Something brushed her ankle. Sniffling, she pulled away to see Zeke had dropped a cellphone next to her. He stood over her, grinning.
“Go ahead, give him a call. I have a victory celebration to get to. You’re looking at the new president of the vampire and weres.” He flicked up an imaginary collar then strode away.
Felicity stared at the phone for far too long before gathering enough courage to pick it up. As she began pushing the buttons to dial him, she quickly hit text instead of dial. She couldn’t handle talking to him. What if he didn’t answer the phone?
What if he did?
She couldn’t deal with it right now. Texts were safer.
Her fingers hovered over the little buttons. What did she say? How to begin? “I’m sorry” seemed so very inadequate for the damage she’d caused.
So, she started with something else.
I know you hate me but I love you.
Send.
She held her breath and stared at the screen as it darkened. Would he write her back, ignore her, or pretend he didn’t get the text?
Her answer came exactly four minutes later. Four minutes which felt more like an hour. The phone beeped. Like ripping a Band-Aid fast to get the pain over with she quickly hit the button.
Where are you?
She stared at the words for several long minutes. What did he mean? Did this mean he wasn’t angry? The thought lifted her spirits but she knew the likelihood of this was near zero.
With Zeke. I tried to leave but he wouldn’t let me. I’m sorry...
Her heart pounded, making her chest rise and fall in great heaves. Wet tears streaked her face. God, this hurt. Her heart burned with a fierce, aching pain like acid had been poured on it.
How inadequate her words looked. It didn’t begin to summarize how freakishly, incredibly, monumentally sorry she was for screwing up, running away, and hurting him. For so many things...
I’m upset with you.
Uh-oh. Felicity shook her head. Well of course he was. Hell, she’d be if their situations were reversed.
I know. I’m REALLY sorry. We need to talk in person, please.
“All right, darlin’ it’s time to get goin’.” Zeke pulled her to the hatch. He climbed up then rapped his knuckles on it in what sounded like a very specific cadence. Sure enough, a few moments later metal screeched and moonlight spilled into the square door.
“You had someone up there watching it the whole time?”
Zeke didn’t answer, just hopped up and out leaving her and the rest of his men to follow. She kept the phone squeezed tightly in her fingers. It beeped as she received a text. It took everything in her not to open it halfway up the ladder and start reading.
The moon hung high in the sky, the air held a crisp chill that brought goose bumps over her arms making her shiver.
With a rakish grin, Zeke waved towards a tree. “Tie her up over there.”
“What!” She barely had the words out before his guards grabbed her, overpowering. Big, strong motherfuckers.
They wrapped a heavy length of thick ochre rope around her waist and arms. They used enough that even with her vampire strength she wouldn’t be able to break it. At least, not any time soon. She’d have to work at it. Maybe with enough struggling she could loosen it.
Zeke stepped in front of her, his stance wide, grin almost contagious. Felicity glared at him.
He threw up his hands. “Hey now, save the death glare for someone else. I’m leaving you with the phone. Now you might have to use it one handed but I think you’ll find a way.” He gave a low, sweeping bow then lifted his head to wink at her, chunks of blonde hair swept over his tanned brow. “Until next time, darlin’.”
Zeke let out a howl that lifted the hairs on the back of her neck. It wasn’t human. In the next instant, they morphed. It was the only way she could describe it. The alpha transformed the fastest, his face elongating into a muzzle, arms growing longer, heavier with dark muscles and black talon-like nails. They were two-legged creatures, the weres, but ran fastest on all fours. They each stood over six feet tall, shaking from the transition like a wet dog getting water out of their fur. Their furs matched the color of their hair. Zeke had a golden yellow fur with brown tips around his face and black paws.
With another softer howl, the team dropped to all fours making the earth shudder then took off into the night.
This was it. She only had herself right now, and she needed to make things right. Her heart beat like a kid pounding on a drum. It was awkward handling the phone with one hand but she managed to turn it so the screen faced her. She read the last message he sent, then her stomach bottomed out like she’d drifted down a steep slope on a roller coaster.
Just get home.
Not the words she was hoping for. She let her head fall back against the tree. What did she expect that he’d accept her apology with a quick laugh and a smile and move on? She knew how much he’d wanted to win. As of right now she didn’t know what he was more angry at, the fact that she left him at the ceremony, that she’d lied on her stupid résumé which got her the initial interview, or that she’d cost him the election.
Her thumb jabbed over the phone in an unsteady rhythm. Wasn’t easy trying to text one handed.
Lefft alone, forrest. hatach in grounnd. help, pleese!!!
Nothing came. No beeps. Only the night sounds accompanied her.
She didn’t know how much time had passed, but she’d stopped staring at the phone and had the layout of the trees around her mapped. So when the phone in her hand started to ring, she jumped, her hand jerking and out lurched the phone. It landed a good foot to right of her tied hand. Shit.
She moved into action. This was her chance. She reached, stretching her fingers towards the phone. but she didn’t get farther than stretching out her fingers. She wiggled her arm trying to find some give in the ropes but they’d tied her too tight.
Riiing, riiiing, riiiing.
“Dammit!”
Seething, she tried to maneuver her foot to kick the phone closer but her body just didn’t bend that way. With a frustrated howl, she slammed her head back into the tree, lost, alone, and with her only means of escape ringing right next to her.
Wait a second. Her eyes flew to the phone again, then her gaze darted out across the forest, heart hammering.
The call ended but then started ringing again and again. It was him! She knew it. He was using the phone to find her. He was going to find her.
Oh shit.
She frowned, nerves twisting in her belly. He was coming for her. She squirmed against the tree, bark biting into her back but nothing she did could let her escape from Dominic Blackmoore’s clutches.
No sound but a sense of movement brought Felicity’s attention to a corner of the trees. She tensed. A man was coming; tall, lean. Breath caught in her lungs. Dom. It was now or never. She had to face him. Tied to a tree, it wasn’t like she had much of a choice or any place to go.
But the man who stepped through the canopied brush was not Dominic Blackmoore. Leaves rustled, the only sound she heard. The man stooped under another low hanging branch then headed to her flipping his phone shut. The ringing on her phone stopped.
It wasn’t Dom. He hadn’t come for her.
The man squatted a few feet from her. He wore a worn brown leather jacket with wrinkles in the leather. He had on jeans and black shoes that might have held a shine but now mud and chunks of grass stuck to them. Dark shadows hovered under his reddened eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept in months not just a few days. The lines in his forehead, around his eyes, and mouth hung down low as if gravity pulled on them harder than everything else. Still, he had undeniable Blackmoore features. Those dark golden brown eyes with the green center, dark hair, and the same sinewy build.