The Dual Claim

st in case I had to make a run for it. I told myself to keep walking, keep

swept across the cracked pavement as it made a U-turn. A black SUV sl

out of it-broad, heavy, faces that were focused and me

tallest said. "You'

s, tried to sound bra

d for the Alp

tunned me a

e forward. I twisted, kicked once, twice. Useless. They tossed me in the back seat

ne on my left jiggled his knee like motion kept him from breaking someth

dy s

ed, trying to make things make sense. The A

hing to anyone. It doesn'

eflection in the glass, the alley. A shadow peeled itself off the corner and stayed there,

urned and the

the road until they felt like walls. The air thic

, I dreamed I'd live in, loomed at the top of the hill. Flags at half-mast sna

d reach for it. His hand clamped aro

," I

t. A woman gasped as I went by as if my mere presence tainted

pack members moved about, c

ith no windows, then through a big solid door to stairs that went down. We descended down a few flights until the on

th a steel bar thick as my arm. A guard lifte

ls, a cot with a mattress thinner than the one in Wane

on the wall; then the door slammed, a bolt slide, an

Then I walked the perimeter of my chain to

years of other bodies-sweat sunk deep, grime rubbed in, maybe wors

rough her ears...a door thudding shut, something dropped and hushed too fa

ffling any sounds I might have hea

ards came in. One set a tray inside

tin cup. I drank. The water tasted like nothing but reminded my

side the door. Not

"Why else cut out in t

that solved a math problem. "That's how

grunted hi

came bac

ed up, cauti

flick

" I told the ceiling

es trust instinct. Orielle knew his wolf called

ugh I kn

changing the antiquated torch at some point. Somewhere high up, a h

the one who spoke about order at the bon

a sneer on his lips. "E

The loc