Amber Read online

  A couple of hours later and almost everyone had turned in for the night. Amber hadn’t been happy when she found out they had to share the tent.

  “I thought you would have your own tent. This one only has one bed.”

  “I know, but I thought we were close enough you wouldn’t mind.”

  “I can’t share a tent with a male.”

  “Amber, dear, I am not just any male. I love you. You have to know that. I didn’t want anything to happen to you and I can’t make sure you are safe if you are in a different tent.”

  “Well, I love you too, you are one of my best friends, but still…”

  Fletcher could feel his wolf howl in triumph at the declaration of love. He knew it. He told Edward she loved him. All he had to do now was get her to say yes.

  He let her pick which side of the air mattress she wanted and lay down beside her. He turned toward her and leaning on one elbow, with his head propped in his hand, he reached out to stroke her cheek with his other hand. He was startled when she jerked her head away.

  “Hey, what are you doing? Trying to sleep here.”

  “Amber, love, you have to know how I feel about you.”

  “What are you talking about. Of course I know. We are the best of friends. Now go to sleep, I found out everyone gets up around six in the morning and I don’t want to miss anything.”

  “Amber.”

  “What, Fletcher?”

  “I said I love you.”

  “I know. I love you too.”

  “So then you agree?”

  “Agree to what? You aren’t making sense and I am sleepy.”

  “I want you to be my mate.”

  Amber’s peal of laughter rang out. “What? Don’t be silly. We can’t be mates. We are friends.”

  “That’s exactly why we should be mates. We are the best of friends. Who better to be your mate than your best friend?”

  “Okay, well that is kinda gross. For one, Nadia is my best friend you are my second best friend. For two, I don’t want a mate, I want a true-mate and you aren’t mine. So shut up and go to sleep.” She snorted, “Mates. You are so silly, but that is one of the reasons I love you. Now behave and quit talking crazy and let me go to sleep.”

  Her soft laughter sent rage through Fletcher. “But I love you.”

  “No, Fletcher, I won’t take you for a mate. That is the craziest thing you have ever come up with and you have come up with some crazy ideas over the years. Did someone put you up to this as a joke? Newsflash, it isn’t funny.”

  “I am serious. We would be great together. Who knows you better than me? No one, that’s who. I am not making a joke. Stop snort laughing at me. We have been almost inseparable since we were kids and I saved you from stepping on that snake. You wouldn’t even be alive today if it wasn’t for me. I wanted you since that day you flung yourself at me and hugged me and gave me a kiss. If you are honest with yourself you would see I am right. You even admitted you love me. Why would you throw away love with me to go walk-about looking for some mythical true-mate you may never find. I mean, even Edward spent hundreds of years without a mate. Come on, do you really want to spend a hundred, two hundred or even more years looking for a true-mate? Or waiting for one to accidentally cross the territory? Be serious.”

  “Holy hell, you are serious. Fletcher, I don’t love you like that. I mean, we are friends but not that kind of friends. I flung myself at you, as you say, and gave you a kiss because you saved me from the snake. But I don’t owe you my life for that. I gave you my friendship and I treasured that friendship but I don’t love you that way. I mean, eww gross. That would be like sleeping with my brother, if I had one.”

  But Fletcher never heard the last sentence. His brain quit listening after the word gross. Rage filled him as she laughed. He reached over and shook her shoulder, hard. “No. You are lying. You love me and you will be my mate. I want you and my wolf wants you and that is all that matters. We will be happy together. You want a baby, I know you do, I have seen your face when you hold that little Kimmy kid. Well I can make that dream come true. I can give you a baby of your own. You won’t have to go around holding other snot-nosed kids. I will fill your belly with my seed and watch your stomach grow with my child.”

  “Let go, you’re hurting me. Let go!”

  “No, I have put up with this long enough. I have followed you around like a little puppy waiting for you to grow up and be mine. I have watched you hold that whiny Kimmy kid and wish for a baby of your own. Well I can give you a baby if you be my mate. You can’t say you don’t love me after saying you did. That’s all I need is your love. You want a snot-nose baby I will even put up with that to have you.”

  “Oh my god. You have lost your mind. You don’t even like kids.”

  “What the hell does that have to do with anything. I said I would give you one. I don’t have to like them. Isn’t the fact I am willing to share you with a brat enough sacrifice to prove how much I love you? I am willing to watch you get fat and gross for months just to give you a brat that will probably take way too much of your time. But I know we can find a sitter for the thing often enough you don’t have to keep it around all the time. We can still have plenty of time to ourselves.”

