Free Dark Moon Rising (The Revenant Book 2) by Kali Argent Page A

hand up when he reached for her. “I said I’d listen to what you have to say. That doesn’t mean I trust you.”
    When they’d met, she’d trust him blindly, all because of who he was to her. Her life depended on her not making the same mistake again.

CHAPTER FIVE
    When the party ended and the lights turned out for the night, enforcers led Rhys and the other prisoners down the winding walkways to an enclosure that had once housed the zoo’s primates. Giant boulders rose up from the tall grass and twisted, leafless trees reached halfway up the stone wall that surrounded the manufactured jungle. The sound of splashing water greeted them, courtesy of a thin waterfall that emptied into one of the enclosure’s streams, and just past a log bridge, a heavy, steel door led to a dimly lit storage area.
    The enforcers guided them there first. “You have three minutes to find something to change into and grab a blanket,” Timothy Ditton, one of the pack’s older enforcers announced. He sounded impatient. Maybe his knee was acting up again. “Put your party clothes in that hamper by the door.”
    No one moved.
    “Move it!” Ditton barked. “I don’t have all night.”
    Glaring at the enforcer, Thea approached the first table with its pile of T-shirts, shorts, sweatpants, and tank tops strewn from one end to the other in no discernible order. Holding up a white T-shirt with the zoo logo on the front, she read the tag inside and set it to one side. Then another. And another.
    “What the hell are you doing?” Folding his arms over his chest, Ditton snarled. “I said three minutes.”
    “Unless you want these people to freeze to death before tomorrow night, I suggest you sit down and shut the fuck up.”
    Thea glared at the enforcer, not giving an inch, until he finally grumbled under his breath and dropped into a chair at the end of the second table. The pack dressed up their prisoners for the Gatherings to mess with their heads, but the clothes on the table represented a more functional need—keeping their playthings alive until the full moon. The alpha didn’t just want death, he wanted violence and carnage. No one got excited over hypothermia.
    Rhys had never met anyone—male or female—like Thea Mendez, and he stood in awe of her tenacity and compassion. He’d broken her trust by withholding information, and while he didn’t expect her forgiveness, he hoped she’d understand why it had been necessary.
    He wanted to help, but he didn’t imagine she’d appreciate his company just yet. Instead, he turned to the group lined up against the wall and rested his hands on his hips.
    “Everyone listen up. We’re going to sort you into groups to make this faster.” He pointed to the right. “Males line up over here.” Once the men started moving, he held his left hand out to the side. “Females here.”
    When they’d formed two single-file lines, Abby and Zerrik took over, moving down the rows to ask each person’s size. Willing to accept Thea’s wrath, Rhys finally approached the long table and picked up a pair of navy blue sweatpants from the heap. After checking the size, he passed it to Zerrik, who then handed it off to one of the human males with thick-framed glasses and short, blond hair.
    Thea said nothing.
    Ditton had to remove the shackles around the humans’ hands in order for them to dress, which he then replaced with new collars—shock collars much slimmer and less powerful than the others. Clearly, killing a prisoner by accidently electrocuting them had as much entertainment value as watching them freeze to death.
    Working together, they managed to get everyone dressed and out of the storage room within ten minutes. Not even Ditton complained. Amidst taunts and disparagements, the enforcers left them for the night with the reminder that someone would be watching. The alpha hadn’t lied about that. Someone was always watching.
    “We need to build a fire.” Picking up a broken twig from the