Tortured Embrace Read online

  Outside her door, ruined bits of stone scattered around the dark hall along a stream, which must have kept the abandoned home cool over a hundred years ago. The stream’s condensation maintained the cool dampness in the atmosphere, chilling her to the bone. There were a few other rooms, in one of which she knew Ben was being held.

  The imposing thick walls around her were impenetrable. She’d pounded on them for days, trying as hard as she could to phase and bust the wooded door open, but the serum they injected in her worked to keep her wolf side from coming out.

  Leonardo and the two other guys, she thought their names were Ken and Gary, were the only ones that injected her on a daily basis. Ken usually got her on the arm, right above her elbow, but Gary and Leonardo always stuck it in her vein on her forearm.

  Perfect, she thought. Lifting her arm up to her mouth, Serena sucked as hard as she could at the puncture mark.

  Days ago, Serena suggested this strategy to Ben and she thought it might be working. They didn’t know if it could get the whole dosage out before it took effect, but it was worth a shot.

  Squeezing her arm surrounding the area, Serena sucked as much of the disgusting stuff as she could. Releasing her arm, she bent over and spat it out on the floor. It might have been her imagination, but she thought she’d sucked in a lot more of the serum today. Could this mean she was gaining strength?

  She looked at her leg. The wound had closed somewhat, but a long dark ugly line still marred her skin. Pulling the part of her thigh she could reach up to her lips, Serena licked as much of the wound as she could. When she was done, she sat back and stared. If that part healed faster than the rest she would know her ability to phase was returning.

  If she could turn without being chained to the wall as they’d done during the full moon when the serum couldn’t keep her wolf side in, then that little window didn’t stand a chance.

  Hope flared in her chest, the only decent feeling she’d had since arriving here. On the floor by the door were the bowls that held water and a couple pieces of what looked like cheddar cheese. Serena crawled over and taking a deep breath, ate every morsel. A wave of nausea washed over her, and she closed her eyes, fighting it. She had to keep this food down to give her body the energy it needed.

  Her plan would work, and when they were out of here, she was going to see her brother again, going to sleep in her own bed, in her cozy house with all her books. She was going to see Jason.

  After taking several sips of water, she lay down on the rough ground, quite acclimated to the moisture covering its surface. The cold floor against her cheek actually helped ease her queasiness.

  As she lay, taking steady pulls of air, the Blacktail beta’s eyes filled her mind again, warming her insides as they always did. The crush on her brother’s friend had started years ago when she was a young girl. Unfortunately, Adam had soon picked up on it, the damn emotional bond giving her away when she was just a teenager. She could still hear her brother’s scolding voice all those years ago.

  “Are you out of your mind? He’s old enough to be your father,” Adam admonished.

  Serena looked at her brother calmly while she did the dishes in their family’s octagonal home. Aside from their cousin, Ramo, Adam and Serena were the only Perezes left, their parents having died three years previous. “You know age is nothing to Weres, Adam. He’s too old now that I’m seventeen, but he’s already stopped aging…” She paused, blushing at the look on her brother’s face.

  “Serena, you’re my sister and he’s my best friend. There are rules about this shi…stuff.”

  Rolling her eyes at him, she said, “I know you curse, Adam. I’m not a little girl anymore.”

  “Well, too bad because you will always be my little sister.” He sat at the kitchen table, running his hands roughly over his face.

  Her poor brother was so tired. Between his duties as the new alpha of the Blacktail pack and managing their family’s construction company, there was little time for him to relax.

  “Look…” he said, shifting uncomfortably in the chair he was too big to be sitting in. “Jason’s a Fighter and beta of the pack, which puts him in dangerous situations. I don’t want that kind of life for you. You’ll spend half your time worrying for him.”

  Serena turned her back on her brother, scrubbing the dishes with frustration. “I didn’t say I wanted to mate him, and I didn’t say I wanted to marry him.”

  “Ugh…” Adam moaned, his head falling back on his neck. “Stop, please.”

