Purity (26 page)

I heard shouts of alarm, and from Ryan’s strangled cry, I guessed his daughters were being threatened by a werewolf. But I couldn’t move, couldn’t look around, couldn’t do anything more than take a guess.

“You have twenty-four hours to make a choice,” Vin said gleefully. “The werewolf, the daughters, or the mate. Tick tock, my friends. Leave now, unless you want to see how pretty their blood will look sprayed all over you.”

The wolf holding me—Dar, I realised—squeezed my throat a little too tight, and my eyes watered. I could barely see straight, but I heard my father’s yells, heard arguments and shouting from the people I knew. Vin had just pitted them all against each other, and that was his plan, working out perfectly.

They dragged Ryan’s daughters and me back, and I desperately tried to catch my father’s eye to see if I could tell what he thought was happening. I couldn’t imagine he knew the truth, couldn’t imagine one reason why he would believe in any of what had happened, but if he knew, then he knew what I had done. We were whisked into the truck before anyone could make a move—or a mistake.

Even from inside the truck, we heard voices shouting and pleading, accusing and begging. I didn’t recognise all of the voices, so some of the pleas for mercy were coming from Vin’s own wolves. Both Rachel and Meg sobbed as we listened. Eventually, my father and the others all must have left because silence fell over us. Vin’s wolves got us out of there in a hurry after that.

Again, we drove for hours, but we must have been going faster than the previous trip because the shaking and rocking worsened, and I knew we would be covered in bruises before the truck stopped. When we returned to the camp, Vin made the girls and me sit on the floor in his room as he brooded.

“Do you think I upset him?” Vin asked. “Who shall they choose? That’s what interests me. Obviously, they’ll want to keep their little wolf-bitch, but will they fight each other? Will the boy come alone? Will Ryan beg for his daughters’ lives? I can’t wait to see how this turns out.”

“Will you live that long?” I spat, and he glared at me. “You said it yourself: werewolves without their mates go crazy. Insane. They’ll do
anything
, anything at all. I’d say you’re the one who’s screwed right now. You just provoked the strongest werewolves in existence. I feel
sorry
for you.”

His glare transformed into some kind of acceptance, some acknowledgement that I was right. My lips trembled at the idea that he had no hope, that he never had, but I refused to cry, even when Martha dragged me back out to the shed by the hair. The girls were soon ushered in after me, clinging together and weeping about what they had seen and about their own uncertain futures.

I glared at them. “No crying.” I hardened my heart. “We have to survive this, and I need you to be strong. You saw what he did to
Willow
. I can’t let that happen to us. Vin doesn’t care anymore. Not about his wolves, not about survival. He doesn’t want us walking out of this. This isn’t a negotiation. It’s a suicide attempt. I know that now. So we have to get out of here ourselves. And I need your help with that.”

Nathan

My eyes weren’t on
Willow
when her neck was snapped and her life ripped away as she stood trapped and defenceless.

I was trying not to breathe through my nose, and my gaze was steady on Perdita. That was the way I had been since I’d caught her scent and found her in the crowd as we approached the meeting place. It took everything,
everything
, in me to stay still, not to run to her. I couldn’t risk her getting in the way of a werewolf shifting. It killed me that I couldn’t protect her, couldn’t take her home with me.

She didn’t look afraid, and wolf grew proud. I knew she was doing it for us, but her strength lessened my anxiety slightly. I wanted to stay calm, didn’t want to mess things up for anyone. Seeing her standing there, looking as though she hadn’t slept and with her hair hanging around her face in jagged edges, left me with the desire to kill something.

Preferably the wolves who had taken her from me.

My eyes fell on the alpha again, my nostrils flaring with anger at his presence. My first glimpse of Vin had brought to mind the word
unimpressive
. He wasn’t intimidating; he wasn’t that large. He was fit—that was obvious—but his sinewy muscle was lean rather than bulky. He wasn’t particularly tall, not so young anymore, and he didn’t come across as dangerously aggressive.

Until he murdered
Willow
without a second thought.

All of the stories I had heard about him, and it still came as a surprise that he would kill her. Ryan had told us
Willow
held little value for Vin, but she was part of his
pack
. I couldn’t believe he would go through with it, in public, for everyone to see.

I blinked a million times, trying to fix the image, but
Willow
’s body crumpled to the ground all the same. If he would do that to his own pack, his own werewolves, his own
people
, then what could he possibly have in store for Perdita?

Time stood still. I heard the snap, but I saw Perdita’s horror and outrage. I waited for her to cry, but she didn’t because she was strong. Stronger than I was. She was thrown to the ground with a strike, and I wanted to run over there and rip out hearts when I saw her fall. I knew her father wanted the same thing. I knew we couldn’t do anything.

At least not yet.

A man yanked her roughly to her feet. I committed that werewolf’s face to memory and promised myself I would tear him apart, one limb at a time. A gush of sound swallowed me up then. It was as if someone had pulled a plug. Everything changed in a split second.

Perdita’s father was going into some kind of shock. Jeremy danced around, ready to run, trying to hold himself back, fighting with his wolf over what to do. Opa kept a stony gaze on Vin, and Byron swallowed hard, his spine twitching as he struggled to keep his focus.

