being held captive.”
She gripped Spice’s hands. No words of comfort came to mind. They’d be lies and Katrina had lied enough for a lifetime.
The door to their room swung open.
Both of them jumped and faced their captors.
Two large Asian males stepped inside, followed by Chen. His presence sucked all the oxygen from the room.
Katrina cowered. For a fraction of time, her heart stopped beating. The memories she’d thought buried and gone sprung fresh in her mind.
Being passed around like a whore when she wasn’t in heat. Then during her fertile periods being the focus of Chen’s horrid ideas of intimacy.
This crazed male had killed his own father and brother to become alpha of his pack as a teenager, before he’d even been made a shifter. To keep his power, he’d taken a huge risk and endured the same fast shifter infection like Spice, getting stabbed in the heart so the virus could seed quicker and root faster.
She’d been made to witness this ceremony.
The room shrank and she felt exposed with nowhere to run or hide. She missed Tyler and wanted his warm, reassuring presence, his strength, and his love. But he was better off without a lying, two-timing whore.
Spice blocked Chen’s direct path to Katrina. “What do you want with us?”
Chen circled Spice, stepping over the chain connected to her collar.
Katrina’s stomach rolled with nausea when she recognized his heated interest.
“So, this is the Vasi’s alpha female.” He tracked a finger down Spice’s arm. “Attractive.”
She shrugged it off. “What are you doing on our territory?”
“Taking back what’s mine.” He dismissed Katrina with his hand and eyed Spice from head to foot. “With interest. I’m making an example of your pack. No one steals from me.”
“They did not steal me. I ran from you.” Katrina stood on shaky legs, facing her demon. Fear gnawed at what little courage she owned and would reduce her to a submissive dog again if she let it. She hated the old Katrina and didn’t want to change back. “They should not be punished for my behavior. They don’t even know anything about my past.”
Chen grabbed her by the collar and yanked her close. “No matter to me. If you weren’t so pure of blood, I would have slaughtered you on the streets of so-called Chinatown.” He sneered his words into her face, his breath minty and sharp, before tossing her to the floor.
She hit with a force that rattled her teeth. Leaning on her elbows, she tried to focus her vision on Chen, but three of him loomed over her. She blinked and shook her head.
Spice shoved him away. “Leave her alone.” Some strength from her beast still present even with the drug, she truly was special among shifters: White of fur, pure of spirit, and vicious like a mother protecting her pups. Spice deserved her title as alpha.
Katrina narrowed her eyes as she glared at Chen. He didn’t.
Without effort, Chen spun around Spice and captured her from behind, pinning her arms. He pressed his body against hers so his groin met her ass. “You, my pet, are my prize.”
Chapter 4
Sugar’s rapid heartbeat beeped on the hospital monitor. It drove Tyler crazy, sounding like a frightened trapped animal. His beast wanted to hunt the delicate flutter and put an end to it. Sam, another of his roommates, sat in a chair across from him. He stared at nothing, lost in his thoughts.
Her injuries were so bad she needed a ventilator, which had gotten her a room in the intensive care unit. A long tube extended from her mouth connected to the machine that breathed for her. Matching black eyes almost made her face unrecognizable. Hell, she even had tubes coming from her chest, draining blood.
The sight had devastated Tyler when he’d first walked in. Now, he kept his eyes from wandering over her, unable to process the anger and frustration the sight caused him. Those emotions fed his beast. The last thing he needed was to shift in public again.
Bad enough