“I’m going to turn on the light,” the voice cautioned as his visitor eased into the room.
An involuntary whimper slipped out of Thaniel as the light came on, blinding him. He sucked in a deep breath and shielded his eyes against the pain that lanced his skull.
“You’re okay. I promise we won’t hurt you,” the guy said.
Still not used to the light, Thaniel lowered his arm just enough to watch the man crouch down. Though only dark shapes, the other male and the female he’d scented entered as well, while the first guy slowly edged closer to Thaniel.
When the guy cursed, Thaniel hunched his shoulders, wishing he could shrink away and disappear. His trembling increased as he kept his gaze lowered from the three strangers. The wolves taught him well; never make eye contact unless given permission.
As the three stared at him, Thaniel sensed their horror and shame filled him. He tried to melt more firmly into the concrete at his back, but had nowhere to go.
He lowered his head further to his knees, not wanting them to see him. He knew he was disgusting. Filthy. Smelly. He was covered in dried blood from all the times he’d been beaten, whipped, and tortured. Suddenly he wished he’d cleaned himself more. At first, he used the icy water to wash off, but after a while it was hard to care how he looked or smelled. And a part of him thought—hoped––that maybe, if he was disgusting enough, the Weres would leave him alone. It really hadn’t worked, but he still hadn’t wanted to sweeten the pot by being clean.
Thaniel shifted uncomfortably, shaking under their silent gaze. Who are these people? Could he have been wrong about Real abandoning him? After all, he had promised to rescue Thaniel from this hell hole. “W-who are y-you? W-where’s R-Real?” Thaniel asked without looking up. His voice came out scratchy from lack of use.
“I’m Jax,” the guy crouched in front of him said, and his tone fairly vibrated with anger.
Thaniel’s shaking increased as the air around them thickened with some kind of dark, otherworldly power. What is that? He whimpered, completely terrified. What are they going to do to me?
The biggest of the three, the second male, turned and left the room. Then the woman spoke. Her soft, sweet voice caught Thaniel’s attention, momentarily distracting him from his terror. Even knowing that he shouldn’t, he couldn’t seem to help it—he was drawn to look. Slowly, he dared to peek up at her through his hair, just a little, and blinked. His eyes weren’t used to the light and he could only make out a dark shape. Then she moved closer and his eyes quickly adjusted.
Thaniel swallowed deeply, shocked. He’d never seen another person quite like her. She appeared to be in her early twenties and was utterly beautiful, and somehow he sensed that she was very different from anyone he’d ever met.
Understanding purple eyes gazed down at him and Thaniel felt his fear slowly slipping away. Purple? He didn’t know people could have purple eyes. He held his breath as she tucked a strand of long, wavy black hair behind her ear then crouched down beside the big guy––the one called Jax, who seemed of similar age. She lay her hand on Jax's shoulder.
Thaniel swallowed as anger pulled the black brows on Jax’s face into a severe frown. Bright blue eyes stared back at Thaniel. Somehow, Thaniel knew Jax wasn’t angry at him. Then the strange, deadly power that he’d forgotten about while trapped under the scrutiny of these two strangers dissipated. His shaking eased.
“You’re going to be fine. We’re here to help you. I’m Tierney.” The purple-eyed female introduced herself without taking her eyes from his. “We want to get you out of here.”
Then Jax pulled his hoodie off over his head. “Here you can, ah—” Jax pursed his lips and hesitated. “You can put this on when we unchain you,” he said, and held the hoodie out to Thaniel.
Thaniel blinked but didn’t take it. What is this, some kind of trick? He’d been tricked like this before. On the streets, in the foster homes by the other children, by his own mother. No. No way was he falling for it again.
“You’re going to be all right,” Tierney repeated soothingly, and although he’d learned his lesson not to trust in the hardest way imaginable, her melodious voice somehow managed to ease him even more. Why did she have this effect on him? How?
Slowly, Thaniel let his arm lower the rest of the way. Who were these people? Why did he feel a sense of safety with them? “Where is Real?” he asked again, clinging to the only person he knew.
“I’m sorry, we don’t know Real. We came here looking for someone else, but you’re the only one we found. What’s your name?” Tierney asked softly, making Thaniel want to climb into her lap.
What the hell? He gave himself a mental shake before answering. “Thaniel,” he finally said, feeling even more confused.
“Thaniel, I’m guessing you’re a Were—” she said.
Sudden terror flooded his system. The wolves had beaten the rule into him—he wasn’t to tell a soul what he was.
“Shh, it’s all right,” she said, soothingly. “We all have secrets. We only want to help you get out of here. Honest.”
Thaniel found that hard to believe. Why would they want to help him? What did they want from him?
