Slaved By The Moon God

26

To my surprise, I was able to fall asleep, even knowing I was surrounded by such dangerous shifters. This time I jerked awake, my bladder screaming at me. I hurried over to the toilet and relieved myself, and only when I was finished did I think to make sure I was alone.

Alone except for a bag of food. I didn't know how I could have slept through someone coming in and pushing it through the bars, but there it was. Then again, I’d had a very rough last twenty-four hours. Or was it longer? Forty-eight hours? There was no way for me to tell.

I walked over to the bag warily. It was plain, with no indication of where it had come from, but the smell emanating from it made my mouth water. I opened it and pressed the paper-wrapped food to my nose, breathing it in. I didn’t care that it was cold, it smelled like heaven. I tore the paper open, finding a breakfast sandwich with sausage, eggs, and cheese. There were hash browns in the bag too. My stomach grumbled and I groaned and dug in. It didn’t even occur to me that I had no way of knowing if they’d drugged it until I’d plowed through half of it. I stopped mid-chew and sniffed the food again. Nothing to suggest there was anything unusual there, even with my new enhanced senses. Besides, if they'd wanted me dead, they would have killed me already.

I finished eating and found a bottle of water sitting beside the bag. I let out a laugh, unable to help myself. Here I was, being held captive by the worst of the worst, and they hadn’t done anything more menacing than send their alpha to growl at me and ask me some questions. s**t, they’d fed me and hadn’t beaten me yet. This was already two steps above my life in the Cancer pack.

Funny how things looked with a little perspective.

The door opened, and daylight streamed in. From the small window, I could tell it was day, but now I realized I’d slept through the night and probably well into morning.

The lost pack's alpha stepped into the small room and closed the door behind him. I couldn't help but notice the way he moved with both grace and power, somehow managing to command the room without even saying a word. His impressive body seemed to fill the space too, even while wearing clothes that hid all those muscles I'd seen in the woods.

He observed me for a few moments. “You’re looking much better than when we found you."

“Well, I was practically on the verge of death,” I replied. “You can’t expect someone to look good after fleeing a massacre.”

He walked the rest of the way into the room without answering and dragged a chair from the corner. He sat himself down outside of the door to my cell, chair backward.

“I’ll get this out of the way for you,” he said after he’d slung his legs over the chair and leaned his forearms against the metal bar at the top of the back. “My name is Kaden Shaw, and I’m the alpha of the Ophiuchus pack.” His voice was low and sexy, and I found myself leaning forward into the words. “I need you to tell me what happened at the Convergence. How you got away.”

I c****d my head at him. “Why the sudden sharing circle?”

“I’m hoping that if I share information, you’ll be smart enough to return the favor,” Kaden said. “I can’t let you out until I know I can trust you.”

“So you do plan to let me out?” I asked, hopeful.

“If you prove to be trustworthy. That remains to be seen.”

I sighed. I supposed there wasn’t anyone else who was showing me this level of kindness. “And you promise not to torture me?”

Kaden c****d his head to the side, copying my motion. “Do I look like I’m about to torture you?”

No. No, he lazed against the chair, legs spread wide, hands carelessly flung over the back of it. He looked about as far away from torturing someone as he could get. And sexy as hell. I couldn't keep my eyes off his long legs or muscular arms.

“How do you know what happened at the Convergence?” I asked. “I thought you all left.”

“We were watching from the forest and saw the whole thing. Including the fact that you’re now mated to the next alpha of the Leo pack."

It was a slap to the face. I’d almost managed to forget. I jerked back, drawing in a breath. “My mate rejected me." There was no way I could keep emotion out of the words. “And since he helped kill my entire family and my pack, I don’t want him either.”

That wasn’t completely true. The mating bond still hadn’t totally faded, and I felt the pull toward him, though it wasn't as strong now. I tried to shove the feeling of longing away. Jordan didn’t want me, and I didn’t want him either. Except any time I thought of Jordan, I got jumbled up in the mess of emotions. My base instincts drove me to want him, but I couldn’t come to terms with any of the things he’d done to me or my family.

“How did you escape?” Kaden asked.

“I don’t know,” I said.

In one smooth motion, Kaden stood, kicking the chair away with a burst of strength. “I told you not to lie to me,” he growled, and the tension in the air sharpened. “I could kill you just as easily as release you.”

Ah. There were the familiar threats. He was no different than anyone in the Cancer pack, after all. "I'll tell you, but I want my own answers first."

He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. "Answers about what?"

"Where are we? What happened to my injuries? How did you knock me out? And who dressed me?"

He smirked at that. "I can't answer most of those. Not yet. But I will say...I'm the one who dressed you."