It was Ryan I felt sorry for. He had tried to help
Willow
, to protect her. And her life had been torn away in a split-second by the same person who had stolen his daughters. Vin meant business. And he had my girlfriend next to him, too close to a limp body on the ground.

“He’s messing with us,” Jeremy said. “He thinks he can…” He looked away, biting his knuckles in an attempt to lock in whatever he was feeling.

Opa remained silent, and I knew he was the one to watch. He was liable to run right at Vin. That was probably why Amelia kept hovering next to him.

Even though Vin was supposed to be talking with Byron, he had kept his eyes on Opa the entire time, taunting him, tempting him to approach. Every word was directed at my grandfather.

Vin was bat-shit crazy.

And he had Perdita.

Then he opened his mouth about choosing only one of them, and any sign of unity within our family fell apart. I barely understood what he was saying at first. It made no sense. The direct change in approach. Then I realised. It made perfect sense.

Ryan and I faced each other, and I shook my head.

“
Two
girls,” he spat. “Two girls are worth more than one.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” I said with a growl. “I’m not giving up my sister
or
Perdita. Not for anything.”

He gripped my shirt, and I pushed back.

Byron got between us before anything escalated. “Enough,” he commanded. “Stop giving him what he wants.”

“We only get one choice,” Ryan reminded him, his teeth gnashing together dangerously.

“So we change the game,” Byron said under his breath. “We take everything from him.”

“We can’t leave,” Stephen insisted, pushing into the conversation. “I’m not leaving without my daughter.”

“There are too many of them around the girls,” Amelia said. “Werewolves who would kill them before handing them over. They’ll never let us take them like this. You saw how quickly Willow…” She turned away, her eyes glassy.

“We need to get out of here and come up with a plan that gets everyone home safely,” Byron said.

“Or I could take him on now,” Opa said, his first words since we had arrived.

“No!” I shouted. “Didn’t you hear? They’ll kill the girls before you reach him.”

He didn’t care. I could tell by the slackness in his jaw and that mean look in his eye. He focused on Vin only. He didn’t give a crap about the innocent people standing in his way. He would willingly plough through them to get whatever he wanted.

Byron stood in front of him. “We need to leave.
Now
. Dad, did you hear me? Get in the car.”

Amelia and Jeremy pushed Opa toward the car, but Stephen wanted to chase after Perdita.

“Stop it,” I snapped. “You’ll get you
and
Perdita killed. Is that what you want?”

“I can’t leave her there, Nathan. Did you see her? Did you see what they did? How can I leave my little girl and walk away from this?”

He looked as destroyed as I felt, but I gripped him by the scruff of the neck. “Get in the car. I promised you I would bring her back, and I will. But I can’t if you get her killed today. Do you understand me?”

“Nathan, stop it,” Amelia said, pulling me away.

I swallowed hard, trying to control myself. I had been too close to the edge. I was still dangerously close to losing myself to the wolf. It would make things easier for me, but it could provoke a battle that wouldn’t end. We all had to be careful. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just… I’m sorry. I’ll get her back somehow. I will.”

Ryan was the hardest to persuade to leave. “I won’t let you sacrifice my girls,” he insisted as Byron shoved him toward the cars.

“We won’t,” Byron kept saying. “We’ll get all of the girls home, but we need to surprise Vin’s pack to do it. The girls are too close to danger right now. Our time will come, Ryan. We’re keeping all four girls alive. I swear it. The only ones who are going to get hurt are the ones who took the girls. We’ll deal with them together. Are you with me?”

Ryan sagged in Byron’s arms, but he let my uncle lead him to the jeep with Opa.

“My daughter,” Stephen practically whimpered as Amelia and I pushed him toward the second car. “She’ll know we’re leaving her.”

“You saw him!” I shouted. “He would have killed her without hesitation. And she knows that. She isn’t stupid. She understands!” I seriously hoped I was right.

“Poor
Willow
,” Amelia said, hiccupping a sob as we all climbed into the car. “I should have gone over there. I should have given myself up to him.”

“So he could kill you, too? Don’t be so bloody stupid,” I snapped.

“That’s enough,” Jeremy said from the driver’s seat. “This is exactly what he wants. For us all to turn on each other. Ryan must be…” He shook his head. “This is going to take some dealing with.”

“There has to be a way of finding their camp,” Amelia said. “Surely someone in the country will have heard of a group of people camped out somewhere near here.”

“They could be anywhere,” I said. “Didn’t you see how pale Perdita and Ryan’s girls were? You saw those trucks, right? They could have been driving all night, for all we know. They might not even have a camp. They might drive around constantly.”

“I have the registration of one of the trucks,” Stephen said. “I can give it to the police, see if they can find something on it.”

“And what are you going to tell them?” I asked. “That you saw a werewolf? If they did find the girls, what’s to say the wolves won’t kill Perdita
and
the police? We’re not dealing with normal people here. And what’s a kidnapper going to do, hand the girls over to the police? No, they’re going to get rid of them first.”

That I was speaking the truth only made it all the harder to stay in the car and not freak the hell out.

Amelia

I stopped listening to the others. Something crawled across my skin, a feeling, a premonition. Ever since I had turned into a werewolf, the feeling of
something
squirming under the surface, struggling to break free, had relentlessly strengthened until I couldn’t ignore it.

Sucking in a breath, I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. A thudding swept over me, violent and blackened red behind my closed eyes, and I snapped back to reality.