Clint followed more cautiously. He wouldn’t do anyone any good dead. He debated changing shapes, but decided against it for the moment. Even in human form, his senses were heightened.
The derelict building loomed over him, and he had no difficulty finding a door to enter. Once inside, he inhaled deep and almost gagged. The alien stench he’d smelled before when Josie dreamed permeated the air, a sickening smell. Melted into it he found tendrils of wolf, some familiar to him, along with other scents that reminded him of other shifters he’d encountered over the years. He also caught the scent of Josie.
He separated her smell from the others and followed it, its faint trail leading him to a dark doorway with stairs leading down. He moved down the steps, the oppressive stench of the one who wanted to be master pressing down on him, trying to twist his thoughts. However, Clint hadn’t become alpha because he was weak. Actually, the attempt to fuck with his mind made him seethe with anger, which strengthened him. He easily repelled the suggestion to surrender that hovered in the air. You’re going have to do better than that, you bastard.
He’d almost reached the bottom when he heard Josie whimper, the sound faint, yet his wolf recognized it, and the terror that underlay it.
With a roar, his beast took over. Instinct drove him to run toward his mate, the protective need too strong to control. It barreled him right into a trap.
Snarling bodies slammed into him, but Clint wouldn’t allow them to keep him from his woman. She needs me, and they’re in my way.
With a roar, he tore into the snapping mob, only vaguely noticing Brandon ’s arrival. Together they battled, the sharp tear of their teeth and stronger bodies overcoming the paltry force sent to stop them.
When the last body dropped, with wheezes and whines, Clint raced down the hall, sensing Josie’s nearness. Brandon followed at his heels. Just before a gaping archway he halted. The alien miasma peppered with Josie’s sweeter essence poured forth, and Clint knew he’d found them. Clint shifted back to his man shape, his expression grim.
I’m here, baby. Just hold on, and I’ll make sure the nightmare is over, permanently.
Chapter Nine
Josie woke in a basement-a cold, dank and in need of a major renovation basement. Of course, part of the reason for her chill could have had to do with the fact that she found herself surrounded by dangling cocoons, big human-shaped ones. Not exactly a reassuring sign.
Great, my nightmare has evolved. Even as she tried to fool herself into thinking she slept, she knew better. From the frigid air that made her breath puff out in white clouds, to the pain in her body from the attack and kidnapping, the sensations were impossible to ignore. I’m awake, and that doesn’t bode well.
Clint and Brandon were probably frantic and furious, but how could they have known that one of their own pack would be susceptible. I am so stupid. I knew Snickers wouldn’t go outside. She hates grass. Blaming herself accomplished nothing, except keep at bay for a tiny moment more, the throat closing fear that froze her limbs, not that they could move in the first place. Bound tight in the sticky threads of her own cocoon, it was her nightmare made real.
A match flared and lit the tip of a taper. Josie blinked at the sudden illumination. Then wished she’d closed her eyes tight and never opened them. In the circular glow cast by the candle stood a hooded figure, and even though she’d only just recently begun to believe in things science could not explain, there was no denying that the cold waves rolling off the figure were evil.
Welcome to my nightmare. She should have told him there was no need to bind her, why when terror had her paralyzed. The cowled one strode forward. The malice flowing from its body intensified, and Josie shook.
She wanted to scream when a pale hand rose and a finger with a sharp fingernail dragged across her skin. She bit her lip at the pain when he pressed down harder, breaking her skin.
“So glad you could make it.” The voice, sibilant and low, rocked her with its familiarity; it was a voice from her nightmares, usually forgotten upon waking.
“Why me?” she whispered as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“You’re mine, and I’ve been looking for you for a long time,” was the chilling reply.
“I don’t understand. What’s so special about me?” Josie asked, her words coming out in a wail.
The bogeyman inhaled deep. “I love the smell of fear. And yours is especially delicious. As to your question of why, I need your wolves, among other things.”
Josie’s breath left her. Clint and Brandon? “No. I won’t let them. I’d rather die,” she said in a moment of bravery, unable to bear even thinking of them coming to harm, especially not at her expense. I’m not worth them sacrificing themselves to this, this thing.
“Die? Who said anything about dying? You, my dear, have something I want. Something your bitch of a mother denied me.”
Confusion creased her brow, and for a moment, fear eased its hold to curiosity. “What does my mother have to do with anything? She’s dead.”
“The bitch would deny me by dying before I could find her. You see, your mother was my fiancée a long time ago, not by choice. Her father arranged the match for a price of course. And I paid his hefty fee, for, you see, your mother was the carrier of a very rare condition, a state that made her destined to be mine. I would have made her my queen. Instead, the slut ran off with a human of all things. By the time I found where she’d fled and hidden, she’d died. Lucky me, though, she left behind a daughter, one with the same dormant power. ”
Images of her mother, few as she had, flashed through her mind. Smiles and laughter, but even as a child, Josie remembered her fear when someone knocked at the door. Could he be telling the truth? “I don’t understand. My mother was human. You have the wrong person.”
“Your mother was a liar,” he shouted. Cadaverous hands pushed back his hood to reveal a face that should have remained in shadow. Gray skin stretched across sharp cheeks, and bloodless lips peeled back from teeth sharpened to points. Josie couldn’t help shuddering when he grinned at her, the rictus of amusement stretching his face grotesquely and lighting the fires of madness in his eyes.
Josie forced herself to speak even as she beheld the face of evil. “I don’t believe you. I would have known if she was special. She would have told me.” I know she would have, had she lived and not died unexpectedly in that car crash.
A cold smile met her refutation. “Poor, deluded child. You know I speak the truth. I can see the dawning of understanding in your eyes. Your mother was the rarest of rare. A true shapeshifter, able to become anything she wanted.”
Josie closed her eyes against the knowledge. My mother was a shapeshifter. No wonder Clint and Brandon were attracted to me. It’s in my genes. Not that they’ll ever know now. Much as a part of her hoped for rescue, she prayed they’d be smart and stay away.
“While I’ve enjoyed our little chat, it’s time for silence. Your suitors have arrived to try and save you. Predictable dogs. Never fear, once I’ve taken care of them, I will make you the recipient of my full attention. After I cleanse your body of their touch, that is. I need a clean receptacle for my seed.”
Josie could only whimper pathetically as the monster disguised as a man shrugged off his robe, which revealed a pale, emaciated body. His body rippled as he shifted into the eight-legged monster that had terrorized her dreams for so long.
Josie hiccupped in fear, a sound silenced as he spun a web across her mouth but leaving her nose and eyes uncovered. She watched with running tears as Clint and Brandon sauntered in, big, bold, and beautiful. They’d come for her. Oh, how I wish they hadn’t and saved themselves instead. She’d known though deep down they would never allow her kidnapping to go unanswered.