Page 60 of The Mating Need
Chapter 12
When she woke up,Jenny knew she was introuble.
Struggling to open her gluey eyelids, she gave up and instead concentrated onsmells.
Fir trees, dense undergrowth, the rich decay of leaves,moss.
Stone. A slab of stone, stench of old blood. The surface beneath her felt hard and rough. She rubbed her arms against it. The stone … she was lying onit.
“Awake at last. Good. So much richer and meaningful when the sacrifice is conscious and able to sense. The fear makes it much tastier for the DarkLord.”
That voice. She forced her eyes open to regard Perry’s smug, nasty expression leering over her. She glanced around, saw about ten others ringing the stone. They wore dark cloaks with hoods, their faces hidden. The same ones she’d seen chanting yesterday in thewoods.
Fear skidded down her spine. She was thesacrifice.
He wanted fear. She’d never give him thesatisfaction.
“I knew there was something special about you, an extraordinary power, when I met you at the lodge. Aiden Mitchell has many werewolves here, but you, my dear, are more powerful than they are. I kept waiting for you to emerge alone. Yesterday when you showed your true powers and caused me to drop my rifle, I knew all I had to do was wait until you werealone.”
Suddenly she realized how easily he’d trapped her. “You never intended to kill thepups.”
“Not until later. Why kill real wolves when the power lies with werewolves like yourself? It is your power I crave. I set the wolf trap to catch one of you, and I caught the prizewerewolf.”
Her heart raced with dread. All this time Aiden and the others were intent on protecting the wolf pack, and Perry used the real wolves to trap one ofthem.
Trapher.
“Do you have any last words before my followers and I give your life and soul to my master?” Perry leaned closer, his dark, beady gaze filled withtriumph.
“Yeah. Your breath stinks. Ever hear ofmints?”
One of the acolytes tittered, immediately silenced under Perry’s harsh glare. He turned his attention back toJenny.
“When I take your life, I will offer up all your magick powers to the Dark Lord and my followers and I will become invincible. Then we will destroy the rest of your werewolf pack and absorb them as well. The day of darkness is approaching, when all OtherWorlders must either embrace the Dark Lord or forfeit theirlives.”
He sneered. “But you, my dear, are a special prize with your magick. Much more potent than any Lupine I’veencountered.”
Jenny pulled at her arms and legs. She was bound to the stone, held fast by thick ironchains.
Faint hope rushed through her. Perry took no chances… or he thought she was a powerful Fae mixed with Lupine blood. Not what she trulywas.
He didn’t know. And that would prove hisdownfall.
Her mangled right leg, though… Getting caught in the wolf trap had drained her energy and some of hermagick.
Hopeless.
Troy’s voice echoed in her mind. “You don’t know what you truly are, sweetheart, until you push yourself. Stop holding back and let her rip. Only then can you befree.”
Stop holdingback.
Troy, dearest Troy, her friend, her mate, if he would have her. If he hadn’t changed hismind.
If she ever got out of thismess.
Focus on Troy. Remember his smile, his dark eyes, his body moving over yours as you made love. Let your last memory be of him, not thisevil.
Even his scent flooded her senses… no,wait.
