Chapter 9: Out Of Nowhere

  The first thing I noticed when I came to was a pungent sweetness to the air around me. That and my hands were bound behind my back as I lay on top of them. I wouldn’t have been able to know that they were behind me except that my shoulders were turned backwards; besides that my arms were so numb I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between myself and a double amputee.

  I opened my eyes--kind of afraid of what I’d see when I did--but it was pitch black. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the confines I was in and slowly the edges of a small box formed around me. Oh dear god, am I in a freaking coffin? No, no there—I couldn’t be dead. I was breathing, my heartbeat was beating frantically; therefore I had to be alive. Plus, unlike a coffin there was a low rumbling that shook the whole box softly. But what did that sound like? It was extremely familiar, but…

  Before I needed to deduce that the whole place jolted and my body left the ground for a second. When I came back down the side of my head smacked into a metal rod. Car--I’m most definitely in a trunk. And my face was probably lying on a tire iron. There was hardly enough room for me to twist around so I was back on my back again instead of my side, so I stopped squirming and tried to take deep breaths. Okay, so the last thing I remember was thinking that Wes or Rayne had come to find me in the woods—obviously it hadn’t been either of them because I highly doubt either of them would want to tie me up and throw me in a trunk. Never-mind, Wes probably would have wanted to, but I don’t think he would’ve acted on it. My heartbeat started pounding in my ears when I came to the last resort.

  Ian.

  But I didn’t recognize his scent in the woods, so that meant that it couldn’t have been him, right? My mind wasn’t cooperating with my panicking and helped me remember that no one else had been able to catch his scent, so he could’ve very well masked it. I have to get out of here, now! I started wiggling around again, attempting to untie my hands but they were tied together with a zip tie that was digging gashes in my skin every time I tried wrenching it off. The small trunk was even getting smaller with Ian driving the car; there was no way I could go back to him. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. But who would hear me over the roar of a car on a road? It was useless.

  There was a rag tied around my neck but it was pretty loose so I think it had to have been tied around my face but fell off. Tucking my chin in, I felt the moisture coming off of the rag and immediately the sweet scent became more prominent. So it had to be some sort of drug, maybe chloroform? What in the world do I know? Why am I worried about what drug they used, when I’m kidnapped?

  How long was I gone? Had anybody even noticed? I had disappeared in the middle of the night without anyone knowing I was even up besides Tristan who was not only at least three states away but had thought I just went to bed angry. I should have just gone to bed angry; at least there I wouldn’t be hitting my cheek bone on metal every time the car hit a pothole.

  My mind was going crazy, but the longer the car drove on the more quiet my thoughts became. We had hit a soft stretch of asphalt and the humming of the car was becoming monotonous to make me tired. But just as I was slipping into sleep, the car stopped moving. And I was wide awake once again.

  What do I do? What am I supposed to do? As cheesy as it seemed, I thought back to all the movies I had seen where someone had been kidnapped. A door slammed from the cabin of the car and I had known I had no time to decide between methods, so I pretended to be back asleep. There were heavy footsteps going around the car and the jingling of keys before a door opened near the trunk. Whoever it was must’ve stepped gone into wherever the door led because their steps were muted, but it didn’t take them long to come back. The trunk opened with a click and cool air hit my heated body, the sensation was such a relief that I almost sighed, but managed to refrain myself. I hadn’t even realized how hot the trunk had gotten since I had woken up until new air was ventilated through. Must’ve been all my heavy panicked breathing.

  Two hands grabbed onto my sides and hauled me out of the trunk. I made their effort harder by allowing my body to sag and have the dead weight make me heavier, but they still picked me up with ease. Since they were evidently strong enough to hold me to their chest with one arm and used the other to shut the trunk, which meant they were either inhuman or very strong. I expected them to be rough and handle me like a sack of mulch, but they cradled me bridle style through the doorway.

  Another door shut, the movement of his body suggesting he pushed it with his foot and he walked me across the room before placing me down on a soft surface. A bed. If possible, my heart kicked it up another notch at what possible things a kidnapper would want to have me on a bed for. I heard him walk back towards the door and the distinct click of a metal latch. Then he walked back towards me, but passed the bed and there was another shut of a door.

