by Cheree Alsop
“It's not your fault you're a werewolf,” I pointed out. My heart ached for her pain. “Your parents would agree.”
She gave me a sad smile. “I miss them.”
“You'll see them again, don't worry.” I met the eyes of the werewolf across the alley, daring him to disagree. “We'll get out of here.” He snorted softly and turned around so his back was to us.
The door at the end of the room opened and four men walked in. “Gear up, newbie,” the werewolf on my right whispered. “They're coming for you.”
Their footsteps sounded loud in the cold gray room. Werewolves backed away from them and kept their eyes down as if afraid that eye contact would result in another beating. The men hit several of the cages as they passed, throwing taunting threats to the werewolves who cowered before them.
“Ready for another visit, mutt?” one asked, mocking a werewolf near the door.
“Miss me, sweetheart?” another said in a cruel tone that twisted in my gut as he hit a cage with his silver baton.
A guard hit Gem’s cage and she met his eyes in a small act of defiance. He paused, his eyes glittering dangerously. “Looks like you need a little more attention,” he said. “I’ll make sure you get it.”
The men stopped at my cage and a surge of adrenaline ran through my veins. I fought to keep from phasing to protect myself, pushing the instincts down with the threat of Jake’s words lingering in the back of my mind. The men opened the cage door and motioned for me to come out. My feet burned when I walked across the bare bars, but I didn't let it show. One of the men shoved me and I stumbled, but I kept my footing and walked quietly with them past the cages of weary werewolves who watched me with mixed expressions of trepidation and sorrow.
One older woman in the cage nearest the door held the bars with age-spotted fingers. “Be strong,” she whispered.
A guard hit her cage with a silver baton and she cowered against the back, but I met her eyes briefly and nodded before they shoved me through the door. The depth of pain, hunger, and hopelessness in her pale blue eyes haunted my soul.
***
We made a very brief stop so I could relieve myself in a bucket in a corner while the guards turned their backs. I was informed that I would be given two such breaks a day, so to make them count. I was then led into a gray room where reinforced silver handcuffs were slapped around my wrists and looped across a cargo hook hanging from the ceiling. One of the guards that I recognized from the Four Corners meeting with Nora’s dad pushed a button on a remote and the hook rose until my toes barely brushed the ground. The position made it hard to breathe and the ache in my side started to throb with my heartbeat.
“Think you could kidnap my daughter and not face the consequences?” Rob asked. He stepped into a view wearing a black tank-top and black pants that smelled of werewolf blood.
“Good to see you again,” I said as pleasantly as I could muster.
He smiled, then punched me in the left side. I grimaced, but didn't give him the pleasure of hearing me yell. “It is pleasant to see me, isn't it?” he asked before punching me in the same place again.
I breathed out with the blow and concentrated on my heartbeat, willing my body not to phase and give in to the humiliation Jake spoke about. I refused to let them treat me like an animal, and the pride of the wolf in me agreed.
“A tough one, huh? Well, we have ways of breaking tough cases, don't we, Jeff?” Rob said. The guard with the button handed Rob a set of silver-plated gloves.
Rob pulled them on with a grim smile. “We have several preliminary questions to get out of the way. First, where's your pack? Nora's obviously been compromised by your lies and won't tell me, so it's up to you to give them up.” He smiled when I didn't answer and punched me in the left side again.
Pain ran from my skin deep into my side and I gasped.
Rob gave a satisfied nod. “Hurts, doesn't it? The silver penetrates your natural defenses and allows you to feel the blows like an ordinary man. Convenient, isn't it?”
I held onto his statement that Nora wouldn't tell him the location of Two. The thought sent a surge of hope through my mind and also an echoing reminder of our kiss, the taste of her lips, and the heat of her hand against my chest.
The memory was shattered when Rob punched my right side with the silver-plated gloves. Pain exploded through my stomach and ribs with such force I couldn't hold in a yell of agony. The blow sucked the air from my body and zapped my strength so that I hung in the handcuffs with my toes brushing the ground.
When I met his eyes, Rob's eyebrows lifted. “You might be the biggest werewolf I’ve ever seen, but it seems even the giant has a weakness,” he said. He punched the spot again and nodded when I yelled. He turned me on the chain and examined the scar on my right side. “What happened here?”
Fear of the pain and salvaging what was left of my pride made me speak. “I got it saving your daughter from a flash flood.”
A flicker of emotion ran across his face and for one moment I thought he would be merciful, then his eyes hardened. “She left against orders, compromised herself, and cost me two-dozen Hunters in training. She would have deserved what she got.” He punched my side again so hard black stars appeared in my vision and my thoughts grew hazy.
“Where’s your pack?” he demanded.
He punched me again, tearing another yell from my unwilling lips, but I refused to answer.
“You will phase,” he promised. “You'll tell me where you pack is, then show me the color of your fur so I know what kind of a coward you are.” He hit me again, but my body was growing numb and I merely gasped.
“Do you think he's an Alpha?” Jeff asked quietly from his side.
“There's only one way to find out,” Rob replied grimly. He hit me again and when I didn't respond, he pulled me around to face him. “Phase,” he shouted so loud my ears rang. I gave him a small smile and almost laughed at the anger that answered it. He hit me again and again, but I was the one in control and we both knew it.
