmly on the trigger of his gun. “Go ahead, boy. This should be interesting. ”
“I-I was kidnapped. ” He pointed a shaking finger at Cade. “By that one. He brought me here against my will and rraped me. He says I’m his blood lust. ”
Benjamin tilted his head. “You mean blood match. Yes, the alphas are mating with human males in ever increasing numbers, it seems. We have to put a stop to that. You do seem young. You can’t be more than…what? Sixteen?”
“I’m almost seventeen,” Jax lied. “But no, it’s not the blood match—the others called it blood lust—the soif de sang. Have you heard of it? They said it was even stronger. ”
“The what?” Benjamin angled a look over at Cade, who was holding his body rigid and once again staring straight ahead.
“Please, you have to help me,” Jax said, holding a hand out to Benjamin. “The other ones tell me I should just try to get used to it—just accept what’s happening, but I-I can’t. ”
Benjamin looked down at his hand impassively. “If he fucked you, then it goes without saying he bit you, so you’re not exactly human any more either, boy. But your odor is odd. I don’t know what the hell you are. A freak of nature, maybe. An aberration, like Todd warned us about. ” He grabbed Jax’s arm and twisted it behind him. “You need to be put out of your misery. ” A low whine came from the back of Cade’s throat, but Benjamin ignored him, shaking Jax so hard his head rocked back on his shoulders. “Tell me what I need to know. These others you said you got away from. Where are they now? Was one of them Marco’s mate, Nicky?”
Marco strained against the ropes again, but they held fast. He cried out to Jax. “Don’t tell him anything, Jax! Please!”
“Shut up!” Benjamin said and reached Marco’s side in two strides, giving him another vicious blow with the butt of the shotgun, this time to the side of his head. Blood flew from the wound and splattered onto Benjamin’s pants. Marco slumped forward, and both Zack and Cade flinched visibly, growling and casting furious glances at Benjamin.
“You’ll pay for that, you son of a bitch,” Cade said, spitting out the words. Benjamin snarled and came toward him, but before he could reach him another figure stepped out into the clearing.
“Goddamn it,” Zack said as Gabe stumbled from the bushes and out into the open. “Zack!” Gabe rushed over to Zack, passing up a startled Benjamin and threw himself down on top of Zack, kissing him wildly and running his hands over his body. “Did they hurt you?”
One of the gammas with Benjamin rushed forward and yanked Gabe away, pushing him roughly back toward Jax.
Jax steadied him, and they both looked back at Benjamin with twin looks of shock.
Benjamin turned around and threw back his head, laughing in delight. “Two of the mates. Well, this is just delicious. ” He came up to Gabe and drew him into his arms. Zack growled menacingly as Benjamin smirked at him. He ran a finger down Gabe’s jaw before putting a hand around his throat. “Tell me, sweetheart. Where’s Nicky?”
Benjamin pulled him closer, grinding his hips into Gabe’s, tightening his grip on his throat as Gabe choked and struggled to get away. The other members of the group had drawn closer and were watching with open mouths. They almost seemed stunned at the violence Benjamin was inflicting on the alphas and now on their pets. The ones with guns still had them cradled in their arms, but when Benjamin drew Gabe into the rough embrace, they seemed to be at a loss. They glanced nervously at each other, but Benjaminignored them, murmuring in Gabe’s ear. “Tell me where Nicky is, and I won’t choke the life out of you. At least not yet. ”
Benjamin jerked his head at the men standing beside him. “Tie the other one up with the wolves for now. I need to uh…interrogate this one. ” He began to draw Gabe toward his tent, Gabe’s face by now an alarming shade of purple as he struggled to breathe. Zack strained against his ropes, making noises that were increasingly less human-sounding. As the first man reached Jax and jerked at him roughly, Cade added his own inhuman howls to the mix. The gammas seemed paralyzed by the sounds and looked at the alphas fearfully.
“Wait a minute,” Jax cried. “I came to you for help. ”