Chapter 20 - Miley

By the time she managed to regain consciousness, Miley barely recognized her surroundings.

It was dark. So dark, in fact, that she could barely see her hand in front of her face. And yet, her eyes seemed to go in and out of focus, the light growing and fading as if her eyes were attempting to gain some clarity.

The heavy smell of laundry and the closeness of the room alone told her she was in some kind of closet. But when she tried to stand, hitting her shoulder off one of the shelves, she was even more certain of it.

The most disorienting thing of all was her hearing. In and out it went, hearing too much, then too little, as if someone was covering and uncovering her ears. One second, she felt deaf, and the next she heard small snippets of conversation.

"Got the final one…"

"....be here soon…"

"...want…see…"

"Don"t let…escape…"

The more she tried to piece sentences together, the more confusing they were. She couldn"t even tell how many voices there were on the other side of the closet door.

All she knew was that when she managed to get to her feet long enough to stand on wobbling legs, the door was locked.

Feeling around in the near-darkness, she found a pull cord and tugged, the bare drop light that hung above her head illuminating the room and confirming her suspicions. She was standing in a laundry closet. And there was no other way out.

Bile rose in the back of her throat when she saw the claw marks that decorated the back of the door. Wherever she was, she wasn"t the first one to have been here. But she was alone now.

She gulped hard past the lump in her throat. What happened to the others?

Her eyesight grew overpowering then, her head spinning as her hearing hitched up too.

The sound of a car hit her eardrums so hard she was almost too overwhelmed to catch the next words, "He"s coming."

Unable to bear the overstimulated feeling, Miley yanked on the pull cord again to kill the light and dropped back down onto the floor, covering her ears with her hands.

When her captors finally opened the door, they found her in the fetal position.

"Don"t look like she"s handling it well, boss," one man said as another stormed into the closet, hooking a hand under her arm and yanking her up to her feet.

"Out!" he growled at her.

Miley sucked in a deep breath and forced her hands from her ears, trying her hardest to remain calm and focused as she was dragged from the closet and shoved onto her knees in the next room.

It turned out to be a bedroom, not quite as frilly and pink as the one in her grandma's house, but a farmhouse-esque bedroom nonetheless.

And sitting on the end of the bed with its patchwork quilt was a man she had never seen before. She was sure of it. And yet, somehow, she felt that she recognized him.

Those amber-brown eyes that he stared at her with were somehow all too familiar. They made her shiver.

When the corner of his lips twitched upwards in a smile and he ran his fingers through golden-brown hair, Miley cringed away as he leaned forward.

"Hello Miley," he said, smirking at her openly when her mouth practically fell open.

"H…how do you know my name?" she gulped, her throat constricting even harder than before.

The man sneered with laughter, looking her up and down and finally answering, "We've been watching you."

Nausea threatened to overwhelm her.

"Why?"

The man looked to the two men standing just behind her, each of them with a hand on her shoulder.

They laughed along with him, but when his gaze returned to hers, they were immediately silent.

"I am Christopher, but you can call me Alpha," the man said, and another cold shiver ran down Miley"s back. To her human self, the word alpha meant very little, but to the beast growing inside of her, it was something far more powerful. The urge to growl a challenge was so odd and unexpected that she almost made herself bleed biting her lip to stop herself.

"I"m sorry, what?" Miley asked, blinking innocently. Whoever these guys were, she wasn"t about to make life easy for them.

Keep them talking, she thought, remembering all the films she had ever seen of hostage situations. The longer captors were kept talking, the more likely help came in time. She didn"t like to think about the fact there was very little chance of anyone bothering to come to her rescue.

Kane had said it himself. She had been nothing but trouble to him from the moment they met. Why would he come? Whoever this Christopher was, it appeared he had done Kane a favor.

"You heard me," the man said, growling low in his throat. He leaned even further forward. "Since my brother's violent and untimely death, at the hands of your friends, I am the alpha of the pack you find yourself in. And it is me you have to thank for your gift."

He gripped hold of her chin then and forced her face up to his, looking deep in her eyes as if he were searching for something.

Miley, feeling her beast rise to the surface, glowered back at him, braver than if she had been alone.

It was oddly comforting to know that within her was all the company she needed, all the strength she needed. Surrounded by men as she was, human Miley alone might have already been crying. Though Miley felt scared and confused, tears were the least of her concerns right now. If anything, she was angry.

"What gift?" she snapped back at him, yanking her chin free of his grip.

"The beast inside you," Christopher announced, "Your wolf."

Miley scoffed. "I don"t want it. Take it back."