  “My god, Nadia was right about you. I want to go home. Right now!” Amber tried to get up but he held her too tightly. She opened her mouth to scream but he rolled over on top of her and placed his hand over her mouth as she drew in breath. Terror raced through her body as she stared up at the man she thought was one of her best friends. She felt him fumbling around and horror filled her as she realized his intentions. She renewed her efforts to free herself and he released her mouth for a moment. She gulped in a deep breath again to scream but before she could he slipped some sort of gag in her mouth. She tried kicking at him but he had her legs pressed into the air mattress and she couldn’t get any sort of leverage. He had both arms above her head and as she struggled and tried to buck him off she felt something metal wrap around one wrist followed by a snip sound as he locked a handcuff around her other wrist. She couldn’t see what he was doing but he soon dragged her arms down between their bodies.She saw he had rope through the handcuffs and when she tried to buck again he used her body movement against her by sliding the rope under her body to tie her hands to her waist. He sat on her stomach and she tried to scream through the gag but it was too muffled to be heard and with him sitting on her she was struggling to breathe. She tried kicking him but she couldn’t reach him with her foot. He grabbed first one foot and then the other and soon had her ankles tied to the rope around her middle. With her hands handcuffed and tied against her waist and her ankles bound all she could do was wiggle in terror. He flipped her onto her back and made a few more passes around her body with the rope before tying the ends off to the handcuffs. Then he picked her up and put her in the large bag the tent had been packed in. Panting with terror she tried to beg him with her eyes to let her go but he wasn’t even looking at her. As he zipped the bag closed, with her inside, she remember Nadia’s words from earlier about waking up in her own bed not locked in someone’s basement till she turned twenty-one and wished she had listened more. She struggled to calm her breathing as she fought against the ropes. She felt herself being lifted and tried to struggle more but he hit her through the bag.

  “If you don’t stop moving I will drop you and pick you up and drop you again.”

  Amber, sobbing now in terror, held herself as still as possible. She heard a zipper and since the bag didn’t open she knew it was the tent. He stopped moving and she could hear him sniffing the air before he started moving again. She heard the beep of the car as he hit the door unlock and she gasped in pain when he dropped her. When she heard the slam of the boot she realized he had locked her in it. A moment later she heard the door open and the car start and soon she was being jostled around as they drove away from the festival grounds. She frantically struggled in her bonds, her breathing got more and more erratic until s
he felt lightheaded. Her nose was getting stuffy from crying and fear crawled through her that she would suffocate locked in the boot of the car.

  Forcing herself to relax she drew in as deep a breath as she could before slowly exhaling. She did this a few more times trying to calm herself and keep her nose clear enough to continue breathing. Trying to focus on her breathing gave her time to realize the end of the rope was tickling her palm. Drawing her knees as close to her body as possible she found loosened the rope enough for her to start trying to work on it. Focusing on the knots kept her mind off being in the bag a little but keeping her knees drawn up did not help her breathing. She was afraid if she relaxed her legs the rope would tighten again and she would loose all her progress. A sudden bump threw her against something hard in the boot and she would have screamed if she had been able. Tears spurted from her eyes at the pain but she made herself hold still and breath steady. She couldn’t afford to start crying and get a stuffy nose. After what seemed like forever she felt the rope give a little just as she was thrown around when the car braked. Frantic with fear she tried to struggle with the rope again but the car took off slinging her around again. Forcing herself to calm down she traced the rope to the next knot and worked to loosen it. This time she found the rope gave enough freedom for her to stretch her legs out more but the bag kept her from stretching too far. Pulling her knees back up she continued to work on the rope. She felt it give more and traced it again finding the next knot around her ankles. She worked on the knots and pulled on the rope and felt it slither around her ankles. She exhaled in a moment of relief as she realized the rope now only held her hands to her waist and not very tightly.

  With her legs free she could wiggle a bit more but the bag still restricted her movements too much to make freeing herself an easy task. Finally she felt the last of the rope give and she was free except for the handcuff. She twisted and strained and tried to remember which end of the bag held the zipper. She had been so terrified she couldn’t remember. She was getting lightheaded trying to breath again when she realized she still had the gag in her mouth. Wiggling her hands up she worked it free and gulped in air. Calmer now but still stifled for fresh air she thought back, trying to remember through her terror where the zipper was. Wiggling, she finally got both hands above her head and felt for it. Finding it she realized she didn’t have a little thingy to pull open the zipper from the inside. She pushed and wiggled her finger at the opening until finally her finger slid through. She pushed and pushed, slowly making the hole bigger and bigger until she could get her hand out. Even then trying to unzip the bag, from the inside, with her hand cuffed together proved an arduous task. An eternity later she was stretched out in the truck trying to find a way to undo the boot from the inside. She had read some cars were made with safety releases but if the car had one she didn’t know where it was or how to work it. She braced herself as best she could against the bumps but she couldn’t entirely prevent herself from being flung around the boot. Bruised and shaken, filled with terror, she didn’t know whether to be relieved or more terrified when the car finally stopped and she heard the door open. She braced herself for the boot to open.

