by Cheree Alsop
“Beating day comes once a week. Those closest to the door are first. If they don't eat quickly, their food is taken away when they're beaten.” The resigned note in her voice warred with the forced cheerful smile on her face. I know I didn't imagine the glint of fear in her eyes at the coming beating.
“This can't go on forever. Someone's going to find us,” I said with a surety.
Jake let out a growl. “Don't fill her head full of hope. Look where that's gotten all of us. Forever is a long time when you're subjected to the whims of people like Rob and his men. They've given a new meaning to cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Punishment for being a werewolf.” The werewolf next to me let out a deep, humorless laugh. “We aren't the first race hated for what we were born being, and we won't be the last.”
“That doesn't make it right, Rex,” Gem replied calmly as though they had argued the issue many times.
The women slid a bowl under my door and my stomach turned at the scent that wafted from it.
“Pretend it's beef broth with bread crumbs,” Gem whispered. She hunched over her soup with her eyes closed.
“What is it really?” I asked.
“Probably whatever scraps he finds from the slaughterhouse down the road. They get pretty inventive with the ingredients,” Rex replied. He grabbed his bowl when it cleared the door and slurped down the contents without pause. He threw the bowl down and looked like he was going to throw it all back up, but he took several breaths, then gave me a triumphant look. “That's how it's done.”
“Lovely,” I muttered under my breath. I took a few quick swallows of the foul-smelling stuff, then my stomach brought it back up and I retched in the corner.
Several werewolves protested, but Gem gave me a sympathetic smile. “Don't worry. The hungrier you get, the better it tastes.” She sipped hers delicately as though it truly was beef broth.
My stomach growled, but I couldn't bring myself to even look at the soupy mixture again, let alone drink it. I sighed and lifted it towards Gem. “Want it?” She hesitated, but I could see the hunger in her eyes. “I'm not going to finish it, and you might as well eat it now before it turns into an even more delectable delicacy.”
I passed it through the bars and she took the bowl with both hands. She studied me for a second, then downed the soupy mixture quickly. She used a finger to clean the remaining glop from the edges and threw me a grateful smile. “I don't remember the last time I was full.”
“When we get out of here, I'll make sure you're never hungry again,” I promised.
Several angry mutters rose from around the room, but I was surprised that Jake kept quiet. I glanced his way and found him watching me, a look of approval on his face. At my questioning look, he nodded his head toward Gem's two empty bowls. I gave a small smile and settled back on the hard bars.
The door opened and the older female werewolf who had told me to stay strong cowered against the back of her cage. The guards hauled her out and forced her through the door, then grabbed the male werewolf in the cage across from her.
“They beat two at a time?” I asked quietly.
Gem shook her head. “They usually take their time with us unless they're saving it for someone in particular.” Her eyes met mine and they widened. She looked across at Jake, her expression pleading. “They're not going to take him again, are they?”
A surge of fear ran through me at the thought of the whips and silver gloves. I didn't know if I could take such a beating again, but I tried not to let the fear show.
“It's hard to say,” Jake replied, his tone truly bothered. “But Rob definitely has a burr under his skin.”
The werewolves were returned about an hour later. Both had phased to wolf form and bloody lines traced through their tattered hides. They were thrown back into the cages where they limped to their blankets and tried to sleep off the worst of the pain. The guards moved to the next two wolves and the process began again.
Gem didn't cower when they reached her. She held her head high and gave me a brief, courageous smile before they pulled her from the cage.
“Leave her alone,” Jake yelled from across the way. “She's just a kid. You are all savages!”
The guards ignored him and took the werewolf across from her. They forced them down the aisle and out of the room. After what felt like hours later, they brought Gem back in wolf form, her cream-colored fur striped in red. She met my eyes briefly; her blue gaze was filled with pain and humiliation before she ducked her head and hunched on the blanket in the corner. The guards tossed in her tattered clothes, then slammed the cage door.
She winced at the sound and I hated them more than anything for hurting her and making her so afraid. I wanted to tear the guards from limb to limb and had to fight to keep from phasing. Jake's words echoed in my head, warning me that they would destroy an Alpha as soon as he manifested. If there was ever a chance to escape, I had to keep my wits about me because it was the only way I could save Gem from this fate worse than death.
The guards skipped my cage and finished with the rest of the werewolves, fifteen in all. When the last pair were thrown back into their cages, Jeff opened the door and walked down to stop in front of mine. A taunting smile touched his face. “Rob wants to see you, mutt.”
I checked the watch I didn't have and shook my head. “Sorry, he's too late. All of my appointments are filled for the day.”
Jeff looked like he wanted to rip my head off. He motioned to the two guards. “Get him out of there.”
When they entered my cell, I fought back the urge to phase and teach them all a lesson. I knew my life and possibly the lives of those in the other cells depended on me keeping my Alpha heritage a secret as long as possible. If I could hold out until a rescue came, I would be in a position to deal much greater damage to Rob's Lobotraz. I walked with them up the row and tried to shut out the scent of fresh blood and fear that came from the cages I passed.
