Thanks again to my dear beta, laurazuleta18! She is absolutely amazing! Thanks so much bebe!
And another thanks goes out to anyone who reads, especially the reviewers! *hugs*
Enjoy!
Two Winters and a Summer: Chapter Two
Shannon's head spun in random, crazy circles as countless men stumbled on top of her, all of them pulling, yanking, moving her…and she felt so weak because she was trying her hardest to fight them, but their grip was ironclad and unwavering. No matter what she did no one stopped or even looked chagrinned at her efforts. She couldn't see anything because the men had formed a kind of barrier around her. She tried to scream to get Embry's attention – because surely he would help her. They loved each other, or so he'd led her to believe…
And what the hell was an imprint? Nothing made sense! Desperately she attempted to lift her head around someone's head, and they furiously shoved her back but not before she got a glimpse of Embry…Embry trying his hardest to come after the group. He was being held back by that fucking bastard, Collin. A spasm of anger shook Shannon's body and she screamed again, flailing wildly for escape. "Let the fuck go of me!" she demanded. She was a citizen of the United States and had the right to go and leave as she pleased.
Of course, there was always the alternative: these men were out to hurt her in some terrible form of torture. Shuddering, she banished those thoughts and continued to struggle out of these beasts' grasps as hard as she could. She could tell when they reached the forest, because tree branches brushed her cheeks, leaving scratches and trails of what she was sure to be a mix of tears and blood. This angry thought reminded her of her total helplessness. "For God's sake, will someone put her out?" a growl resonated throughout the area around them. Crippling dread filled her as a large hand clasped the back of her neck. Slowly, two fingers pressed down on her pressure point and blackness filled her eyes…it was only a moment later when she passed out, panicking all the way.
Shannon's feet were tangled in her sheets, and she couldn't suppress the sigh of annoyance…this always happened and it took about ten minutes for her to get them out of the mess. Automatically, she shifted over and reached for the solid, hot mass of a man that was Embry and was instead only greeted with cold, open air. Shannon let out a gasp of shock before shooting up and looking around wildly, because that meant she wasn't in her bed.
And then, like a bolt of lightning, her memory came rushing back and she realized that she really didn't know where she was…only that she had probably been carried there by Embry's pack. Timidly, she gazed around the mostly bare room. She always found it useful to inspect her surroundings before trudging into them.
The room seemed to be about ten-by-ten (although she was a terrible judge when it came to numbers). Next to the small twin bed she was laying in, there was an end table with a plain, blue lamp on it. On the other end of the room was a wooden dresser that she guessed was empty. And, well, that was it. Uncertainly, she managed to throw the blankets her feet had been imprisoned in to the corner of the room and slowly placed her feet on the floor. She was relieved to find that there was a white carpet…she hated the feeling of cool stone or wood on her bare feet in the morning, or at least whenever she woke up.
There were no windows or a clock in her room, so she had no way of telling what time it was. Tentatively, she tiptoed to the sturdy-looking door and attempted to open the door. To her utter astonishment and terror, nothing happened. No locks were visible on her side, so it must have been locked from the outside and that meant... God, what the fuck did that mean? She was being held captive? Was Embry some kind of whore collector? She swallowed heavily and clutched her chest in despair at the thought of being forced into a life as a prostitute. Shannon couldn't think of any other possible explanation as to why she'd be locked up in this fucking bare room. Flashes of a thousand different movies and news on the paper ran through her mind.
She tried her hardest to not start crying, but the tears seemed inevitable… Suddenly, Shannon was sobbing so hard she couldn't stand up straight and she fell to the floor. Her elbow hit the wall and she let out a pained breath. "Fuck damn… Someone help me! Please, help me! Help me!" she screamed, beginning to pound on the walls, door and the floor – anything she could reach. The walls were closing in, shifting in on her until she was compressed into a tight little ball. Trembling, she desperately reached upward to push the ceiling back up, but was only met with thin air. Despairingly, she dragged herself back to the bed with clutched fingers. She fumbled into the bed and pulled the sheets over her cold body and stared at the wall, unblinking and gagging as her previous meal, whenever that had been, threatened to rush out of her mouth and fall to the floor in a disgusting splatter of vomit…she swallowed, and the taste burned the back of her throat which she somehow managed to ignore.
She began to hiccup, and slowly eased into a calmer state. Tears were still running fresh paths down her cheeks, but at least she wasn't throwing up or anything. She pressed her face into the lone pillow and let out a muffled scream.
The door banged open and her head shot straight up in startled fear. One of the tall men who she had met last night strode in and, before she had any time to even mildly react, was across the room and scooping her up into his arms. Shannon sat in bewildered silence for a second, and then started screaming, fighting against the restraining arms and trying to kick her feet towards his face. In terror she learned it was no use because the werewolf's strength outmatched hers by thousands of bolts. Shannon didn't give up, though, because she knew that escaping from this man's grasp may be the only slight, little glimmer of hope she had…maybe ever would have. This thought sent a shiver of fear down her spine and she screeched.
He had been taking her down a hallway, and seemed to hardly notice the way she was fighting him. This infuriated Shannon and she couldn't help but bite him, hard. He looked at her in shock, as if first noticing her, and she glared at him like a feral beast. The werewolf suddenly stopped and turned into another room, and it was there that she was unceremoniously dumped into a chair. Shannon tried to leap to her feet, but someone was prepared for that and held her back. She threw her shoulders back and forth but before she could really get started duct tape was wrapped around her body, binding her legs together and wrapping her arms behind her back. Finally, someone slapped a piece on top of her mouth.
