Saving Briar

Harlow winced. Her head felt foggy and she knew she’d been knocked out a second time, although she couldn’t remember it happening. She vaguely remembered a man coming into the room, and for a few long seconds she had the distinct feeling that there was something important that she needed to remember that was just out of reach.

She let out a soft squeak when it came back to her all at once. Hux had bought her. And he was planning on using her to bring down Theon.

A shudder passed through her body and she fought down the wave of nausea that threatened to overwhelm her. She was not going to throw up while handcuffed to a chair. Thankfully the lack of food since she’d been brought to wherever it was that they were holding her made that task somewhat easier.

“Come on my dear.” Harlow’s head whipped in the direction of whoever was speaking and she immediately regretted the quick movement. “Oh my. Mr. Fox did say that you might be a bit queasy, and that you’d likely have a horrible headache.” The woman who had entered the room was old enough to be Harlow’s mother. Her long dark hair had a few bright streaks of gray cutting through it, but Harlow could tell that the woman was fit, and while Harlow was still human, far stronger than she could ever hope to be.

“Why is everyone calling him Mr. Fox?” Harlow blurted out the first thought that came into her mind and the woman paused and smiled before turning back to her.

“Because that’s what he’s asked us to call him. He’s hired a half dozen of us. He pays us enough not to ask questions.” The last sentence was said in a firm tone, and the woman’s eyebrows arched halfway up her forehead for a long moment before she turned back to the closet door that Harlow hadn’t noticed until the woman had drawn her attention to it.

“You know I’m being held here, against my will then?” The woman snorted, but didn’t respond, at least not to the question that Harlow had asked.

“Mr. Fox would like you dressed in black. He personally selected the dress that you’ll be wearing this evening. And while I have to admit, it’s a little revealing, you ought to be able to pull it off.” Harlow closed her eyes, praying that she was merely trapped inside of a nightmare, the kind where you wake up and for a moment still remember everything that happened, but if you have even a bit of sense, you quickly turn your attention to something else, knowing that like all dreams, this one will fade if you don’t give it the attention it requires to set itself firmly into your conscious memory.

“Now I’m going to untie you. There are two men outside this door, who are some of the largest and meanest sons of bitches I’ve ever seen. If you make a single move that I don’t like, they’re going to come in here and make you wish that you’d just gone along with what I’d asked of you from the start. So please. Just do what I ask. I don’t want to have to work to cover up any injuries they give you with makeup before the party starts.”

Harlow stared at the woman as though she’d sprouted a second head. She couldn’t reconcile the seemingly proper form of the woman standing in front of her, with the words coming out of her mouth.

A moment later, Harlow’s ankles had been freed from their ties, and then her wrists, and she rubbed the raw skin lightly, as her eyes followed the woman around the room.

“Where did he find you?” Harlow whispered the words, not expecting the woman to respond.

“He hired nearly all of those of us he brought in from outside, from a pack back on the East Coast, in New York. There was an unfortunate change in leadership back there and even those of us who survived when they purged the warriors who had been part of Alpha Harding’s inner circle didn’t feel like staying around to watch things go south.”

“Wasn’t that that psychopath-”

Harlow hadn’t expected the speed with which the other woman moved, and she definitely wasn’t prepared for the force with which the slap that stung across her cheek made impact.

“He was a good man who was doing what was necessary to build a dynasty. His daughter should be Queen now. Instead she’s an outcast.”

“Hmmmm.” Harlow made the humming sound, hoping that the woman would take it as some sort of agreement.

While she knew very little about werewolf history, Harlow had been around enough wolf shifters to pick up some of the most recent highlights of what had been going on in the wolf shifter world. She knew that Alpha Harding was considered to be pretty awful, even if she didn’t really know exactly what it was that he’d done to earn that reputation. And the fact that some of the people who had helped him were now helping Hux with whatever half baked plans he’d come up with made her stomach churn uncomfortably.

“Put on the dress. Mr. Fox wants you to look nice for the party.” Harlow fought down a wave of nausea that rose up at the idea of being part of whatever it was that her ex had planned.

“Did he tell you that he and I have a daughter together?” Harlow reluctantly began to undress, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to overpower the woman, even with her limbs now free. She was still only human, at least in every way that mattered, and she would never be able to go toe to toe with a woman who she now assumed had to be a wolf shifter. Besides, even if she could shift she wouldn’t be able to make it past the two men she’d been told were stationed in the hall.

“Miss Kayla is in the house getting ready for the party too. Maybe if you’re particularly well-behaved, Mr. Fox will let you see her.”

Harlow bit her tongue so hard that she tasted blood at the woman’s words. She knew that the woman hadn’t revealed anything that Hux didn’t want her to know. If she had told her that Kayla was going to be at the party, it had to be because he was using their daughter to control Harlow, just as he was attempting to use Harlow to get what he wanted from Theon. Harlow wanted to believe that Hux’s paternal feelings as a father would keep him from actually harming the child that she shared with him, but she wasn’t certain that that was actually the case.

It was clear that Hux would do whatever it took to keep Cara. And that meant doing whatever it took to become Alpha. If there were losses in the process, she had a feeling he might regret the loss of his daughter, or even of Harlow herself, since he undoubtedly enjoyed toying with her, but she had no doubt that Hux would do whatever it took to keep his mate, even if that meant losing everything else.