“What a coincidence that Row Four’s interrogation day came the day after your initiatory beating,” Rob said in a tone that indicated there was no such thing as a coincidence at Lobotraz.
“It's wonderful,” I replied dryly. Pain tore through the healing wounds along my back and the bruises on my ribs and stomach when Jeff attached my handcuffs to the hook. I was pulled up again so my feet barely touched the floor.
Rob walked around me slowly, a hand on his jaw. He nodded when he reached the front of me again. “Looks like you're actually healing quite well.” A gleam came to his eyes. “I suppose we'll have to do all we can to make sure you're the least comfortable before you phase or die.” His eyebrow rose thoughtfully. “Of course, I have a suspicion that phasing and dying will occur at the same time. My daughter won't confess as to your coat color, but I'll take a stab that a werewolf who would stand against his pack for a human would have to be an Alpha or they'd tear him apart. It seems you animals can't attack your superiors.”
The fact that he was still trying and failing to get information from Nora lifted my heart. I met Rob's eyes, my own defiant. “You humans have to chain and handcuff your superiors before you attack them.”
Surprise quickly turned to rage on his face when my insinuation registered. He reached for the cat-o-nine-tails and backed up so that he faced me squarely. “Let's make the chest match the back, shall we?”
***
The skin across my chest and stomach stood in tatters by the time they threw me back in my cage. Every breath hurt. I pulled into a fetal position on the rag-covered bars in the corner and willed my heart to keep pumping. Blood dripped through the bars to the dirty cement below, forming dark puddles that covered the prior stains and creating a soft patter that sounded loud in the quiet room.
I closed my eyes and listened to my heart beat and the flow of air through my wheezing lungs. An edge of one of the whips had sliced along my ribs like a fillet knife, leaving a wound clear to the bone on my right side. The pain mixed with the wound that refused to heal in
the same side was so intense I could barely breathe.
“You alright?” Gem asked softly.
A wry chuckle escaped my lips and I winced at the pain it brought. “Just peachy,” I said without moving.
“That's what I thought. Here.”
It took me several minutes to will my body to respond. When I finally lifted my head, I found that Gem and the other werewolves had phased back to human form and pulled on their clothes. Most of the werewolves looked like they were starting to heal, which made me wonder how long I had been with Rob.
“We didn't think you were coming back,” Gem said in a voice that quavered slightly with suppressed emotion.
I pushed up to my hands and knees, but a wracking cough tore through my lungs and had me hunched over in pain for several more minutes. When I could finally breathe again, I wiped the blood from my mouth and gave her a half-hearted smile. “You know I'm harder to kill than that.”
“You've got to be an Alpha,” Jake said. “Otherwise he wouldn't hate you so much.” Jake had torn a piece of his blanket off and wrapped it around half of his face. It looked like one of the whips had caught him in the eye when he was a wolf. I couldn't tell if he would be able to see out of it again.
I let out a steadying breath and sat up gingerly. Gem handed me a cup of water and I used it to wash out the worst of the wounds. “He's got plenty of reasons to hate me; at least he thinks so.” I met Gem's searching gaze. “I might have saved his daughter's life on more than one occasion.”
She smiled in understanding. “Nora.”
My eyes widened in surprise even as my heart leaped at the images her name brought. “Yes. How do you know her name?”
“You say it in your sleep. You whispered her name over and over again yesterday when I couldn't tell if you were going to live or die.” She sighed and leaned her back against the bars, then winced and sat up. “Tell us about her.”
“I shouldn't.” I didn't know if I could put the last few days into words, and didn't want to bring worse punishment down on any of them by telling them things Rob didn't want told. But the thought that Rob would want it kept a secret spurred me on.
I told them about the attack on Two and stopping Drake and Seth before they could kill her. They laughed when I told how she shot me, then removed the bullet. I told them about the hike and finding the missing hikers, then the full moon and jumping into the ravine before she could be swept over the cliff.
Everyone kept silent when I told them about the kiss, surprising myself as much as them with the admittance. When I told them about Rob's promise of safety and my own naivety in believing he would actually uphold his word, several of them laughed, but they were laughs tinged with bitterness at the outcome instead of making fun of my costly mistake.
“You love her, don't you?” Gem asked after I stopped talking.
The words brushed my heart like the softest kiss and I sighed. “I do,” I admitted. “We haven't known each other for very long, but I felt from the first moment I saw her that there was something there.”
“You're a romantic,” the older female werewolf by the door said quietly.
“You're a fool,” Jake echoed.
I shrugged, then brought my knees up and leaned my head on them in an effort to ease the strain on my damaged chest. “Either way, it's a lost cause.”
“You're getting out of here,” Gem said firmly.
I gave her a slight smile. “Regardless, I doubt I'll ever see her again. She's the daughter of a Hunter who wants to kill me more than anything, but can't quite bring himself to do it. He wants to break me first, to make me beg. I worry that he'll bring Nora into it if I don't give in.”
“He wouldn't dare,” Gem breathed. “His own daughter?”
“Not like he's shown any scruples up to this point,” Rex pointed out.
I breathed out slowly and told myself he wouldn't go so far, but the doubt in my mind scared me more than his silver whip.
