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Ordus
Pain lances the bottom half of my body—a sharp, skin-deep, biting pain.
The shrill ringing in my ear makes it hard to make out the muted words vibrating through the current.
My head is filled with the thick clouds not even the sun can penetrate. I groan, waving my limp arm to address the source of the hurt. What could be seconds, or minutes, or hours drag on.
The clouds thicken and disperse, ebbing and flowing like the faint tickle of bubbles skating around my legs.
Legs?
My brows knit together. Why do I have two legs?
I summon every ounce of energy I can to peel my eyelids open. My vision refuses to adjust to the darkness. The only thing I can make out is the outline of a shark with brightly tipped ears.
Vasz? What’s he doing here?
I crane my neck behind me. Where’s Cindi?
She was beside me on the beach. We were talking about the bag with the shiny gold emblem on it that she can store her treasures in. I had to breathe through my mouth because the smells were getting too overwhelming, and Cindi’s bitter scent of fear was making my instincts narrow to tunnel vision. Then, suddenly, it went cold. I was thrust into a void with no end in sight.
She was right there. Panic surges through my blood stream.
Where is my mate?
Power trickles back into my limbs with the rush of adrenaline. I need to get to her. I promised I’d protect her, that nothing would ever do her harm. I cannot fail her.
I cannot lose her.
“Cindi,” I croak.
Piercing pain rips through my leg as Vasz dislodges his teeth from my skin. Vasz shoves himself right up to my face, barking and growling, giving me a piece of his mind without saying a single word. He doesn’t need to say anything. He has the same question I do.
Where is our human?
I pull him forward by his arm, fighting the haze of black mist blanketing my vision. “Find her,” I whisper as I grab his fin. “Find my mate.”
31
Cindi
The rag scrapes against my sweat-stained skin. It burns against the tears and chafes my cheek, and the column of my throat feels like it has been tied off.
I struggle against the ropes around my ankles and wrists, trying to dislodge the makeshift gag, my movements sluggish. Tires rumble against gravel. It crackles and pops, filling the enclosed space.
A trunk.
They put me in a trunk after they drugged me.
Bile lurches up my esophagus. The gag and sack muffle my cry.
This is actually happening.
They’ve found me.
They got to me.
They’re going to torture me until I beg them to kill me.
Ordus, I internally plead. He has to be looking for me, has to come find me, but they already hurt him on the beach. I don’t know what the Gallaghers did to him?—
Oh, God. What if they’ve killed him?
My terror flares, and I kick my feet as hard as I can, over and over. It gets me nowhere, other than wasting energy I don’t have.
I can already imagine the incoming pain. The feeling of my bones crushing beneath a boot. Blue and black blossoming from a fist. Starving. Dehydrated. Locked away in a basement.
They could traffic me.
Please, please, please.
I pray to a God I don’t believe in, a Goddess who’s letting her followers be wiped out.
Ordus.
He’s the only one who will come for me, fight for me, risk everything to get me back. There have only ever been two people in my life who’ve put me first, and fuck, I should’ve recognized it weeks ago.
I should’ve acted on everything sooner, run away or married Ordus to end the Curse. Now? We have nothing to show for years of suffering and heartache, and everyone is going to fucking die because I’ve been dragging my feet, too stupid to realize children would be dying because of my choices.
The car comes to a stop. The engine cuts off.
My fight renews. The second the trunk opens, I unleash everything I have. I buck and kick, scream against the rag in my mouth, but it’s all hopeless with my hands tied behind my back. Pinpricks of artificial light penetrate through the rag. I can’t see anything, not even a vague outline of people or buildings. Footsteps and tires crunch on gravel, but there are too many sounds for me to work out how many people surround me.
A solid shoulder stabs me in the stomach, leaving me winded. I try kicking my bound feet, wiggling my body to throw the man’s hands off me but he’s too strong. I keep going, attempting to gather details about my surroundings while throwing my weight around.
The moment we step inside, a door slams behind me, and I know I’m done for.
The smell of bleach, cigarette smoke, piss, and rotten flesh assault my senses. I can hear more people. The slap of sandals. The scrape of a chair against the floor. The crinkle of wrapping. A TV plays what sounds like a game show in the background. Male voices come from another room.
How many people are there? Five? Ten? Thirty?
I’m never getting out of here.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.