Shifter Magick (25 page)

Maddox shook his head. “Think of everything you could possibly come up with that you feel I am holding a grudge for.” He rested his chin on her head. “Got it?”

She nodded.

“Those are the things that draw me to you.” He told her. “I want you to get to know me just as I want you to let me know you Kera.”

“You’re sneaky.” She giggled softly then looked up at him. “
For some reason I like that about you.”

Maddox leaned down and took her mouth with his. He kissed her slowly at first, then pulled her tightly against him and angled her head to deepen the connection. He could get lost in the sensations he felt and the strong feelings he was developing for her. Kera’s body fit with his perfectly. He craved the way she molded herself to him. Every time they were apart, he wanted to pull her closely. She thought she was causing him to lose sleep when in fact he slept better than ever with her at his side.

Kera ran her hands under his shirt. The feeling of her skin sliding against his caused his heart to race. She was becoming more aggressive with her kisses too. Her tongue slid against his and her teeth nipped at his lips.

He turned his head and took a much need breath. Her scent filled his nose and mouth. “Kera.” He groaned.

“Don’t stop.” She whispered.

“I have to.”
Maddox felt her tense up in his arms. “Do you plan on staying with me for a long time?” He asked her.

“Yes.” She pushed against his chest like she was offended at his question.

Maddox held her tightly. “Then we have time.”

Kera huffed out a breath. “It’s so hard to stop.”

He laughed. “You don’t make it any easier for me when you ask me not to.”

“Then don’t.” she whined, then smiled up at him. “I’m sorry. I just realized how little self control I have when it comes to you.”

He pressed the back of his hand against her pink cheek. Her face was hot with embarrassment. “I think your dad’s worried about that too.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Buzz kill.”

He chuckled and kissed her nose.
“That’s the point.”

“I have another one.” Kera ducked out of his arms and pulled the present out of the back seat of his mustang. “Let’s get this over with.”

Kera’s hands shook but she tried to hide it from him. Her scent changed from heady lust to cold fear. Maddox regretted now that he pushed her to confront this. He thought it would be good for her but now he wondered if he had lost the ground he had already claimed.

The present sat on the table. It was hard and didn’t rattle when she shook it. The paper was glossy and expensive. It had survived the years fully intact. Maddox was about to suggest that she wait until after the movie when she reached out and cut the paper with a sharp nail.

Without thinking Maddox grabbed her hand and examined her partial shift. Her nail beds had shrunk and her finger nails had curled into a point. “Very cool.” He whispered.

She smiled and went back to unwrapping the present. Under the paper was a wooden box with ornate designs on it.

“A jewelry box?”

Kera nodded. “It would make sense since she gave me this necklace too.” she signed heavily with relief.

“What did you think it was going to be?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

The hair on the back of his neck rose in warning.

She took the chain from around her neck and placed the key in the lock. When she twisted it, the lid popped open and a cold chill swept through his shop.  Inside the jewelry box was a leather bound book. Without hesitation, Kera picked it up and opened to the first page. She quickly read the passage under her breath.

Maddox heard every word. It was Latin. His father made sure every shifter in his pack
k
new Latin. It was also the language Luke spoke when he did his spells. “Kera, we should take that to my father.”

When she looked at him, her eyes were a hard green with absolutely no reflection he had gotten used to. In fact, they weren’t the same color green as her eyes had been before she became comfortable showing that side of herself.

“I promised to give it to Luke.” Her voice was strained as she spoke. She stood up and headed for his car.

“Kera wait. I don’t know if this is a good idea.” She didn’t turn around. Instead, she rounded the car and opened the driver’s side door. He rushed around and blocked her from sitting down.  “Look at me.”

“
Sleep
.” She said in Latin.

Maddox felt his body fall against his will. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

Dust and dirt hung heavily in the air she breathed. It caked
her
nose and mouth. Kera turned her head and coughed.
The air above the floor bellowed in a think brown mass
making it harder to breathe
. The pounding in her head drowned out all sound. Her hands were bound behind her back with heavy pieces of metal and her throat was pressing painfully against a metal collar. As she slowly became aware of her surroundings Kera realized she tasted blood in her mouth.

She ran her tongue over her teeth and felt the ache on her right side. Her jaw was still healing from whatever happened to her
,
but the wound had closed.

Above her, someone spoke. The sound was muffled.

Kera coughed again and winced at the pressure in her head.

A heavy blunt object struck her side and knocked the air from her lungs. Her eyes watered as the pain
traveled over her body. S
he tried to force them open but they wouldn’t
comply
.

Someone spoke again and another blow was delivered to her side.

Kera sucked in a breath and coughed violently.

The muffled sound now reminded her of laughter.
She counted three different tones of voice. The one closest to her knelt down and brushed her hair away from her face. Water was poured into her mouth. She swallowed what she could, drinking down the dirt and blood along with it.

“You’re awake.” He said into her ear.

Kera felt the small contents of her stomach turn as she recognized his voice. “Andrew?” she rasped.

He laughed darkly. “
Don’t sound so surprised. You will learn that I never let someone get the best of me. You came very close but now I hold all of the cards. You’re mine now, Kera. To do with as I please.”

