Saving Briar

“I’m sorry, Briar. I’m sorry that I asked you to come back. We both know that it’s exactly what they want. I just didn’t know what else to do.”

“You did the right thing, Lilli. If it was just me I don’t know what we would do to try and help mom, but Torin can do this. He wouldn’t have brought me here if he didn’t think that he could keep us safe and get mom back.”

“I like him. I never liked Alpha Theon and when I heard what everyone was saying, the day you disappeared, about you being his mate, I felt sick. You’re so kind to everyone and he just… isn’t. When I heard that you were supposed to be in the pack jail I tried to see you, but by the time I heard about it, you had already escaped. I could hear Cara losing her mind inside though, screaming at the jailers. No one would admit to knowing anything about how you got away.”

“I was trying to figure out a way to get you and mom out-”

“Did you hear that?” Lilli’s voice was hardly louder than a whisper as she said the words, reaching out to grasp her older sister’s hand. It sounded like glass shattering.

“I did. And I’m going to go to the stairs and see what I can find out. Maybe Warren was just trying to cook something in the kitchen and he dropped a plate. The trip to get here took a while and he’s probably hungry by now.”

Lilli gave her sister a look that said that she knew that Briar was only saying what she had just said to try to placate the younger girl.

“Be careful. When they took mom there were at least a half dozen of them. And they came in fast through the front door.”

Briar nodded, taking a deep breath.

“If you hear anything out of the ordinary, hide. Go in our room and get as far as you can to the side, and try to pull all the clothes over so that it’s blocking you from view. Promise me you won’t come downstairs unless I call you down and say that it’s safe?”

Lilli was clearly reluctant but she finally nodded.

“Please come back, Briar. I can’t lose you and mom.” Briar gave her a smile that she hoped was reassuring and turned back to the door. She tried to ignore the way that her heart pounded in her chest. Her sister and her mom both needed her, but she needed to keep her cool if she was going to be able to fix this situation for either one of them.

As she moved to the top of the stairs, Briar held perfectly still for a long moment. She didn’t hear anything downstairs, but something stopped her from calling out to Warren. Moving silently, thankful again that she’d spent so many years blending into the background, which meant making as little noise as possible, she crept down the stairs.

Briar stayed pressed against the wall as she made her way to the bottom of the stairs. She couldn’t see Warren from where she was, as her eyes scanned the living room. The curtains in the small living room where she had last seen Warren had been drawn closed, but when one of them moved as if pushed by a light breeze, Briar froze, the tiny hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

There shouldn’t be a breeze coming from what should have been a closed window.

The scent of blood reached her nose at the exact same moment and she turned to run back up the stairs when she felt a strong hand clamp down across her mouth, muffling the scream that had risen up in her throat the moment she’d felt herself being grabbed.

It wasn’t the hand though that gave her pause. It was the knife blade that she felt pressed lightly against the skin of her neck that dug just a bit deeper when she tried to struggle.

“Shhh, shhh, shhh, Bree. Easy does it. You stay quiet and you might just live to see the end of the day. Or maybe not. But it’s the only chance you’ve got, even if the odds aren’t in your favor.”

Bree. She hadn’t heard that nickname for years. It was something some of the other kids at school had called her before her father died. Afterwards no one really called her much of anything. She’d always been known as an Omega, but somehow, with her father’s death, she’d sunk even further than her original low status, so that she was beneath notice. At least, she had been beneath notice unless she made a mistake.

Torin. She screamed out her mate’s name in her mind. If he had been a wolf then the moment they’d marked one another a mind link would have been formed. In ordinary cases, mates were usually already able to communicate, mind to mind, since most were from the same pack, and packs were able to communicate to one another via mind link. But Torin wasn’t even a wolf-shifter. And she didn’t bear his mark, if that were even possible.

Even if they were to mark one another, there was no guarantee that a mind link would form between them. Still, Briar reached out with her mind, desperately, calling out to her mate, begging him to come back, to save her from whoever it was that held her.

Briar couldn’t smell whoever it was who was holding her, since the overwhelming scent in the room, that she suddenly felt that she should have noticed long before she had reached the bottom of the stairs, was the scent of blood, heavy and metallic in the small space.

Whoever was holding her, hauled her outside roughly, and the moment they were out of the little house, leaving the door open behind them, Briar saw at least five men materialize as they stepped forward out of the forest.

“Nice shot, Ian.” Briar tensed as the man spoke and the knife pressed against her skin. She felt a trickle of blood run down her neck where the point had dug in a bit deeper than the man had intended, but she didn’t dare speak, not sure how he would respond.

“Careful there C. She’s bleeding.” She felt the knife ease off, away from her skin, but he didn’t move it away altogether. “I don’t think the Fox wants the goods damaged before he’s received them.”

“I can’t believe he has you guys calling him that.” The man behind her sounded as if he were rolling his eyes. “It’s a ridiculous nickname for a wolf shifter.”

“I think there’s a story behind it. But he’s not sharing.” This came from another man, whose voice sounded vaguely familiar to Briar.

“Why are you doing this? I’ve never done anything to hurt anyone here. I just wanted to take my family and leave.” Briar choked out the words, relieved when she didn’t feel the knife blade press more tightly against her skin.

“This isn’t about you, Bree.” The man behind her had leaned in even closer, his lips brushing against her ear as she spoke. A chill ran through her body, and she couldn’t suppress the shudder that accompanied it. “You’re just a pawn in a game that the big boys are playing. But I have to say. I wish I’d noticed you before you found out you were mated to that idiot. I wouldn’t mind sinking my-”

“We need to get out of here, Cadoc.” The man that she thought was called Ian interrupted whatever the man who was holding her had been about to say. “If that huge brute that came with her here comes back, he could complicate things.”

“He’s going to kill every one of you.” Briar blurted out the words, even though she knew she shouldn’t say them. “My mate-”

“Your mate is going to die today, Bree. He’s been a crappy Alpha for long enough. And if we have to kill you to bring him down, we’ll do that. So you better hope our new Alpha can take him down without needing to resort to using you as anything other than bait. And if you’re very good and extra lucky, I’ll try to convince our new Luna to let you stay the night at my place tonight. I know she’s not your biggest fan, but as her mate’s Beta, I think I might be able to get her to go along with handing you over. At least for one night.”

Briar stomach churned as the man forced her to walk forward, away from the home she’d grown up in. She now knew exactly who was pushing her forward, and that knowledge didn’t make her feel any better about her chances of surviving the next few hours.

Cadoc had been Theon’s third in command. He had always been an asshole, although Briar never would have suspected he’d turn on his Alpha like this.

She briefly considered telling him that Theon had rejected her, but she knew that he wouldn’t believe her. He’d think that she was only saying it to try to get him to spare her. Besides, if he thought she wasn’t mated to Theon, he might decide to try to take her for himself then and there. At least for the time being, being a part of whatever plot they were hatching, would hopefully buy Torin enough time to find her and save her. And maybe, if she was really lucky, she’d be able to find where they were keeping her mother, by the time he found her. Because Torin would find her, she had to believe that, or she would never have been able to find the strength to keep moving forward, towards some unknown enemy, who wanted to use her for his own purposes.