Chapter 16

Along, mournful roar split the night. Surely, she was too far for that to be Lucian. It sounded heartbroken. Zenya had to fight back every instinct to answer his call and return to him. She shook her head. Could it be that he really cared for her? Did it matter?

Her feelings towards him were complicated, but they had softened. But, she reminded herself, she had been claimed without her consent and forced into a pair bonding not of her choosing. Just because she found the man wildly sexy and a good alpha who, for the most part, looked after his people, didn't mean he got to make her his mate just because that's what he wanted.

The good thing about Alaska was there was a lot of wilderness. It was easy to move in a shifted state. It was easier for some than it was for others. For instance, if you were a moose-shifter, you could pretty much travel as you pleased—meadows, woods, rivers, even towns. But animals not native to the area—jaguars, cave lions, and the like—stood out like a sore thumb against the stark landscape. Those who were blessed with a white coat, though, such as snow leopards, white lions, and white tigers, while not native, at least could blend in.

Zenya reached the nearest human town. Mystic River would have gotten her to Windsong, but she wasn't sure she trusted any male shifters at the moment. Right now, the Resistance needed the Baihu Clan more than it needed to take up the cause of one female tiger-shifter. Arriving at a small town that had bus service to Anchorage, she found an alley beside a bar, shifted back to her human form and pulled on her clothes.

Tucking her hair up under a knit cap and putting on an oversized anorak—a kind of waterproof parka used in particularly cold or polar regions—with a fake fur collar, she turned the collar up and headed out of the alley. There was a bus station nearby, and her plan was to buy a ticket to Anchorage. She'd find a place to hole up and decide what her next move might be.

Just as she was about to exit the alley and head for the bus station, the entrance was blocked by several men. Not wanting to get into an altercation, she turned around, thinking she could leave from the other end. Not as direct or convenient, but better than getting into a conflict with several drunks.

As she turned on her heel, she found that the three up front had been joined by three men behind her. How had that happened? She'd been in the alley alone and now, suddenly, there were six men surrounding her. Sniffing the air, she realized they didn't smell exactly right, and she was defining ‘right' as human or shifter. They were neither—and that wasn't good. The only beings that fell outside of those two categories tended to be the type of individuals one really didn't want to have anything to do with: demons, banshees, angels, vampires, and the like.

As she stared at them, their skin began to pale, and an ethereal glow could be seen around and behind their irises. She'd read enough fantasy and horror books as a kid to identify them as vampires. This wasn't good.

She could shift back to a tiger, but that was problematic in that she would lose the clothes she was wearing and up against a six-pack of vampires, that wasn't a fight she was sure she could win.

"Did you guys get a whiff of her?" asked one of the vamps.

"She's not human," said another.

"Shifter," said a third. "What kind of shifter are you, honey?"

"Not the kind you want to mess with," Zenya answered, hoping she might be able to bluff her way to an opening and get free.

"Probably a predator. The Master might pay extra for her."

Their invocation of the name of the leader of the Shadow League made her blood run cold. Shifting might be the only way out of this, but even then, she wasn't sure she could get away. Lucian's warning about how it wasn't a safe time for female shifters or humans to be out on their own came to the forefront of her mind, suddenly making a horrible kind of sense. Too many had gone missing. Zenya had a very real fear she was about to become another statistic.

The group of vampires rushed Zenya. Zenya was a black belt in krav maga. The problem was that up against a group of strong supernatural beings like vampires, that black belt designation wouldn't do her much good. But better to go down in a fight than to do nothing.

She set her feet, balancing and waiting for the first one to get within her strike zone. Instead of splitting up, though, they attacked as a well-coordinated unit, immobilizing her swiftly and efficiently.

Before she could call forth her tiger, she felt the prick of a needle in the side of her neck. Her last thoughts were of Lucian. Even though she couldn't see a life with him, there had been a deep connection—one she couldn't deny and one she would never feel again. Bittersweet.

She hoped he and the clan would survive whatever was coming before everything went dark.

Zenya clawed her way back to consciousness. Her mouth was dry, her throat felt parched, and all of her muscles were cramping. She opened her eyes, trying not to call attention to herself as she took stock of her surroundings. Not seeing anything or anyone moving, Zenya sat up to find herself in a cage, in an echoing laboratory-like room lit by nightlights. It was eerily quiet, as if everyone was asleep. Given how she felt, she suspected the other occupants in the room had been drugged.

Grabbing the bars of the cage or cell in which she found herself, Zenya managed to stand—the view even more frightening. Scores of cages were gathered into the center of the room with two or three occupants in each. Around the periphery of the room were cabinets with a bench counter interspersed with what looked like refrigerators and refrigeration units. There were microscopes and various other medical or at least medical-looking supplies.

When a hand grasped her foot and then her ankle, Zenya couldn't help but give a small, startled cry. She looked down; lying on the floor of her cage was a woman with startling blue eyes and coal black hair looking up at her.

"Give me a hand," she managed to rasp out in a thick brogue, extending her other hand to Zenya.

Zenya leaned down to help her up.

