"The woman in me needs the man in you."

The woman in me - Shania Twain

Chapter 7

When I came to, I opened my eyes to a dark room. It smelled of bleach, dust, something I couldn't place and something I could... Wolves. Familiar wolves. I tried to stand up and that's when I realized I was chained to the wall. I had a moment of panic as my nightmares from my previous torture came washing over me. I was in the middle of panicking when someone walked into the room. He just walked in, picked up something in the opposite corner and walked back out, not sparing a word for me. I watched all of this from my confined corner. I had no idea who he was, but standing there, petrified, waiting for him to attack me had given me time to think.

After he'd retreated up the stairs and closed the door behind him, I released the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Okay, Anna. Breathe." I told myself. I needed to get my emotions under control and use my senses like Charles had taught me to. I looked around me and realized I must be in some sort of basement. No windows, boxes and storage all around me, the only exit at the top of a flight of stairs. I closed my eyes and tried to take in the smells... Bleach and faint trace of mildew and rain water runoff. Definitely a basement.

Now to try and identify the wolves I smelled earlier. One or two of them I couldn't really place, two smelled a bit like the wolves I had helped calm. Realization dawned my face at that point. The rogue wolves... It was very faint so there's a chance that hadn't been there since I'd helped them shift back. There was something else… an earthy, wet smell. It was hard to distinguish in the mildewed basement but once I'd put a name to it, I knew.

Fae. What would fae want with her? Unless… Were they behind the wolves? Even so, they'd need some serious pack clout. No one had that kind of power except the most dominant of Alphas. And the Marrok, of course. No one was ever close to equal in power to him but his mate.

And at that moment, I realized the familiar wolf I'd been smelling…"Leah." I said to myself.

"Took you long enough.", the traitor snipped as she teetered down the stairs in ridiculous heels, Bran had no doubt paid for. Followed but the wolf that had been down in silence earlier, only now he seemed to fawning over Leah.

"You always were an attention whore." I snarled at her. She slapped me, hard. I shook my head and laughed, "Oh. Sore spot, is it? What do you think Charles is gonna do when he finds out what you've done?"

She laughed, mockingly. "That thick brute? He'll never figure it out. And even if he did, I'm the Marrok's mate. He can't touch me."

I just chuckled and shook my head at her. "What?!" she demanded. I smiled at her.

"And what do you think Bran will do to you when he finds out? He only keeps you around because his wolf demands it. How eager to defend you do you think his wolf will be once it knows you've betrayed him, his pack and your own kind using his influence? How happy will he be when the most Alpha of all wolves knows you've harmed an Omega?"

The blood drained from her face and she stomped back upstairs. With the moment over, I pushed everything I could into our mate bond.

"Find me, Charles."