CHAPTER 3

HANNAH

Waking up, I was disoriented at first, because I was cold. The cold was nothing new; since my captivity and torture, I struggled to stay warm. The other reason I’d woke up was because of the hardness beneath me, which meant I wasn’t in my bed. For a horrified minute, I thought I was back in the cage and about to be tortured again.

That was until I heard a strange but soft voice speaking gently to me, “Hey, pretty lady. Are you okay? I’m going to lay my shirt around you, okay? I promise I won’t look.” I jerked as something soft was laid across my shoulders.

Pulling the shirt around my shoulders, I pulled my legs up tight to my body and realised that I was completely naked. Lifting my head, I looked up into kind blue eyes. I knew straight away that he was human; he didn’t have the muscular physique of a shifter, and when I inhaled, I could only smell human. At least I hadn’t lost that ability when I’d lost my tiger. Not taking his eyes off me, he spoke softly, and I realised that there was someone standing behind him, “Drake, go get Anton and Luca.”

Sniffing again, I smelled the scent of wolf and whimpered deep in my throat, pulling my legs tighter into my body and hiding my face in my knees. In the back of my mind, I know it’s not likely he’s a threat if he knows Anton and Luca. That didn’t stop me from breathing a sigh of relief as the wolf left to do as he was bid without speaking to me. Leaving me alone with the human male. I wasn’t too worried because even as weak as I was. I was still stronger than the average human male. The strange male continued to talk to me.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m just going to sit here and keep you company until one of the Russos arrives. I’m Jeremiah, but my friends call me Miah. Can I ask your name, pretty girl?”

Lifting my head from my knees, I looked at the human who had sat down a little way from me and pulled his legs up, wrapping his arms around his knees, quietly waiting for me to give him my name.

“Hannah,” I croaked out. My throat was so dry and now that I’m more awake, I realise my whole body hurt, including my bones. It’s a familiar feeling. Like the feeling I got after the first time I’d shifted.But that can’t be right. I’m so confused, and tears are welling in my eyes. Looking around, I see I’m in what looks like an old machine shed where farm equipment had once been stored. It’s not quite light yet, but dawn is nearing. I can see the first light peeking from behind the trees. I don’t know how I got here.

“Hello, Hannah, are you thirsty? You can have some of my water. I promise I don’t have any weird bugs, and I don’t backwash,” Miah informs me with a smile, holding out the bottle of water to me with the lid still on.

I’m desperate for a drink, but I can’t make myself reach out and take it. That was one way they used to drug me to make me sleepy before they’d inject me with the other shit to keep me docile.

Licking my lips, I look longingly at the bottle, but in the end, I shake my head.

Miah nods as if that was the right response, “Good girl, not taking a drink from a random stranger. I can see you’re thirsty, though, and I can’t let you suffer, so I’ll drink half the bottle, and you can have the rest, okay? That way, if there is something wrong with it, I get dosed too.”

Taking my silence for agreement, he opens up the bottle of water and drinks half of it down before reaching his hand out to hand the bottle to me. I study him as he patiently waits for me to make up my mind. With a shaky hand, I reach for the bottle and take it from him, bringing it to my lips. I sip the water, and it feels so good as it slips past my dry lips and down my parched throat. I drink a little at a time, knowing from experience that drinking it fast on an empty stomach will make me throw up.

“That’s it, pretty girl. Slowly does it,” Miah encourages as I finish the water and hand him back the empty bottle.

I pull his shirt from around my shoulders and slip it over my head and down my body. It covers the most important bits, and I smile a little as he lets out a relieved breath when I’m covered. It doesn’t smell right, and I don’t like that I have another man’s shirt touching my skin. It feels like it has needles pricking in it where the shirt touches me, but I’d noticed Miah kept his eyes on the roof or above my head when he spoke to me. I figured he was uncomfortable with my nudity, and going by his relieved sigh, I was right. I wasn’t too happy about being naked in front of him either, given how much of my scars he was seeing.

A smile tugged at my lips when he said, “Thank you, it was getting hard to talk to you and not look at your eyes.”

“Where am I?” I question.

He looks taken aback at my question like he wasn’t expecting me not to know where I was. “Um, you are on the Russo property. About two kilometres from the main house. Drake and I were out for a run when he said he smelt something in this shed. So, we came to investigate, and we found you.”

Nodding my understanding, I don’t reply. I know I should get up, but I’m just so tired. It’s about then that I hear him coming, and I struggle to stand up. I growl slightly in warning as Miah stands to help, and he backs away with his hands up just as Anton and Luca rush into the barn.

Anton slows and walks right up to me, his arms automatically wrapping around me, “Baby girl, what are you doing here?”

I can’t help it; I start to sob as soon as his arms envelop me. “I don’t know how I got here. I went to sleep at Julie’s and woke up here. Naked. My whole-body aches, Anton, like I shifted, but my tiger has disappeared. I don’t understand it.”

“Okay, baby girl. Don’t cry, let's get you home. We need to call Julie and Joel to let them know where you are. But first I need you out of this shirt. I don’t like that you have another male’s shirt covering you,” Anton croons softly in my ear.

He looks over at Miah and barks out a harsh command, making me jump, “Turn around.”

I still as his hand runs soothingly over my back, and once Miah’s back is turned, he whips the shirt I’m wearing off and tosses it over towards Miah, where it lands on his head. I let out a little giggle and Anton’s eyes lose some of their darkness as he takes his shirt off and pulls it over my head and down my body. It’s like I’ve been enveloped in a warm blanket. My body relaxes, and I sigh as I inhale the familiar smell of my mate.

“Don’t be mean to Miah,” I whisper to Anton. “He’s been nothing but kind. I was wearing his shirt because he was uncomfortable with me not having anything on. He protected me in his own way.”

“Fine,” Anton grumbles, his chest rumbling with his animal. I snuggle in closer as he picks me up. Sighing in contentment now that I’m back in his arms.

“You can turn back around Miah,” Anton rasps out, his animal making itself known at having a strange male around his mate.

“Say thank you,” I mutter groggily, my lips against Anton’s throat so I can feel his pulse beating beneath them, my eyes closing tiredly.

“Jesus, baby girl, you’re getting bossy,” Anton mutters grumpily.I press a kiss to his throat in reward as he says to Miah, “Thank you for looking out for my mate.”

“You’re welcome.”

With that we turn and leave the shed, a now silent Miah walking behind us with Drake. I can smell where they are. I don't need to open my eyes to know. Just like I know Luca is walking next to us and it’s him that every now and then touches my bare foot. As if he’s making sure I’m okay.

It’s good to know not all my senses have left me, and now that I’m safe, I feel better for growling at Miah because even though I can’t feel her, my tiger makes herself known when she has to, and she brought me here, that is the only explanation I have for how I ended up on Antons’s farm.

Lulled by the warmth of my mate as he carries me and feeling safe, I let myself fall asleep not stirring even when I’m transferred to a soft bed and the scent of my mate envelopes me.