  There were no more footsteps, so I waited thirty seconds before cracking open an eye. I was in a motel room; the outdated furniture and comforter on the bed were enough proof for that. My head was turned towards where the guy had disappeared and there was light coming from underneath the door, and soon enough the sound of a shower running softly enveloped the room.

  I shot up off the bed, standing right beside it looking for a way out. First things first, these stupid restraints had to come off of my hands. Sidling up to one of to the headrest of the bed, I looped my arms around a post. Once the zip-tie was tight against the wood, I suddenly let my body weight collapse to bring enough force against the plastic to have it snap in half. One would think I’d been kidnapped before with my extensive knowledge of getting out of restraints… But besides the bed posts, it seemed that was the only thing in the room that would help me somehow. The windows were useless because I knew that they wouldn’t open, and I’m pretty sure the sound of glass breaking would alert whoever it was in the bathroom that I wasn’t asleep like they thought. The door would’ve been fine if he hadn’t had locked the door with a freaking padlock that I bet he had the key with him.

  Crap. There was no way I was letting him do whatever he wanted to me without a fight, so I looked around the room again, this time for some sort of weapon to use against him. The lamps were bolted to the nightstands and that was basically all there was. So here I was in only a tank top and shorts, locked in a room with the man who kidnapped me and possibly wants to do something worse. Plus my mind was running a blank on every single thing that Wes said about hand to hand combat, so I was pretty screwed. It was even worse that the shower turned off, making my head snap in the direction of the door.

  Silently I crept over to the side of the bed furthest away from the bathroom and crouched below the level of the bed so he couldn’t see me when he walked out. I counted the seconds in my head until the door swung open and steam poured out.

  “It’s a very tiny room Samantha, so there’s no point in hiding…” he sighed, and I couldn’t help that I felt relieved that his voice wasn’t Ian’s. He wasn’t Ian. But he still was a guy who had the nerve to snatch me from the woods and drag me to only god knows where.

  His footsteps weren’t nearly as quiet as I had been, the thick clunk of boots against the wood all too clear to my ears. How in the world did he sneak up on me sounding like that? He should’ve cracked every twig in a twenty-five foot radius. I waited until his footstep lead him to right in front of where I was crouching before I launched myself at him with a battle cry. He was taller than I had anticipated and I caught him right in the stomach, knocking the air out of him and slamming into the wall. His animalistic growl proved to me furthermore he was one of us. Quickly I cracked the palm of my upwards against his jaw to his neck snap back into the mirror on the wall. Just as soon as I heard the sickening sound of cracking glass on skin his hand shot up to seize my wrist and wrench my arm behind me with a painful twist. God, it felt like he was tearing the tendons in my shoulder from their socket, but I refused to cry out in agony; instead only a whimper escaped my lips.

  I brought the heel of my foot down onto the top of his, but couldn’t use enough force to have it hurt through his thick boots. At least they were good for something. He used his other arm to wrap around my neck and squeeze until I saw spots in my vision. His hold on me allowed him to throw me back in the direction of the bed, but I didn’t make it all the way on top of it and bounced back to the ground with a hiss.

  There was just no luck for me in fighting. But then again, I have been trying to take down full grown men that have trained their whole lives. I slid myself until I was sitting up with my back against the wall, arms and legs ready to attack anything that comes within a foot of touching me. “What the hell?” Mr. Kidnapper growled, feeling the back of his head, most likely checking for shattered glass.

  He was scrawnier than I would’ve thought, not skinny but built with a lean, muscled body tone. Kind of like Tristan except stretched a couple inches taller. His mop of hair was dark from the shower but probably would dry to some shade of brown, and of course he had silver eyes that looked like they wanted to smite me where I sat.

  “Really, ‘what the hell’? You must be an invalid to think you can kidnap me and not have me fight back somehow,” I yelled back at him, involuntarily shrinking into the wall further when he took a step forwards.

  He noticed my reaction and instead of advancing further towards me, he resumed his previous spot and swore under his breath. Then he started pacing back between the edge of the bed and the door, seemingly muttering to himself. Dear god, he’s insane. He most definitely seemed pissed, but dammit he must’ve been the worst kidnapper ever to think I’d go willingly. ‘Oh, you want to tie me up and drag me to a hotel in the middle of nowhere? Sure, why the heck not!’ That seems realistic.