  She almost giggled at the sound of his voice.

  “Serena, you’re going away to school in a couple of months. Focus on your studies. You’ll have plenty of time for boyfriends when you’re…forty.”

  This time she laughed out loud and turning, splashed water at him. “Sure, Ad, I’ll start dating when I’m forty.”

  Adam laughed too. “Good. I’m glad we’re in agreement.”

  It was too bad for her brother her feelings toward his best friend had not dwindled in the slightest after four years of college, two years of grad school, and a year of traveling across the globe.

  She returned to Wilmington seven years ago, to find Jason Linus more beautiful and mysterious as ever. And as much as he tried to hide it, she knew he felt something for her too.

  Shuddering with anxiety, she hugged herself, pulling her knees in closer. The tears sprang again, falling into her knotted wisps of hair. What would her brother and Jason think of her now? What would they do when they learned of the innocent child growing inside her?

  Chapter Three

  Benjamin Michaels had never been in a fight in all his forty-two years. For goodness sake, he didn’t curse, didn’t feel the need to. He led a simple, average life in Wilmington. After graduating magna cum laude at Northwestern University, he moved back home and married his high school sweetheart. They lived in a two-bedroom house on Oak Street with their two girls. The biggest worry, up until three months ago, was which sport the girls would play in the fall.

  As he paced his bleak prison, he tried to remember the last time he was seriously angry. It might have been when he received the outrageous gas bill last winter.

  He continued to pace the small room, trying to work himself up. Usually it took the full moon for Ben to phase. He never felt the need to turn otherwise.

  Until now.

  Clenching his fists, Ben felt the heat flush his cheeks. How could this have happened? What they were doing to them was despicable. And Serena…She was definitely having a harder time. And she was a female, much smaller than he was.

  Every time he watched that bitch cut her was pure torture, sickening him. He’d told the witch to leave her alone and just cut him, but apparently they liked Serena’s blood better than his own.

  They couldn’t continue on this way. Serena’s leg had bled more this time. She was pale and thin, her brown eyes growing more deadened with every passing minute. He didn’t know how much more her body could take.

  And now…

  Ben stepped to the wall and stopped, placing both hands on the wet stone, his head hanging off his shoulders.

  She was pregnant.

  That sick fuck Leonardo surprised him a week ago during the moon heat. The night before the full moon werewolves could not control their sexual appetites. The night the need to bury themselves into the opposite sex burned deep inside a were, overpowering their bodies, indicating it was time to mate.

  Ben had had his wife to mate with on those days. Weres without a heat mate could take pills until the period ended.

  The male witches were the only ones to witness Serena and Ben writhe in pain during their mating nights. They’d had to endure two heat nights already without pills, while the voyeurs watched through the glass windows, gawking as their bodies convulsed, aching to find release.

  Last week, however, Leonardo had dragged him out of his room and threw him in with Serena so he could watch as they...

  Never in his life had he felt so much remorse
, such shame. They’d cried the entire time, but there was nothing they could do. It was their bodies’ natural response, the innate thing to do on mating nights.

  For as long as he lived, he will never forgive himself. He should have smashed his head on the damn wall, knocking himself out.

  Jesus! It was bad enough he’d taken advantage of her, but he was also a married man with children and she was the sister of his alpha. Adam Perez will surely bring him up on charges or skip a trial all together and simply kill Ben himself.

  Ben screwed up his face, fighting the tears. Hating his cowardice, he pushed himself off the wall, resuming the forceful march, back and forth.

  He was going to get them out of here. Flinching, he thought of the brief conversation he’d had with Serena. It had been their only chance to talk and he had a feeling her plan was working. He felt stronger; the serum was leaving his body, and any moment he would be able to turn.

  It was about time he manned up. If he wasn’t so weak, he could have gotten them out of here a long time ago. Hell, if he wasn’t such a pussy he would never have called out to her all those months ago, giving their captors a chance to get her in the car.

