Where am I?

             Emily woke slowly. Her eyelids were heavy and hard to keep open. Groaning, she shifted. When did she go to bed? Her blurry sight came into focus. That’s when she realized nothing was familiar. Dust clung to everything. Whoever owned this place covered the furniture in drop cloths. The air felt stale and not pleasant to breathe. Where was she?

             Sitting up, Emily pondered her next move. She felt like she should go back to sleep, but her brain registered that this wasn’t a safe place to sleep. She needed to get out of this building so she could breathe. Stumbling to her feet, she found the door in the gloomy room. Her feet felt sluggish and weighted. But she made it to the door to find out that it's locked. The door handle and lock were old, and she couldn’t see the key anywhere.

             Frustrated, she even looked through the keyhole to see if the key was in the lock on the other side of the door. No such luck. Someone took the key with them. Cursing quietly to herself, Emily moved on toward the window and she came up with no better luck there. The windows were warped and painted shut. Ugh, now what could she do to get out of here? Someone knew she was trapped in here. That means someone should come back to at least feed her or let her out. The door looked old and solid.

             She slid down to the floor and contemplated the room. What could she try? Should she investigate the drawers in hopes they hid a key to the room in one?

             What got her here? She remembered searching for James. No, wait. She’d found him. After that, her memory got jumbled and she couldn’t place what happened. But Emily suspected that she’d found herself attacked or drugged. By the feel of the fur in her mouth and her powerful urge to brush her teeth. She’d assume that it’s the latter.

             Was James safe? Where was he and why couldn’t she remember what happened to him? How could she get out of here and look for him? He could suffer from an injury or… Emily couldn’t think like that. He must be nearby. Why would someone take her and not him?

             It wasn’t like she was important to anyone right now. Her future mate held the position of Beta within his pack. But she wasn’t his mate yet and he wouldn’t know she was missing. Well, unless she’d been unconscious for twenty-four hours or more, then Emily couldn’t hedge a bet about whether Damon knew she was missing.

             But where was James? Who would have done this? What did it get them? Was it profit? Or power? Did they make their demands yet? Or did she need to wait to find out, and how long would she need to wait for before she’d find out that piece of information?

             With her knees pulled up, Emily rested her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. She struggled to clear her head of whatever they’d used on her. Should she break the glass of the window to escape? The glass looked fragile in its frame. Its noise may alert someone to her escaping, and they’d probably catch her before she got far. Was there some way of breaking the glass without making a sound?

             While she mulled this over, the key rattled in the lock. Quickly, she got to her feet and backed away toward the far end of the room. Her eyes wide, she searched for a weapon. Finding none, she tried to shift, and to her ultimate horror, even though her mind was willing. Her body did nothing. Whoever drugged her added wolfsbane to the sedatives. Now its poison ran through her body, leaving her unable to shift. She was effectively a strong human and nothing more.

             Emily could only think about how she's determined not to end up a statistic. If James was here, she must get him out, too. The door swung open with a creak of dry hinges. There stood James. He held a tray of food. He’d pasted on his face a lopsided grin. “Oh, well, you’re awake finally.”

             “What the hell, James? What’s going on? Where are we? I need to get going or I won’t make my flight.” Emily strode to him. “Who did this, and why?”

             “Don’t worry, you’ll need to get a later flight if you leave at all. We need to talk first.” James put the tray of food down and shut the door. Locking it and pocketing the key.

             “What are you talking about? You have a pack to run, and I have a mate to meet. People are expecting us. What do we need to talk about?” Emily couldn’t believe he acted so calm. Did that mean he’d kidnapped her? What would make him do such a crazy thing?

             “Several things. I’ve been thinking about everything since you announced you were abandoning me. My mother was correct. We both are hiding from things we never dealt with in our past. Things we experienced together. Yet instead of supporting each other and talking it out then, we bottled it up and said nothing. I can’t do that anymore. No, I won’t do it anymore. We both lost loved ones that night. But we never got the chance to mourn them.”

             “James, this isn’t a suitable topic to speak about. I don’t want to feel that again, and I don’t want to see you go through that pain again. No, we won’t talk about it.”

              “I won’t let you go until we talk about it. Do I make myself clear?” Emily couldn’t believe he was using his alpha tone on her. He never did that to her. Now she felt betrayed by it. Not by him. She felt betrayed by him, and she wouldn’t admit to him that, that was the feeling she carried with her from the day she found out that he and Rebecca would mate.

             The night the celebration of their mating was to happen, the pack found themselves under attack. They'd all been unprepared for the attack, and the rogues killed many. But the worst part was, in fact, that the rogues were ill, or at least one or two were ill. Emily remembered fighting alongside Rebecca and James, with Eva somewhere in the background.

             “No, I won’t talk about it.”

             “You will.” His voice was deep with his command.