Bound to Moonlight by Nina Croft Read Free Book Online Page A

light flickered in his eyes. “Sebastian’s here?”
    She shook her head. “No, but you’re getting out. Follow me.”
    Anya turned and left the cell without waiting for an answer. She opened the next door along and stepped inside. The air was thick with the acrid scent of blood. She crossed to the small cot and crouched down beside it, brushed the woman’s long dark hair from her face. She moaned and curled into a ball, hugging the thin grey blanket around her naked form, but Anya caught a glimpse of the scars that crisscrossed her body, many still seeping blood.
    “She’s alive?” A voice asked from the doorway.
    Anya nodded. “You need to wake her.”
     He crossed the room and sank onto the mattress, reached out a hand and rested it on the woman’s shoulder. “I could hear her screaming. They told me they would stop if I shifted.”
    Anya straightened and stepped away to give him more room. “Did you?”
    He shook his head. “It’s one of our most sacred laws. We never change in front of humans. We never give up our secrets.”
    “Will she be okay?”
    He nodded. “We heal pretty fast, and she can shift once we’re out of the building.”
    “Will that help?”
    “It heals most things.” He squeezed the woman’s shoulder. “Maria, wake up. We’re getting out of here.”
    Her eyes remained closed. Her face was a mass of bruises, her lower lip swollen where she had bitten through. He shook her gently, and at last, her eyes flickered open.
    She licked her lip, wincing. “Travis,” she said. “What’s happening?” She looked around her, her eyes settling on Anya. “Who are you?”
    “It doesn’t matter,” Anya replied. “Can you walk?”
    Maria wrapped the blanket around herself and struggled to her feet. She swayed and put a hand out to the wall. Anya watched as she gathered her strength then nodded grimly.
    “What about Jonas?” Travis asked.
    Anya frowned.
    “The other man. He was taken before me.”
    “He’s dead.”
     “I thought he must be, but I hoped…” Travis rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Why? What is this place? What do they want with us?”
    “They kept asking me about Natasha,” Maria said. “Where was she? Was she alive?”
    “Did you tell them?” he asked.
    “Of course not.” Her voice was full of scorn.
    Anya had gone still at the name. “Natasha?”
    Maria looked at her, suspicion flaring in her eyes. “Who are you?” she asked again.
    “Sebastian sent her,” Travis answered.
    Maria frowned. “How do we know she’s telling the truth? It could be some trick to get us to talk.”
    Anya didn’t answer the accusation. Instead, she reached into Maria’s mind and saw the image of a woman, tiny with long red hair and golden eyes. “Natasha—she’s not dead?”
    She plucked the answer from Maria’s mind. No.
    “Where is she?”
    She read the answers with ease. Natasha was in Russia with her husband and she was one of them—a werewolf. Anya saw an image of a red wolf running through the forest and a sense of wonder filled her. Natasha was beautiful, and she was free.
    The last of her doubts vanished, and she turned away to hide the tears that threatened to spill over. “Follow me,” she said. “We have to get out of here.”
    Why had the Agency lied to her? Why had they told her Natasha was dead? Was it merely to send her against Sebastian? But she suspected it had to be more than that. They had known she had doubts, must have known she dreamed of leaving this place, of finding a family.
    By telling her she had a sister and then that the sister was dead, murdered, they had isolated her, taken away one of the main reasons for her wanting to leave.
    The thoughts whirled in her head as she led the two werewolves down the dark corridors. Maria seemed to gain strength with each step she took and soon she was walking unaided.
    Anya stopped by a small ground floor window at the back of the building, and she turned to face Travis.
    “The alarm will go off