  He would hate himself till the day he died for doing that. He should have let the fucker in the car shoot him in the head instead of jeopardizing her safety.

  Hating himself was good. He was pissing himself off, and tiny shudders began to course down his back. As his body slowly swelled, he felt his vision change and his eyes turn bright.

  ****

  Three days prior to Serena’s abduction, Jason entered the Midewin Library, looking more out of place than a lion at a bake sale.

  Hair whipped up in a ponytail, Serena knelt on the floor in between shelves in the nonfiction section, restacking books. She sensed him standing down the row before she even looked up, always irresistibly aware of him.

  When she looked over, her heart leapt to her throat. In his usual garb of jeans and a t-shirt, his dark brown hair hung loose, his hazel eyes fixated in her direction. At six feet five inches tall, his head reached the top of the bookshelves. He didn’t smile, hardly ever showing any sign of emotion, his expression always unreadable.

  “Hi,” Serena said nervously. She always felt like a giddy schoolgirl when he was around. Looking around and fumbling with the books in her hand, she tried to control her nerves, tried to be cool and natural, but there was no hope when he was near.

  Coming forward, his enormous frame crowding the narrow aisle, he said, “Hey.” Jason hardly ever spoke, but when he did, it always surprised her how such a powerful and colossal man could speak so smoothly. His quiet voice did strange things to her body, her heart rate quickening from the sound.

  Her neck stretched back to look up at him. He was too imposing this way, so she stood up, clumsily.

  Jason reached down to help her, grabbing her by the elbow, making her skin tingle. It was always this way for her. She could literally count the times he had ever touched her. Every time he did, she replayed the moment over and over again in her head.

  This was the second time he’d touched her elbow. Once he’d lightly grazed her back, ushering her into her living room when she’d been wobbly after her first transformation. The last time he’d touched her was right before she’d left for college, chucking her under the chin in rare good humor.

  Four times, she told herself. Lord, was she pathetic!

  Standing now, she barely reached his pectorals, his body dwarfing her. It was a shared joke amongst the Fighters to tease her about her uncommonly small height. Blushing stupidly, she turned away, pretending to search for a spot to place the stack of books in her arms.

  “What are you doing here?” Hoping her voice sounded casual, she stuffed a book in between two large volumes on microbiology. If it was in the wrong place, she’d fix it later.

  Feeling him stare down at her, he answered, “Dropping off your car. Adam changed the oil and had it detailed.”

  Earlier today her brother had picked up her car. Perplexed she said, “Adam told me he needed to borrow it because his truck was being serviced.”

  A slight smirk appeared on his tanned face, making his high cheekbones more pronounced, making her lightheaded. “We can’t fit in your car. He attached it to his truck, and I attached it to my pickup. He knew you wouldn’t get it serviced till it was too late, so…” He held up her key to the Beetle between long, thick fingers.

  Her brother knew her too well, but she’d wished he’d asked first. “You guys didn’t have to do that.” Taking the key, she put it in her pants pocket.

  Jason shrugged, his golden face unsmiling again.

  “Thank you.” Despite feeling like a chided little girl, she was thankful, having been about a thousand miles overdue for an oil change.

  He nodded, putting a hand in his pocket. Standing there with a tender look in his eyes, they stared mutely, letting the joy that came whenever they were near each other wrap around them. His hazel gaze roamed over her face, from her hair down to her lips, lingering for a moment.

  Her boss chose that moment to round the corner and into their private aisle. “Serena, will you help this young lady? She’s researching…Oh, excuse me.”

  Serena felt Jason’s annoyance at Ben’s interruption. Her boss undoubtedly did as well by the look of terror on his face when he noticed who she was conversing with. It wasn’t every day the beta of the Blacktails entered his library.

  “Mr. Linus,” her boss stammered. “I apologize. I wasn’t aware you were visiting today. May I help you with something?”

  Jason had barely glanced in his direction, his focus solely on her. “Serena’s helping me,” he said simply.

