VII

"You can't be serious," I scoff, but he doesn't acknowledge my words as he steps backward, putting some much appreciated distance between us. Making eye contact with his cousins, he nods his head towards me.

Diego's hands instantly latch onto my arms once again, and he begins dragging me towards the side door that Mateo had come out of earlier, the other brothers in tow. Of course, I put up a fight, thrashing against his hold.

"Let me go!" I scream. He manages to get me through the doorway, but, before it closes all the way, I shout, "You'll regret this, Mateo! Be prepared because I'm not just any Alpha, and I'll make your life miserable until you let me go!" Once the door's shut, I'm shoved down yet another hallway.

"Would you calm down," Alejandro snaps, scarcely dodging one of my trashing elbows. "It's not like we're throwing you in the fucking dungeon."

I pause, looking over at him. "Wait, you're not?"

"No! Why would we do that?" He answers, like it's the most absurd thing in the world for me to think that the people holding me hostage would throw me in a cell.

I look at the hallway we're headed down and it doesn't resemble a dungeon... or a dirty basement with wolfsbane laced chains.

"When Mateo said he wasn't going to let you go he didn't mean he'd like chain you up or something," Santiago adds, again, like its the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, what am I supposed to think?" I retort. "You won't even let me walk on my own!"

Santiago hums, nodding his head. "I can see where you might have thought that. Let her go Diego, she can't go anywhere now that we're inside."

That's what he thinks.

Diego finally loosens his hold, and I tear myself away from him, rubbing the spots on my arms that were held in his death grip.

"Follow us to your room, señorita," Alejandro orders, a smirk on his face.

Goddess, is smirking and bossing me around all these people know how to do?

I begrudgingly follow them as they weave their way through the humongous house. Soon, we reach a long hallway with many doors lining each wall. We walk about half way down before they stop in front of a door with the number eleven on it.

Santiago opens the door and flips on a light switch, but I make no move to enter it. Instead I stand there looking around at the four of them as they look at me.

"Now's the part where you willingly enter the room, Savannah," Santiago says, fighting off a smile. "Or else, we'll have to make you."

I remain motionless. There's no way I can take on all four of them. Especially if the legend is correct about Estrella wolves being faster and stronger.

Defeated, I let out a huff and begin to enter the room, but, as soon as my foot crosses the threshold, I quickly turn, dive under Diego's huge legs, and in a flash I'm sprinting down the hallway.

When I don't instantly hear shouts or footsteps behind me, I think I might actually have a chance at escaping—that is, until, I round a corner and slam right into someone. We both go crashing to the ground with me landing on top. I swing my head up and make eye contact with the person I accidentally decked.

It's a girl. A really pretty one with brown eyes and really dark, almost black, straight shoulder length hair. She looks just as stunned as me as we both lay there just staring at each other. Suddenly, her perfectly manicured eyebrows narrow and she spits, "qué chingados?"

I shove myself off of her and stand. She rises to her feet as well, and I discover we're roughly the same height. "Sorry," I mutter, moving to walk around her.

"Hold on. Who are you?" She asks, catching my arm in her hand as I pass her.

"It doesn't matter," I say, trying to rip my arm from her hold. It doesn't work, though, and her grip remains strong.

The hell?

"Yeah, that's not how this works. You need to tell me who you are right now, or you're not going anywhere," she demands.

"Yeah, that's not how this works, either," I snap back. "And it'd be best if you release me right now, or you're gonna lose a hand."

"Oh, really?" She scoffs. "Escuchame—"

Before she can finish, I use my free hand to swing at her face, but she ducks and uses her grip on my arm to spin me and throw me into the wall. I hit the wall with a resounding thud, rattlingly the decorations that hang from it.

"Who the hell are you?" She asks again, her face contorted in anger. She made a big mistake letting me go, though. Now that I'm free, it's an even match...hopefully.

"I already told you: it doesn't matter."

I rush the girl, cocking my right arm back and swinging at her face. She leans to her left, dodging the punch, which I fully expect this go around, so I get ready to swing again with my left hand. I'm caught off guard, however, when her fist connects with my right cheek causing me to stagger backward. She doesn't allow me any time to recover as she swings her own two punches; the first, I deflect, but the second I only narrowly dodge.

She sends a front kick my way, making contact with my stomach. I double over, clutching my stomach with an "oof," and she uses my moment of weakness to roundhouse kick the side of my head causing me to go flying into the wall once again.

Okay, now I'm pissed.

With an angry screech, I push myself off the wall, ram into her torso, and shove her against the opposite wall with a loud thump. She uses her position to elbow me in the back, and I cry out, releasing her and stepping back.

We engage in another fist fight, throwing multiple jabs and hooks at each other that we both successfully dodge. She's insanely fast, and every punch she throws I only dodge by an inch, if even that.

After the one punch I throw, she catches my fist in her hand and uppercuts me in the gut twice before I grab her wrist.

Now we're locked with my right fist in her left hand and her right wrist grasped in my left hand. We stare each other down, both exhausted and breathing heavily.

Without hesitation, I quickly pull her closer with my hold on her wrist while simultaneously throwing my head back and launching it forward, head butting her right in the center of her forehead. She releases my hand and stumbles backwards, hands flying to her head.

I waste no time charging her and tackling her. I twist us midair so I land on my back with her on top of me and then make quick work of putting her in a choke hold.

