The drive out to his dad’s place wasn’t nearly long enough. The sun was low in the sky, making everything look more golden and beautiful than it actually was. Beside him, Sue chatted away as usual, no doubt wanting to distract Knight from what he was about to do.“So I found these erotic cookies online,” Sue told him. “They’re in the shapes of two people getting it on in different positions. I thought I’d get some for Jared and Sarah for the wedding.”Knight looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “You want to give them erotic cookies for their wedding gift?”Sue shrugged. “I mean, they’re rich, like you, so I thought rather than get them the usual crap that they’ll get three of, we could make them up little gift bags filled with things they like.”Knight gave a little smile at that. “That’s a nice thought, but I don’t really know what Jared likes.”“Sure you do. Food, booze, and football,” Sue said. “I already found him a few Seahawks things. We throw in some bottles of scotch o
Sue had asked the mysterious F to meet him at the café across the street from the Fang and Claw building. The oversized clock on the wall behind the counter said that it was coming up to three thirty. She was sitting at a table by the window, watching the people walk by, wondering if any of them were F. She had gotten there a little early, wanting to make sure they had a table to themselves so that they wouldn’t be disturbed. On her phone was a list of questions she wanted to ask F about life inside the humans-first group and what had happened to make him, or her, get out.Sue sat nursing her coffee, her eyes darting to the clock every few seconds. She had her book bag with her with a rough draft for the article she planned on writing. She was about to get it out to read over what she had so far when she heard someone approach her table.“Sue Andrew?” a man not much older than Sue said as he stopped at the table.Sue looked the stranger up and down. He was in his late twenties with a
Frankie had led Sue over to his car, an old piece of crap that had trouble starting at first. Once they were on their way, Sue tried to think of every piece of advice she had ever learned from movies. Unfortunately, she mostly liked movies that involved superheroes.Her brain whirred like a supercomputer—or at least, she liked to think that it did as she tried to think her way out of this. She was sure she had heard somewhere that if a person was ever kidnapped, they should try to bond with their captors, to make them sympathize so that it was harder for them to kill the person they abducted.Oh, God, Sue thought as she looked over at Frankie. I’m going to die.No, there would be no dying, not while Joey was depending on her. She had to do something. She had to reverse Stockholm syndrome this guy.“So, how long have you had this car?” she asked, because it was the first thing that came to mind.Frankie looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “What?”“Your car. I only ask because I
Frankie had driven them pretty far out of the city. Sue only knew the area from times when she had driven through it on her way to somewhere else. It was a pretty run-down place that was filled with shabby apartments that used to be industrial buildings.Sue had been trying to give Frankie little bits of information about herself in her attempt to humanize herself to her captor, though as she had gone willingly, she wasn’t sure that captor was the right word. So far, all of her efforts to get Frankie to tell Sue anything about herself had failed.When they pulled off the road and into an abandoned parking lot that was surrounded by old buildings, Sue knew that she had to act quickly. On their drive, she had considered every possibility. All she had on her were her wits and her workbag. She had been slowly inching her hand inside the bag to grab the paper clip from her research. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to be able to do with it, but it was sharp and pointy, so that
Sue was led inside the warehouse by Frankie and the guy who opened the door for them.“Everything went okay?” the guy asked Frankie.“Sure,” Frankie answered in a clipped tone. “Let’s just get this over with, all right?”The man gave Frankie a look before he turned to Sue. “So you’re the one who likes wolf cock, huh?”“Shut up, Lee,” Frankie said, his tone clearly annoyed. “Where’s Tray?”“Where’s my brother?” Sue asked, butting in. “If you’ve done anything to him, I swear to God I will—”“You’ll what, werewolf-fucker?” Lee interrupted as he got up in Sue's face. “You ain’t in charge here.”Frankie grabbed hold of Sue’s arm and started leading her away. “Just stay by the door like you’re supposed to, Lee.”There was obviously some tension between Frankie and Lee. It could have just been Sue’s overactive imagination, but she was pretty sure that Frankie had warmed to her enough that she hadn’t liked Lee talking about her like that.“Please,” Sue said in a whisper, hoping to once again
The second Sue was left alone she fished the paper clip out of her pocket and straightened it out. On TV, they just kind of jammed the pointy end in the keyhole and wiggled it about. She gave it a try. In fact, she tried it for a good five minutes, but nothing happened.“Shit,” she swore.Okay, she thought to herself. New plan. They’re human, I’m human. I can take them.Even as she thought it, though, she knew she was lying to herself. She looked around the room for anything that might help her, but there was nothing. She couldn’t just stand around and wait to be rescued. If she was the bait, then Knight was clearly the catch they were after.After another five minutes, Lee, the guy who had let them in, came into the office and smirked at her.L“Probably like being tied up, don’t you?” he sneered as he got closer. “What sort of a human bends over for a filthy werewolf?”Sue was smart, or she at least liked to think she was. She knew that the man wanted to get a reaction out of her, to
“Don’t make a sound,” Sue said as she pushed the barrel of the gun against the small of Lee’s back as they walked slowly down the stairs.Frankie was the first to see them. Sue saw the man’s eyes widen in surprise before he looked over to his boss. What was surprising was that he didn’t say anything to alert Tray.It wasn’t long before Tray and the others saw them out of their peripherals and turned to look at them sharply.“What the hell, Lee?” Tray shouted angrily. “All you had to do was watch her.”“I don’t know what you had planned for Knight,” Sue said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “But whatever it was, it’s not going to happen.”“Sue?” Knight asked. He was still on floor, clearly still out of it, but he lifted his head in the direction of Sue’s voice.“Is that so?” Tray asked as he pulled out a gun of his own and aimed it at Sue. “You’re assuming I care if you shoot Lee. The moron couldn’t even babysit a handcuffed runt like you. You’d be doing me a favor.”Sue slowl
Knight slept fitfully for a few hours, the unmistakable chemical scent of hospital clinging to the inside of his nostrils. He wanted to snort to try to get rid of it, but he knew it wouldn’t work. When he finally felt lucid enough to focus, he latched on to the scent of his mate. Sue was sitting in a chair by Knight’s bed, her hand a comforting weight in Knight’s.“Sue,” he said. His voice sounded rough and he felt a little sick.“Hey,” Sue said, getting up from her chair and sitting on the edge of the bed. “Nice nap?”“You got yourself kidnapped…again.” Knight said angrily. “We need to get you chipped.”Sue smiled down at him with love in her eyes. “Deal.”“Hi, sweetie,” his mom said from the other side of the room. Knight must have been pretty drugged up to not even notice that she was there.“Mom,” Knight said as he turned his head to look at her. “I’m okay.”Her eyes were a little red, indicating that she had been crying. She looked into his eyes and nodded before swooping down an