“Your room is ready,” one of them said to me, sneering.

Chelsea and Sadie stood and snarled at the vampires.

I couldn’t fight or they would hurt Tara. Being in this position, having to act weak and let them take me was one of the hardest things I had ever done.

The two vampires nearest me grabbed my upper biceps and Sadie growled again.

‘No!’ I told her and let Alpha power ooze from my command.

She looked down at her feet.

I looked at my pack; they looked renewed with hope and ready for a fight. ‘You’re all my pack now. I will take care of you and I will get us out of here. Sadie is in charge while I’m gone.’

The girls nodded. Then the vampires tightened their grip on my arms, completely unaware that I could communicate to the girls without speaking, and forced me to walk out of the room. They reeked of heroin. The metallic scent hit the back of my throat and nearly made me gag. I wanted to let the Devi loose and rage on these bloodsuckers so bad but I calmed myself. I loved Tara and Max and everyone else who would be affected if Tara was killed. I had to be patient and do this the right way.

They walked me down the cement hall as I tried to look for any indication of where we were. It looked like a few signs had been spray painted over. They had been planning this a while. I sighed. God, I missed Kai. Although I drew strength from my newly formed pack, it felt wrong not to be in the same pack as your mate. As we passed a door, a scent pulled at my attention. Tara? I inhaled deeper. Yes, Tara! Two doors down from where I smelled her, the bloodsuckers stopped and banged on another steel door.

It slowly opened to reveal a tall female vampire who wore a starched white lab coat. Her hair was jet black and cropped short, and her face held no mercy. She pinned me with her evil eyes and nodded her head to the vampires holding me. As I was led inside, I glanced around the huge room and my eyes fell on a medieval-looking stand-up steel cage with straps that bolted it to the wall. Oh, shit. Everything in me wanted to shift into my wolf form and run the hell away from here. Then my eyes flicked to a large medical examination table on the far wall. Resting on a side table, were some surgical instruments, an ultrasound machine and the monitor that showed Tara. I knew what this room was. It was where they implanted Chelsea, I was sure of it. I could smell her all over it. Oh God. I squinted at the monitor showing Tara. The black and white screen showed her lying there limply, barely breathing. The feelings I was having were scaring me. I wanted to murder every single last one of these bastards for what they had done to her, to all of us. I wanted to burn this entire place to the ground for the way they were playing us off of each other. I didn’t feel human in that moment, I felt like a monster. A very powerful, pissed off monster hell-bent on revenge.

The doctor strode across the room and unfastened some buckles, opening the cage. “Be a good girl,” she told me and gestured that I walk into the cage. I took a few deep breaths, fighting my instinct, pushing my wolf down, pushing the Devi down, and crossed the large room walking over to the cage. The two male vampires strapped me inside of the cage, leaving the door open. One of them grazed my boob as he strapped me down and then smiled, giving me a lusty look. I let a growl rumble deep and long in my chest, glaring at him with yellow eyes. The Devi’s deadly power was bubbling just beneath the surface of my skin, I could bring this entire building down on us if I chose to. It was a scary thought and I was feeling less and less in control by the minute.

The boob grazer looked at the doctor and gestured to me. “Queen Layla wants to know if she can be used as an incubator as well?”

My food threatened to come up. No. No. No.

The doctor seemed to consider it, pressing one red manicured finger to her chin.

Oh God. If Gretchen was right, then I was pregnant. If the vampires found out, they would abort my baby. I tried not to whimper and suddenly felt Kai’s energy, far away, weak but frantic. I felt him. I needed him.

The doctor shook her head. “Too risky. What if getting her pregnant freezes the fertility powers of her blood? No. Tell Queen Layla to get more female werewolves.”

The breath I had been holding whooshed out of me. I could tell my new pack was restless worrying about me.

‘I’m fine,’ I sent to them and their energy settled slowly.

Then, the doctor reached into her pocket and produced a thin silver chain, touching it to my skin, I glared at her.

She smiled, flashing her pointed canines.

“Incredible,” she stated when she saw that I did not react to the silver.

I didn’t smell heroin on her but her eyes were black as night and gave me the creeps.

“Do you know why silver harms werewolves?” she asked me as she fiddled with a plastic IV tube.

What the hell, was this class time? I was about to get a lecture on werewolves and silver? Jesus. I shook my head. I was pretty sure pissing this woman off was a bad idea so I would play along.

“In human studies, microscopic amounts of liquid silver are beneficial in killing viruses. So when used on a werewolf, it begins to kill the lycanthrope virus. Since the lycanthrope virus has already killed the human, once you kill the virus, there is nothing left. Dead as a doornail,” she said, cheerily.

I glared. “Is that why silver stakes also kill vampires?”

She grabbed my arm hard, letting her nails cut into my skin and secured a bloodletting cuff over my upper arm. “Enough chit chat.” She pulled the top of the cage over me, folding me inside like an iron sandwich.

Gracefully walking over to the medical table she tapped the monitor that showed Tara. “I heard you already know what this is, so no funny business.” Her voice held the heavy sound of a threat.