The door opened, but I remained curled up in my hiding place. For once, I was grateful to be hidden behind the large plant pot. I had never sensed traders like these three before; their minds made me remember the one time I had seen the river during the spring flood – murky and swirling.

For the very first time in my life, I didn't want to meet our pack's visitors. Nor did I trust them, and it was hard for a Comforter to not trust someone. In fact, I didn't even want to see them, or have them see me.

"What are you looking to sell?" Alpha Sorrin asked. The anticipation in his mind was at complete odds with how bored his voice sounded.

"Perfumes and colognes made from plants," a rough, grizzled voice said. "We even have one that weakens a wolf's scent so they are harder to track. Here, smell this."

A spritzing sound issued four times.

"There is also this one."

More spritzing sounds came, paused, then sprayed again several times. I wrinkled my nose as the smell wafted into my hiding place. There was no way that one was perfume or cologne. If it was meant to camouflage one's trail, then it was only because no one would want to smell it twice.

"Many women have praised this one." Two squirts followed.

"I've never asked a woman about their preference in perfume before," Sorrin said slowly. "Julie, can you come out here and tell me what you think of these fragrances?"

Why did he finally choose to include me in a trade meeting this time? With extreme reluctance, I came out from behind the flower pot and got my first look at our guests.

Their clothing was shabby and had seen hard travel. Two of the men were burly and only had a nodding acquaintance with proper hygiene. The third lanky trader watched me with piercing brown eyes. All three had numerous scars on their arms and a few on their faces.

The lanky one came forward and knelt down in front of me. "Please try these."

He held a small glass bottle and sprayed the back of his wrist before offering his hand to me. I gingerly sniffed it, although I wasn't sure if I liked the crisp smell or not. Judging from how Beta Merric was rubbing his nose, he certainly wasn't a fan of it.

Once I sniffed it a few times, he pulled his hand back and sprayed a different bottle on his fingers before bringing it down to me again. This one was actually nice and vaguely reminded me of crushed juniper needles. I wagged my tail slightly.

After two other perfumes, the man asked, "May I inquire which was your favorite?"

"The second one," I replied, glad he was finished. All the contrasting scents were starting to give me a headache. "It reminded me of juniper needles." For some reason, I was having more difficulty mindlinking these traders than other guests.

"Ah, yes. That is one of our most popular ones. Some chandlers even add it to their candles."

"Interesting," Sorrin replied, gazing at me rather intently, before turning his attention to the men once more. "Do you have other similar types?"

The lanky man smiled in a rather predatory fashion that made me shift away from him uneasily. "Yes, we have two others."

He dug through his pockets for a few moments before pulling out two more glass bottles. This time, he sprayed the floor in front of me with both of them. The pungent scent from the one made me sneeze several times.

"My apologies," he said, not really sounding sincere, "that one is more for those in their human form. It's a bit strong for a wolf's nose."

Considering that my eyes were watering from the overpowering aroma, I wondered if he had gone nose-dead from the miasma filling the room.

Sorrin sighed and frowned at my continuous sneezing. "Why don't you shift so it doesn't bother you so much?"

I gawked at his insane suggestion, too startled to even respond. No one had seen me shift since I was six – and it certainly wasn't supposed to happen in front of strangers!

My staring seemed to irritate him, and his voice echoed with the power of an Alpha's command. "Julie, shift."

Against my will, I was suddenly standing in human form, still in my pale green shirt, faded blue jeans, and house slippers. I backed up a few steps unsteadily, taken aback that Sorrin had actually used an Alpha command on me.

Alpha commands weren't supposed to be used like this! This powerful ability was one that only a ruling Alpha had – and it was impossible for their pack members to resist or fight against.

If used with care and discretion, it was a power that could help the pack and those within it. Once, I had seen Alpha Nix use it to force one of the men to shift into his human form when he had been too injured to shift on his own, allowing the pack doctor to line up the numerous broken bones so they could heal properly.

This... this was practically coercion.

My heart pounded with my inability to shift back and the situation I had just been shoved into.

