Chapter 66

Sarah POV

I won’t lie. Even barefoot and wrapped in a tuxedo jacket, I found it difficult to walk normally. I followed my progression from before down the hallway to “VIP Suite 2,” but then the doors were open, and when we looked, no one was inside.

“Goddess, the stink of it,” Zane said, and I nodded. The place was offensive to my human nose. I couldn’t imagine what he was picking up.

“Semen and blood and sweat,” I said, trying to show him I understood.

“Scat and urine,” he added, though he seemed to be talking to himself, as though writing a report in his head. “Leather and lubricant.”

“We have to find the slaves,” I said. “We have to get them out of here.”

“We will, I promise, as soon as we get Chloe and Grace to safety.”

“Yes.” I nodded. “As soon as.”

Zane got out his phone. “Travis,” he said. “Get here now.”

He paused for a moment as Travis spoke. “Yes, it’s true, and from what I’m hearing about a hundred police cars are outside.” He frowned. “What?”

He looked at me, then passed over the phone. “He wants you to explain what you can.”

“Agent Travis?” I asked into the phone.

“Sarah, please, give me the broad strokes.”

“The auction was supposed to be for various luxuries, but it was really the humans holding the pieces that were being bid on. I don’t think most, even the majority of werewolves doing the bidding knew what was really going on.

“I noticed that when Zane or some other prominent werewolf bid, the human holding that lot would show up again, but if the lot went for more than it should have, the human wouldn’t return. So then, after the auction, I was locked in a room with all the humans from the auction. They were wearing cuffs and colors.”

Travis swore.

“When the werewolf who’d won the auction paid, they took the humans to them, but there were also slaves in a large room, and the wolves were just using them.”

“OK, I get the picture. Goddess, what a nightmare. But you’re all right?”

“Yes. Zane saved me, again.”

“Get the girls and get outside. I’m taking the ’copter. See you in just a few.”

I handed Zane back his phone, and we turned back into the hall, looking for the elevator. Zane held up a hand and cocked his head, listening, then strode over to a door to fling it open and reveal a broom closet. A small human woman cowered back into the cleaning supplies.

“Delia?” I asked, recognizing the woman who’d up the photograph.

Her arms came down, and terrified eyes looked at us.

“Sarah Astor?” she asked.

“What happened? Where is everyone?” I asked.

She looked at us for another moment, took a breath, and obviously tried to calm herself.

“There was some sort of silent alarm. The wolves all stopped, well, what they were doing, and they ran out. The handlers came back in and told us to get in line, but everyone was drugged, and a lot of us were bleeding and exhausted.”

“Oh, goddess,” I breathed.

“They started whipping us, and they were going to Taser us, but Captain Martiveck told them they couldn’t carry us all out, and we needed to be made to walk.”

“Captain Martiveck?” Zane asked.

“The guard in charge,” I said grimly, thinking of her threats and wanting to puke.

“But then Zara had gotten many of us to fight, and we were overpowering them, so they left. I didn’t want to fight. I found this place and hid.”

Zane looked around the tiny closet. I wanted to ask who Zara was, but Zane just said, “Good thinking. Now, please, come out. We need to get my daughters.”

She came out, and I wondered if she were even twenty yet. With a growl, Zane reached over and snapped her collar off as well.

“Thank you,” she said with a sniffle, and then she turned to me. “Do you want your stuff?”

I was going to say no, but then I thought about having real clothes to wear and getting my purse and phone back before the police confiscated them.

“If we can be very quick,” I said.

“It’s just down here.” She started a little trot down the hall. I winced and Zane hissed at the whip marks on her back.

“It was totally awesome to see the guards in such a panic,” she said as we trotted behind her. “The captain, the one who said she’d eat your heart when you were dead, she just about pissed herself.”

Zane looked at me in reproach. Yeah, so I hadn’t mentioned that yet. I was going to!

“And then Zara was so brave. They really made a mistake capturing her, if you ask me. I think she was going after the Boss Man all by herself there.”

“Scott Cavendish?” Zane asked as we stopped in front of a door.

She frowned at him, and I realized her pupils were still dilated from whatever drug they had given her. I pitied how she’d feel when the drug wore off.

“Master Rob.” She made a face. “He made us all call him that, the little prick. I hope Zara kills him twice.”

She opened the door, and there were my clothes. I threw off the tuxedo jacket and stripped down to my underclothes, then donned my dress and my own damn shoes. I didn’t worry about my stockings.

“They brought in a horse for the auction last time,” Delia was saying as I turned around with my purse in my hand. “And some monkeys. What is it with werewolves comparing humans to monkeys? Y’all are wolves!”

“So you don’t know Scott Cavendish at all?” Zane asked her.

This is what’s going on, I told myself. He’s back to being the pack alpha and will probably never want to talk about what happened between us ever again. Goddess, I must have looked like such a, well, even to myself I don’t want to think about what I looked like.

“You’re a Cavendish,” she said. “In fact, you’re the Cavendish, the pack alpha. That’s the right term, right? Some of the humans with me knew more about wolves than I do, but they wouldn’t answer questions, especially that stuck-up Rafael, and I bet that’s not even his real name.”

She held up a finger. “So this Scott guy is related to you, right? Well, no. Never heard that name before, and I don’t know a Scott anybody, except this one Scott I knew in school, though she liked to be called Scotty, like in Star Trek, you know? Do you think there’s any truth to the rumor that Spock is a gamma?”

“I’m sure I don’t—”

“Werewolves love that rumor, saying someone is a gamma, or at least, gamma werewolves do, and that’s mostly what we dealt with: alpha clients, beta bosses, gamma handlers. I got raped by a few gammas. Thank God they have tiny penises.”

“Shall we go down to our floor?” I suggested while Zane reeled slightly.

“What’s your room number?” Delia asked, and when I told her, she turned and led us down to the elevator. She pushed the button and danced a bit in place. “You’ll need the key.”

“What key?” Zane asked.

She shrugged, almost hitting her ears with her shoulders. “Need a key to get up; need a key to get down. Them’s the rules!”

The doors opened to the elevator, which was minus its attendant. Zane stepped in, took a look at the panel, and smashed it with his fist. The doors closed, and we went down.

“That works,” Delia said.

It was evidently a failsafe that we stopped on every floor.

“This is a really nice hotel,” Delia said. “When I was a regular person and everything, I would have really liked staying here, I mean, except for all the werewolves. Fuck them now, though, am I right?

“I’ve heard there are some territories that only have humans in them. Can you imagine how great that would be?” She started humming.

The doors opened on our floor at last, and Zane and I ran out, Delia in tow, to our room. Zane had his key card in his hand and got the door open in two seconds.

“Grace?” he called as we ran into the living room of the suite. “Chloe?”

But there was no answer, and we couldn’t find any sign of them.

The girls were gone.