Chapter 5

Gemma’s POV

“Get out there!” a voice barked, and I bit down a scream as thick fingers wrapped around my arm, yanking me out from the spot behind the cash register and towards the exit door of the diner.

The man holding me ignored Paula’s outraged protests as he dragged me none-too-gently out of the restaurant, and even though I wanted to dig my heels in and put up a fight, one look at his bulging arms (his biceps were as big as my head) made me think better of the notion.

So, I let myself get pulled after him, and as we headed to the unknown destination, I saw other females like me in similar situations.

Rogueland had been on fire since this morning, when Alpha Lazarus and his men stormed in, no doubt looking for the infamous missing Luna.

I had been searched on my way to work earlier and waved through after one of their hounds sniffed me, and I thought that was the end of it. But getting forcefully dragged from my place of work for a second inspection was a step too far.

I mean, everyone knew of Alpha Lazarus, or the Butcher Alpha as he had been nicknamed. He was the most feared werewolf alive, notorious for some of his exploits during his conquests of other Packs.

Butcher Alpha or not though, the man had no right to pull me away from spending my afternoons as I saw fit, and the thought of standing on my feet for a few more hours in my state made me fume!

My muscles ached as the burly man continued to drag me after him like a doll, and at one point it felt like my arm would pop out of its socket, but I bit down my cries of pain and distracted myself by trying to gather information.

From what I observed, we were all being led to the Council Hall of Rogueland, and once the old building came into view, I felt a wave of smugness go through me for having guessed correctly.

That feeling didn’t last long though, because I was roughly shoved into a group of women my age as soon as I stumbled through the sagging wooden doors of the hall.

Somehow, I managed to keep myself from tripping, and I cursed under my breath as I straightened, rotating my shoulder to ease the ache while I looked around the room.

The women around me were dark-haired, and eerily we all looked vaguely alike. As I took in the looks on their faces, which ranged from miserable to hopeful, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that this whole affair reminded me of some twisted Cinderella retelling.

If Prince Charming was a blood thirsty Alpha…

“Ladies!” a man—the same one who had dragged me here—called out, and instantly the murmurings in the hall quietened.

His lips twisted in a leering smile when his eyes touched on me, and a scar right down the middle of his face dragged, making me shiver with disgust.

It crossed my mind briefly that this man was Alpha Lazarus, but I quickly dismissed it.

He may have been as big as a house, but I didn’t sense any of the Alpha aura coming from him when he brought me here… which meant he was one of Lazarus’s lackeys.

“I’m sure you all know why you’re gathered here so I won’t get into it. Don’t want to take up more of your time than we already have, so we’ll just let our dogs take a sniff and then send you on your merry way.”

At his last words, a few chuckles echoed through the room, and a feeling of unease passed through the entire room.

The sound of multiple feet shuffling over linoleum floors echoed in the hall, and as we all queued up, I found my mind returning to Alpha Lazarus again.

If he was anything like these men, I prayed to the Moon Goddess that the Luna didn’t fall into his slimy hands.

This thought and several others like it played on a loop in my mind until it was my turn to be sniffed, and since I already knew the drill, I stood still, resisting the urge to back away as the animal pressed its wet snout against my dress.

I expected it to back away immediately as the earlier one had, but this one stepped back and let out a bark.

Instantly, the whole room fell silent, and I felt the press of dozens of eyes on me. My heart began to thump inside me, but I played it off as best as I could even when the man from earlier came over.

“What do we have here?” he asked, swaggering over. “Have we found our missing Luna?”

There was a brief pause as he gave me an oily look from head to toe before muttering, “Definitely got the looks to be her.”

My stomach churned with nausea at the thought, and saliva gathered in my mouth. When I spoke, my voice sounded level and calm, betraying none of the inner panic.

“I think he barked that way because I’m… pregnant.”

I whispered the last word, but I should’ve shouted it instead because the man let out a loud chuckle before announcing it to the rest of the room.

“The bitch is knocked-up!” he said, and almost instantly, the room (the men and very few of the women, to my disappointment) burst into loud laughter. Shortly after, the suggestive comments started to pour in.

“Let me in, sweetheart—I’ll show you a good time!”

“I’ve heard that pregnant shewolves are always in heat!”

“Doll face, come see what a real man can do!”

Their words grated on my nerves, but the man—their supervisor—seemed to find my excuse sufficient because after a few moments he waved me through, and I was given permission to exit the Hall.

My face burned as I left their jeering calls behind, and I paused slowly after taking a few steps away from the building to gather my wits.

More than half an hour since I came here, but it felt like an eternity, and I had just started to retrace the steps that brought me here when I stopped in my tracks.

The trek back to Paula Eats would take me approximately ten minutes, I realized with dismay, and almost as if on cue, I felt an ache start up around my ankles.

The ache radiated up to my shins, spreading until even my knees hurt, and as I paused to let it pass the small voice in my head chirped up to tell me that I could cut my journey in half by taking the lesser travelled path through some of the lesser-known alleyways of Rogueland to the part of town where the diner was located.

