Page 17 of Sold Wolf Slave

“And I’m supposed to believe that after I saw you fight a guy for the chance to win one?”

“It wasn’t my choice,” I snarled, not bothering to keep the annoyance out of my voice. “I had to keep up pretenses.”

She stared at me dubiously. Not that I could blame her. Even if I meant what I’d said with utmost sincerity, she had no reason to trust me. For all she knew, I could be promising her that to get her to be more compliant. I’d only known her for a few hours, and I could already tell she was stubborn and hostile as all get out.

“I have a mission here,” I said. “But I need your help in order to complete it. I need as much information as you can give me about everything here.”

For a long moment, she simply stared. I half-expected she wouldn’t answer.

“How can I trust you?” she asked.

“It’s not as though I have a badge that says, ‘Hey, I’m one of the good guys,’” I pointed out. “So I guess you’re just going to have to take my word for it. Is that acceptable?”

“Not really,” she said. “I’ve found out that a lot of guys lie down here. Weird how that works.”

“I’m here to help,” I repeated, already knowing she wouldn’t believe me. Not yet, at least. “Look, can I ask a few questions?”

“You can do whatever you like,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “Remember?”

I decided to ignore the jab. I knew she wasn’t going to trust me for a long time, if ever, but I still needed the information.

“How many slaves are there here?” I asked.

“How should I know?” she said with a hint of a snarl. “Funny enough, the slavers never talked to me about business.”

I let out a huff, trying not to show too much of the irritation starting to build inside me. I had a job to do, a mission to fulfill. And this woman, instead of helping me, seemed intent on stonewalling me. Still, I kept pushing forward, hoping I could still get something helpful out of her.

“Do you know where they’re held?”

“All over,” she said. “And before you ask, no, I have no idea where beyond the places I’ve been.”

“Okay, where were you held?”

Her jaw worked as her eyes narrowed. At first, I thought she was just being obstinate. Finally, she said, “That big prison-like building near the center of town. There were at least thirty of us in there, I think.”

“Who’s the leader?”

She stared at me, that same skeptical expression spreading across her face. It wasn’t just suspicion there, I realized. It was also fear.

“How do I know this isn’t all some sort of trap?” she asked. “This could be a trick.”

“A trick how?”

“For all I know, this could be some sort of test. You pretend to want to help, to see how much information I give out, only for it to turn out you’re working with the rest of the slavers to see whether or not we’re willing to talk and punishing us if we do.”

I stayed silent for a long moment, trying to make sense of what she just said. “You’re not a very trusting person, are you?”

“Used to be. Then this happened.” She held up her wrists and waved them. The silver glinted in the light, bright and freshly polished. “I’m sure you can understand that sort of thing sort of shatters the illusion that most people are decent.”

I didn’t respond to that. I didn’t know how the helltorespond to that. My jaw tightened as I looked at the shackles. Kendra was only one slave of who knew how many. None of them deserved it, and every slaver and guy in here looking for a slave deserved to be punished for what they did to these girls.

My wolf rumbled, bristling with rage and the desire to do something. Ineededto act. I couldn’t just stay here in this house.But if I was going to get anywhere with any part of my mission, I needed to get more information.

And right now, the best source of information I had was sitting on the couch across from me, her arms folded as she scowled.

She doesn’t exactly act like most slaves, does she?I couldn’t help but admire that. Who knew what this woman had gone through, yet here she was. Strong and defiant in a way I doubted anyone would have expected.

I wanted to help all the slaves wandering these streets and locked away in dark cells. But something about Kendra only intensified that urge.

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