Wolf Captive (Lone Wolf Series Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

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  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Wolf Chosen

  About the Author

  Wolf Captive

  Lone Wolf Series, book 2

  By Heather Hildenbrand

  © 2021

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the authors’ imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors.

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  Chapter One

  My head pounded so hard that my eyes watered from the pain. Lying flat on my back, my body jostled, and even without opening my eyes, I sensed I was moving. Fast. In a car maybe? But the softness underneath me felt more like a bed than a seat.

  “Slow down. You’re going to miss it.”

  The harsh female voice drifted in through the cracks in my awareness. Unfamiliar. And with an edge I didn’t like.

  With another bump, my body was thrown hard to the right. Hands wrapped around my arms and legs to steady me.

  Someone groaned, and it took me a long moment to realize the sound came from my own mouth. But the noise only made the headache worse, so I choked back the rest of it and tried very hard to remain perfectly still. Anything to help calm the drum beat going on inside my skull. Could you die from a headache? Because that’s exactly what this—

  “She’s coming to,” said an unfamiliar voice.

  This one male.

  Not cruel, exactly, but definitely not concerned.

  I’m not sure how I knew that, but something inside me—some instinct—recognized he wasn’t my friend.

  A growl escaped me, and before I knew it, my wolf was rising to the surface, pressing against my skin like it was a cage to escape. If it would help me get rid of this damned migraine, I was more than willing to let her out.

  “She’s going to shift,” the male said. Urgent now. Worried.

  I already didn’t like him.

  My wolf wanted to shut him up. For good.

  I cracked my eyes open, squinting against the single overhead light that sent sharp lances of pain through my skull. Rubbing my hands down my hips and thighs brought small relief. My clothes were still on, though that fact didn’t mean their intentions were pure. We were in a van. Or maybe a bus? It was small but large enough to fit me on a stretcher inside.

  What the hell was happening to me?

  My memory felt just out of reach.

  I blinked.

  A man loomed over me, frowning in earnest as another figure moved in close beside him.

  A woman.

  Harsh features. Worn. Like she hadn’t aged well.

  Something about her eyes felt familiar, but it was there and gone so fast before my headache eclipsed everything else.

  She held a syringe up, and I immediately bucked against whatever she intended to do with it. But leather straps held my arms and legs firmly in place. Another had been fastened across my torso just over my ribs. I couldn’t sit up, and I couldn’t get away.

  “No,” I gasped. “Don’t.”

  “Hurry up,” the man insisted.

  The woman complied. My skin pricked as the needle slid into the crook of my arm.

  I hissed then snarled at them both, my human teeth bared as my wolf imagined their blood coating her mouth.

  Enemies, she screamed inside my mind.

  But then my veins turn cold with whatever the needle contained, and the headache receded—right along with my grip on reality.

  When I woke again, I found myself on a hard cement floor. The stretcher and straps were gone. Nothing bound me, and I sat up slowly, relieved the headache had mostly gone away. Now, the dull ache was concentrated on the back of my head. I pressed my fingers to the spot and found it swollen and tender.

  I dropped my hand and looked around as my eyes adjusted to the near-darkness of the space.

  Whoever had brought me here had left me unbound. Maybe I could find a way to get out again. To get home. Wherever that was. Last I remembered, I’d been driving out of Ridley Falls in an attempt to flee from a pack I’d just been accepted into right before they found out I was the “chosen one.” In other words, the curse breaker capable of freeing them from a twenty-year-old curse that kept their wolves from recognizing true mates or an alpha. As a result, the Lone Wolf pack ran around like, well, lone wolves. Causing chaos and mayhem and just generally being a bunch of hellions.

  Sure, I could stop that.

  But I’d learned enough about the pack members to know not everyone wanted their wild streak to be tamed.

  That made me a target.

  Literally.

  Because instead of driving to another town to hide out, our car had been hit, and I’d been kidnapped by…whoever was holding me now.

  As it all came crashing back, my hand drifted to my throat. To the tender spot Kai had bitten when we’d claimed one another as mates. I still couldn’t believe I was mated.

  My hand slipped lower, and my fingers brushed over my collarbone.

  My necklace!

  I ran my hand over my throat.

  It was gone.

  Dismay sent my shoulders sagging. The one thing my father had left behind before he died was a pendant my mother had passed to me before she’d abandoned us years ago. I hated that necklace for years—more like hated her—but Dad had made me promise to never take it off.

  And I hadn’t.

