“There’s something I need to show you,” Zeke said, taking her hand.
He led her away from the house. His fingers tightened around hers as they walked the distance to the other pack house. Staring at the place she’d considered her home for a few days a month, Mary was overcome by a shocking wave of cold. The building looked large, gloomy, and unwelcoming. She remembered the whispers as she used to pass the other members going to her room.
“Why are we here?” she asked.
“There’s something I want to know from you.”
The seriousness on his face let her know he wasn’t trying to scare her. “Okay.”
Through the front door they went all the way to the kitchen. The house smelled awful and disgusting. Pressing a hand to her nose, she felt a wave of sickness roll over her. “Does it smell like this because of them dying?”
“No, this is the smell that clung to your pack. They’re a dirty pack with dirty deeds, Mary. Their souls were dead long before their bodies.”
Mary couldn’t ever remember scenting something so bad before in her life. It took every ounce of control not to vomit from the acrid burn. She would need to take a shower to rid her body of this.
Zeke opened the door leading down to the basement. For some reason Mary tensed, feeling something bad had happened down there.
“No, I can’t go down there,” she said, overcome with sweat.
“I need you to follow me down.”
Seeing the somber look on his face didn’t help. Trying not to breathe she followed him downstairs to where something bad awaited.
The light illuminated everything. Images flashed through her mind. Pain and death consumed her. She glanced in the far corner, and memories suddenly swamped her. No, she couldn’t stay in the house.
Moving closer, she wrapped her fingers around the pole feeling the sizzle of the silver. Something bad happened here, and what was worse, Roger and Dani had somehow wiped her memory of everything.
****
Zeke fisted his hands as Mary held onto the bar. He’d never seen a cage made out of silver before. The look on her face let him know it wasn’t the worst thing to have happened. His father hadn’t found anything out about experiments, but he knew Mary was the only one close enough to have any information.
His father had asked for him to try to get some information out of Mary. He hated the pain he was causing her. The disgust she felt was rolling off her in waves. She despised this place and feared it with equal measure.
“How can they have affected my memories?” Mary asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I remember being here, but I also remember sweating, panicking as I watch something happening over there.” Mary released the bar and walked over to the science table. She reached out as if to touch it then pulled her hand away. “I need to get out of here.”
Zeke ran after her as she charged out of the house. For a half breed she was fucking fast. Out in the sunlight he chased after as she ran over the gravel then across the field. The energy pulsed off her, and he shouted her name.
Nothing was stopping her. He knew she wasn’t running away from him. No, something else was chasing her away, and he needed to get to her before she fell.
Then, suddenly, Mary’s wolf met his eyes. There was no pain as she kept running. Mary was a beautiful golden brown in her wolf form. He paused as he watched her gracefully run.
Love, lust, and respect rolled into one as he stared after the woman he’d been looking for since he’d bitten her. Zeke didn’t take the time to shed his clothes. Running after her, he called to his wolf, and then he could hear her.
“Finally,” she said. “I’m free. I’m free, and you can remember what they did to us.”
Her wolf was profound, begging to be heard. All this time Mary’s wolf had been trying to save her by stopping her from making so many mistakes.
Following after her, Zeke listened to her innermost thoughts. He was her Alpha, and they were connected in the most profound way. His seed was inside her at her most fertile time.