Page 64 of Banished From the Pack

“Ha! Good one,” Evan says. “No, darling, we’re going to put you somewhere safe.” He inclines his head toward the scary one and then saunters away.

The woman seizes my wrist with her leather-gloved hand and drags me back outside.

“Where are you taking me?” I say, tugging my wrist against her formidable grip. I’m still a little woozy from whatever they stuck me with, but if I can break free, I can hide and wait it out until I can shift.

“To your kennel.” She grins, revealing beautiful white teeth bordered by fangs.

I struggle as we approach a gleaming new cage set in the center of the yard, but my human form is no match for a vampire. She shoves me inside and slams the door shut. Then she fishes a key out of her pocket and fits it inside a sturdy lock, securing the cage. Without another word, she wiggles her fingers in a teasing little wave, pivots, and heads back toward the front door.

My fingers curl around the metal bars, but I yank them back when my skin burns upon contact. I let out a yelp and shake my blistered hands, staring down at my palms. I didn’t feel any heat coming from the bars at all, but my skin is burned and searing with pain.

She-Vamp pauses at the door. “Oh. Did I forget to tell you your kennel is made of silver? I hear that’s like an electric fence to a wolf. Am I right?”

“Asshole,” I mutter before sucking on the blisters.

She laughs and disappears inside the house.

I sink down on the floor of the cage but immediately leap up when the bars burn my bottom. I can stand between the bars so I don’t touch the silver, but I can’t sit. I’m drowsy and wired at the same time. Every movement is slow and makes me sway dizzily, but I’m wide awake and still wired from the vampire blood. I wait for them to come back, but no one emerges from the house.

All day, I wait. I don’t dare approach the bars that surround me as I’m still licking my blistered skin. I watch dragonflies and butterflies flit outside my cage, landing briefly on the foliage and then flying away. I study the trees that stretch their leafy arms into the sky. I even regard the sky itself with its endless blue, sometimes punctuated by drifting clouds. The heat makes me drowsy, but I can’t sit. I shift from one foot to the other, then crouch, then kneel, gaining a blister on the inside of my knee when I get to close to the silver.

Occasionally a car, truck, or motorcycle drives up and parks. Each time, I jump to my feet, hoping one of the triplets will appear. They’d never give up on me.

If they’re alive…

I won’t think of that. It’s always another vampire coming to see Evan. I now know their scent well now, like bitter ash and death. They stride to the front door of the Evan’s lair and disappear inside its sparkling white facade. Sometimes they point and laugh at me, but most ignore me.

By nightfall, I’m famished, thirsty, and fatigued, as my growling stomach can attest. Where are the triplets? They must be searching for me. I won’t entertain other possibilities. They don’t know where I am, but they’ll find me. I just have to wait.

The front door opens, and a slice of light cuts through the darkness. A horde of vampires exits the house, laughing and talking.

Evan looks over at me and grins. “Nice to see you’ve settled in so well. You look right at home in a cage, little doggie.”

If I were free, I’d tear his heart from his chest and eat it like the men do.

“Good hunting tonight, everyone!” a boar-like man says.

Another vampire says, “I hope your plan works, Drake.”

The one I called Scary Guy, who must be Drake, responds. “Oh, it’ll work. I’ve sensed him lurking about.”

The hair on my neck prickles with excitement. Which of my men has come for me? Surely it’s Warrick this time. After what we shared last night, he wouldn’t give up on me. Why can’t I scent him, though? I know each of their scents by heart at this point. They all smell of sweat and have the primal, man smell I never encountered until Axel. Callan also smells like the salt marshes in the hot sun, and Ethan’s scent has a hint of the woods and the exhaust from his bike. Warrick smells like leather and cigarettes. But I can’t find any of them in the air tonight.

Still, the idea that one of my pack is looking for me gives me hope. When the vampires depart, I shift into wolf and howl.

I call for my new lovers. I tell them, “I’m here, come and find me!” After an hour of my plaintive howls, I’m worn out and have to stop. I can only hope they got my message. I lower my head and try to sleep standing, not to think about the latest thing Axel didn’t tell me—that even when our bond isn’t connected to each other, it’s never truly gone. He will be part of me forever, a wound that never heals.

It’s still dark when I finally rouse from my half-sleep of exhaustion and sway on my feet. It’s the time when the transition between night and day begins. I know it to be a time of power, when darkness yields to light.

More than that, I smell him—one lone wolf.

I stand at attention, searching the shadows for him. Is it Callan, who found me before? Or will it be Ethan this time? My skin tingles and my fur rises with excitement.

A large wolf pads out of the woods toward me, silent as a cloud moving across the moon. I step back in confusion. This is not the right wolf.

I shift into human, knowing he can’t reach me inside my silver cage, since he’s a wolf, too. I bare my teeth.

“Who are you?” I ask, even though I know. I don’t want him to know that he’s familiar to me. I want him to think he’ll always be a stranger.