Frostbitten

BARTER

I WOKE TO the slap of ice-cold air on my face. I tried to nestle under the covers, but couldn't find them. Clay moved behind me. I backed toward him, to snuggle up, keep warm, expecting his arm to go around me, spoon me against him, warm breath on my neck, familiar scent washing over me. But he moved away and shook my shoulder.

"Elena, wake up," his voice was distant, distorted.

He kept shaking me.

I pushed his hand off my shoulder. "Tired. 'S cold," I mumbled. "Window's open. Close… "

I stopped. I wasn't in bed. I wasn't even lying down. I opened my eyes, the lids gummy. A blast of bitter wind made me gasp, frigid air filling my lungs, knocking sleep from me.

I was looking at a car window, party rolled down. Forest beyond. Deep, dark forest, the trees so close I could reach out and…

My hands were bound behind my back.

I twisted, looking for Clay. Joey sat in the driver's seat. I was in the passenger side. The backseat was empty.

"Where is he?" I snarled, struggling to get free, realizing I was bound hand and foot. "Where is he?"

"Back at the hotel. They didn't want him."

It took a moment for me to understand, but when I did, I thrashed wildly.

Joey shrank back against the door and waited until I'd figured out I wasn't getting free, and when I did, I said, slowly turning toward him, "You're exchanging me for Noah."

"I have to. That's what they demanded yesterday. I had until tonight to bring you or they'd kill him. That's why I tried to get you to leave. If you'd taken off, they couldn't expect me to do it." A whine crept into his voice, as if this was all my fault. "I tried to warn you off."

"No, you didn't. You made a halfhearted suggestion that we leave town, but you didn't really want us to go. You just wanted to be able to tell yourself you tried and-"

I stopped and scanned the forest. At any moment, Tesler was going to step from the darkness, and I was wasting any chance I had of escape by bickering.

"Did you hear the last thing Clay said to you?" I asked.

Joey didn't answer.

"Do you think that was an idle threat? Knowing Clay, do you really think it was an idle threat?"

No answer, but I swore he went a few shades paler, gaze darting away, lips tightening.

"You remember what Clay did to that mutt thirty years ago? You were there."

"I wasn't-"

"Not at the scene, but around at the time. His friend at the time." When I emphasized the word friend, his lips tightened more. "You know what he did and why he did it. But a whole generation of mutts has grown up since then, a generation that considers that ancient history, and isn't afraid anymore. You know Clay won't accept that. He can't. If they've forgotten, then he needs to remind them. He needs to prove he still deserves his reputation. What better way than to repeat it, only not using a mutt this time… but an old friend who betrayed him."

Joey went white. Then green. Then red, his jaw setting as he swiveled to face me. "You don't need to threaten me, Elena."

"No?"

His eyes met mine, hard now. "No. Why do you think we're just sitting here?"

"Because you're waiting for Travis Tesler to-"

"The meeting place is half a mile away, the meeting time a half-hour from now. I stopped here because I've changed my mind. I can't go through with it."

My gaze went as hard as his. "Bullshit."

"Bullshit? Do you see Tesler? Why would-?"

"You stopped a half mile from the meeting place. Then you woke me up. If you'd changed your mind, you'd have put the car in reverse and gotten the hell out of here, leaving me asleep as long as possible. Instead… "

I trailed off as I understood.

"I want my son back," Joey said. "I need him back. You're a mother. You should understand."

If my hands were free, I would have scratched his eyes out for that. His son? A kid he'd rejected by dumping him on his father? A kid who obviously needed something Joey refused to provide because it clashed with his own worldview?

He expected me to understand the depth of his feelings because I had children? He had no idea what it meant to be a parent. No fucking idea.

"You want me to barter myself voluntarily for your son," I said when I found my voice.

"You're strong. A fighter. Clay's chosen mate." He said this as if it was an honor I'd won in the gladiatorial ring. "I saw you and him this morning, play fighting. He wasn't letting you win. You're a better fighter than I've ever been or could ever hope to be."