Chapter 13
I awoke that night to the sound of a whimper, and looked over to see Gem roll over in her sleep, one arm stretched along the silver-coated bars. I sat up and wrapped a cloth around my arm, then stuck it through the cage and moved her arm gently back to her side so it wouldn’t get burned. She opened her eyes and looked at me with the bare gaze of someone whose walls had been lowered by sleep.
I saw a scared girl who was afraid she had been forgotten and left to die despite the brave front she put on for the others. The pain she felt at the lashes along her back burned in her blue gaze, and the hopelessness that reflected back at me made my heart ache. I reached my hand back through and she grabbed it as though it was a life-line.
“We’re going to make it through this,” I breathed softly, wary about waking up the others.
“I don’t know how much longer I can last,” she said, her lips barely moving. She took a breath and winced at the way it pulled at the healing lashes along her back.
“You’ll outlast every werewolf here,” I said. Sadness swept through her gaze and I realized she took my words wrong. I tightened my grip on her hand. “You’re the bravest, strongest person I’ve ever met. You’ve got to survive because you’re pulling every other wolf here through. They’re all counting on you to make it.”
She closed her eyes and opened them again wet with tears that she refused to let spill over. “I won’t let them down,” she said, an edge of determination to her soft voice.
I nodded and moved closer to the bars so that I could sleep with my hand holding hers. The simple touch of our fingers was so pure and innocent amid the scent of blood and decay, pain and unwashed bodies. Neither of us wanted to let go.
***
By the beatings, I had been in Lobotraz for three mind-numbing weeks. Jake and then the older woman by the door failed to come back from interrogations a week ago, and their cages remained bare reminders of the lives they once held. I took heart in the fact that no other werewolves replaced them, but between the beatings, the poor quality of food, and the inhumane living conditions, hope was fading quickly. Gem kept up her tirade abut her parents coming to save her, but the lack of response from Two nearly broke my heart.
The skin of my chest and back was covered in blackened scars from the whips. My side still ached and Rob favored the spot during his interrogations. Tomorrow night was the full moon, and I knew if I refrained from phasing during today's beating, I wouldn't be able to hide the fact that I was an Alpha after nightfall.
The next round of interrogations started and I waited in numb silence as each cage was emptied and then rejoined by a beaten wolf whose eyes shone with less life than before. Gem had been taken and it barely registered to me that the guards came to get me before she was thrown back in. Two forms dressed in black stopped in front of my cage. I rose stiffly to my feet and waited for them to enter. My mind screamed for me to attack them, to overthrow everyone at Lobotraz regardless of the fact that I would be sorely outnumbered and weaponless even if I enlisted the help of the other half-starved, weak werewolves who would get themselves killed.
I toyed with the idea that being killed was far better than being a prisoner at Rob's whim when an achingly familiar smell touched my nose. One of the guards slapped on my handcuffs and I noticed there was no pain. I glanced down to find that the cuffs weren't silver.
“Play along,” the guard whispered. I looked at him closely, but there was nothing I recognized about his dark blond hair and brown eyes.
I was about to question him when he held up something. My heart slowed at Nora's scent covering the scarf he drew from his pocket. “You're Vance, right?” he whispered. At my shocked nod, he tipped his head. “Then let's get you out of here. Unless, of course, you want to stay and get tortured. I hear you're next in line.”
I shook my head, then met Rex's wide eyes from the next cage. “What about the others?” My heart balked. “We have to wait for Gem. We can't leave any of them.”
The pretend guard grabbed my arm in a grip I
couldn't break. I realized with a start that he was also a werewolf, and probably an Alpha by his strength. His companion, a black-haired werewolf with dark blue eyes, watched me warily as though he was prepared to take me down at any sign of a struggle.
“I’m Jaze,” the werewolf who gripped my arm said. The werewolves in the cages around me stirred at the name and I stared at him. He looked at the others. “I promise I’ll come back for each of you. Stay strong. You won’t have to wait long for a rescue.” It was obvious by the tone of his voice that he didn’t want to leave any werewolf in such horrible conditions, but he had no choice. He lowered his voice, “But we’ve got to go now or we lose our window,” he told me in a firm undertone. “We can't wait for anyone, but I promise we'll return soon for the others.”
Two more werewolves appeared at his shoulder. One had dark red eyes that studied me while he listened to someone speak into his earpiece. “We’ve got to go now,” he told Jaze quietly.
Jaze stepped back and I moved to follow, but the thought of Gem returning to her life in the cage and of the other werewolves being punished just for being born pounded in my mind. I couldn't step past the cage opening. I grabbed onto the bars and resisted despite the way they burned my hands.
“Oh, for heaven's sake,” the black-haired werewolf said. He raised something and smashed it against the side of my head. I fell in a heap to the ground and the world closed over me.
Chapter 14
“How long do you think he’ll sleep?” Nora's worried voice pierced my floating thoughts.
“I’m not sure,” Jaze replied. “He’s been through a lot. The conditions were worse than we feared. My team is working on a strategy so we can rescue the others.”
A soft hand touched my head. “I wish he would have come out willingly.”
