Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves: The Lost Pack #1)(24)

Then my last few moments of consciousness returned to me. Cold, unreadable eyes looking down at me. I checked my arm, expecting to see a bite, but that had healed too.

Shit. I’d been taken by the Ophiuchus pack. The bogeymen of shifters, our worst nightmares as children, now back with a vengeance. I couldn't help but imagine all of the torture they were going to put me through, and that’s if I was lucky. It could be worse than torture. Whatever the Leo pack would have done to me suddenly paled in comparison to what I suspected was ahead of me. I’d gone straight from one torment to another. Maybe I would have been better off alone in the woods.

“You sure like talking to yourself,” a deep, gravelly male voice said.

I jumped, realizing I’d said all of that out loud...and that I wasn't alone. With bated breath, I turned toward the voice.

The lost pack’s alpha stepped out of the shadows, arms crossed over his chest. His handsome face was severe, and he actually had a shirt on for once. Pity, my brain whispered. I shoved that thought far back. Now was not the time, and definitely not the place, to be thinking about how much of his skin I’d like to see on display.

“I didn't expect someone to be spying on me from the shadows like a perv,” I let slip before clamping my mouth closed. Shut up, I told myself firmly. Mira had always warned me that my smart mouth would be the death of me, and I really didn’t want that to be right here and now.

“You were talking to yourself when we found you too,” he rumbled, uncrossing his arms. “What’s your name, little wolf?”

I lifted my chin. Two could play this game, and if he planned to torture me to death, I at least wanted to know his name first. “What’s yours?”

He gave me a hard look, his dark eyebrows drawing down. “Explain to me how you got away after the Leo pack attacked. You don’t have any of the Cancer pack’s abilities, and yet you are one of the only survivors. Possibly the only one. How?”

I opened my mouth but paused. I wasn’t about to start answering his questions without getting some of my own answered first. “Why did you kidnap me?” I asked. “Planning some elaborate torture scheme?”

He set his large hands on the bars of my cell, fingers wrapping around them. The muscles in his forearms bulged as he squeezed tight, showing off his snake tattoo. “I don’t think you understand how interrogations go, little wolf. Either you were hit on the head too many times, or you’re always this dumb.” He straightened, his face still hard and emotionless. “You will answer my questions if you want to stay alive.”

“Will you let me go if I answer all of them?” I asked. “Or are you planning to keep me here forever, coming down to interrogate me anytime you need intel on the twelve packs? I’m not a computer, and I’m certainly not inclined to answer to you.”

“You just can’t help running your mouth, can you?” The menace was clear in his voice, and I tensed, waiting for him to come inside and hurt me. Instead, he growled and tossed something into my cell.

I flinched as the object hit the floor, ready for whatever threat it posed, but then it bounced. It was a bottle of water, which was the absolute last thing I thought he’d throw in.

“Perhaps some time alone with your thoughts will loosen your tongue,” he said. I almost laughed out loud. It wouldn’t. “The bottle of water alone is probably enough to get you to answer anything. Maybe if you play nice enough, I’ll feed you too.”

My stomach growled again. How long had it been since I'd eaten? Suddenly answering a few questions seemed like a good idea. What could it hurt if he had my name? He already knew I was originally part of the Cancer pack, and it wasn't like there were many of them left. He could probably find my name out on his own if he tried—there weren't that many half-human mutts, after all. Still, I hesitated, all the things I’d been told as a child about the Ophiuchus pack echoing in my brain.

I was right on the verge of telling him my name when the alpha turned away with a huff. Then the bastard shut off the lights and locked the door behind him, leaving me in almost complete darkness.

I scrambled off the cot and dropped to the floor in front of the bottle of water. The cap snapped as I unsealed it, and I let out a relieved breath. I wouldn’t put it past them to try to slip something into my drink to drug me into delirium. That would be one surefire way to make certain they got answers from me. I took a long drink. I didn’t know how long it had been since I’d had water, but I was thirsty. I didn’t think I’d ever tasted better water.

I stopped myself, though I could have easily downed the whole thing. I needed to ration it. Who knew how long it would be before they’d give me anything else. In fact, they’d probably deprive me of any further water as a way to get me to talk. What did they want with me? Would they ever let me out of here?

Wait. The power I’d used to get away from Jordan. Maybe I could use that to escape.

There was a tiny patch of moonlight from the small window on one side of my cell. The window was higher than my head and only big enough to let a tiny bit of light in and nothing more, so there was no chance of escaping through it. I went over to it, straining up onto my tiptoes to see out while trying to use whatever that strange power had been.

I held my breath and reached out for the darkness, the moonlight, or whatever it was I'd used to teleport before. Nothing happened. I closed my eyes tighter and hoped and prayed that when I opened them, I’d be away from the cell and outside in another patch of moonlight.