COLLATERAL

THREE

PENELOPE

It was almost eight o'clock by the clock on the dashboard when I finally lifted my head.

I realized that I had been sitting in my car in that parking lot for several hours.

My eyes were dry now because there was nothing left in them to shed.

I started the car without knowing where I was going and I just drove out.

I stopped at a small pharmacy on the edge of town to pick up the prescription I had been ignoring for about a week now.

Any distraction would be welcome now for me before I drowned in sorrow.

I was inside for maybe ten minutes.

Somehow, I dragged around dreading going back home to see Duke sitting there.

When I came back out, the parking lot was darker than I had remembered.

Two of the overhead lights had gone out while I had been picking my prescription.

Also, for some reason, it was odd that there were no other cars near mine anymore.

But I was too caught up in my own world to pay attention to my gut feeling.

Too drained to make sense of everything that was going on in my surroundings.

I was reaching for my door handle when a firm hand suddenly grabbed my arm.

Jumping back, startled, my eyes met with those of a tall muscular man.

"Do not make noise," the man said.

I instantly made a lot of noise the instant my survival instincts kicked in.

"Let go of me!" I yelled.

I began to scream as loudly as I could in the situation while trashing around.

I pulled away from him shrieking and threw my elbow back as hard as I could.

It connected with his chin.

He grunted in pain and loosened his grip just enough for me to act.

I dropped my bag and ran.

They gave chase and I realized then that there were actually two of them.

And they were fast.

But I cut between two cars parked at one corner and kept running toward the far end of the parking lot where the trees started.

"She is faster than they said," one of them called out to the other one.

Of course I was.

Petra was begging to be let out but I couldn't shift in a public space.

Someone could see me.

If I were in wolf form, none of them would be able to see my back anyways.

I might be the fastest person alive.

"Alpha Crest wants her alive," the other one answered. "Circle around."

My chest tightened.

But I kept running until I found cover behind a wide tree trunk.

I pressed myself against the trunk and covered my mouth with my hand.

My whole body was shaking.

Alpha Crest.

I knew that name.

He was the man Duke had been in a long dispute with over territory lines.

This had been going on between the both of them for the past year.

"We have to find that bitch," I heard one of them say as they moved around.

I held my breath hard.

"Alpha Crest needs her as collateral to win this pack war you know?" He added.

"She couldn't have gone far."

Realization was painful.

These men had not come for me because of anything that I might have done.

They had come for me because of Duke, to use me as something to bargain with.

I was collateral.

That was all.

It was all Duke's fault.

The cheating bastard.

That didn't change the fact that I terribly needed his help in that dire moment.

"Call Duke," Petra was bugging me.

I listened to her.

Thankfully my phone was in my pocket because I used it to make payments for my prescriptions back at the pharmacy.

It was also on silent mode at the moment.

My hands were shaking when I pulled out my phone and began to call Duke.

He picked on the second ring.

"Yesss?"

Duke's voice was impatient.

"Duke, I have to speak with you. I might currently be in danger. I have—"

The tum tum sound of the line being cut off made my heart leap in my chest.

How dare he?

Especially when I needed him the most?

My hands were shaking badly as if ridden with cramps as I dialed his line again.

It rang six times.

Continuously.

I had almost given up when someone finally answered the damn phone.

Thalia's voice was velvety and almost amused when she spoke.

"Penelope? Really?"

He was with Thalia?

Didn't he have shame?

I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind because it wasn't important now.

"This is what we are doing now?" She asked me with a condescending tone.

I swallowed.

"Lying about danger just to get Duke's attention isn't going to work."

She thought I was seeking attention?

I wasn't an attention whore like her.

But I didn't say that out loud.

"Focus Penelope," Petra whispered. "Thalia is not the problem right now."

Still I wanted to blow my top.

Instead I inhaled and exhaled.

"Thalia, please. I need to speak to Duke right now. I am not lying. I am not playing games. I am actually in danger."

She laughed softly.

I pressed the phone harder against my ear to prevent sound from escaping.

"You are unbelievable. He rejected you hours ago and you are already trying to pull him back with some sob story?"

Anger rose in me alongside the fear already rimming every corner of my soul.

I pushed it down because this wasn't the right time to go back and forth with her.

I need help now.

"Please Thalia, get me to Duke."

My voice was desperate.

She made a tsk sound.

"He went to the loo."

I swallowed.

But before I could speak, I heard a door open and close in the background.

Then it was followed by Duke's voice asking who was on the phone with her.

"Your rejected wife, of course," Thalia was quick to reply to him with a laugh.

And I could hear the smile in it.

For a nanosecond, my mind processed the fact that he didn't even seem a little bit that surprised she had taken his call.

Meaning she did it occasionally.

And he wasn't bothered by it.

Something that he had prohibited me from doing ever since I had met him.

"She says she is in danger and is being extremely dramatic too."

There was a pause.

"Give me the phone," I heard him say to her and Thalia moved towards him.

My breathing stilled.

Hopeful.

Then his voice came on the line.

"Penelope."

I spoke fast

"Duke, listen to me carefully."

"Go on."

Relief washed over me at the fact that he was now willing to listen to me.

"I was just attacked in a parking lot of the pharmacy I usually go to by two men."

"And?"

I ignored the impatience in his tone.

"They mentioned Alpha Crest. They said I was to be taken as collateral. You have to come over her and hel—"

He cut me off.

"Stop."

His voice was flat.

My brows raised in confusion.

"I rejected you Penelope, remember?" He asked me. "That means you are no longer my concern, my problem or my mate."

My eyes widened.

He did not just say that.

"Whatever you are going through right now has absolutely nothing to do with me."

He was going to abandon me?

My heart broke to smithereens.

"Duke, please..."

The fear I had felt before then doubled and neatly crippled me on the spot.

I finally allowed the tears which were lurking around the corners of my eyes to fall.

"Do not call this number again. I want nothing to do with you woman."

I opened my mouth to beg him because that was what I had been reduced to.

"Duke, no, I—"

"We are finished."

He did not hang up.

But he stopped talking.

And I could clearly hear him on the other end as he set the phone down.

"Take off those clothes Thalia. I can't wait to be inside you," he teased her.

Just then a branch snapped loudly somewhere to the left of me.

My heart rate skyrocketed.

I turned slowly.

I knew quite well that I must have surely been discovered by my pursuers.

One of the men stepped out of the shadows between two trees before I could act.

My breath hitched.

His eyes found mine without any trouble.

I froze completely.

The smile he flashed me was one people gave when the hard part was already over.

I stood abruptly.

Petra was more than ready to take over from me and bolt in the other directions.

But that was when large hands suddenly closed around my waist tightly from behind.

My phone slipped to the ground as I jerked violently from the suprise in his arms.

"Found you," the other one said softly with his lips gently resting against my ears.

I knew then that it was over.