He continued to speak after he moved away from her but she couldn’t make out what he said anymore.
The others responded. They laughed together but she still couldn’t hear who they were.
Her body was bruised and broken. What had happened to her? The last thing she remembered was sitting next to Maddox at his shop staring at the wooden box.

She started taking inventory of her body starting with her toes. She wasn’t wearing any shoes, her feet were sore but she felt like she could walk on them if she got the opportunity to escape. Her legs were bruised but not broken. She had very sore ribs and probably a few broken ones. It was difficult to breathe deeply and from what she could tell, her attacker had been at his abuse for a while. Her jaw hurt and her eyes were healing. He must have worked over her face and torso the most.

Did something happen to Maddox when she was initially attacked? What if he was dead? The way he spoke made her think he was stronger than his cousin. When he was faced with five other men in the forest, they had backed down when he defended her.

How many had come for her?

The headache would explain the memory loss. If it was bad enough, her psyche could be keeping the missing time from her. Kera closed her eyes tighter and let the pain
take her away from those thoughts. She had to believe Maddox would be
okay
.

There was a rumble on the ground and fresh air poured into the place she was kept. Kera took a deep breath and winced at the pain in her chest.

There was another blow to her jaw that whipped her head back. The collar around her neck kept her in place. Her ear rang in her head. It was that moment she decided that she had to find a way to fight back. She couldn’t escape if she was kept in such a crippled state. She couldn’t see or hear. She could barely breathe.

Another blow to her face halted her planning as blackness overcame her.

Kera wasn’t sure how much time had passed. Her eyes opened slowly as she examined the blackness without moving. Her stomach growled like it was protesting her attempt to live. She wondered if it was tired of being punched and kicked. Surely it could have waited another thirty seconds for her to conclude that she was all by herself in this hell.

Alone and hungry but she had healed enough to roll over on her back, arms twisted uncomfortably between her and the hard floor.
She couldn’t shift with her arms like this or her body would be severely damaged. The wolves were smart. Apparently they had tortured one of their own in this same way.
She stared at the ceiling for a good ten minutes
before her stomach yelled at her again.

The sound echoed around the room. Kera closed her eyes and listened. She couldn’t hear any sounds of a highway or people talking. She noticed sounds of running water in the distance and nocturnal animals. She must be in the middle of the mountains somewhere.

It was ironic how she had told Maddox that she wanted to run away to the mountains with him and here she was secluded in the mountains. It seemed insignificant now that
she had been so worried about what was going to happen between them. Not in her wildest dreams had she imagined she would
be captured and tortured. Fear of the unknown had made things tense between her and Maddox. She felt like she wasted that time with him.

“He’s not dead.” She reminded herself.

For the next hour she tried to shift her hand so she could pull herself free of the bonds. Every time she tried, the muscles across her chest constricted so painfully she had to bite her tongue until it bled to keep from screaming.

The beast inside her was timid. Something had happened to that side of her while she was unconscious. Was it possible that her beast was aware of what happened?

She hadn’t ever tried to make contact with the other side of her. Until this moment she hadn’t really thought about the beast as an actual being. It was just her sickness. Now she wondered if she was keeping the beast inside of her enslaved.

“Do you have a name?” S
he whispered to her beast. “I bet it’s some cool name like Fang or Claw.”

She waited, listened and reached out internally to try and rouse the beast. As best as she could she tried to bring it to the forefront but it wouldn’t come. She wondered if the pain she felt in her chest hurt the beast more than it hurt her.

After an eternity of talking to herself, trying to calm Fang, she heard the sounds of footsteps outside. The door opened and morning light showed into her cell. Andrew shut the door behind him and turned to her with a growl.

He beat her like every slug was salve to his wounds. His anger started to give way to pleasure and his laughter began to fill the small space.

Kera coughed up blood and tried to tell him how sick he made her. Her words came out garbled and he laughed even harder.

He knelt before her and pressed a water bottle to her lips and poured some down her throat. She coughed and hacked against the liquid. “I will be Alpha and I need a woman to produce strong heirs.” He said as he brushed her hair from her face. “When
he
take
s
over the pack, no one will be able to
stand against us. You made all of this possible and it is only fair you get to be a part of it.”

“No.” she ground out.

Andrew slapped her. “You don’t have a choice.” He yelled before her continued to torture and abuse her.

Before he left he slid a plate of food to her side. Kera stared at it until she could move. Her eyes couldn’t produce tears but if they could she would have sobbed at the injustice. How was it that Andrew was in the position to take over Maddox’s place? But that’s not what he said… Kera sucked in a breath. “
When
he takes over.” She whispered.

If Maddox wasn’t, Jason had to be
okay
. Would he save her? Kera hated what she was thinking but it just didn’t make since. It wasn’t like she had walked out on Maddox. Someone had to have taken her from him.

Maddox tapped his knuckles against the hard wood of his father’s dining room table. Jason sat at the head of the table sipping on a fresh cup of coffee. None of them had slept in the past forty eight hours that Kera had been missing.

It wasn’t just that she was missing but rather that Luke, Rayland and half the pack were also missing.

Maddox still couldn’t believe that Kera had so expertly put him to sleep when she had said she wasn’t a sorceress.