BLACK

Meat Pie

"So what do you think it is?" Jake asked Matt as soon as they were out the door.

Matt groaned, his mind distant, his though still on Li Er and what he said about the silver bullets. "I think it is a work of someone playing a dangerous game."

"So you don't think it's the lycans?"

"No." Said Matt. To be honest, he couldn't think why the lycans would want to wage war with wolves. They've been co-existing peacefully for a years. There's no reason for that to change now. And besides, the lycan alpha is a respected man. Matt had met him a few times during one of the gatherings, he doesn't seem like the blood thirsty kind. 

"Like Li Er said, those lycans you and Grace ran into in the woods had been punished. Alpha Alfonso saw to it. They're just young pups looking for some trouble."

Jake growled, the memory of that day made him angry. It would have been different if it's him and the guys but they put Grace in danger. "I hope they fucking ripped off their fangs!"

Matt grunted beside him. "I have to let alpha know about tonight. I don't think he'll be happy when he finds out."

"Does he have a suspect in mind?"

Jake suddenly fell into deadly silence. It is as though the world stopped and everything around him halted. He had never felt this kind of sensation before and it scared him. The feeling was not his but danger seared into his veins like it was his own. 

No! 

He suddenly made a realization. It was the mating bond reaching to him. 

"Grace is in danger!" He said panicked. He turned to Matt and Matt didn't have to be told what's happening. He knew the call of the mating bond. He'd seen it before. 

"Let's go!"

Matt and Jake jumped into the truck and rushed to get back into the road. 

*****

My senses slowly came back. The first thing I felt was my throbbing head. Then, the pain in body screamed at me. My muscles ached and my bones felt like they've been broken and put back to place so many times. 

Then I noticed the empty room where I'm at. The cold stone ground and walls. The air is chill and I could tell I am deep somewhere away from the civilization.

I blinked, and somehow I shifted back into my human form without remembering. I must've have happened after passed out. 

"Good morning, sunshine!" The familiar voice called, cold and callous absent of the usual tenderness James like to use whenever he spoke to me. I knew his pretense was a lie. I was right not to trust him. "I was wondering when are you going to wake up, bitch!"

Bitch?

"You're the one killing all those people!" I snarled. I never thought of him capable of such crimes before, but now...."You killed those human hunters."

Silence. James' lips pressed tightly as he watched me with calm rage. 

"And you were the one who killed old hunter Max!" I added.

"The old man deserved what he got! He'd been harassing us for decades!" A muscle in his jaw ticked. "It's about time someone kill that piece of shit! I'm just the one brave enough to do it."

"You shot Charles! He's your former pack member."

"Wow, Grace. I didn't think you have a brain. How'd you figure that out?"

"What do you want from me?"

"I want to make an example out of you."

"Why me?"

His finger traced his jaw, studying me. "Is it really that difficult? You're new and I knew for a fact that they'll welcome you with open arms."

"So what? They've always welcomed new people."

James scoffed. "They all seem so welcoming, aren't they? One big ol' happy family! They're also quick to rid of people." He shifted, anger flared his nose. " You know what pisses me of?"

I glared at him while he waited for a response. None came.

"Three generations of our family belonged to the pack. Did you know my dad was the alpha before Alfonso?"

I shook my head. "I didn't know that."

"Of course, they never told you!" He spat. "They all went behind his back. Can you imagine being an alpha and your entire pack going behind your back?"

"He must've felt betrayed."

"The damn pack voted Alfonso as their new alpha. Alfonso challenged him for the position. They said my dad is out of control. He's dangerous and he'll put the entire pack in danger."

"What did your father do?" It must've have been bad enough to have his entire pack push him out.

His fists balled on his side but didn't say anything. He stalked back to the corner of the room and sat on the floor with bright dangerous eyes watching me.

I made an attempt to set my hands free, shaking my bind from behind my back. 

"That wouldn't work." James muttered as he stood and strode closer to me. Too much adrenaline trapped inside his body. I could sense the restlessness in him. The want to shift, the want to destroy. He's another alpha, no wonder he doesn't get along with Lucas.

James crouched matching my height. "And you can't shift either. If you shift, all those shotguns with silver bullets will go off." He made a show of looking up to the ceiling. 

I followed his line of vision. Shotguns strapped to the ceiling all pointed at me. They were propped up with makeshift ropes that were attached to the chair I'm strapped on. 

James smiled at me, a deranged dangerous gleam in his eyes. "You make one move and you're meat pie."

"How romantic!" I bit out. 

"It is doesn't it?" He smiled and made an offer of chocolate bar just like old times. "Take it, Grace. I know you want to."

I would slapped the candy bar from his hand if I wasn't bonded. I was too naive to know the meaning of food offering to a wolf back then, I was never raised around a pack and mom knew nothing of their traditions or rituals. 

When I refused, James stripped the wrappers and ate it himself. "You'd be so willingly take my food offerings before like a dumb bitch!"

I glared at him as I tried to snap my teeth at his fingers. He was lucky I was tied up or else I would have taken his hand and spit it out on the ground. He'd been manipulating me from the first moment I met him. He'd known the whole time I was a wolf. 

"Whoah!" He snatched his hand back. "Calm down, you don't want those guns going off on you now!"