"So you're saying I should walk into captivity and fight my way out."

"You're smart." Desperation edged his voice now. "Clay listens to you and he never used to listen to anyone but Jeremy. My dad said Jeremy was always talking about you, that he thinks you'll be Jeremy's choice for successor. A female werewolf as Alpha? For Jeremy to even consider that, you must be-"

"Freaking amazing. A werewolf Wonder Woman. Is that how you're going to play this? Yes, I'm smart… smart enough to know you don't give a rat's ass whether or not I can escape Tesler. You just want me to volunteer so you'll feel okay about this. If you turn me over, he'll kill me before I get a chance to fight."

Joey shook his head. "He doesn't want you dead. This isn't about status or reputation. If it was, he'd have asked for Clay, not you."

"So what does that tell you?"

He looked at me as if he didn't understand the question.

"Tesler wants me. The female. Do you think he plans to woo me with roses and candlelight?"

"Well, no. I guess he… "

"You guess what?"

His gaze slunk to the side again, "It's my son's life, Elena. And if Tesler wants you, that means he won't kill you. You'll get a chance to escape. There will be time for Clay to get here."

I could only stare, blood pounding in my ears. "You're saying I should let him rape me, for as long as possible, because it will kill time until my white knight can arrive?"

"It wouldn't have to be rape," he mumbled.

The pounding blood filled my head. "Are you… are you asking me to seduce…?"

"Willing or not willing, Clay would understand. You did what you had to and he'd forgive you."

"For-forgive me? He'd forgive me if I got raped?"

"No, I meant it would be okay. He'd still-"

"Want me? Touch me?" My voice had taken on a note between rage and outrage. "Is that what you think I'm worried about? Whether he'd still want me if I've been raped?"

I yanked at my bonds so hard I felt blood trickle down my arms, but I kept pulling, struggling to get to him, to grab him by the hair and smash that self-absorbed-

A flicker of movement in the woods stopped me cold, my rage congealing into terror. I was still bound and helpless, having spent my time threatening and fighting the only person who could save me. Now Joey would shove me out the door and speed away without a backward glance and I'd-

A porcupine poked its head from the trees and looked quizzically at the car. Around it, the forest stayed motionless.

I still had time. Now stop screwing around and use it!

When I turned back to Joey, the fear and rage had frozen over, cold and hard now, my brain and my path now clear.

"Do you really think Tesler is going to give Noah to you? Ever? Why should he? You've proven you'll do anything he asks in the faint hope of getting him back."

"Which will keep him alive." His gaze lifted to mine. "Maybe they won't let him go today or tomorrow, but as long as it's to their advantage, he'll live."

"So you're willing to do whatever it takes to keep him alive? Including tossing them the wife of your old buddy, to be raped, tortured and possibly killed? Just so your son can live another day?"

To protect my own children, I'd go farther than I care to contemplate. But I would never do this-throw their captors another victim to buy time I had no intention of using.

Joey was like a fugitive, holed up and surrounded by police, shooting random passersby simply to buy more time, to keep the cops at bay while praying the hand of the Almighty would reach down from the heavens and save him, because he sure as hell didn't plan on doing it himself.

"And then what?" I asked.

He looked at me blankly.

"And then what?" I repeated. "I make this sacrifice and I distract them, and you will use that time to… "

"I-I'll figure something out."

"Of course you will. You may not be stronger than them, but you're definitely smarter. You'll outwit them."

He nodded, relieved that I understood.

"Bullshit. If you were smarter than them, we wouldn't be sitting here. We'd be up at that meeting point, and I'd be slumped in this seat, pretending I was doped up and out cold. Clay would be lurking downwind in the forest. Travis Tesler would arrive. You'd make the exchange. You'd take Noah. Tesler would grab me and I'd kill him while Clay killed his brother. The end."