“You don't want to phase? I'll live to make you regret it.” Something hissed across the floor. I opened my eyes to see the nine whips of the cat-o-nine tails coated in silver. “You'll phase, or you'll die,” Rob promised.
I closed my eyes and the sound of the whips through the air whistled loud in my ears before they bit into the skin of my back with a pain that sent electric shocks down my legs. I gritted my teeth so hard I was worried they would break, but an agonized yell betrayed me at the next lashing.
Rob whipped me until I no longer had the strength left to yell and I hung by my bleeding wrists, but I refused to phase. The grim pleasure I took in defying him was long gone, and I held onto my self-control because it was the last thing I had. His questions burned in my ears, but the answers to them had long fled my mind.
“Get him down,” his deep, angry voice commanded.
The hook lowered with agonizing slowness until someone detached my handcuffs and I fell to the ground. Blood poured from the gashes across my back, but I couldn't feel them past the burning of the silver. I wondered vaguely if my back would heal striped like Jake's. It felt like a mess of raw hamburger meat.
“What should we do with the body?” Jeff didn't bother to hide his disgust.
“Throw him in his cage. If he survives, we'll start over next time,” came Rob's gruff response. A door slammed and his footsteps faded away.
I was dragged from the room by the handcuffs and vaguely aware of the cold tile floor of the werewolf room, a dim difference to the cold, porous cement in Rob’s torture center. The guards grumbled about getting blood on themselves before they bent and chucked me heavily into the cage. The burn of the silver-coated bars under my skin felt like a lover's caress compared to the red, fiery pain of my back. I listened partially-conscious as the guards' footsteps left the room, returning it to the silence that had met our entrance.
“He didn't phase,” Jake said from across the room. His statement carried such amazement a
nd disbelief that if I could have found the strength to speak, I would have told him there was a point where phasing was the only thing Rob couldn't take from me. Through the pain, I would have told him the location of Two, of my parents, even of the dead Hunters' bodies, but the agony was so intense I couldn't even remember where they were. That I would have betrayed everyone burned in my heart with fierce shame.
“He must be an Alpha,” Gem said quietly next to me. “Only an Alpha could have resisted, and even then, I've never seen it happen.”
“They kill Alphas as soon as they find out that's what they are,” the werewolf on my other side pointed out.
“Then maybe we're lucky he was strong enough not to phase,” Gem concluded softly.
A hand touched my side, pulling down the blanket they had thrown over my back and shoulders to keep me from bleeding down the hallway as they dragged me.
“Oh my goodness,” she said with a gasp.
“He'll bleed to death if those wounds don't heal,” the woman further down replied.
“What do I do?” Gem asked with a tremor in her voice.
“Let me die,” I forced out.
Her hand paused on my shoulder, then her voice strengthened and her touch was sure. “You're not dying if I can help it. You didn't give up in there, so you sure better not give up out here. I'm too young to watch my friends die.”
“You know the wolves that never come back are dead, right?” Jake asked in a tone meant to be humorous.
“I've never watched them die,” Gem shouted with a surge of anger that cut through the fog of my pain. “And I'm not about to,” she concluded sharply with such agony in her voice that I was taken back to when I sat next to Nora in the shower, consoling her at the loss of her friends that I had helped kill.
They were both too young to see what they had seen. I would do whatever I could to lessen that. The irony that I wasn’t much older than either of them sent a surge of determination through my body.
“It burns,” I said softly through teeth clenched with the remaining strength I had.
“It's the silver,” the woman down the row replied. “Gem, you've got to wash it out the best you can or his wounds will fester and never heal.”
The sound of metal touching metal followed, then cold water was poured on my back. More water followed as werewolves passed their water rations through the bars to Gem's cage. The cold water eased the pain and the burning agony gave way to the relief of unconsciousness.
“Hang in there,” Gem said before the black void took over.
Chapter 12
I awoke slowly. Someone clanged on metal bars a few cages down, bringing back the harsh truth that what I had thought haunted me as a nightmare had been reality. I took a testing breath of heavy air tainted with blood, old sweat, and the scent of unwashed bodies and fear. The lash marks across my back throbbed, but with a healing ache. A knot formed in my stomach. I opened my eyes.
Gem smiled down at me from a few feet away. The bars between us didn't mar her cheerful countenance. “Hey there,” she said, her blue eyes twinkling.
“Hey,” I managed to get out. I pushed myself up slowly and noticed the brush of cloth against the wounds on my back. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that someone had torn a blanket into strips and used them to bind the lashes.
My heart slowed at the implication and I looked at Gem. She sat on the bars without anything to protect her from the harsh bite of the coated silver. I rose quickly to give her the blanket I had slept on. “You shouldn't have done that,” I said before my knees weakened at the sudden movement and I had to catch myself against the bars.
Gem rose to help steady me, but wouldn't accept my blanket. “You needed it. It's alright.”
I shook my head. “You didn't need to do that. It would have healed.”
She gave a small shrug. “Maybe,” she replied noncommittally. “You were bleeding pretty bad after all the silver washed out.”
