Page 6 of Stolen Choices

“I don’t like what will happen to Katia any more than you do, Jackson,” Nuka asserted. “I’m not a completely heartless monster, but we need those herbs to get rid of the humans. We need them to get revenge for all those shifters who’ve lost their lives at the hands of the humans…for your parents. It’s the only way.”

Jackson lowered his head. A wave of dizziness washed over him and his mind felt changed somehow. When he looked up, Ciaran was no longer playing with the ball of energy in his hands. He tried to shake the feeling something had happened. What had Nuka said?…get revenge for his parents. Their bodies were buried on Nuka’s lands, so he could visit their graves and talk to them whenever he wanted. He needed to go there now to say sorry for doubting Nuka. His alpha was right—the humans needed to die. Katia would be a pawn in the power play coming about, no matter what he felt about it.

And why was he even questioning it?

What was he questioning?

His head started to hurt. He rubbed at it, and Nuka raised an eyebrow toward Ciaran—the latter had a look of complete blankness on his face.

“I’ll take Katia to Weston tonight. We’ll have the herbs, and the humans will die.”

Jackson bowed to his alpha and beta and started to leave the room. As he did so, he heard Nuka and Ciaran talking quietly.

“Do you think it will work, Ciaran?”

“His mind is strong. My magic is stronger, though.”

“Good.”

Jackson wondered what the hell they meant, but he didn’t have time to question it. He had a tigress to catch.

Chapter Three

“Put the muzzle on her,” Weston ordered. Katia tried to struggle against the man holding her, but it was useless. She was bound tightly and unable to move.

“Get off me,” she shrieked. “I won’t do anything you ask me to. You’re all sick.”

The muzzle was wrapped around her mouth and secured. It meant if she shifted, her mouth would be completely restricted, and she’d be unable to bite anyone. All she wanted to do was get out of the situation her father had left her in. Why? Why had he done it? She pushed back the ever present tears. She couldn’t think of her family now—it would destroy her and take away the strength she needed to get through what was about to happen to her. These people were sick, vile creatures who would treat her body in ways it should never have to suffer. She’d been a virgin when she’d come here but not anymore. Weston had taken care of that shortly after her father had left her here. He’d taken her against her will and left her bruised and bleeding on the floor. It wasn’t the only time she’d been taken, though. Her job, it would seem, was to pleasure as many men as possible until her father’s debts were paid off. It was cruel and degrading.

“We’ve got a good group of men waiting for you. They’re humans. We can’t have you biting them—it wouldn’t be good for business. I’m glad we had your claws filed down this morning,” Weston teased her.

Katia’s thoughts went back to earlier that day when she’d been knocked unconscious by a dart. It had been blown into her as she lay in the cage she’d been trapped in overnight. When she’d finally woken from the drugs, her hands were sore, and when she shifted them to her tigress’ paws, she realized her claws had gone. She felt herself lucky they hadn’t permanently removed them. One day, she’d be able to scratch Weston’s eyes out with them.

She watched him with a scowl on her face and pictured getting her teeth around his neck and biting down until she cracked his spine. Then she’d shake his body hard until he was dead. She’d slice her claws through his skin and strip it from his body before leaving him for the worms to eat. It would be perfect—a perfect death and most definitely well deserved.

What was wrong with her?

She was going insane.

She wasn’t this sort of person. She was peace loving and even hated hunting half the time because it would result in the death of an animal. Now, with what was happening to her, she’d been driven to ideas of murder. The world had gone crazy, and she was still reeling as her brain tried to catch up with the situation her body was now in.

The main door to the room opened and in walked a group of men dressed in smart suits. Weston went forward to greet them while she was thrown on the bed by the men holding her. She shut her eyes and tried to block out the lewd comments and laughter from all the men. Men, she hated them all. She vowed in that moment she’d never have a relationship with one, no matter what. They were the spawn of Satan with dicks for brains.

It started. The men came over to her and rubbed their filthy hands over her body. She had no clothes on. She hadn’t been allowed to wear any since she’d arrived. A tatty blanket in her cage was the only thing she had to shield herself. As a shifter, she was comfortable in her nakedness, and she’d seen men’s and women’s naked bodies since she’d been young. It was a necessary part of the process of shifting, but they were stripping away that feeling from her by taking her body without her permission.

One of the men centered himself at the entrance to her body. She braced herself for the degradation that would follow. Her body transformed of its own accord, her paws shifting to a tiger’s and lashing out at the men, despite not having any claws. It was a futile attempt at salvation. Her back legs changed next, and she used the superior strength she now had in her animal form to try and free herself. Her efforts came to nothing, and as her face began to change, the muzzle tightened around her nose and mouth, cutting off her ability to bite anyone. The men all stepped away from her laughing. She knew what happened next...the dart slammed into her body and injected its sleep inducing drug. Her eyelids felt heavy, and she collapsed back onto the bed. The men would still take her while she was unconscious. This was all part of the entertainment they’d paid for, the theater and dramatics. After they’d finish, she’d be beaten for disobedience and thrown back in her cage. This was her life now, and all because of her parents.

“Kas, please find me,” she whispered before the darkness claimed her.

Katia sat up in the bed gasping, desperately trying to breathe. She was dripping with sweat from the horror of her nightmare. She needed to get air in her lungs, but it didn’t seem to want to come. She jumped from the bed and sped toward the bathroom before vomiting in the toilet several times. When there was nothing left to bring up, she slumped down against the side of the bath and let the tears flow. She hadn’t had that dream for ages. She’d thought she was over it. Why now? She couldn’t deal with it again.

It had been another year before Kas found her. She still didn’t know how she’d survived similar treatment every day for three hundred and sixty five days or more. It had broken her beyond compare by the time Kas found her. He hadn’t been able to kill Weston but had shut the club down and freed all the girls imprisoned there. Katia had returned to the Glacial Blood lands and tried to move on with her life, but her vow never to trust a man with intimacy again remained. She’d be single for the rest of her life, and she was happy. Her parents had disappeared shortly after they’d given her away, and despite Kas trying to trace them, there’d been no sightings. It wouldn’t surprise her if they’d died at the hands of Weston, so he would never have to lose one of his prized assets.

She banged her head against the side of the bath several times. She couldn’t do this now—not with the fight that was coming. She needed to be strong for Kas.

A loud giggle pierced through the night air…Selene. She’d recognized the pregnant multi-shifter’s tones anywhere. They were full of warmth and affection. Selene and Brayden had the bedroom above hers now, and when the sound of a bed moving rhythmically started, Katia knew just what they were up to. She couldn’t sit and listen to yet more sex. She hated it, but it was everywhere around her. How could they enjoy it?

Getting to her feet, she quickly brushed her teeth to get rid of the sick taste in her mouth. She then packed the toothbrush along with some of her other toiletries into a small bag she kept under the sink for when she went away on business for Kas. She went back into her main bedroom just as the noises from above grew louder. Groans and whimpers of pleasure joined the sound of the bed moving. Katia grabbed a couple of changes of clothes and put them into a larger bag along with the toiletries. She looked up at the ceiling as the couple must have reached their crescendo.