"Well," Sorrin asked impatiently, "what do you think of the perfume now?"

I was so flustered that my attempts to mindlink like I usually did failed, leaving me to stutter, "Uh, I-I can't tell them apart." My words were stilted, mostly because I hadn't spoken as a human for years. Everything was foreign in this shape. My ears weren't as keen, the scents all mingled into an unpleasant mix, and my Comforter abilities didn't work at all.

"That's too bad," the man replied. His tone sounded like he was disappointed, but his eyes told a different story. Turning around, he asked Sorrin, "What are your thoughts?"

Sorrin was quiet for some time, although his eyes never left me. "I think that last mix was the best one."

I blinked, wondering how Sorrin could have possibly come to that conclusion.

He continued, "Julie, can you mindlink me which one you liked the most?"

The second one was still my favorite, but regardless of how hard I tried to mindlink him, I couldn't. The three men began grinning at my bewilderment.

One of the stockier men chuckled darkly and said, "That last one had a lot of kick to it – she won't be able to mindlink for several hours."

When Sorrin smiled, I backed up a few steps, trying to figure out why he had used me as a guinea pig to test out these mixtures. Admittedly, my mindlinking abilities were quite strong since I was normally confined to wolf shape, but this was practically a betrayal!

"Excellent." The Alpha stood up and came around his desk, holding up a cord with a thin wooden disc on it. His voice once more rang with an Alpha command. "Julie, you will stay in human form until this disc is snapped."

"P-please, no!" I stuttered. "My powers don't work in this form! And I'll be in pain! I'm not meant to be in human form!" Frantically, I tried to mindlink the Luna or anyone else, but the fragrances must have done their job.

With a glint in his eyes, Sorrin came forward and handed the cord and disc to the lanky man. "You're doing me a favor by taking her. I advise against letting her shift back, since she'll mess with your mind."

The man took the cord and looped it around his neck. "Our pleasure. You'll have to break the pack bonds before the spray wears off. That way she won't be able to mindlink those she can't see."

"Good point." His voice rang again as he said, "Julie, you are dismissed from the Woodhurst Pack."

Had my mindlink abilities been working, I probably would have felt the packlink – and all my connections to my packmates – fade into nothingness. In a panic, I tried to run for the door, but Beta Merric stood in front of it, blocking me.

"What about her family links?" the lanky man asked.

Sorrin smirked. "She doesn't have any. In fact, according to the records, she wasn't even born into this pack. The Delvier Pack sent her over the day after she was born since they won't tolerate weak members, and her parents blocked the family mindlink for so long that it dissipated."

His words were like a blow to my heart. Most of the pack knew I was adopted, but the disdainful way he said it hurt. My breathing came faster as I looked around, trying to locate an escape route. I edged towards a window; if I could open it, someone would surely be able to hear my cries for help. They wouldn't know it was me, but it was my only option at the moment.

"How are you going to explain her absence? I somehow doubt the pack is in favor of your plan if we have to sneak her out."

He shrugged dismissively. "Easy. Beta Merric saw a hawk swoop down and hit her so hard that it must have broken her neck instantly. They are so brainwashed by her that they'll believe it. He already told the border patrols the story and asked them to look for the hawk in case they can recover her body before we tell the others, so they'll be sufficiently distracted while you leave."

My hand groped for the window latch behind me. The lanky man immediately realized what I was doing and jumped forward, yanking me away from it. "None of that now, girlie. Your Alpha says you don't belong here, so you're going to come nicely with us. We don't want to leave bruises on that pretty, porcelain skin of yours before we sell you to some distant pack, but if you provoke us, you will find out the hard way that you should heed us."

I tried to pull away from him, but he pulled me toward him and held my wrist firmly.

"Let me go!" I tried to pull my hand free and raised my voice, already knowing I wouldn't be heard through the thick walls. "Someone please help!"

"I can see you aren't going to cooperate. Rodger, toss me the sleep spray."

The burly man tossed another small glass bottle over, and the lanky one caught it in his free hand. I tried to pry his fingers off my wrist, but it was like trying to undo a steel bar. With a lightning-quick motion, he sprayed the bottle into my face twice. I held my breath, desperately hoping it would dissipate quickly.