  Stifling a giggle, Serena gave her boss an apologetic smile.

  “Of course,” he replied, and ushered the woman behind him quickly along the aisle and out of sight.

  Alone again, a painstaking feeling came over her knowing he was about to leave. Every time he left her she ached for him.

  Jason tensed slightly, remaining where he was standing oh so close. Staring fixedly, his brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

  Darn! She had to learn to control her emotions, but how could she when it hurt so much to be away from him? “Nothing,” she said, breathless. Pivoting, she walked along the aisle, focusing on the shelves.

  It was so hard to be around him and not want to touch him, hold him, kiss…She shook herself. That wasn’t going to happen. Her brother had made it clear, he didn’t want this for her and after all he’d done for her, she didn’t want to disappoint him. Not like Jason would ever lay a finger on her. He was too devoted to Adam to ever betray him.

  His voice murmured low behind her and she jumped. “You were fine a second ago. Why are you sad?”

  Motionless at his magnificent presence at her back, she refused to turn around, too cowardly to face him. Serena’s breath caught as she inhaled his musky scent surrounding her, the fragrance she wished she could bottle up and keep with her forever. Chest throbbing, her shoulders heaved rapidly. His close proximity raised her heart rate to a million beats a second. In a small voice, she answered, “You know why.”

  She felt him stiffen.

  The energy between them was palpable, closing in on them with every aching second. Serena closed her eyes, frozen in place, wishing, hoping he’d touch her again. How could this man make her body melt with wanting?

  Reaching out, she brought a hand to the wooden shelf to keep her steady. She swallowed noisily, feeling his deep gaze burn the back of her head. “Why did you come? Why not Adam?” she uttered softly.

  Then, she felt it.

  The indescribable sense of yearning emanated from him. He wanted her as much as she did him. His longing for her filled her up, choking her with need, leaving her breathless.

  Feeling him inch closer, his silky voice felt like ice running down her back, and her lids closed. “You know why,” he murmured huskily.

  Jason leaned down to her hair, inhaling dee
p and Serena heard the rapid pace of his heart beating wildly in his chest.

  Her mouth opened to let in the air her lungs needed. How long could they fight this?

  Bending lower, his breath tickling her ear, he whispered, “Be safe, little one.” And he was gone.

  Shivering on the spot, she stood where she was at a complete loss as to what she was supposed to be doing.

  Turning, Serena walked down to the window facing the street, hugging the remaining books in her arms. She watched Jason get into the black pickup. Feeling her gaze, he looked over. Eyes soft, he winked at her.

  Smiling, she winked back and turned away, reveling in the rush of desire coming out of the pickup.

  ****

  Blacktail headquarters was stationed in Adam’s octagonal house on Water Street, next to the Midewin prairie. The Fighters were assembled in the dining room, taking up every inch of the newly furnished room. Having recently mated, Adam’s lady was busy decorating the place, painting every square inch and getting rid of the old furniture to give the house a more modern look than the Victorian setup Adam’s late mother had left behind. Evangeline, Adam’s mate and fiancée, still kept a few knickknacks here and there to mix the old with the new.

  Jason shifted impatiently by the window when Adam finally stormed in running a hand through his disheveled black hair, a light blue receiving blanket thrown over his shoulder. They could all hear one of the twins crying in an upstairs bedroom as Evangeline hummed to him, pacing back and forth. “Sorry, had to help put the boys down for their nap.”

  Ramo, Adam’s loudmouth cousin was leaning back in his chair, looking as exhausted as the rest of them. “Why didn’t you tell us it was nap time? We’re all sitting here twiddling our thumbs when we could have been at home napping?” Ramo’s tired brown eyes twinkled with mirth, loving the way he annoyed everyone around him. His playful persona didn’t match his appearance. Covered in tattoos and a lip ring, he looked like someone you didn’t want to meet in a dark alley. Having been out all night, his crew cut was growing in as well as a morning shadow. Despite running on empty, he still had enough energy to run his mouth.