Wolf Moon

by A. D. Ryan

  He stared at me for a minute, his eyes hard and fearless. It made sense; he was on the right side of the bars, after all.

  I glanced down, and in his hands were two bowls. One held water and the other had what smelled like raw meat that was on the cusp of spoiling. There was something else that looked like oatmeal or gruel. Whatever it was, it smelled less than appealing.

  “Who are you?” I demanded, ignoring the dishes and approaching the cage door again. “Why am I here?”

  With a cruel glint in his eyes, he knelt down and slid the two dishes through an opening big enough for one dish at a time. There was no way I would be able to fit through it, but believe me, I contemplated it.

  The vampire stood and turned to walk away without answering my questions, and this enraged me. “Hey!” I screamed after him. “Don’t you walk away from me, you spineless piece of shit! Get back here!” I slammed my hands against the cage doors angrily. My palms sizzled as I hit and rattled them over and over again, but I didn’t care. I was far too lost to the anger.

  And then he was gone, and I was left alone with the two bowls. I looked down and scowled; they were keeping me kenneled and feeding me like a dog. Rage continued to bubble inside of me until my skin tingled and tightened. It didn’t take very long for my temperature to rise; the change was starting, and I wanted it to take over. I closed my eyes and lost myself to the sensation of my bones shifting. I was so hungry for revenge that the pain was a release.

  “I’d stop that if I were you.” The voice I heard was soft and female, and it snapped me out of my transformation.

  I wasn’t alone. Someone else was here.

  “Hello?” I said, looking across the corridor into each cage.

  “You can’t let the wolf out,” she said again. I looked harder and found a tiny shape in the corner of the cell across from mine. She was shrouded in shadows, but I recognized her scent as the girl from the woods.

  “You’re okay,” I said, relief filling my voice.

  She was silent.

  “Wh-why can’t I shift?” I asked, acknowledging her earlier concern.

  “The collars,” she rasps. “They’re designed to release trace amounts of silver if your temperature rises beyond a certain point.”

  I brought my hand up and touched the collar.

  “And, if by some miracle you can still shift through it, the spikes will puncture your carotid as your neck thickens and you’ll bleed out.”

  It was my turn to be silent as I realized the gravity of the situation I’d found myself in…and all because I ran away from yet another problem.

  The girl shifted in her cell across from me, drawing my focus back to her as she stood and started walking toward her own cage door. I gasped as the light hit her young, delicate features. She had to be no more than thirteen or fourteen, but it wasn’t just her age that stunned me into silence…

  I remembered her scent had been familiar to me when I saw her in the forest, and originally I thought it was that she was a wolf… Turned out it was more than that. Her long black hair hung down to her waist. It was silky and smooth—she must have been able to groom the twigs and blood from it since I had last seen her—and her hazel eyes were as captivating as her mother and sister’s.

  “Cordelia?”

  the Blood mooN trilogy continues in…

  Blue mooN

  With a grunt, I finally freed myself from him, and this made him angry again. Too busy trying to fill my lungs with air, I had very little fight left in me, and with the cage door closed, I would either have to gain the upper hand and get the key or let him win this round and re-strategize for next time.

  The wolf refused to let him win.

  When he was inches away from me, I pounced, but his reflexes were better than mine, and he twisted, grabbing my upper arms and pulling them back. Naturally, I continued to struggle as he forced me toward the cage door. I tried kicking my legs up, hoping I could build up some kind of momentum to catapult over him, but every move I made to try and free myself only intensified the strain in my shoulders. I was panicking. I could feel my muscles shift beneath my clothes, and my temperature soared. I was far too stressed out to stop the change from happening, so I didn’t even try. It wasn’t until my newly-acquired collar singed my skin and released trace amounts of silver into the air that I was forced back into submission.

  With the air clear of his initial desires, he opened my cage door while maintaining a firm hold on me. Now that I likely didn’t have to worry about him having his way with me, I thought back to my original plan to escape as he led me down the dark corridor and toward the heavy iron door. I realized that this—even though I had no idea what to expect—could actually benefit me. By seeing the rest of the compound, I could better formulate a plan to get out of here and back to the manor. Plus, I now had an idea of his fighting strategy and felt confident that I could take him next time if it came down to it.

  I couldn’t make this too easy on him, though, for fear he’d figure out what I was planning, so I continued to struggle, just not as intensely.

  Beyond the iron door, it was a stark contrast to where I was being kept. It was bright, the walls made of perfectly smoothed concrete or stone that had been painted white. It wasn’t inviting, by any means. If I had to describe it, I’d say it bordered on clinical, with just a smattering of an underground military operation and a side of mad scientist.

  We walked past several metal doors. Curious about what might be happening behind each one, I strained my ears to try and find out. I didn’t hear anything. Were they empty?

  Before I could determine anything too conclusive, I was being shoved through another door that looked like all the others. The collar around my neck seemed to tighten, almost like it was being grabbed or yanked, and then I stumbled forward a few steps. The lights in the room were brighter than in the hall, causing me to squint my eyes until they adjusted to the change. When I turned around to face the thing that brought me to the room, I was met with the slamming of the heavy door and an iron lock sliding into place.

  Coming summer 2015

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  A.D. Ryan resides in Edmonton, Alberta with her extremely supportive husband and children (two sons and a stepdaughter). Reading and writing have always been a big part of her life, and she hopes that her books will entertain countless others the way that other authors have done for her. Even as a small child, she enjoyed creating new and interesting characters and molding their worlds around them.

  To learn more about the author and stay up-to-date on future publications, please look for her on Facebook and her blog.

  https://www.facebook.com/pages/AD-Ryan-Author

  http://adryanauthorblog.wordpress.com