“She’s in a lot of pain, you know.”

Marrec sighed. A sad one from deep inside his chest, “I know. And her aggression is getting worse too.” Marrec grabbed a sheath of papers off the counter behind the bike. “To be honest, I think it’s poison.” He handed the papers to Zach.

“Poison?”

“The Withell Pride is known for dipping their claws in poison. Prolongs the agony.”

“That’s very human of them,” Zach noted with disgust.

“But I can’t get her near a doctor. Her grandmother made sure of that. The girl’s terrified of anything medical.”

Zach flipped through the bill of sale and other paperwork Marrec had handed him, “What would she need done?”

“It’s a little barbaric… she’d have to be bled. But one of the docs at the hospital is one of my Pack so it wouldn’t be a problem.” Marrec shook his head, “But not until she knows who and what she is. Maybe I’ll talk with Yates about it. About the timing.”

Zach nodded, keeping his expression purposely blank. “Sure. Whatever.”

Chapter Six

TOC

The arguing about clothes started as soon as Sara had picked Miki and Angelina up that evening. The moment they were both in the vehicle, Angelina and Miki started yelling. That was at 6:00. Sara looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was now 10:20 and these two bitches were still at it. Well, she really wanted to go to this party, so she wasn’t waiting a minute longer.

***

“She is not wearing that.”

“And exactly what is wrong with this?” Miki asked as she held up a long, but very pretty sun dress.

“She’s not a nun. She’s a horny girl that needs to get laid. The least we can do, as her friends, is help her out. That’s why she should wear this.” Angelina held up the tiny black hot pants she still had clutched in her hand.

“That’s just trashy,” Miki snapped. “She’s not going out like that. EVER.”

The two friends stopped arguing as Sara walked by them. She didn’t even glance in their direction as she headed straight for the front door. Her hair was tied into a loose French braid. She wore a green camouflage skirt that landed just above her knee, a slit up the left side of her leg. Her favorite old pair of black cowboy boots, her thin but deadly weapon concealed inside its leather. And a green tank top. For good measure, she even had on her black cowboy hat pulled low in front of her face.

She stormed out of her house, but not before yelling back at her two friends, “You two bitches coming or what?”

***

“Little party?” That was the third time Miki had muttered that. It started an hour ago as they waited in a long line of cars heading to the park. Then they waited for aparking space. Now they were standing in a long line of people waiting to get into what was clearly a huge all-night rave. A well-organized, well-run rave.

“Christ, would you quit complaining.” Angelina was already grooving to the pounding music. “Just relax.” Sara shook her head. The girl could enjoy herself anywhere. Even in line.

It took awhile but they finally made it to the entrance. Large hulking men took money and checked for weapons, which seemed to relax Miki.

Sara stood in front of them. She was hoping this thing wouldn’t cost a fortune. She only had $50 in her pocket.

The largest of the men, looked down at Sara. He stared at her and, for a moment, she was worried he some how saw the long, thin blade she had hidden in her boot. Instead he nodded. “Go on in.”

Sara was confused, “I… uh…”

“What’s up?” Angelina asked from behind her.

“They can go too.”

“But…”

“You’re on the list.”

Except he hadn’t checked his list. He hadn’t done anything. Just kind of looked at her.

“Sweet!” Angelina cheered. “Let’s go.”

Before Sara could ask any questions, Angelina shoved her past the men and into a huge clearing. In the center were a couple hundred people dancing. Booths selling food, liquor, and T-shirts, separated the clearing from the dense forest that the three friends had hunted in more than once.

Sara had never seen anything like this before. She had gone to quite a few raves in her less than wild past, but they were always near or in Austin. This was her boring home town. Raves didn’t come out this far.

Angelina stood next to her and, her beautiful face flush with excitement, raised both arms in the air and let out a “Whoooowho! This fuckin’ rocks!” She grabbed Sara’s arm and yanked her right into the dancing, writhing crowd. Miki followed and for the first time in a long time, Sara saw her smile.

It had been a couple of years since the last rave they had gone to. Miki had school and two jobs. Angelina had her own business, although she never seemed to be there—“that’s why I have a staff.” And now that they knew there was no biker gang waiting to drug them, rape them, and send them off to Taiwan to be whores—Miki’s contention—the three friends silently decided that on this clear, chill night they would relax and just have a good time.

***

Zach easily caught the beer that Conall tossed at his head without his eyes ever leaving the partying crowd.

“Crowd looks pretty good tonight, huh?” Conall walked behind Zach, his own beer grasped firmly in hand.

“Guess.” Zach took a long gulp, and went back to scanning the crowd.