With an annoyed sigh, he jerked me towards him and wrapped his arm around my shoulders firmly. Without a pause, he used his foot to swipe mine out from under me while spraying the bottle a third time. I inhaled in shock as I tried to regain my balance. Realizing my mistake, I thrashed and kicked in a last-ditch attempt to get loose.

My glancing blows didn't even make my captor blink as he waited me out. Within a minute, the man was mostly holding my weight – not because I was trying to get loose – but because my legs couldn't even support me.

"Open the duffle bag. She won't be much trouble for a while."

"No!" My voice was barely a whisper, and my attempts to hit them were easily blocked and more like a tap.

It didn't take the three traders long to tie my hands and feet up and tuck me into the duffle bag. A band of cloth was wedged in my mouth and secured behind my head to silence me.

"There we go," the lanky man said tenderly, as if tucking a child into bed. His voice shifted. "Just one last thing to take care of."

Still crouched down in front of me, he drew a long dagger out from the side of the duffle bag. My eyes went wide, and I shook my head from side to side in terror.

"Mhurph!"

The man grinned wickedly at me and suddenly pivoted around to launch himself at the Alpha. At the same moment, another trader jumped towards where the Beta had been standing, leaving my line of sight. The move caught my former Alpha completely off-guard, and the knife sliced his abdomen wide open.

Sorrin roared in pain and convulsed, as if trying to unsuccessfully shift. It gave his attacker the opening he was looking for, and the trader quickly put handcuffs on him before splashing an open bottle into the Alpha's face.

Despite my terror, it was hard to stay awake through the haze of the sleeping spray. I tried to get out of the open duffle bag, but only succeeded in rolling it onto its side. This gave me an unfortunately up-close view of Sorrin's blood spreading across the floor as he was being tied to his desk.

I tried to squirm away, but the thin ropes and aftereffects of the spray hindered my progress. Using my bound hands, I managed to pull the gag out of my mouth. Awkwardly, I bit into the bindings on my wrists, finding them surprisingly loose. I actually managed to get two of the loops off before the duffel bag was rolled back upright.

The third man laughed quietly. "I'm not sure where you think you're going, but I really think you need to go to sleep before you see something that'll give you nightmares."

He put the gag back in my mouth and sprayed another bottle into my face before zipping the duffle bag up, trapping me in the small, dark space. While holding my breath, I frantically pushed against the flap above me, hoping for fresh air and light.

My lungs ached and forced me to inhale new air, which was tainted with the smell of the sleeping spray.

"Spread the oil and put the coals on the kindling. Make sure we have enough time to pass the border before the flames take off."

"The border isn't far. If the Alpha and Beta are taken care of, then let's get out of here before one of those Omegas return."

"The Beta is dead. Even if the Alpha survives the knife wound and the fire, the poison will take him out by nightfall. Pity we can't kill him without it rippling across the packlink and causing problems."

"Everything set? Good. Let's go. Grab the girl, and spray the bag with the scent killer. You'll have to carry her in wolf form once we reach the forest."

The duffle bag was picked up and swayed as they casually strolled through the hallway and down the stairs. I fought against sleep and my bindings, although both were winning. The sleeping spray made it nearly impossible to move, and my weak kicks barely made the fabric shift. Even if the gag hadn't been in my mouth, my voice was nearly whisper-quiet.

During the entire trip through the house, I didn't hear any voices. As I heard the porch steps creak, it finally dawned on me that the Alpha had sent everyone away from the packhouse just so they could carry me out without being caught. No one would notice the fire until it was impossible to extinguish.

Nor would they see these two leaving with a rather large duffle bag.

Tears ran down my cheeks as my befuddled mind tried to grasp what was happening while trying to mindlink the others. To my surprise, we stopped walking, and they set me down. Seconds later, I was picked up again, although the man's pace had changed to that of a wolf.

The air still stunk of the sleeping spray, stealing the last of my energy. Sleep swiftly closed in.