  She saw his body as the boot open and had mere seconds to lash out. Her foot connected with his chin before he had time to realize she wasn’t in the bag. Her kick flung his head into the boot lid and his head lolled before he dropped to the ground. Struggling she managed to half climb half fall from the boot onto his prone body. She reared back and kicked him in the head before she remembered she didn’t have her boots on. She cried out as her bare toes connected with his head. Hobbling in pain, with her body bruised and rocks digging into her feet she collapsed onto the ground beside him. Forcing herself to dig through his pockets she finally found the key. She hobbled to the driver’s side as she tried to unlock the cuffs. She still hadn’t succeeded as she got the door open. The light in the cab came on and as she settled into the seat she unlocked first one then the other cuff. Reaching out she locked the doors before checking the ignition for the key. Seeing in was there she reached out with a sob and cranked the car. The lights came on automatically illuminating the small house in front of her. Looking in the mirror she saw Fletcher climbing to his feet. Jerking the car in reverse she slammed her foot to the floor and had the satisfaction of watching Fletcher go down. The car bumped and jerked as she ran over his body but she never took her eyes from the mirror as she saw the road behind her. Turning the wheel she made the turn and as soon as the car was straight she braked and put it in drive and floored it. She never turned her head to see if Fletcher had gotten to his feet or still lay where she left him. At that moment in time she didn’t care if he lived or died. After a few miles she felt safe enough to slow to a more reasonable speed and she began to take note of where she was. She also noticed the car was perilously low on petrol. She drove a few more kilometers without seeing any other cars and no signs to indicate where she was. She wasn’t sure if she would know if she did see a sign unless they were close to the pack territory and she didn’t think they could be anywhere near the edge of where they called home.

  About three kilometers after she passed a parking pull off the car started to sputter. She didn’t see any houses around. Just as she saw the sign for a curve the car died. She pulled off the road and realized she was between what looked, in the early morning dawn, like two dirt roads. As she brought the car to a stop she saw the roads connected into one road. She followed it with her eyes and could barely make out something white. She strained her eyes and realized the wooden log sitting on top of two upright logs said Bowenfel. She started to cry. She knew where she was but she was far from home on the Burnette Highway. She figured she had to be at least a hundred kilometers from home, with no phone, no money, no shoes, and now no car. And she had been going the wrong direction for the last twenty or thirty of those kilometers. She must have missed the signs in the dark.

  Chapter Four

  Nadia’s mum had placed her baby sister in her bed early this morning before she left for work. Freshly changed, freshly fed, little Kimmy had gone back to sleep pretty quickly but Nadia hadn’t. Usually when her mum handed the baby off to her they both went back to sleep for a couple of hours. But she hadn’t been able to shake the feeling of wrongness even after she went to bed the night before and that feeling had grown when she woke this morning. Now Edward was sitting in the living room with fury radiating from him so intense she could feel it even with her limited abilities.

  “No one has seen her today. She came home yesterday evening, did her chores, ate and went to bed. This morning her mum went to wake her and the bed was still made up. Her dad said the bed had not been slept in last night. One of her chores was to put fresh sheets on the bed so he knows she didn’t sleep on those sheets. This means she has been missing since last night. You were with her all day yesterday and Amber’s parents say your mum called them looking for both of you yesterday. So tell me what you know. Where is Amber?”

  “Did you ask Fletcher?” Nadia rocked Kimmy and tried to quiet her whimpers but the whimpers got worse and worse until finally Edward held his hands out.

  “Hand her here and tell me what you know.”

  Nadia handed her sister over to her Alpha and watched as the baby immediately fell silent. She wished she had that ability. Kimmy looked so tiny in Edward’s hands and seeing the calm come over the baby she now understood why some of the parents would call Edward in the middle of the night when nothing else worked. She thought, until now, those claims were bogus. Claims made by adults to make the children feel safer around such a huge man. He could look terrifying if he tried, but none of the children were ever afraid of him. She drew in a deep breath.

  This time when Edward spoke the fury was still there but a calmness radiated from him at odds with the fury. “Nadia, honey, I am not upset with you. I just need to know what you know, if you know anything. She went to bed around nine last night, a bit earlier than normal but not excessively. Her
parents went to bed around ten. She waited for them to fall asleep, unarmed the alarm, and left sometime after ten last night. It is now eight in the morning, that means she has been missing for at least nine hours but no more than ten. ”

  “Yesterday Amber came over super excited and told me she had a surprise. Fletcher was taking us to see a festival just outside the territory. I didn’t know he was taking us so far. I thought he meant, just outside but still in speaking range. Except he kept driving and Amber was so excited. He arranged it as an early birthday present for her. I was so nervous about being so far outside your protection I finally convinced Amber to leave. I told them they could go back today and I was going to tell Dennis what we did. I thought he could make the decision on what to do and everything would be fine. But mum was pretty upset at me when I got home and she left before I could tell her anything. She said I couldn’t leave or use the phone but I was going to call Dennis when I woke this morning anyway.”