Joey stared at me. He blinked. He swallowed. His lips formed an "oh," but all that emerged was a faint sound of pain. And with that, my hate evaporated, leaving only a thin film of disgust, even that bringing a stab of guilt.

It'd been twenty-five years since Joey had been a Pack wolf, and even then, he'd never been in the thick of it. Expecting him to know how to deal with his son's abduction was like plucking a random human off the street, kidnapping his kid and expecting him to make the right choices. I couldn't hate him for what he'd done, but still that veneer of disgust refused to disappear, turning my words brittle.

"You won't figure out how to free your son. They'll wring everything they can out of you, and then they'll kill you. The only way to rescue him is to trust us. Starting with untying me, so if they show up, I'm not completely helpless."

He hesitated only a split-second before giving a defeated nod, and doing it.

"It would have been easier if we'd skipped the whole 'drugging and kidnapping' scenario, but it's too late for that, so the first thing you need to do is get us out of here before they find us."

Headlights off, he restarted the car as I kept talking.

"Once we reach the highway, you'll call Tesler. You'll say your plan failed. You bought Malaysian food, hoping to hide the drugs in something spicy and unfamiliar, but Clay wanted plain American fare. You're going to try again when we go out for drinks later. You'll call him when it's done."

As I talked, Joey nodded constantly, first anxiously agreeing with anything I said, praying I had a clue what I was talking about, then nodding faster as he realized I did.

"Put the car in reverse… and let's get out of here."

He did. And we didn't.

The tires spun, the small car burrowing deeper into the snow-covered lane. I scanned the dark forest anxiously as the whine of the engine buzz-sawed through the silence. He put the car in drive, then reverse, but it only rocked back and forth, getting more entrenched.

"Keep it in reverse," I said as I swung open the door.

I stepped out. It was like putting my foot into a bucket of ice water. Apparently, dressing me for the weather hadn't been one of Joey's concerns. I still wore jeans, a long-sleeved jersey and sneakers.

"Here," he said. "Switch. I'll get out and-"

"No."

There was no time for that, not with the sound of our escape attempt echoing through the forest. I tramped to the front of the car, cursing Joey under my breath, this time for his rotten choice of transportation. Selling a fancy little car like this in Alaska should be illegal. Did it even have snow tires?

I planted myself in front of the car, pushed… and felt it push back.

"Rev-!" I started to yell over the whine of the engine, before catching myself and mouthing and pantomiming "reverse."

Joey nodded frantically, reached for the gear shift and-

I smelled Travis before I saw him, and my body recognized the scent before my brain could process it. I whipped my head around to see him making his way through the trees.

"Need a hand, honey?" he called.

Another scent flitted past on a crosswind, and I wheeled as Eddie came up behind me. To my left was a distant third figure, closing in, the three surrounding me and cutting off my escape routes.

I turned to the car. Joey hadn't noticed the mutts yet. His hands still gripped the wheel, his head bobbing to tell me he had it in reverse now, so go ahead and push.

I looked at Tesler. The bubble of panic rose, then popped, evaporating as my muscles tensed, the fight-or-flight response kicking in, my brain veering wildly between the two.

Fight or flight. Fight wouldn't be easy, with my only ally as useless as a Pomeranian at a pit-bull match.

No, fighting wasn't an option. Flight was-leap onto the car, race over the top and take the only unguarded route into the forest. Run and leave Joey to his fate, hope that distracted them. And why shouldn't I? It was no less than he'd planned for me.

I put my hands on the hood, braced myself… and gave a tremendous heave. The car jumped up and out of the rut, accelerating back ward a dozen feet before Joey hit the brakes.

That's when he saw Eddie coming up behind me, and Tesler, just beyond his driver's side door. Joey waved frantically for me to get into the car, but I knew I couldn't make it, had known it when I gave that shove.

So I waved just as frantically as Joey, mouthing "Get Clay!" then spun and raced toward the one figure who hadn't yet emerged from the shadows. I heard the brothers coming after me… then the roar of Joey's car as he sped off.