  Even if I hated Mom’s choice to leave us, I loved my father, and I intended to honor my last promise to him. But the necklace was gone.

  I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d felt it against my body.

  As I tried to make my memory work, the shadowy shapes of my surroundings finally clicked into focus. I’d been left in some sort of windowless space. It felt big, like a warehouse or maybe a basement, judgi
ng from the damp, musty smell, but separating me from the rest of the room—and more importantly freedom—were four walls made of iron bars.

  A box the size of a small prison cell rose up around me. Iron bars had been bolted to the floor on all sides with nothing but cold, dusty cement underneath me. The only way out was through a door that was just small enough, I’d have to duck my head to crawl through. If and when it were ever unlocked.

  My situation dawned on me slowly until it threatened to suffocate me.

  I was lost. Alone. Locked away. And without a single soul, friend or enemy, in sight.

  Awareness slammed into me then.

  Vorack’s dead body on Kai’s living room floor. Kai driving us out of town in Vorack’s car. Drake sending Vorack after me. Silas finding Drake’s stalker wall dedicated to me. Both of them—and who knew who else—knowing the truth about me. About my mark.

  I remembered the van that had crashed into us. On purpose. The man with the tattoo wrenching me out of the car. Me fighting back and ultimately getting myself knocked out in the process.

  The man’s tattoo had been unmistakable. Three letters scrawled in black ink against his skin: HEX. I hadn’t been taken by one of the pack members after all. I’d been taken by witches.

  My father had tried to tell me, and I hadn’t understood. Kai’s last words, a perfect match to what my father had warned me about before he’d died: Don’t let them put you in a cage.

  That’s exactly what these people had done.

  But why?

  Somewhere above me, a door creaked open. I jerked toward the sound, straining to see movement through the shadows.

  My heart thudded in time with my aching head as footsteps approached.

  I slid back into the furthest corner of my cage, wary and terrified.

  Enemy, my wolf called. Rather than resist, I reached for her, perfectly willing to let her rip throats out if it got me out of this. But she was faint now, and try as I might, I couldn’t call her any closer. Whatever they’d done to me, it had trapped my wolf. Made it impossible to shift.

  What could possibly do that?

  Magic.

  I knew the answer even before the man strode into view. A small light clicked on, casting a dim glow that only reached as far as he stood. He met my eyes, and when he saw that I was awake, his mouth curved upward into a smile, though it held no humor. No goodwill.

  “Hello, Ash.”

  His voice was smooth and polished but with edges sharp enough to cut should he decide. His blue eyes were the same sharp weapons. And his body language spoke of someone always calculating. Right down to the way he clasped his hands together in front of his button-down shirt. He reminded me of a used car salesman. Or someone trying to reach you about your extended car warranty.

  The only thing that contradicted his whole polished act was the tattoo inked into the side of his neck. A star with a circle drawn around it.

  Also, the fact that he’d used my name was next-level creeper status.

  “How do you know my name?” I demanded.

  “My sources have informed me of many things about you, Ash Langford. Not the least of which is your name.”

  “What the hell does that even mean?” I asked.

  Sources? What sources?

  “It means I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

  “Well, considering you knew my name and apparently exactly where I’d be and when for that car crash, I’d say you kind of suck at looking.”

  His expression tightened. A quick twitch that smoothed quickly.

  “I see now you were hidden from us on purpose. Your lupin side is a disgrace to our bloodline.”

  “What do you mean our bloodline?” I asked, really not a fan of the weird possessiveness of his words. “And where the hell am I? This is beyond illegal.”

  “You’re where you belong as far as I’m concerned. Your parents should have never been allowed to create something like you,” he said, his expression twisting with disgust.

  I glared. “Back at ya, asshole.”

  Another eye twitch.

  “Look, stop lecturing me about shit I can’t control, and let me out of here immediately,” I demanded in a voice that sounded like it had smoked a pack a day for the last twenty years.

  My words ended in a dry cough that seemed to snap him out of whatever holier-than-thou monologue he’d seemed intent on carrying out. He blinked, looking almost contrite.

  “Of course. Apologies,” he said in a voice that was anything but sorry. “The cage was for your own protection.”

  He snapped a finger, and another man materialized from the shadows behind him. My eyes narrowed even further as I recognized him. The man who’d grabbed me. The one who’d ordered the syringe to keep me from shifting. The one who’d taken me away from Kai.

  The man didn’t bother to acknowledge me directly as he came forward and unlocked my cage door. When the lock sprang free, he stepped back, holding the door wide.

