Bella
“This is weird,” Bruce eyed me suspiciously. “What are we going to do with her if we can’t kill her?”
“You could just let me go,” I offered helpfully.
“Yeah well,” Kodi brushed her hair out of her face and flopped back on the bed to stare at the ceiling. “We really need that money.”
“What if we ransomed her back to the king? I bet he’d pay twice as much to get her back.”
Who was this king? Why would he want me? I had no idea what they were talking about. While they debated what to do with me, I was working on the silver cords that bound my wrists. They were burning red welts into my wrists, but they weren’t completely tight. There was the tiniest bit of wiggle room, and I started slowly, painfully, rolling it up my hand toward my fingertips. It was agonizingly painful, but if there was one thing I was well conditioned for, it was ignoring pain.
“Man, if we double cross King’s, we’ll be toast. They will send someone after us.” Kodi said darkly.
“Hey,” I said from my bed, “If you can’t hurt me, how’d you get the silver ropes on me?”
The woman on the bed shrugged and turned her head to glare at me. “Damned if I know. I don’t understand any of this.”
“What if we just leave her here... and set the room on fire?” Bruce suggested, with a glint in his eye.
“Do you know how fucking hard this is, now that we have actually talked to her?” Kodi grumbled.
“Oh come on Kodi, you of all people? Are you going soft?”
While they bickered, I rolled the rope up another millimeter. I tried not to cry out as the bonds grew tighter and tighter up my widening hand. But if I could get them over my thumb knuckle, I would be free of them.
“Why does someone want me dead? I don’t understand?” I wanted to keep them talking, keep them distracted.
The man cracked open another beer and laughed at me. “Oh sweetheart, you don’t even know who you are, do you?” His laughing irritated me to the core of my being, and gave me the strength and the impetus to pull viciously at my hand. There was a sickening pop as my thumb left the joint. I held my breath for a moment, certain my captors must have heard the noise. “Why don’t you enlighten me?” I growled back, trying to cover the waiver in my voice from the pain in my hands.
“Should we tell her?” Bruce asked his companion. The woman on the bed merely shrugged again, lost in her own dark thoughts. “Well, I think she has a right to know who she is, before she dies.” He stood up and moved toward my bed just as I slipped my fingers free of the silver rope. I kept my hands clasped behind my back as he approached.
“You,” he said, pointing at me with the beer can, “Are Isabella Levesque. The long lost Canadian princess.”
I looked at him stupidly. “Canada has a princess?”
He laughed at me again, and sat on the corner of my bed. “Well, the wolf-packs do, at least on the East side. How is it you never heard of Mad King Louis?”
I shook my head. Nope, never heard of mad King Louis. But the name Isabella Levesque was pinging in my memory. Levesque? I knew that name, somehow. Isabella... Bella... I had a vision of a beautiful, laughing woman, with a thick mane of flowing, red-black hair, just like mine.
“Oh yeah, everyone thought you were dead. And apparently someone wants to make sure you stay that way.” Bruce continued, leaning back on one arm.
I glanced back at the woman on the bed. She had her eyes closed, but I didn’t think she was sleeping. I was questioning myself – could I get past these two and get out the door? If they really couldn’t hurt me, wouldn’t that give me an edge in hand-to-hand combat? The only problem was when they DID try to hurt me, it sapped away my strength and energy. I wasn’t a very good fighter, not in my human form. I’d only had a few days of training... but if I let my wolf take over... the thing about my wolf is that she tended to stay quiet until I was either furiously angry, or uncontrollably aroused.
I closed my eyes and thought about my twin mates. As soon as I brought them to mind, I felt an incredible amount of fear and anxiety run through my body. So much so that my legs twitched restlessly from the feeling. I realized that it wasn’t my fear, it was theirs. They didn’t know where I was, or if I was safe, or if I was hurt. Or did they? Did they feel the pain I felt? I brought their faces to mind. Their features were identical, but now that I knew them deeply and intimately, they didn’t even look the same to me anymore. I felt a need stir in me... not a sexual need, but a physical need. I needed to be near them. I needed to touch them. I needed to be connected to them, and every which way. How many hours had we been apart now?
I focused on that gnawing need, and felt my wolf stir uncomfortably. The brothers don’t know where I am, I thought to myself. They can’t rescue me. I have to rescue myself.
I took a deep, steadying breath and glanced around me. To my right, on the bedside table, was an ugly looking lamp with a heavy, ceramic base. I moved as fast as my human body would move, swiping up the vase, and bringing it crashing down on Bruce’s head. The thick fired clay didn’t even break. It hit his head with a dull thud, and Bruce dropped like a felled tree, and rolled off the bed.
The black woman’s eyes flew open, and as quick as I could blink she was off the bed, blocking my path to the door, her arms outspread, her eyes blazing. “Sorry princess, I can’t let you leave here.”
She can’t hurt us, I reminded myself, and I threw myself straight into her body, aiming for her mid-section, like a football player going in for the tackle. I don’t weigh much, but I had the element of surprise, and she stumbled backward and onto her back, and I landed on top of her. We struggled there on the floor, as she attempted to grab me and hold me, and I was trying desperately just to get away from her, and head for the door. Whatever unknown force that was keeping her from killing me apparently didn’t keep her from grabbing me and holding me.
She had a hold of my wrist with both hands, and still I was clawing my way toward the door, dragging her deadweight body with me. Damn she was way heavier than she looked. I screamed in frustration and dropped back, landing with my knee in her neck. Still she managed to roll out from under me without letting go of my arm. I snarled deep in my throat, and felt myself start to shift and change. I sank my partially elongated canines into her arm. She cried out and finally let go, falling backwards again.
I turned back toward the door, which was still closed, blocking my way out of the room. It was a fire door, and I was certain that I couldn’t bust through it in my wolf body. Probably not even in my human body. And without hands, I could not manipulate the locks and handles. Behind me I felt the air waver, and my captor started to shift. I looked back over my shoulder to see the woman shifting, not into wolf, but into a large, black bear.
I jumped up onto the table, and jumped through the glass window. I felt shards of glass rip through my coat and cut into my skin, but I didn’t stop. I hit the ground and shook myself, and then I took off running as fast as my four legs could carry me.