"So much for the ‘maybe if I slip back into the drugs, it won't look so bad when I wake up' theory. It looks as bloody awful now as it did haunting my dreams."

"You woke up before?" asked Zenya.

The woman nodded. "Aye. My body doesn't assimilate tranquilizers very well. I'm Adriana."

"Zenya. Do you have any idea where we are?"

"No, and there's nothing I can see that will tell us."

Suddenly remembering the vampires in the alley, Zenya reached up to touch her throat, relieved to find no evidence of a vampire's bite. It would seem the only bite mark she had was the one Lucian had inflicted on her.

"I don't think they bit anyone, which makes me more concerned than it should," offered Adriana as she struggled to remain on her feet.

"Wouldn't not being a vampire be a good thing?"

"Well, maybe and maybe not. I'm not saying I would prefer it, but if the vamps that took us aren't using us to feed, it would stand to reason that they're someone's or something's minions. I don't know that I like the idea of a creature or person who would run at least two nests of vampires."

"How do you know it's more than one?"

"Both groups speak English, but one group was speaking Gaelic, and it was pretty clear one group was clueless as to what was being said."

"I take it you speak Gaelic?"

"Fluently."

"What was being said?"

"Not a lot made sense to me as I was pretty groggy. It was just bits and pieces about separating this group into two separate groups, and that one was to be taken to the mill and others straight to the Master. They are either going to perform or have performed some kind of test to see who goes where."

"The Master—I've heard some ripe tales about him."

"Care to share what you know? I'm new to this whole shifter thing. You are a shifter, right?"

"Yes, but I can't seem to call my tigress forward," said Zenya. "I can feel her prowling in my mind, but she can't seem to do as I ask. So, you were recently turned?"

"Yes—against my will."

"I'm sorry. That isn't supposed to happen."

"Don't I know it," said Adriana. "I managed to get away, and the coven I was born into banished me."

"You're a witch. That's odd that you were turned. For the most part, shifters don't intermix with witches."

"I know. He turned me in order to traffic me to someone. So, who is this Master?"

"A dragon-shifter. People say he's the leader of the Shadow League…"

Adriana raised her hand. "New to the whole shifter thing—Shadow League?"

"Sorry. A group of nasty shifters who want to take over the world—not just shifters but humans, as well."

"Can they do it?"

"I think they might have been able to before, but a large group of shifters have come together as the Resistance, and they mean to make a fight of it."

The muffled sound of gunfire began to reach them and those in the cells began to rouse themselves. There looked to be a dozen or so; it was dark enough that it was difficult to tell.

When a couple of explosions rocked the room, people began crying out for help, but there was no way to know if those who were attacking were coming to save them or not. After what sounded to be a short reprieve in the fighting, the sound of a door opening caught everyone's attention before a bright light was turned on. An immediate hush fell over the room before cries of relief as the rescuers entered the room.

Once they had all been moved outside, their needs were assessed and the man she assumed was Cullen Manchester began to have his people load them onto a helicopter to be transported back to Ghost Moon Manor. She didn't know the man personally, but she'd seen pictures and was pretty sure it was him.

Zenya moved to the back of the helicopter, trying to make herself look as small and as inconsequential as possible.

Adriana sat down beside her. "Problem?"

Turning up the collar to her jacket to ensure no one could see Lucian's claiming bite, she said, "I can't get taken by other shifters."

Zenya was more afraid now than she had been knowing she'd been abducted by vampires. Lucian would be none too pleased that he had been deceived. Knowing he could produce proof that they were bonded and that she had been claimed would make most alphas return her to him… no questions asked. She would need to figure out how to get away and get word to the Shadow Sisters. With the Shadow League and the Master hunting female shifters, Zenya no longer believed she could escape without help.

"Why?" asked Adriana.

Zenya looked at her but said nothing. The look of concern must have been more evident than Zenya would have liked to believe.

Adriana touched her hand. "I get it. You just met me, but I'm kind of in the same boat."

"Doubtful. Manchester and his people will feel honor bound to return me to my origin clan," Zenya answered.

"The Resistance isn't the only group opposing the Shadow League…"

Zenya sent her a sharp look. "I thought you didn't know who they were."

"As I said, new to shifters. I have a vague knowledge of them, but not the Master nor how any of this fits together. I do know that the League has an enemy that dates back a very long time."

"Do they?"

Adriana nodded. "The Shadow Sisters."

"How do you know the Shadow Sisters?"

"They were trying to get me to safety."

"This is your idea of safety?"

Adriana shook her head. "No. We got jumped by vamps. Two of them went down fighting for me. If you aren't wanting to return, we need to get word to them."

"If we're in Alaska, if we can get a message to them…"

"They can get us out."

One of the people on the helicopter handed them water and protein bars before the door was closed and helicopter began to lift off. Adriana and Zenya made sure to stay together.

"Can you tell me where we're going?" Zenya asked the pilot.

"Ghost Moon Manor. The home of Cullen Manchester and his pack. We've got people waiting, and you can contact your own packs from there."

Zenya opted to remain silent for the rest of the ride.