  While he was pacing like a madman, I examined the damage to my wrists. Those things must’ve been real tight because there was a ring of cuts around each hand from where I had tried to tear it off. And I had thought the indentations from leaving a hair tie on my wrist too long had been bad. The rest of me looked okay, no blood gushing out from a gash or anything. “So how about we end this party now and you can let me go,” I reasoned, getting tired of his constant footsteps.

  He looked at me with nothing but a sarcastic sneer. I shrugged, “Hey, a girl has to try. At least tell me why you decided to snatch me up…”

  “How about no.” he replied curtly, keeping up with his tempo. If I didn’t know better, I could say he was nervous about something. Did I make him that nervous? You wouldn’t think so since he was apparently quite capable of handling me when I decided to organize an escape. So it couldn’t be me, was there a second person?

  “Fine. But it seems only fair that you know my name, that you tell me yours,” I pleaded. I just needed to know who I was dealing with; a name would give me that kind of leverage. Something to make him a human and not a creature wanting to tear me apart. He didn’t speak for a few minutes; the only sound was the heavy tread of his boots. I glanced at the clock to see that it was night time, but the day after he took me from the woods. Was anybody looking for me yet? Did they notify Tristan that I was gone?

  “My names Jay,” he finally sighed, halting with his pacing. Jay. That was an awfully tame name for a crazy kidnapper. I would’ve guessed something rough n’ tough like Charles or Roger. Great, now I’m going insane too.

  “You know, Jay, I’ve got a very protective mate that tends to not like when people kidnap me, especially people that will do me harm,” I was awful at sounding threatening, but hopefully the mention of a mate would get him scared. Especially my mate.

  “We’re hours away from your pack, and I happen to know Tristan isn’t in town anyway; he’s in the opposite direction from Mooncreak that we are. Plus, I’m not the one he’s going to be after,”

  There was a loud knock on the door, and both of our heads shot over in the direction of it. What the hell did he mean by saying Tristan wouldn’t be out after him? I mean, unless Jay was working for someone else…

  The door opened and I swear my life flashed before my eyes. My muscles seized up and chills went up my spine with enough force to make me want to curl up in the fetal position. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Ian was behind this; in fact I knew it all along. I also shouldn’t be so scared by his presence, he was just a man. A man that filled my nightmares and had me quaking in fear—but still just a man. Ian looked the same as he had when I last saw him: tall, commanding, and cocky. He knew how I felt about him and relished in the fact he was going against my wishes. Well, I wouldn’t let him have me.

  “It’s been such a long time, Samantha.” Ian smiled and turned towards Jay, “You did a good job, and I trust that you went undetected.” Jay just nodded and stepped back.

  I glared up at him, “Tristan is going to tear you limb from limb when he finds out what you’ve done, Ian.”

  “That’s if he can even find me,” God, I hated how he was so sure of himself. Why couldn’t he just loose his façade for once and realize that not everything was going to go his way. He had a mate, and I was someone else’s; it doesn’t matter what happened to his to make him want me. It was bad enough that I had to play puppet to my wolf self, but there wasn’t a way I was going to bow down and accept him.

  “Oh, he’ll find you. And when he does I’m going to let him kill you once and for all, I’m done trying to see if you have a decent side, because you just don’t know when to give up. Wasn’t getting run out of the area after your failed attack bad enough?” I sneered, probably laying it on too thick towards someone who had my life in their hands.

  He kneeled before me, merely a few feet away from me being able to kick him in his sorry face. His brown hair was still cut in its clean cut, yet somehow shaggy way, eyes not giving way to the madness that lay within.

  “Believe me darling, your knight in shining armor won’t know where to even start looking for you.”

  I bared my teeth in a silent snarl, “We are mates, you know. There’s a connection that lets us know where the other is and he’ll find me through that. I’m not the only reason he wants to tear your throat out anyway, so don’t go thinking he’ll lose any fire by losing interest in me with distance.”

  Now Ian’s smile grew wider as he leaned in closer, eyes making me freeze from launching out towards him. I could see in my peripheral vision Jay turn away from us and look towards the window. “You’re not going to be bound much longer, there’s a way to sever the connection between you two.”