Becoming My Ex’s Mother in Law by Aurora Starling

Chapter 58

I awoke, cramped, in what turned out to be the trunk of a car. Even before my captors opened it up, I could smell pine, grass, and fresh forest air. The only woods that I knew of near the city were a few hours to the north-in vampire territory.

My b*dy stiffened as my captors opened the trunk. One of them pulled me out of the car by my hair and dragged me down a rocky path. Every time I tried to stop, the captor who had a hold of me would pr od me in the back with a gun and yank my hair until I started moving again.

We took several twists and turns. Though I tried to keep track of them in my mind, I knew that I would never be able to retrace them. All I could tell was that the deeper we went into the forest, the less life I could smell…and the more death that I smelled in its place.

After what felt like an eternity, we finally stopped in what felt like an open area. I was thrown to the ground, and someone ripped off my blindfold. Even in the dark, I was able to get a good look at my captors.

They were surprisingly

scrawny, given their strength; they must have been werewolves. Two of them had long, scruffy hair and matching beards, while the third had a buzzcut. The one with a buzzcut had a scar over his left eye, and the scruffy- haired men had matching barbed wire tattoos on their right upper arms.

I met each of their icy blue eyes in turn.

“Zero,” Susan said for each of them. I shivered.

The one with the buzzcut removed my gag but kept my hands bound. He sneered at me before motioning for the other two to head back to the car.

“Good luck, bi tch,” Buzzcut said as he followed his colleagues.

I should have begged them not to leave me, said anything to earn me some of their pity, but I remained frozen where I knelt in the clearing. They were truly going to leave me alone in the middle of nowhere…no, in the middle of the most dangerous place for either a human or a werewolf. And I was both.

“No, please,” I whispered.

I stood up as they disappeared beyond the trees. My legs trembled. I was completely alone now.

Tears streamed down my cheeks. My nails, still elongated from the attack, dug into my hands. Blood dripped from the cuts they made, and I cursed myself for the st upidity of that mistake.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to focus. I retracted my nails and my fangs. If I was going to have any chance of surviving this, I would need to keep myself together and get moving. Now,

I knew that I couldn’t follow the path that my captors had taken. Even if I followed their scent, I could run the chance of getting lost with all the twists and turns that we took to get to the clearing. I also didn’t want to take the chance of running into them on the way.

No, I would have to rely on some of the survival skills that my mother had taught me as a child. The most important would be figuring out which direction I needed to head in. Since I knew that the woods were a few hours north of the city, I needed to head south to find civilization.

I also knew that moss grew on the north side of trees. So, if I could just find which side of the trees the moss was growing on, then I could head in the opposite direction and eventually hit some form of civilization-the city, a road, a gas station, something.

I went to the nearest tree and found the side that the moss was growing on. I started following the opposite direction, clinging closely to the trees to ensure that I didn’t stray too far.

For twenty minutes, I stumbled this way through the woods. My heels caught on several tree roots and rocks until I finally abandoned them. Branches snagged on my dress and tore the fabric in multiple places, sometimes scratching my skin

beneath it.

With every step, my heart beat loudly. I could smell the distinct scent of death and earth associated with around me, but I had not heard or seen any sign of them. This made my heart race even faster.

vampires all

From everything that I had ever heard and read about vampires, they could surround me before I even knew what was happening. They were faster than most werewolves-let alone hybrid werewolves like me-not to mention stronger and more cu nning. I wouldn’t stand a chance against one.

1 was drawn from my thoughts as I ran my hands over a “V” carved in the bark of a tree. I shook my head and made myself move forward to the next tree.

A couple minutes later, I found another “V” carved into the trunk of another tree. My skin crawled. A few more trees passed, and I found yet another “V”.

Then the scent of death and dirt filled my nostrils.

I tried to run, but someone caught me by the waist and pulled me to their chest: Before I could scream, they clamped their hand over my mouth. I shivered at the vampire’s icy cold touch on my skin.

“Look at what we have here, a masculine voice said behind me, the coppery smell of blood rolling down onto me. “It seems that we’ve caught ourselves a little mutt.”

I struggled against the vampire’s hold, but he only squeezed tighter, nearly crushing my ribs. I watched in horror as six other vampires-male and female-stepped out of the trees.

One of the vampires stepped forward and examined me, a smirk on his face. Even in the dark, I could make out his unnaturally pale skin as it nearly glowed with the reflection of the moonlight. His golden-brown eyes were mesmerizing. but the distended fangs helped break the illusion.

“And it looks like someone wrapped her all up for us, Frederick,” he said as he ran his finger down the ropes tying up my wrists. “I wonder who we have to thank.”

“Does it matter, Gregory?” a female vampire interjected. “Hybrids are a treat, and I’m starving”.

“Louise is right,” Frederick said. Tomorrow, we will worry about where this mutt came from. Tonight, we feast.”

He threw me down to the ground as the others formed a circle around me. I leapt to my feet, trying to find an escape route, but there was a vampire blocking every path.

“Kill them!” Susan roared, more frantic than I had ever felt her.

I couldn’t disagree with her this time. There was no other way out of this situation. I allowed Susan to take complete control

of me.

Unlike with my partial transformations, I could feel my bones and muscles stretching as my limbs grew fonger. My spine twisted and bent, and my nose and mouth elongated into a snout. Just as my eyesight and hearing sharpened and fur started sprouting from my b*dy, I felt a sharp pr ick in my n*eck.

My sight went black. My b*dy returned to its human form, and I could feel a burning in my n*eck. I gasped from the pain as my eyesight returned

“No transforming on us,” Frederick said, wiping my blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “Where were we?”

I groaned in agony as the vampiric venom coursed through my veins. It didn’t turn werewolves and hybrid werewolves into vampires, but it did kill them painfully slowly and keep them from transforming.

The vampires closed in on me, obviously enjoying the thrill of the hunt. Gregory hovered over my n*eck, his rancid breath rolling over me. Suddenly, a growl rippled through the air and pulled every vampire’s attention from me.

“Back away from the woman,” I heard Andrew say. “Now.”