Thorn (Werewolf) ✔

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I couldn't be sure if I was dreaming but wherever I was, I was happy. Thorn was there. We were happy. His lips touched mine and it was as though the nightmare had finally ended. But as my eyes adjust to consciousness and I feel my hands restrained by metal cuffs to the frame of a bed, I realize that a different kind of nightmare is beginning.

"Finally. I was starting to think that you were in a coma."

I roll my head up. A man with dark hair sits in a chair at the blocked-out window. He places the book he was reading on the windowsill. It looks like a motel room, the same motel room that we left yesterday.

"Cole, please, don't do this."

There's someone else here. I look towards the bathroom and I see a golden-haired woman sitting on the ground beside the door. My mother. My real mother. She doesn't look at me, she keeps her eyes on Cole whom rises from the chair. He paces towards the side of the bed and forces a glass of liquid to my lips.

"You must be thirsty. Drink."

He doesn't give me a choice. He pours it down my throat. He takes the glass away and I cough out. I glance down to my body. I'm relieved that I'm still fully clothed. How did I end up here? Where are Sky and Dominic?

"You look confused," Cole says. "Did you really think that Malese would help you? That she wouldn't send you to me?"

I look to the woman on the floor again. She finally looks back at me. Her eyes are sore with tears, she looks frail and beaten. I can't tell if she's tied up but she sits still as though she is. Cole studies our moment of mutual fear before he walks back over to the window.

Cole is so tall that his head almost hits the ceiling. His body is large and muscled, even his hands are three times as big as mine. He looks around his mid-twenties with grey eyes and pointy ears. He wears a leather jacket with black pants. Even as a human he would be intimidating, much less a powerful alpha.

"I found some very interesting things in your bag. I hope you don't mind." He extracts the bags of herbs and then carries on rooting until he pulls out the blade and observes it. "I like this. I think I'll keep it."

I stare at my left wrist, trying to gently pull it to see how tight the restraint is. He hears it and flicks his eyes to me. He walks over to me carrying the blade. The woman rises from the floor immediately.

He glares at her. "Sit back down."

"What is the point to this?" the woman demands. "If you want to punish someone then punish me."

"Punish?" Cole murmurs. He starts to climb over the bed, positioning the blade at my throat. "I just wanted to see if she fears death."

I snarl. "I don't."

He reads my eyes, smiling to himself. "No, you don't. But you do fear dying knowing that your mate is locked in a prison for my entertainment." He presses the tip of the blade underneath the chain and lifts the seal out of my shirt. "Your mate has been the enemy of my pack for a long time. He always finds a way to become a complication."

He lifts the chain over my head and jumps down from the bed. The woman relaxes but she stays standing.

"Are you going to kill me?" I say.

"I haven't decided yet."

"Why am I restrained?"

It makes no sense that he has handcuffed me to the bed. I'm a human, I couldn't get past him no matter what I try. But the one werewolf that could isn't tied up like me. She is a much bigger threat to him than myself but she is free.