Page 4 of His Human Mate
She honestly didn’t know if they expected her to not notice it but the man wasn’t that stealthy. She could still get away if she’d wanted to right now, but as that was the last thing she wanted, she pretended to not see it.
“A’right, I’m goin’,” she said, holding up her hands, taking a step backwards, and the second man grabbed her tight, as the first flew forward, grabbing up her other arm. She struggled a bit and when the jab of a needle slid into her arm, she let out a shout of semi-fake pain. The jab hurt but whatever was in it didn’t begin to affect her mentally or physically.
She went limp after a few moments though, letting the two drag her towards the cage. They were huffing as they finally reached it making her fight a smirk. She weighed less than a hundred and thirty pounds. Two adult male shifters should not be huffing and puffing dragging her less than a mile back to this stupid cage.
It told her they were weaker than they should be, which likely meant they’d been broken by it. Which meant that there was the potential of a bigger group behind this whole thing beyond these men.
They dropped her onto the ground, taking her backpack from her but didn’t search her body, as one moved to open the gate. She barely lifted her face, watching as he worked the locking mechanism. It wasn’t complicated, she would just have to slide a piece to the side, then lift the latch. No keys thankfully but as she glanced back towards the wolves, she noticed bars come down, keeping them from escaping. They would have to be up closer to the gate for them to flee when she opened it.
As soon as the opening was large enough for her to fit, they grabbed her arms, quickly pushing her inside and she rolled onto her back, peering at the two that didn’t shift despite being past the gate opening. She assumed that meant the gate had to be shut entirely for whatever curse was on it to work, and one of the two gave a shudder as he walked away, the door slamming shut once more.
She let out a pretend groan of pain but neither turned back towards the gate, and she gave it another moment, until she felt a warm nose press against her cheek.
“Got yourself into one heck of a predicament, didn’t you, Ashton?” she teased softly against his ear as she sat up. His body shuddered a bit and she wondered if there wasn’t something else that kept the wolves closer to the back, away from the opening beyond the bars that came down.
Ashton settled in front of her, shielding her body in case the two looked back their way but they continued on towards a small building, shutting the door as soon as they were inside it. After a few minutes of near silence beyond the breathing of the wolves, she got up, moving towards the gate.
“I know you don’t like it, but you’re going to have to get closer if you want out of here,” she said, looking around at the fourteen wolves beyond Ashton and Dan who’d moved closer to her once Ashton had. “But I mean, if you’re too scared of a little pain, then go ahead and stay,” she added when only three or four of them moved before looking back to Ashton and Dan again. “I’m getting you two home though, so move your butts.”
Dan let out a growly huff as he moved closer to the gate, behind an even larger wolf whose muscles rippled as a low growl emitted from him continuously, telling her there was definitely something there that was affecting them. There were shuffles and several more wolves appeared in her peripheral view as she stepped onto the bottom wrung of the cage to reach the latch. It slid open silently and she glanced towards the wolves one more time, seeing all of them were in front of the bar, even if not entirely near the opening. She threw it open, letting them race out while Ashton stayed next to her spot, not leaving her side until she jumped down to exit the cage as well.
The snarls of the wolves as they pounded out of the cage drew the attention of the men inside the building, bringing out eight in total, while more came from the woods behind them. She let out a loud whistle, signaling Michael and the guards, while she slid towards the side of the area, doing her best to avoid the men with dart guns racing into it.
She wasn’t nearly as concerned with the wolves, even with her being a stranger, she’d released them, so they weren’t as likely to attack her. Not even if they were close to breaking points. Ashton shielded her until she reached the edge of the clearing, taking the gun from Theo as he and the others raced into it, before he turned, heading back towards the men that’d trapped them, while she moved up into the tree, using the leaves as coverage.
From her spot, she was able to take down several of the men hurrying in from the opposite direction, and within the hour, the area quieted. A pained shout drew her attention to the side of the space further from her, finding the largest of the wolves from the cage, dragging a smaller one back into the clearing. Two other wolves from the cage hurried over, shifting to human form, and bound the man as he shifted, surprising her, but right this minute, that was the least of her concerns.
She hopped down from the tree, moving over to reach Ashton as he shifted. A laugh bubbled up as he picked her up in a huge hug, knocking the hat off her head as he swung her around.
“Told you you’d need me to save your ass one of these days,” Shelby teased, smiling brightly up at him.
“Damn glad you did, honey,” he stated, drawing her into his chest for another hug. “Really damn glad.”
She let out a relieved breath and laugh, but it only lasted a moment as a growl sounded around the area. Her head lifted, eyes moving over Ashton’s shoulder at the large man heading their way. The dark look on his face barely distracted her from the rest of his large, naked body. She’d never seen a man that built. Never had her body tingle from head to toe seeing one either and she couldn’t pull her gaze away from him as he moved faster towards them.
A scream came as he grabbed Ashton, slamming him in the gut as he threw him aside. Her jaw dropped entirely as he kept moving forward but before he could reach her, Ashton moved between them again, putting his shoulder into the man’s chest, barely budging him.
The punch to Ashton’s face put him on the ground but before the man could move again, Dan barreled into him in wolf form still, knocking him to his knee. Dan turned to attack again, making her breath stall as the man’s attention slid to her, his eyes locking on her, sending a shiver through her entire being.
Dan let out a snarl, but his feet skidded to a halt as the man let out a low, dark, roar. She could see the trembles it sent through the group. Even Michael halted in his movements as he came to help. Her eyes widened further when no one moved as he stood, the sight of his hard body once more making her shiver as need coursed entirely through her.
Ashton began to move in front of her but her feet moved faster, sliding in front of him as the man let out a low growl once more. His attention slid from Ashton back to her, his hand lifting, and her breath caught when it slid straight into her hair, twining around her curls, pulling her to him.
“Mine,” he snarled, her body trembling as all breath left her when he lifted her over his shoulder, before turning them towards the building, leaving her entirely speechless.
Chapter 3
Landon prowled along the back of the cage, his wolf agitated, wanting to break free from this prison they’d endured the last six weeks. He’d seen several wolves break since then, some that’d been caught after he, Thatcher and Alan were, others that’d been there before they were. They’d been here the longest, were still holding on, able to communicate with one another unlike the others in the cage.
Well, beyond two that’d been thrown in here at the same time two weeks ago. It was clear the slightly smaller of them was a guard for the other one, but he didn’t recognize them before they were shifted, so that didn’t mean much.
His brother Jacob was never going to let him live this down once they were freed—and they would be freed. His family was searching for them, would have sent others to follow their trail as soon as they’d dropped out of communication for more than a day or two. The three of them had been after one of the snatchers for two weeks before getting caught by the group here. They weren’t watching themselves well enough, were intent on finding the snatcher that scared his brother’s new mate, and got themselves caught. It was a stupid mistake, and one that Jacob would gladly use against him time and again in the future.
The only plus to being here though was the group caught the filth they were after almost two weeks ago now. He was still breathing because one, he didn’t recognize them and hadn’t attempted to attack them yet and two, because Landon wanted the bastard alive to make him talk.
He knew the filth was ready to break. Unlike him and his men, he wasn’t trained for this. They were and together they were keeping one another sane, but time wasn’t on their side if something didn’t give. This cage was wrapped in a curse, nothing they’d tried had gotten them out of it, past whatever magic was keeping them trapped in their wolf forms.
He settled down in the corner, doing his best to shut out the negative energy coming from the cage itself. The curse was put on it by someone powerful and once they were free, he needed to find out who that person was, stop them from doing more harm to other shifters.