Chapter 53

DOE

Mr. Callahan peered down at me while still holding my head. “She wasn’t supposed to wake up for a while. Okay—we need to hurry. It’s just up ahead.”

The two of them shuffled along the forest floor faster. Their jostling and jerking helped pull me out of my haze a bit more, as did the cool rain, now falling a little harder.

My jaw started to work, even if my tongue still felt swollen in my mouth. I tried to speak, but only managed to make a strange, moaning sound.

My eyes rolled back and fell on Cormac Callahan. Underneath his thick aviator glasses, he seemed worried and breathless—like all his hopes and dreams depended on this working out for him.

I grunted again and forced my jaw open. “W-why…?” The word came out slurred and quiet, but he still seemed to be able to understand it.

“Why what?” Mr. Callahan asked.

He adjusted his grip and maneuvered his body so that he was walking sideways while he carried me rather than backward as he had been before. This allowed them to move faster.

“Why am I doing this?” He scowled. “You know, you and I have more in common than you might realize, Dorothy.

“I’m a werewolf without a wolf. You’re an omega without a wolf. Both of us are considered weak by werewolves—practically human.”

Pure rage filled his face. “So why the fuck have you been gifted the role of luna while I have been denied even the lowest-ranking pack member title?”

I’d always wondered why Mr. Callahan hated me so much. It wasn’t like I’d done anything to him. It was clear now, though.

It wasn’t ~me~ he hated. It was himself.

“~That’s~ why you’re doing this?” Josh laughed. “Because you’re mad they didn’t let you into their pack?”

“This isn’t about that!” Mr. Callahan snapped. “It’s about justice. Once Dorothy is gone, the ~true~ alpha will be reinstated, and I will finally take my rightful place in the Embermoon Pack!”

The words slammed into me like a hammer. ~Once Dorothy is gone?~

My stomach churned, bile rising in my throat.

Josh scoffed. “What place does a half-breed have in a pack of werewolves? What position will you take? You can’t be an enforcer or a—”

Mr. Callahan growled, but the sound was weak and forced. He had no wolf to fuel it. “The alpha will ~make~ a position for me. As payment for getting him out of Zaweth and back in as the alpha.”

So, maybe they had been talking about William Stoll before.

“~I~ got him out of Zaweth. You sat on your ass at home while I risked my life and did all the heavy lifting.”

“You’d still be in the dungeons and about to face trial if it weren’t for me. Don’t act like I didn’t play a major part in this.”

Josh gritted his teeth but didn’t say anything else.

“Okay, this is far enough,” my old teacher said. “Just drop her here.”

And drop me they did. They didn’t even try to be gentle. They simply released me, and I fell onto the hard forest ground with a high-pitched yelp as a sharp stick stabbed me in the lower back.

~Shit. Definitely going to leave a mark.~

I tried my best to glare at the two knuckleheads above me, but I could barely keep my eyes open. I was starting to get some sensation back in my arms and feet, but that was about it.

“Watch her while I go grab the chains, all right?” Mr. Callahan told Josh.

Josh peered down at me, lying on the forest floor, and smirked. “Yeah, I got it.”

As Mr. Callahan wandered off, Josh crouched beside me, his leering gaze moving down my body. My skin crawled under his scrutiny.

“Hi, pretty omega,” he murmured, his voice low and oily. He brushed a hand through my hair, his fingers getting tangled in the damp strands. “You’re feeling good, huh?”

Rage burned in my chest. I glared at him as best I could, begging my limbs to move, to strike back. My fingers twitched again, and I found that I was able to roll them into weak fists.

Josh was too busy staring at my boobs to notice. “Yeah, I’ll bet you do. You know why they call the drug you’re on nips, right? It’s like catnip for omegas. Makes them all soft, needy, and compliant.”

Well, if that wasn’t the most horrifying thing I had ever heard.

Disgust rolled over me in waves. My muscles ached with the effort of moving, but I managed to shift my arms slightly, my hands scraping against the ground.

My thoughts were becoming sharper too. Little by little, I felt my connection to Ace grow stronger.

His voice, although still faint, was a little louder in the back of my mind, and his presence urged me on.

I had to find a way out of this. If my two captors could just be distracted long enough, whatever drug they’d given me would wear off, and I could mind-link with Ace. I could tell him where I was and—

~The tracker.~

~Oh, my god. I put the tracker in my pocket before I was taken from the cabin.~

“Stop being a fucking creep, Josh,” Mr. Callahan called as he returned, dragging a heavy length of silver chain.

I never thought I’d be so grateful to see my old science teacher again.

“I was just saying hi to the girl. She didn’t seem to mind,” Josh said, his tone mockingly innocent. His gaze had settled on my neck, lingering on Ace’s mark before sliding lower once more.

His tongue darted out to wet his lower lip. “This is her first time on nips, right?”

Mr. Callahan dropped the chains at my side. The sound of them rattling to the forest floor made my breath quicken, reminding me of the last time I’d been wrapped in chains. When Robert took me.

“Second. Apparently, Will gave them to her before, when she was young. The first time he tried to pull this shit off.”

I was brought back to the dream I had awoken from just a little while ago. The one where Esther and Mr. Stoll yelled at each other while I lay in a bed nearby, barely conscious and unable to move.

Could that be the “first time” Mr. Callahan had referred to?

But that meant… Esther had been trying to save me from being killed by Mr. Stoll.

“But wasn’t she only seven or eight the last time?” Josh’s eyes moved over my breasts and hips. “Things have changed since then, I’m sure. Her body’s reaction will be different now that she’s older.”

He ran his hand over my stomach and waist, dragging his pinky along my exposed midriff. “She’s mature now.”

I was going to be fucking sick.