She tried screaming, but could barely hear the sound herself. A deep hopelessness was settling into her chest as she looked around the room, settled with too many people to count. She counted…fuck, she counted thirteen guys and six women and…was that…her stomach churned in absolutely mortification. A little fucking girl was peaking over one man's shoulder, curiosity and slight fear shining in her young brown eyes. Shannon hated these people, whoever they were, for dragging an innocent child into all of us…how could anyone do such a thing?
Monsters, she thought bitterly. Her eyes sought out Embry and didn't find him…she wasn't quite sure if that was relieving or disappointing. She needed to know what was going on before sorting out her feelings, and to do that she needed to calm the fuck down. Shannon took three calming and steadying breaths; closed her eyes and then reopened them to face the monsters in front of her. All of them were staying at her curiously, if not a bit fearful. One of them cautiously moved forward.
"Shannon?" he said gently. She immediately bristled but managed to not lunge at him in anger. He took another step forward, and then knelt down so he was at eye level with her. Her fear spiked as he slowly moved across the floor and reached up towards her face. Frozen, she could only hope to God that he wasn't going to strike her too hard when, to her utter shock, he ripped the duct tape off her mouth and smiled. "We need you to be quiet, okay?" he asked smoothly.
"O…okay," she finally whispered. Shannon's true nature was to fight like hell and come out screaming in the end, but obviously these people wouldn't let that happen. Survival instincts were kicking in, and she realized that the only way to know what was happening to her was to follow their rules. The man nodded and offered another easy smile, but she wasn't going to be fooled.
"The name's Jake…I'm the Alpha, which means I'm responsible for the whole pack. You're now an imprint, so I have to protect you too," he said in a voice equal to that of a man talking to a baby, condescending and superior. Shannon's temper rose in leaps and bounds but she only flickered her eyes from Jake to the other group of people neutrally. A question hovered on her lips so she asked it in as silent a voice as she could.
"What is imprinting?" Shannon asked. Jake's face clouded with surprise.
"You mean Embry didn't tell you?" a furious voiced asked, turning loathsome around Shannon's boyfriend's name. A furious protectiveness welled up in Shannon and her eyes snapped to the person who had spoken ill of him…she recognized him immediately as Collin. A memory flickered into her mind, a weird one at that…it seemed to have happened right before the rest of the pack ran at her, but he said something about imprinting on her, whatever the fuck that means.
"Imprinting," Jake interrupted calmly, and Shannon's eyes flickered back to him, "is a connection made from a wolf to another female who is human…or at least, half human," he smirked and a few others chuckled, as if they were all in on some little secret. Shannon's eyes narrowed in distrust but she didn't open her mouth to interrupt.
"Anyway," he continued, still grinning, "this connection is really strong. It ties a certain werewolf to that girl in an almost unexplainable way… He's completely devoted to that girl. He depends on her, because she is the thing that keeps him on his feet, keeps the air in his lungs…with her gone, he wouldn't be able to live, to go on." Jake swallowed, then turned and affectionately scooped up a young, bronze-haired girl. Shannon watched in shock as the young girl (maybe eight or nine years old) kissed him on his cheek and nuzzled her face into his neck. "This is my Ness," he beamed, and proudly propped her on his shoulder. Ness leaped down and carefully sat in front of Shannon.
"It is a pleasure to meet you! It's been awfully dull here without any new people coming along," she chimed. Shannon was amazed at her perfection, and also a little sickened… This must have been what Jake meant by not all the imprints being entirely human, because this teenager certainly wasn't. She chose to ignore the freakish Ness and focused her direction, again, back to Jake.
"I still don't understand what imprinting is. It doesn't make any sense," she hissed. Jake sighed.
"I imprinted on Nessie, and she's…she is the very most important priority I have. I would give up everything, everyone else, if it was for her. All the other wolves who've imprinted feel the same way. And after some…" he paused, a frown falling upon his mouth, "After a little incident, we've decided that, to protect both the imprints and the wolves that have imprinted on them, we had to bring them to this house. There's at least one wolf here at all times," he finished. Shannon's heart went cold. If she was an imprint, then she would be…confined to this house, with no hope of escape? These men, these creatures, more or less, were infinitely stronger than she was. If there was going to be a thing guarding her every second of every hour of every day, they would stop her right away. No hope…there was absolutely no hope. She took a shuddering breath but willed herself not to cry quickly. Not there, not in front of everybody.
"And you're an imprint," Collin said softly, pushing his way through the crowd to stand in front of her. That man…he was the one who was trapping her here; it was his entire fault…if he had some sick obsession with her, then who knows what he could do. The thought of him touching her, with no way of being helped…she let out a cry of despair and wildly flung herself off the chair, scooting backwards as fast as she could, tied up as she was.
"Get away, go!" she screamed, fighting desperately to rid her body of the restraints binding her arms and legs. She ended up falling over, face smashed into the carpet. Rough hands gripped her shoulders, and when she was turned over she saw it was Collin. He had a hurt expression, but Shannon didn't care. He was a monster. "Where's Embry?" she suddenly asked, panicky. Collin's face quickly morphed into one of hurt to a furious twist of anger.
"Embry and you won't be seeing each other for a long time, honey. Okay?" Collin said, voice rising and falling in an attempt to stay as calm as he could. Shannon gasped as Collin picked her up. She wriggled until her mouth was near enough to his hand, and then bit his finger…hard. He stared at her in half amusement, and this only fueled her ferocious hatred for whatever he was. Who he was.
"Stop fighting," he sighed, pressing a gentle kiss to her temple, "it'll only make things worse for you." A shudder ran through Shannon and she cringed away from where his lips touched her.
"We're doing this for your protection." Collin's face screwed into one of barely concealed frustration. "It's no use in trying to run…we'll always be here to protect you. Even from yourself."