She flails herself around and contorts her body trying to get me off of her, but I use every ounce of strength I have to keep her pinned.

Just when I think she's going to tap out, I hear voices, and, the next the thing I know, I'm being yanked off of her and to my feet.

I look to my left and right to see Diego and Alejandro latched onto my upper arms. The girl on the ground rubs her throat and gasps for air with Santiago crouched down next to her, a hand on her back.

"It's a shame we only caught the tail end of your little altercation. I'd have loved to see how Savannah got you in a chokehold, prima," Santiago comments, looking between me and the girl.

Cousin?

"Vete a la chingada, Santiago. ¿Quién es esta chica de todos modos?" She asks, rising to her feet.

"Lucía, meet Savannah. Savannah, Lucía," Santiago introduces us. "Lucía is our cousin and Mateo's younger sister."

Well, shit. This is certainly not going to earn me any points with Mateo.

"Uhh..." I say, unsure how to make this situation any less awkward.

Lucía looks me up and down. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

When I don't answer, Santiago does it for me. "Savannah here is going to be our guest for the foreseeable future. She's an Alpha, like you and I."

I watch as Lucía's mouth slowly forms into a grin. "Oh, I think we'll get along just fine, Savannah," she says with a wink. With that, she turns and walks down the hallway in the direction she'd originally been going when I ran into her.

"So, how about we try this again, Savannah?" Santiago proposes. "No surprises this time."

*****

An hour or so later, I'm sitting on the edge of the bed in the room I was forced into, wrapped in a towel after having taken a thirty minute long shower. I have to say, after hours of running, trekking, and climbing, I was dirty, and I'm sure I had reeked, but that wasn't exactly topping my list of concerns.

When I had entered earlier, I spun around, taking in every inch of the room that looks like it belongs in a five star hotel. It has a queen size bed and a small sitting area with two chairs, a couch, and a coffee table. There's also an adjoining bathroom filled with toiletries.

I did some investigating, and—to my surprise—I discovered the dresser drawers were filled with women's clothing. Which is good, because I only packed three or four outfits in my backpack.

I've just finished putting on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt when a knock sounds at the door. I pad over and open it, eyes widening when I make eye contact with Lucía.

"Hola," she greets, stepping past me and into the room.

Just come on in, why don't you?

"Umm... can I help you?" I ask, about to close the door behind her when a thought pops into my head, and I peek my head out of the door, looking down the hallway to the left and right.

"I wouldn't try that again if I were you," I hear from behind me. "You're lucky you ran into me and not Mateo last time. He's not too happy with your attempt at escaping, so I wouldn't take any chances." I look back to see her perched on the arm of the couch, her arms crossed over her chest and her head tilted with a smug look on her face.

I let out a sigh and close the door. "Do you know why your brother won't let me leave?" I ask her, refusing to beat around the bush.

"My guess is he doesn't want you spreading the word about us. The legend says we disappeared and we'd like to keep it that way."

"But what if I promise not to say anything?" I reason.

"I doubt that would make a difference. We don't know you. How are we supposed to trust that you won't say anything?" She challenges.

"Because I want nothing more than to be free. I'm so tired of people thinking they can control me," I admit exasperatedly, taking my seat back on the edge of the bed.

Lucía's quiet for a moment before she says, "I think once Mateo believes he can trust you, he'll let you go. From what I've learned, you're one outstanding fighter. And if you're a good fighter, I assume that means you're a good hunter and tracker as well. Maybe if you put those skills to good use around here, he'll eventually grant you your freedom," she asserts.

"Maybe, eventually, yeah that's promising. You weren't there when I was talking to him. He said, and I quote, 'I have no intention of letting you go.'"

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

"Well, unfortunately, I was not born first, so I don't get to make the big decisions," she shrugs.

"I feel your pain," I relate with a sigh.

She's silent for a moment, seeming to contemplate her next words before she speaks again. "You're an Alpha," she states, to which I nod in confirmation. "And Mateo says you came here fleeing an arranged marriage so you could 'disappear.'" I nod again, not sure where she's going with this. "So, I assume you're a second born Alpha, like me."

"Yep."

"No wonder you have a mean right hook," she chuckles. "We second borns may not have been born to lead, but it gave us plenty of time to perfect our skills."

I smile. I never thought of it like that. While Seth was being trained to take over, I spent every day pushing both my mind and my body to their limits.

"You're stronger than you think, Savannah. If you wanted out of an arranged marriage, I'm sure there were ways to do it other than running away."

I laugh. "You don't know my father. If you did, you'd understand."

"Care to enlighten me?"

I eye her warily. "Is that all this is? Did you come here to interrogate me? Or worse, try to relate to me and get me to let my guard down so I'd spill?"

"No, Savannah I-"

"Just leave, Lucía. Please, I've had a rough couple days, and I'd like to get some rest."

She sighs before wordlessly getting up and heading to the door. I hear it close behind her, but then I also hear what sounds like a lock being clicked into place.

You're fucking kidding me.

I launch off of the bed and over to the door, twisting the door knob, except it doesn't turn.

Because it's fucking locked.

I let out an angry growl before stomping back over to the bed. I get under the covers and force myself to go to sleep before I do something stupid like break the door down, find Mateo, and throttle him.