"If I had, you wouldn't have seen her power tonight," Jordan said. "I told you she would use it if given a chance."
"True." Roxandra turned a cruel smile on me. "We were wondering what exactly you could do. Now we know."
"There was never any chance of you escaping," Jordan told me, looking down at me with a haughty expression. "The second you used your power, the Sun Witches felt it. We let you keep going for a while so they could study you. After that, it was easy to track you down."
My heart sank at his words. We'd never even had a chance, and now I was going to be trapped with the Leo pack forever. Despair made me want to throw my head back and howl at the moon, but instead, I snarled at my mate. All the desire I'd once felt for him was gone, replaced only with pure hatred.
He bent down and stroked my head, and I snapped at his fingers. "Tomorrow is our mating ceremony. Don’t even think about running again. If you try, we’ll kill Mira and her mate.” From the deadly smile on his face, he was completely serious. “Hell, maybe I’ll kill the entire Pisces pack too, just because I can. So do them all a favor, and don’t even try.”
I balked at his words, and all the fight left me. Surely he wouldn’t kill an entire pack because of me? I didn’t want to chance it. I didn’t trust his mental stability in the slightest. There was no way to escape, and even if I could find a patch of moonlight that wasn’t currently being flooded with the light from the cars, I couldn’t leave Mira.
I dropped my head in submission and shifted back to my human form, standing naked before them. “I won't run." I held my hands out in front of me in a don’t shoot gesture. “I promise."
Jordan sneered and didn’t even give me time to cover myself before he grabbed hold of my wrist and dragged me back to one of the cars. I gritted my teeth on the protest forming in my mind and let him throw me in with little ceremony. Another shifter picked up Mira, still in wolf form, and carried her to a different car. I tried to see if she was all right, but didn't get a chance before Jordan was shoving my head into the car.
"Get her out of my sight," he growled, before slamming the door. To my surprise, he wasn’t the one who got in the car with me.
The Sun Witches were.
Roxandra sat in front beside the burly male driver, while the other two Sun Witches pinned me between them in the back. The male threw the car into gear, and before I knew it, we were heading back. For a second I debated trying to open the door and flinging myself out, but it was a thought born of desperation, not logic. The three Sun Witches could easily subdue me if I tried anything.
One of them handed me my bag, and a sense of foreboding washed over me as I dressed as quickly as I could in the cramped space. A tense silence filled the car as we drove across the rugged terrain. Neither woman said a single thing until the car stopped.
When I peered out, my breath caught in my throat. We hadn't stopped in front of the house Mira and I had been living in, but outside the prison. I squeezed my eyes shut, knowing what was ahead of me.
The others got out of the car, and for a split second, it was just me in the back. I had the wild thought of climbing into the driver’s seat and mowing over as many of the Leo shifters and Sun Witches as I could. It was nothing more than an idle fantasy though. I couldn't do anything while Mira was being held captive.
One of the males I’d seen guarding the outside of the house reached inside the car. I backed away from him, remembering Jordan’s heavy hand on my wrist. He yanked my bag from my hands and threw it down onto the ground before hauling me bodily out of the car.
“You’re putting me back in there?” I asked, struggling against him.
“It's only for one night," Roxandra said from where she watched from the side. "After tomorrow, you'll be living in Jordan's house."
And sleeping in his bed, I mentally added, my stomach twisting at the thought.
Another shifter opened the door to the prison building, and the big male hauled me through. I struggled the whole way, digging my feet in, but the male was strong enough that he could just pick me up and drag me along again before I could really get any traction. All three Sun Witches followed us, making sure I didn't try anything. Before I knew it, I was being shoved into a cell again. It clanged shut with a finality that had me closing my eyes and holding back tears. I’d gotten a brief taste of the freedom I’d craved for so long, and just like that, it had been taken away from me.
I shoved the thoughts away before they could overtake me. I couldn’t afford to show any weakness right now. I’d have to stay strong and think things through logically if I was going to survive this. Especially as the Sun Witches filled the room, and the guards took their places in front of my cell door.
“Where’s Mira?” I asked the Sun Witches. At some point, they'd pulled their hoods up, and I could barely see their faces under the strange lighting in the prison. There was no answer, and I growled in frustration, pacing the length of my cell. I was still thrumming with adrenaline, and trapped in this tiny cell there wasn’t anywhere to let it out.
The sound of footsteps made me pause in my tracks, and the mate bond hummed inside me. Jordan’s face appeared, just as furious as it had been when he’d been dragging me to the car. He nodded to the shifter holding the keys, and I pressed myself against the wall furthest from him as he entered, wondering what the hell he wanted now.
"This is it," he said. "I'm giving you one last chance to willingly be my mate."
"And if I refuse?"
He clenched his jaw. "You won't. I know you feel the same way I do."
I let out a humorless laugh. “I feel nothing for you.”
“You’re lying." He looked like he believed it completely.
Save me from the arrogance of alpha males, I thought. Of course he couldn’t accept that I didn’t want him, even after everything that he’d done to me and my family. To the Ophiuchus pack.
“Or maybe the Ophiuchus snakes truly have poisoned your mind. Especially the alpha.” Jordan watched me closely and found something in my face that vindicated what he said. “Don't deny it. You feel something for him. But it doesn’t matter, because I'll be the only one you can think about once we are truly mated.”
Before I could even think to flinch away, Jordan was there, crowding me up against the wall of the cell. I opened my mouth to tell him to fuck off, but before I could, he was shoving his mouth onto mine. He gripped my shoulders possessively, so tight it almost hurt. I gasped into his mouth at the sudden flare of desire, and his tongue found its way in. For a few seconds I gave in to the kiss, tugging at his shirt to pull him closer, and then the wrongness hit me again.
No, my gut told me. This isn't right!