Christopher threw back his head and laughed so hard it made Miley's over sensitive ears ring.

"I"m afraid it doesn"t work that way," he said, leveling his eyes to hers again. "You"re mine now, and if the transition doesn"t kill you, you"ll be a part of the army that will finally wipe out that pathetic Nightstar pack for good!"

Miley"s eyes widened momentarily before she managed to regain control of herself.

"K…kill me?" Miley asked, shivering. It wasn"t the first time she had heard mention of the transition killing her, but it was the first time it really sank in. When Kane had mentioned it, it had sounded far less likely, far less threatening, but now that it was coming from this man, a man she barely knew, it was terrifying.

Again, Christopher laughed with unbridled amusement. "Are those pitiful wolves so useless they didn"t even explain the change to you?"

Frustration, anger and fear welled inside Miley, and she felt the sensation in her gums and nail beds that had begun to grow all too familiar.

Just relax, she heard Kane whispering in her ear as if she was standing back in the open field with him at her back, be calm.

It was exceptionally difficult to do so, but what other choice did she have? How could she risk turning here and now?

Anything might happen. Yes, if she managed it successfully, she might stand a fighting chance, but what if it took a while? What if they attacked her during? What if it killed her?

"I think the words "you"re a werewolf" are pretty explanatory," Miley barked back at him, glowering now. She didn't like this Christopher one bit. He was cocky, smirking and speaking as he was. He was loud, laughing like that. He was arrogant and violent in how he and his men were treating her. And he even smelled wrong—not in a bad smelling kind of way, but in a gut instinct kind of way that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

"Try telling that to the poor fools in the barn," Christopher scoffed, and Miley's jaw clenched.

"The barn?" she gulped.

"Oh, don"t worry, you"ll join them all soon enough," he promised, his smile broadening. "Just as soon as you"ve survived your first change."

With that, he waved a hand, and the two men behind her grabbed her by the arms once more, yanking her to her feet.

"Wait, what then? What do you plan to do with me?" Miley protested.

Christopher had already stood and turned away to the bedroom door, but at the question, he looked back over his shoulder. "Nothing, for now."

The open-ended answer made Miley feel sick to her stomach. The way he looked at her over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow and a half-smile made her want to claw his lips right off his face.

She hadn"t even had her first full shift yet, and already the beast was becoming a part of her. She could only pray that was a good sign.

"Put her back in the closet and keep an ear on her," Christopher instructed. "If she lives, put her with the others. If she dies…" he paused and looked her up and down. "You know what to do with the body."

Miley"s throat constricted. The men silently began to drag her back toward the closet.

She felt strength surging through her muscles, yet no matter how much she fought, they were stronger.

"Wait! Stop! You can"t do this!"

Her protests fell on deaf ears, and she was shoved so hard into the closet that all she could do was hit the floor.

Pain lanced up her tailbone and she screamed.

"Hold on to that rage, kid," one of the men sneered at her. "It may just save your life."

"Yeah, and you"ll need it if we"re going to be rid of those stupid Blackwell wolves once and for all."

Out of the corner of her eye, Miley saw the two men look at each other and smile.

"Nightstar won't know what"s hit it," the first said, smirking.

"I almost feel sorry for them," the other added, then they both laughed again, and the door slammed shut.

The locking of it was grating to Miley"s ears, and she was forced to cover them with her hands once more.

Those men"s words and Christopher"s rang over and over in her mind.

It was one thing to know she might die. There was nothing that could be done about that now. She was already bitten, and as Christopher had said, it couldn"t be taken back.

But to sit there knowing that he and his friends were planning some kind of attack on her home frightened her.

It was an odd feeling. She had never given a damn about the place before. Both her parents were still there, and they could rot in hell for all she cared. Good riddance to them if these werewolves ripped them to shreds.

But then she thought of Kane. Handsome, strong, tattooed, battle-scarred Kane, with his big heart and his determination to do the right thing no matter how much trouble she caused him.

Tears pricked her eyes then, and finally, they started to fall. No longer was she scared for herself.

Now she was only scared for him. He was a Blackwell wolf. She was sure of it. She didn"t entirely know what that meant yet, but it was clear Jack Blackwell was more than just the mayor of Nightstar. Kane hadn"t actually said it aloud, but she was sure Jack was the alpha. And that meant he and all his friends were in danger, even more than she was.

And the thought of anything happening to Kane in particular made her blood run cold and her heart stop beating. If anything did happen to him, she wasn"t sure she wanted to survive the transition. What would be the point?