FIVE

It's been one hour and forty-seven minutes, I'm still locked in the pantry and the chances of survival were dwindling. There wasn't much to snack on while I was being kept hostage, but after taking inventory of the shelves, I came upon a box of chocolate cereal. Usually, I would ask before I'd help myself to other people's food, but these Scots locked me up without anything to eat or drink. I'm way past formalities by now.

I popped a few pops into my mouth, listening to them crunch while checking my phone - still no signal. It wouldn't surprise me if this pantry was built to serve as a safety bunker during a war or an apocalypse. It would've made my time as a hostage so much more endurable if I could at least watch some YouTube.

At that moment, I picked up the soft hums of voices approaching. After listening closely, I recognized one of them as Reyna's and another as Craig's. There were three I couldn't place, and one I couldn't hear that well.

The latter, however, raised a pitch when the person spoke, "What do you mean she's here?"

That voice. My heart dropped when I immediately recognized it as Rheon's.

An inaudible reply followed.

"You locked her in the pantry?"

"I panicked, okay?" Reyna whisper-shouted. "Would you have had a better idea?"

"Maybe not lock her up like we're a bunch of deranged lunatics!"

An unfamiliar voice snorted. "Have you seen yourself during the last full moon?"

I heard a sigh before Reyna said, "At least she missed her flight. I think we can let her out now."

"I'll do it. Hopefully, she won't try to kill me since I'm not the one who locked her up."

I straightened up when I heard the key turn in the lock. The door handle wiggled before it opened on a crack.

Rheon cautiously peered in, blinking in what could only be surprise when he spotted me sitting on a sack of potatoes while munching on chocolate cereal. His mouth corner twitched up, "I've come to free you from my sister-in-law's crazy schemes - and at the same time to apologize for last night."

I remained silent and he took that as a safe sign to enter the pantry.

"I know we haven't officially met, and I assume that's what sent you running off last night. Completely my fault; I'm often told I'm a bit straightforward. But let's talk outside where it smells less of cheese. Here, let me help you up -"

Just as he took another step towards me, I chucked the cereal box at him and hit him square in the face. In a flash, I had a can of soup in my grasp and tossed that at him as well. Rheon raised his hands as one object after the other lunged at him, trying to block my assaults as best he could.

"Hold on... now wait... let me explain..." he tried getting me to stop but proved to be futile since I had unlimited ammo.

"You..." I chucked a box of pasta at him, "...locked me..." a bag of chips followed, "...in a pantry! With no damn reception!"

"And I'm sorry!" He dodged another can of soup by inches before it could hit his face, "You have to understand this isn't my fault. I had no idea you were here until..." his eyes grow twice their size when I aimed a bag of flour at him, "No! No."

I squinted at him.

"No."

"You locked me in a pantry," I seethed before launching the flour at him.

Rheon screwed his eyes shut and scrunched his face when a cloud of white exploded at his feet, covering him in flour from head to toe. He exhaled sharply from his nose, sending wafts of white puffs swirling.

He looked like a corpse that escaped the morgue. I tried fighting against the smile tugging at my lips, but the moment he opened his eyes to look at me, I lost it. My hand clamped over my mouth to muffle the giggles, but even that couldn't betray my obvious amusement.

Rheon rolled his eyes but at least managed a tiny smile of his own, "Happy now?"

"Oh, yes," I nodded and wiped my hands on my pants, "I can say I've thrown a duke with flour and ruined his suit and lived to tell the tale."

He breathed a laugh and gestured at the door. "Does that mean you're ready to talk now?"

I was more than ready. It's time to find out why they took me hostage.

Rheon opened the door for me, and I brushed past him. The first thing I saw as I entered the kitchen, was five people staring at me in surprise. There was Reyna, Craig, Alexander, and a young girl and older woman I didn't recognize. Their expressions changed from surprise to absolute astonishment when Rheon appeared behind me, all covered in flower from head to toe.

Craig snorted and gave him a hearty pat on the shoulder, "Alright there, lad? Ya lookin' a wee bit peely-wally this mornin'."

The duke of flour glowered at the older man and ruffled his fingers through his once dark hair, causing more flour to fall from his tresses.

However, I didn't find it funny anymore. These people locked me up and now I missed my flight. How was I supposed to explain to my parents and Matt why I won't be coming home today? My father will have a fit; probably blame it on my lack of responsibility or claim that I'm running from my upcoming engagement.

With that in mind and fueling my anger from the start, I turned to look at Reyna, demanding an explanation.

She scrunched her face and awkwardly asked, "Tea?"

