Saving His Mate (A vampire-werewolf romance) by Savannah Stuart, Katie Reus Read Free Book Online Page B

in the ceiling. She could scent normal foliage, moldy hay and pecan trees. She could even scent traces of the ocean, but the salty tinge in the air was incredibly faint. Which gave her hope that they hadn’t gone too far. Maybe ten or so miles from the main beach strip. Margery couldn’t know for sure but she didn’t think they would have been able to go far because the woman who’d taken her was a vampire. Not with sunrise only a couple hours away. Her sense of time was skewed along with everything else but her animal sensed that not much time had elapsed. Her animal had also sensed the female was a vamp right before she’d fallen unconscious.
    When the trapdoor opened, Margery laid her muzzle on her paws, feigning sleep as she kept her breathing and heartbeat as steady as possible.
    “She’s still out,” the female murmured.
    “We should just kill her now,” a male said.
    Margery forced herself not to tense or change her breathing, but if these two tried to kill her, she was taking one of them with her. She might be weak right now but if one of them got close enough, she’d rip their throat out.
    “Not yet,” the female snapped as she shut the door. “She’s our only bargaining chip for Stanley…” Her voice grew fainter as she left, but Margery couldn’t even hear them walking away.
    She also hadn’t heard them approach. Either she was weaker than she thought or they’d used their vampiric gift of speed to sneak up on the door—or they hadn’t left at all. Maybe they were just waiting to see if she’d been faking being asleep.
    Margery remained unmoving for long minutes and when no other sounds came, she took a risk and stood up on shaky legs. When the trapdoor didn’t fly open, she tugged on the chain with her paw. It scraped against the ground noisily.
    Automatically she tensed, but the door remained shut.
    The silver kept burning her insides in a way that was nearly indescribable other than pure pain, but she was becoming more lucid, stronger. Her legs and paws were thicker than when in human form so she knew her only chance of escape was to shift forms.
    Taking a deep breath, she fought through the pain of the poison in her system and forced herself to undergo the change. A different kind of pain, more discomfort than anything, rippled through her as skin replaced fur and her bones shifted and realigned.
    In moments she was human again, crouching on the dusty ground on all fours. But she smiled when the shackle slid off her slim wrist. Hell yeah.
    Now all she had to do was get out of this prison. As she stood, she felt more of her strength returning thanks to the change back from wolf to human. And the pain from the silver was more of a dull throb affecting her muscles now. Still incredibly uncomfortable, but she could deal with that. Discomfort was better than death.
    At over two hundred years old she was strong. Clearly more so than those vampires had realized. They had to be young.
    On bare feet she started climbing the wooden rungs, careful on each step. She might be regaining her strength but she was unsteady. Still no sounds from above. As she reached the trapdoor, she tentatively pressed her palm against it.
    It pushed up half an inch then stopped. A chain rattled against the door. With the slight opening she could see the end of it bolted to a concrete slab. Taking a deep breath, she called on all her strength and shoved up against the door.
    She felt the force of the impact all the way to her bones. The door snapped up, pulling the chain free from the ground as it flipped open. Because of the awkward angle she lost her balance and started to fall. Scrambling, she tried to grab the ladder but her reflexes were too sluggish after that use of her waning strength.
    She bit back a cry of pain as she slammed back to the ground. No sound from above. No once coming after her.
    Shoving up, she started climbing the ladder again. Nothing was keeping her from getting out of here.
    * * *
    Rex rolled