Page 9 of Mated By the Pack
“Jed, leave them alone,” the other brother calls out. “It’s your fault we don’t have an extra one on this trip. You were supposed to stick the needle in her neck, not her windpipe.”
“Yeah, well, at least I didn’t let one get away!” Jeb fires back.
“You both screwed up. That’s why I had to fucking buy one,” Carl grunts, jerking at thumb at me as he turns away. “Thankfully, those supplements fuck with everything except greed and ambition.”
Jed chuckles, glares at Tansy long enough to make her squirm, and follows Carl back to the campsite. Jeb gathers sticks and lights a match, but Frank storms to him and kicks dirt on the flame.
“No fire tonight,” Frank snaps. “Unless you want everything in this part of The Tangle circling our campsite.”
“What the fuck? We can’t even make a fire?” Jeb groans. “I liked the other way to The Outpost better, even if it took longer.”
“The faster we get there, the faster we can sell them,” Carl says. “Besides we’re already behind schedule because we had to find a replacement. We don’t want to keep the buyers waiting, do we?”
This is a business for them. We’re a commodity. Four of us will be sold and one will be given away to whoever this Haggard is.
“They need to keep all of us alive,” I mutter under my breath. “We can use that to our advantage.”
“One of them will probably stand guard,” Nara deduces. “If they do that, we might be able to convince him to open the cage. We’re no match for all of them, but one? We could take one of them.”
“Unless it’s Frank,” I sigh.
“Right…” Nara flashes me a worried look.
The slavers and the hybrid set up a perimeter, secure their campsite, and start eating rations. None are offered to us. They don’t even bring us water. I’m feeling dehydrated and hungry, but I swallow it. If they’re not going to feed us or give us anything to drink, we need to act fast before we’re too weak to do so.
All we need is an opportunity.
CHAPTER 3
Calla
The dark settles in, and with it comes discomfort with everything around us. Even the slavers seem to be concerned about the things we hear. Frank—it’s hard to read Frank.
The Tangle is…alive. That much is clear. Vines move outside of the perimeter. Trees seem to be in one spot for a moment, and when you look again, they’re gone. Chittering, creaking, and scurrying can be heard, and it sounds too big to be one of the carnivorous plants.
There’s no wind right now, but the leaves still rustle. Almost like they’re whispering. Then a howl sounds out. A deep, guttural sound that makes my stomach twinge like it did when I started worrying my supplements were wearing off. The howl gets everyone’s attention, including the hybrid.
“A wolf?” Carl asks apprehensively.
“I’m not sure,” Frank growls, cracking his neck and baring his fangs. “Doesn’t smell right.”
Carl reaches for his gun and motions for the brothers to do the same. Everyone gets quiet. They’re not watching us anymore. They’re watching the trees. The vines. Staring into the silence that follows the howl. Then I hear another sound. It’s softer, but closer, like scratching or something grinding against bark. A low growl echoes through The Tangle and the vibrations rattle the ironwood floor.
“Something’s hunting,” Frank mutters.
“Us?” one of the brothers asks.
“No,” Frank replies, stepping closer to the perimeter. His emerald eyes glow faintly in the darkness. “Not yet.”
“I don’t want to be eaten,” Tansy whimpers.
“We’ll be last on the menu,” Nara mutters, but it does little to ease our concerns. “This cage will keep them out just as easily as it keeps us in—as long as it’s a beast, instead of a hybrid. I’m pretty sure Frank knows how to use a key. Unlike the hybrids I teach my students about.”
“Nurse Calla, I’m scared,” Fiona sniffles, huddling close to me.
Brenna shifts to her knees and stares into the darkness. She doesn’t seem to be as scared as the rest of us. I’ve heard things are bad in the Lower District, but I never imagined being eaten by something in The Tangle as a preferable option to living there.
A vine streaks across the ground near the cage and starts twisting around the wheels. I pull Fiona away from the bar as it gets closer. Even Brenna scoots away from it. I raise a handto swat at it, unsure if that will help, but it retreats before I can swing. I glance at Nara—she noticed it, too, but a louder growl, followed by a howl, draws all our attention.