"By the way she's lookin' at ya, lassie, I'd say she wants somethin' stronger," Craig stated and opened the cabinet underneath the sink, retrieving a bottle of whiskey. "Like I always say, alcohol doesn't solve your problems, but then neither does milk."

He poured a glass and slid it towards me; however, Rheon caught it halfway across the countertop and sent it back, shaking his head at me. "Don't drink that."

Craig only shrugged and downed the glass himself.

Reyna huffed and raked her fingers through her hair. "Screw it, I don't know how to explain any of this. This is supposed to be your job," she looked at Rheon almost accusingly, "I did you a favor keeping her here, now the rest is up to you. Alexander and I haven't even consummated our marriage yet. So, good luck, we'll be in our room."

Everyone watched her grasp Alexander's hand in hers before marching out. The kitchen was relatively quieter without Reyna, but silence won't answer my questions. So, I turned to Rheon with the same demanding expression.

He visibly cringed before his eyes flickered to the other two women in the room. "This is my mother Rieka and little sister Clemmy, by the way. Don't worry, I'll introduce you to the rest later."

"Introduce me to the rest?" I raised my hands to shut him up, "Why is that even necessary?"

"Because...I...you're...we're..." He can't seem to get past stuttering only singular words at a time.

Rieka snickered and placed her hand on his back, "My, I haven't seen him at such a loss of words since I told him I was pregnant with Clemmy - he was sixteen at the time." She gave Rheon a shove towards the door. "Why don't you and Craig head down to Direfair for milk. We're all out after the wedding."

Before Rheon could protest, Craig ushered him out of the kitchen, leaving me with Rieka and Clemmy - the latter has been staring at me since I emerged from the pantry. I sent her an awkward wave and she quickly averted her eyes.

"And he's gone. Good." Rieka had me by the arms and backed me up until my legs bumped into a chair. "You might want to sit down for this. Clemmy, fetch some water with sugar."

The younger girl moved at the speed of light. I don't believe I actually saw her retrieve a glass and fill it up, but the next thing I knew, she's back. She handed her mother the glass and Rieka shoved it into my hands and made herself comfortable on the chair opposite of me. Clemmy remained standing behind her mother.

"I'm going to keep this short and sweet, dear," Rieka started, looking me dead in the eye, "We don't usually go around telling humans like yourself about our kind, but considering you're my son's mate I feel I should be straightforward about this."

"Excuse me, what now?" I blinked, shifting my eyes between the two women.

Their kind?

Mate?

Rieka glanced up at Clemmy, inhaling slowly before saying, "We're werewolves, dear."

Silence filled the kitchen as her words hung in the air between us. I broke that silence when I snorted and uttered a laugh, "Ha, funny."

"No, really," Clemmy said softly and fiddled with the ends of her dark braids, "We... I mean, werewolves are real. We're just very good at hiding and blending in."

I shook my head. What do they take me for, an idiot? I didn't have the time nor patience for whatever this was. If this was their idea of a joke or an excuse for why they locked me up, then they've clearly mistaken their humor for bullshit. In a beat, I slid the chair out and advanced towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Clemmy called after me.

"To the airport. Maybe I can still catch a flight home before my family thinks I'm kidnapped or worse; running from my responsibilities."

I heard Rieka mutter something to her daughter but couldn't care less. I'm getting out of here, one way or another. My freedom was in sight when I reached the lobby and front door. But my fingers barely grazed the handle before a bone-chilling growl sounded behind me.

I froze as the hairs on my arms and neck stood on end.

"We were telling the truth, dear," Rieka's voice echoed all the way from the kitchen, "Turn around and see for yourself. Don't worry, Clemmy doesn't bite."

My heart hammered in my throat and my next breath came out trembling. Slowly, I turned around and felt my blood run cold at what I saw.

In the middle of the lobby was a wolf; the biggest one I ever saw. Its grey eyes were trained on me. I reached back for the door handle without tearing my eyes from it, but the wolf uttered another growl, and I quickly retracted my hand.

What do I do? I searched my memory for any survival tips I might have picked up on Animal Planet when ever encountering a wolf. If it's brown lie down, if it's black fight back, if it's white, goodnight? No, that's for bears. And even if I did have the courage to fight back, this wolf could tear my arm off with one bite judging by its size and jaws.

But then something even more terrifying happened.

Before my very eyes, the wolf shrunk into itself, the fur disappeared along with the ears and tail and a few sickening cracks later, Clemmy stood in its place as bare as the day she was born.

What. The. Hell?

That was my last thought before my vision turned fuzzy and I felt my legs go limp. I fainted before my head even hit the ground.