She awoke suddenly and with a start, a strong smell of ammonia in her nose. Keva took a moment as she blinked hard trying to wipe away the sleep from her mind and push back from that horrible smell.

  Her eyes focused slowly and she could make out a blurry shape in front of her. As her eyes focused her head began to pound and her stomach was trying to fold in on itself. She could make out the smiling face of the man who had visited her and shot her with whatever it was that had knocked her out. She tried to stand up but was yanked back to the ground by the short chain that still held her wrists low to the ground, preventing anything more than a kneeling position.

  “Let me go,” Keva spat out through clenched teeth as she fought the pain that wracked her body.

  The man just smiled, gripping her chin between his thumb and forefinger. Keva yanked her face away. The man’s hand pulled back swiftly and flew in a vicious arc that connected the back of his hand solidly with her cheek bone. The strike rattled her teeth and made silence ring inside her head.

  The man stared intently into her green eyes, not saying a word before slowly easing himself back onto his easy chair. He gripped the arms of the chair in his large hands and pursing his lips he said, “My name is Paley, whats is yours?”

  Keva stared at Paley with hatred in her eyes as the backhand she just received burned on her face. She gritted her teeth and said nothing.

  “Ohs comes on. This is no ways to starts a conversations.”

  “Let me go” Keva said evenly, her voice dripping with malice.

  “I cants do thats.” Paley stood up from his chair and walked over to the door and swung it open. Snow began blowing in through the open door and it quickly piled up at Paley’s foot. With a heave, the big man shouldered the door closed. He shook off the snow that had blown into his face and clothes. He sat down in the chair once again.

  “Sees? I would love to help youse and let youse goes, but then you’d die out theres with no ones to helps youse.”

  “I don’t need your help,” Keva started.

  “Youse hasn’t eaten in five days. Youse head is pounding and your throat is dry. Youse stomach feels like it is goings to eat itself inside your own body, and youse so weak you can barely kneel where youse are. Of course, youse needs Paley’s help.”

  “Then give me some food so I don’t die,” Keva said trying to stall for time, trying to stall for… why was it so hard to focus. She had to fight away a yawn and forced herself not to blink. She wouldn’t show weakness to this guy, not now, not ever.

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  “That’s not how youse ask politely for helps,” Paley said. “I have lots of foods, been gathering and storing all fall for the bads winter. I could share my foods with you, but then you’d need to ask firsts.”

  Keva’s head spun she was getting dizzy just from kneeling here on the floor. She had to eat or she would die. She could feel her pack mates so close, minus Erato, and Javier was still a long way away. If she was in this bad of shape, she could only assume her packs mates were just as bad off.

  “Will you feed my paa…friends too? They’re just as hungry as I am,” Keva made herself ask as meekly as she could. She could stomach this humiliation, for her pack she could do it.

  Paley smiled broadly. “Sees? Youse can be polites. I am so glads.” Paley’s smiles slid from his face as he hesitated. “But me’s start to think that maybes youse just telling lies to Paley? Maybe youse are trying to trick me’s into helping you when you aren’t really polites at alls.”

  Keva watched him as her eyes grew a little wider. No, this cannot be happening, what does he want from me? “What do you expect,” Keva blurted out. “You have me chained to the floor and I’m dying! My friends are probably dying too! I need to eat, and my friends need to eat. Please you mustn’t want us dead, otherwise you would have left us in the snow. I’m asking you to please help me!”

  Paley sat back down and scratched his smoothly shaved chin. Looking up at the ceiling and then back around himself towards the door, then into the fire, he said nothing for long moments. Keva watched him think through his mental deliberation.

  “Please,” Keva almost begged. If it was going to save her life it wasn’t begging. She wasn’t weak and she would never beg from anyone, she would die first, but for her pack mates she would play the part. It wasn’t begging.

  “Please give my friends some food. I’ll do anything you ask, just please help my friends.”

  Paley refocused his eyes on the redheaded woman on the floor, “if I help youse, give youse my food, youse will stays heres with me. Youse friends will stay here and be my families. I will look afters youse and care for youse.” He finished and stared at Keva, waiting for her answer.

  Keva had to fight the revulsion that was growing in her gut. This guy wanted a family? More like he wanted a harem. That would explain why Javier felt so far away. But then what had he done with the wolves? She still couldn’t feel Erato and that bothered her, it probably meant that the female wolf was dead, but why?

  Keva forced out the question through gritted teeth and the pain of her ever-growing migraine, “What have you done with my wolves?”

  Paley’s eyes darkened as his features hardened, “I am goings to break and trains those beasts. They’s are mine now.”

  “Train them to do what?” Keva asked. She knew that wolves couldn’t be trained. However, there were differences between wolf born shape shifters and normal wolves. Soter and Hysminai had taken on some very human qualities since joining her pack, was it possible to break them, as it was possible to break people?

  “Theys will hunt and kill and protect me’s. Theres are lots of dangerous creatures in the woods,” Paley replied evenly.

  “What did you do to the female?” Keva asked, needing to know.

  “I kills her,” he replied flatly.