Normally I would’ve shut the idea down immediately, but through a combination of my legs being on fire and the fact that it was still afternoon, with the sun hanging high up in the air, I managed to convince myself that I would be in no serious danger.

So, even though my instincts screamed at me to not go through with my plan, I held my breath and dived into one of the alleyways, speedwalking through as I counted down the seconds in my head.

1… 2… 3… 9… 15…

All I needed to do was get to 60 five times and I’d be in the clear, I mused, and no sooner had this thought formed before I felt a presence come up behind me.

The hairs at the nape of my neck prickled in alarm, and my body tensed as I prepared to break into a sprint, but it was already too late.

Powerful arms wrapped around my arms and torso, lifting me up bodily from the ground, and as I squirmed a bag fell over my head, turning the whole world black. It was a disgusting thing, but the sudden darkness kicked some animal part of my brain into overdrive and I struggled against the man who was crushing me to him even harder, screaming while I did so.

Rogueland was lawless, but surely someone would intercede if they witnessed someone getting kidnapped in broad daylight and—

“She’s got a set of lungs on her,” the man holding me said with a low chuckle to someone I couldn’t see, who in turn laughed before speaking.

“Told you she was a lively one,” the other man said, “I’ll take care of it.”

With a jolt I realized that I recognized the voice of the speaker—Cole—but before this could fully sink in a fist landed on my concealed face, knocking the wind out of me so hard that I felt my brain rattle in my skull.

Instantly, I fell as still as a log, and as stars danced in front of my eyes, I heard the men continue to talk. But I could barely make out their words over the pounding in my head.

I became vaguely aware of the fact that we had started to move, but by that point I had started to slip in and out of consciousness until everything finally went mercifully dark.

•

I don’t know how long I was out for, but when I came awake the bag was no longer on my head. I was in a warehouse of some kind, propped up uncomfortably on a wooden chair.

My hands and legs had been chained together by my captors, and after a while I could make out the voices of several people who were speaking nearby.

“The bitch is pregnant,” Cole crowed, sounding like he had won a lottery as he emphasized each word. “With her looks we should fetch a pretty penny if we sell her as a Breeder.”

Breeder. Just the word alone made my heart plummet into my stomach and dive up again.

The practice of keeping shewolves to serve mateless males for the purpose of reproduction had been outlawed centuries ago, but every so often whispers of the practice spread before quickly getting hushed down.

It was the worst possible fate a woman could endure, and without meaning to an involuntary whimper escaped me.

Instantly, the voices stopped, and I heard eager footsteps shuffling until Cole and a group of other people came into view.

I recognized some of the faces in his crew, but the others were Alpha Lazarus’s men, and as they all arrived I realized that Cole must’ve paid them off to carry this kidnapping.

The bastard in question shot a smug smile at me as he drew up close, eliminating the distance between us.

“I told you I would get you back for everything at the diner” he began by way of greeting.

My heart beat against my ribcage as fear flooded me, but I swallowed and turned to Lazarus’s men.

“P–Please, help me,” I begged, desperately searching their faces for a hint of compassion. “Don’t let him do this to me, please.”

But my pleas fell on deaf ears, because after a moment Lazarus’s men resumed their conversation like I wasn’t there, making plans for what they would use their cut of my sale to buy.

It was clear that they believed I was disposable since I wasn’t the missing Luna, and tears burned in my vision as Cole slowly came to stand in front of me.

I hadn’t thought his grin could get any bigger, but he proved me wrong, and as his shadow loomed over me, he licked his lips and winked at me.

“I’ll enjoy this,” he promised with hard and scornful eyes. “Now, beg me and I’ll make this easy.”

As I looked at him, the words died in my throat. There was nothing more I could say to him that would get me out of the fate they planned for me.

But I could deny him the pleasure of begging for my freedom, and with this thought firmly fixed in place I pulled back and spat in his face.

My aim was off, and so it landed on his shirt instead. Still, that was more than enough to get a rise out of him, because his features instantly reddened with rage…

“YOU SLUT!” he grunted, pulling his hands back to hit me…

I closed eyes, hoping he would use his superhuman strength to put me out of my misery and—

Someone screamed from somewhere far off, but it cut off quickly enough, and in the silence that followed the sound of a single pair of footsteps resounded over the warehouse—combat boots meeting hard concrete.

A presence filled the room like nothing I had ever felt in my entire life, and automatically, all of the wolves in the room started to shy away from it, bowing their heads ever so slightly… whether they knew it or not.

No one moved for some reason, or better yet it seemed like they could not, and when the footsteps finally drew close enough, I craned my shoulder to the side to catch a glimpse of him, but instantly locked eyes with the newcomer instead.

His steps faltered for the first time, and his eyes widened slightly before he called my name.

“Gemma,” he said softly, and then. “I’ve found you.”