“But still.” I couldn't fathom why she would do such a thing. I didn't know how long I had been out, but for every second of it some part of her had been touching the silver bars. The bottoms of my feet that contacted my own cage burned and I knew she hadn't spent the whole night on her feet. “Take it,” I demanded.
She lifted an eyebrow at my tone and stepped back. She crossed her arms on her chest and tipped her head to one side tauntingly. “You gonna make me?”
I let out a frustrated breath. “If I have to, yes.” I threw the blanket into her cell, then took one of the cloths from my back, tore it into two, and bound my feet so that they didn't have to touch the bars.
Gem watched me for a minute and I could tell she wanted to argue, but I stared her down until her werewolf instincts wouldn't let her argue. “Fine,” she muttered. She turned to pick it up and my stomach dropped at the angry red burns that ran in lines across her legs where her pants were too short to cover them.
“You shouldn't have done that,” I whispered again, sick at the thought that she had suffered for me.
She spread the blanket on the floor of her cell as if she hadn't heard me, then sat in the middle facing me like a girl in a field of flowers. “Happy?” she asked.
I rubbed my eyes and crouched to slow the dizziness that swam through my head. I reached out to steady myself against the bars, and remembered where I was at the last minute. I took another of the cloths from my back, tore it into two, then wrapped it around my hands. “I'm not happy that you got hurt helping me,” I said.
She shrugged and I saw burn marks on her arms where she had touched the bars when she tended my wounds. She noticed me looking and folded her arms again. “I was in better shape to take it than you were,” she said with a slight touch of defiance. Then she gave another cheerful smile. “And you're better now, so it was all worth it.”
I wasn't so sure, but I didn't want to make her sacrifice seem less. I used the rest of the strips of cloth to wrap a few bars in a corner so I could sit down. I eased to a sitting position and glanced around. Jake met my eyes from across the aisle, then dropped his gaze.
“You're an Alpha, aren't you?” he asked sullenly.
“Does it matter?” I questioned, curious.
His eyebrows rose and he looked just to the right of my face. “You're kidding, right? Rob and the other extremist Hunters thrive on finding and destroying Alphas. Apparently it's their life goal.”
The term caught my attention. “Extremist Hunters? I thought all Hunters killed werewolves.”
The werewolf on my right side rose to his knees. “Thanks to Jaze, most Hunters work with werewolves now instead of hunting us. He created peace between the races and saved numerous lives, included my family.” He gave me a look of disbelief. “You haven’t heard of him?”
I shook my head. “I’ve been a bit distant from werewolf news,” I said, unwilling to divulge more than that. “Tell me about him.”
The others listened in with the attention of pained souls looking for any distraction. The werewolf thought for a minute, then let out a breath. “He has a team of Alphas and grays that works better than any pack I’ve ever seen. They’re like S.W.A.T., but for werewolves. They save troubled werewolves from situations like fighting rings, hostile neighbors, and territory problems. They’ve helped relocate thousands of families after Jaze’s uncle tried to wipe out all of the Alphas.”
“His uncle?” I asked to be sure. I wondered if it was the same werewolf who made my parents keep me in hiding at Two. So many Alphas were killed, the purity of Alpha blood barely survived.
The werewolf nodded. “His uncle killed Jaze’s father and nearly succeeded in taking him down as well. We’re lucky he was smarter as well as stronger.”
“I’ve always wanted to meet him,” the older werewolf near the door said. Her voice shook slightly. “He rescued two of my boys from a fighting ring and brought them back to me.”
“A guardian of werewolves,” I said with a touch of humor. The thought made me smile with the absurdity of
it.
The werewolf who first spoke glared at me. “Yes, a guardian of werewolves,” he said in a growl that begged me to smile again.
I held up a hand, lacking the strength to defend myself against his rage at the moment. “Alright, I’m sorry. So what’s keeping Jaze from finding this place?”
“He’ll find it,” Gem said with stark certainty. I glanced at her and she grinned. “If anyone can find Lobotraz, he can.”
“Since your parents aren’t having any success,” a werewolf a few cages down muttered.
I changed to the subject to distract her. “Lobotraz. Who came up with that stupid name?”
She laughed, the sound bright amid the grays that filled the room. “Rob, I guess. He likes the way it rolls dramatically off his tongue.”
I chuckled, then held my side. “Tell me about the extremists and why they’re still around if Jaze united the Hunters and werewolves.”
“Not all Hunters were eager to resolve concerns, as you can imagine,” the werewolf next to me answered. “But the extremists are worse than the Hunters ever were. They're cruel as well as vigilant. I've never seen anything like it.”
“Tell me about it,” another werewolf said from further down. “They burned my house with my family in it while they made me watch. Luckily I made an escape passage they didn't know about or my children would be dead. They got away.” He sighed. “At least I think they did.”
The door at the end of the room opened and two women dressed in tattered blue clothes came in. The first carried bowls and the other ladled foul-smelling food into each one before shoving it under the small gap at the bottom of the cell door. The werewolves closest to the door ate their food hastily, but the further down they went, the slower the werewolves ate. At my questioning look, Gem gave a sad smile.
