Thorn (Werewolf) ✔

Chapter Thirty-Four

My eyes open and I can only see the ground through the blurry particles. I think that I'm upside down. I can feel a hand tightly restraining me to someone's shoulder. The ground is moving slowly. I'm too weak to keep my eyes open but I wake up when I'm thrown onto the floor.

My hands are tied at my stomach. My mouth is bound tightly. Sky and Dominic are still conscious, their hands are tied with thick rope behind their backs. We're still in the woods so I know that it's not Lyle's men. We'd be on the road travelling back to the palace if they were.

Humans wouldn't be able to subdue the siblings this easily so that only leaves one other possibility.

The man that hit me crouches down and strokes my cheek. I flinch away from him, trying to straddle my body in any direction.

"Now what's a beautiful human like you doing traveling with two werewolves?" he says. He lifts me from the ground and pins me against the tree. Sky and Dominic start struggling through their restraints but their captures smack them, knocking Sky to the floor. The man looks back to them and then to me. "They're protective over you. Interesting."

My eyes narrow as he grabs at my waist. I've seen that look before and I'm not going to be a victim of it again. I curve my restrained hands into semi-fists and I plunge them into his hard stomach. It winds him for a second but not enough to do damage. His nostrils flare and he smacks the side of my cheek. His hands grab my arms to keep me from falling over and he shoves me hard into the tree. I cry out through the gag.

"What the hell are you doing?" a voice growls.

A tall, lean man with shoulder-length light hair storms towards us. He is flanked by several others, a mixture of men and women. They remain in the background with their arms folded.

"She was travelling with them," my attacker says. "She's human. I thought it best to restrain-"

The light-haired man pushes my attacker out of the way and reaches out for my chest. He pulls on the chain and studies the seal. His golden eyes flick up to mine. He turns to glare at the dumbfounded man while holding the seal in his hand.

"I didn't know," the man says. "They were in our territory."

"So you thought you'd beat them and have some fun with them?" the light-haired man demands. "We haven't smelt any other werewolf packs around here. That means she's Cole's mate!"

"I'm sorry, Malachi." The man drops to his knees.

Malachi—the alpha I assume—kicks the man's chest so forcefully that he cries out. "Get him out of my sight. Now!"

The attacker is dragged away by two large men. Malachi diverts his attention to the other four werewolves that have positioned themselves behind Sky and Dominic. They are so fearful that they don't even defend themselves, they just run away.

"Release them," Malachi says. He pulls a blade out from his pants and grabs my arm. He cuts the rope free and then yanks apart the gag from within my mouth. "I offer my sincerest apologies for the way you were treated. Please inform your mate that he will be dealt with accordingly or I can tell him myself."

"Is this how you usually treat people that you don't know?" Sky says. "We were just cutting through here."

"Again, my apologies," Malachi says. The wind blows my hair sideways and Malachi is close enough to react to the scent. "Interesting," he mutters. He gathers a section of my hair in his palm gently and sniffs it. "I thought you were human but you're not. Are you a half breed?"

"No," I say.

"Hm." He drops my hair and backs up a few paces. "Has Cole sent you to negotiate terms of our deal?"