  I gritted my teeth as I crawled out and climbed to my feet. The humiliation of crawling wasn’t something I’d forget. And something told me these men used humiliation as a tool. For now, I filed it away and faced the man in the suit.

  “Let me go now,” I said. “And I won’t call the cops.”

  He merely smiled.

  I couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t like I had any leverage for a demand like that one. Still, I had to try.

  “I apologize for our … methods,” he said as if that excused everything they’d just done to me. And Kai.

  Even now, I felt a strange tugging in my stomach. The mate bond. I had no idea how close he was or how far of a range the feeling stretched, but I could feel Kai now. And he felt like he was losing his shit.

  I swallowed hard against the fear that rose. Was he okay? Would the twins find him? He’d been hurt and basically unconscious when they’d taken me.

  “If anything happens to my friend,” I said to the suit, “the cops will be the least of your worries.”

  Something flashed in the man’s eyes, and I realized he’d taken my words seriously. Interesting.

  “Your friend,” he said, glancing at the man with the keys.

  “He’s fine,” my kidnapper grunted.

  I turned to glare at him, noting the swollen eye from where I’d punched him.

  Good.

  It was the least he deserved.

  “You better hope so,” I said. “Or I’ll kill you first.”

  The man looked away.

  Wow.

  Was I really that scary?

  “As I was saying,” the suit began, “our methods were necessary to ensure everyone’s safety.”

  I stared at him incredulously. “Are you fucking kidding me? Safety would have been not crashing into us in the first place. Or maybe not kidnapping me. Or maybe not injecting me with whatever drug that was. Or locking me in a damned cage—”

  He raised a hand. “Yes, you’ve made your point.”

  “What the hell do you want from me, anyway?” I asked.

  “That’s not a simple question, but let me start by saying it’s an honor to meet you, Ash Langford.”

  An honor? Was this guy for real?

  “You’ll understand why I can’t say the same.”

  He smiled, and from the recesses of my mind, my wolf promised to kill him simply for that look.

  I had a feeling when the time came, I wouldn’t stand in her way.

  “I’ve waited a long time for this moment,” he went on. “We’ve been looking for you.”

  “Why is that exactly?” I asked.

  “You’re the curse breaker,” he said as if that explained it all.

  The casualness of it all sent off alarm bells in my already pounding head. How could he possibly know this? I had to play it cool. I wasn’t beyond fighting in human form, but with no weapons and two against one, my odds weren’t great.

  “Maybe I am,” I said, shrugging noncommittally. “So what?”

&nb
sp; “So, you are the one the magic created to restore us. We’re very excited you’re here.”

  I blinked.

  Restore them?

  I was definitely missing something.

  “I thought the curse was about the wolves.”

  “The lupin’s problems are their own,” he said, his eyes flashing with obvious hatred at the mention of them.

  “Okay, I’m confused. Is there some other curse I’m not aware of?”

  I mean, how many curses did they expect me to break anyway?

  The suit nodded. “The wolves may have told you their side, but the curse they’re under isn’t the only consequence of the magic cast that night twenty years ago.”

  Interesting. The hexerei had felt the effects too then.

  “What were the other consequences?” I asked.

  The suit hesitated. But the other man nodded, urging him on. “We’ve come this far,” he said. “Can’t stop now.”

  “Right.” The suit cleared his throat and looked at me. “The fact is our kind were stripped of our magic as a result of that spell cast twenty years ago.”

  “Seriously?”

  Was he telling me the all-powerful witch coven whom the wolves deemed enemy number one were magicless? That was news to me. And I had a feeling it was news to the wolves too. Otherwise, something told me the wolves would have come calling for their revenge a long time ago.

  “We’ve been looking for the chosen one ever since,” he added.

  “Why?”

  “Because when our magic was removed, it didn’t just disappear,” he explained. “It was funneled somewhere else. For safekeeping as it were.”

  The man behind me snorted. “Safe, my ass.” He looked at me with disappointment.

  My eyes widened as I read between the lines of what they were saying. “Wait. You think I’m the one with all your magic?”

  “You have the mark,” he said.

  My face heated as I realized he wasn’t asking. That meant they’d seen it. Just helped themselves to a perusal of my body. Rage rose within me at that violation.

  “You’re going to pay for that,” I said.

  “Apologies,” the suit said without a shred of regret in his eyes, “But we had to be sure. There’ve been so many misses over the years. Mistakes. We couldn’t afford another.”