“We need to get these chains off you,” she said.
Thaniel curled into a tighter ball. He watched Jax reach out and set the hoodie down on the mattress beside him but still didn’t take it. The wolves would kill him if he tried to leave. “No, if they come back and I’m not here they’ll find me—hurt me,” Thaniel whispered, knowing all too well how the wolves would enjoy punishing him. He looked up at the meat hook, memories of the wolves hanging him from his arms. The torture and laughing, then the ice-cold water they’d thrown on him when he passed out. He couldn’t hold back the shiver that ran through him.
“No one is going to hurt you, I promise.” Jax sounded even angrier which drew Thaniel’s baffled gaze to him. Tierney nodded, affirming what Jax said. They both seemed so sure and once again, despite his fear, their confidence somehow managed to calm him.
“Who did this to you? And why?” Tierney asked.
Thaniel wasn’t sure how to answer that. Did he tell her that someone he trusted put him here, or did he tell her that the Were-wolves did? Both answers would be correct and yet, it wasn’t that simple. Thaniel hesitated a moment before speaking. “Real brought me here after I … was attacked,” he said, looking down in shame. The memory of how he’d trusted Elianna pierced his heart. Man, he’d been so gullible.
Chapter Six
Four Months Earlier
THANIEL BREATHED in the muggy evening air as he kept pace beside Real. After almost attacking that innocent young man, he realized he couldn’t be trusted, but that didn’t make this any easier. It was the first of August and although the sun was beginning to lower in the sky, sweat still trickled down the back of his shirt.
“Were here.” Real stopped in front of a dilapidated two-story building—the Were-wolf den. “Justin is a good male,” Real said once again, and Thaniel couldn’t help but wonder who he was trying to reassure.
Thaniel wrinkled his nose as scent of dog and yet not dog, hit him. It held a wildness that no ordinary dog ever had.
Still shocked at how strong his senses were, at the scent of danger, fear took over. Predator. Go—run! Though Real kept walking, terror permeated Thaniel’s whole being and he hesitated. He’d been prey all his life, and even though he was finally a predator, he still felt like prey.
Then he took a deep breath. Where else could he go? With no other choice, Thaniel hurried to catch up.
“Justin is a good man. I’ve already talked to him, so you need have no fear,” Real said, meeting his worried gaze.
With no reason not to believe his friend, Thaniel bit his bottom lip and gathered what little courage he could muster. “And you’ll take care of Peanut?”
Real nodded.
Thaniel steeled himself against the fear that threatened to leave him a whimpering baby. “All right,” he said, and stood by
while Real raised his hand to knock at the door.
Six Were-wolves in human form looked up as Real and Thaniel were ushered through the door into the large living area of the Were-wolves den. Two of the wolves bristled at Thaniel, but a sharp, dominating growl quickly silenced them. There was no doubt the dominant one was the leader and now he smiled at Real and Thaniel. Besides the two who had been silenced, the other three wolves didn’t seem to care one way or another that there was a cat in their midst.
Trembling, Thaniel watched the leader, a big, handsome man, as he rose to his feet. In a couple of strides he was across the room and shaking Real’s hand.
“Good to see you, buddy.” Then he turned to Thaniel. “I’m Justin. I hear you need a bit of help.”
Thaniel, head lowered, nodded. It seemed that all these supes were big except him.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Real said a few minutes later when he saw that Thaniel was in good hands.
Justin nodded and as the door closed behind his friend, one of the other guys who had tattoos all over his arms and shoulders, held up a box. “Pizza?”
Pizza … and not from a dumpster. He almost started to drool. Justin sat back down while Thaniel warily accepted a slice of pepperoni and sausage, then the tattooed man who offered it stood up.
“You heading out then?” Justin asked the guy.
“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow,” the tattooed guy said and walked out the door.
Thaniel sat down in the spot the guy had vacated near Justin and began to devour the pizza. He had just finished a second slice when the door burst open and another group entered. They were obviously wolves as well, but the scent on them was different, nasty, bad, making Thaniel shrink back in fear.
“What’s going on, Arlow?” Justin questioned with a quiet anger when two other men, who didn’t smell like wolf or any kind of animal, shot Justin in the head.
Two other wolves were shot when they began to object while the last two wolves, the ones who originally growled at Thaniel, smiled at Arlow, obviously in cahoots.
“Well, what have we got here,” Arlow asked as he advanced on Thaniel cringing in the corner.
The blood in the room had his leopard clawing at his insides as life seeped from the body of Real’s friend. No. This can’t be happening.
***
Thaniel snapped back to the present at Jax’s question.
“So, this Real, he’s a Were-wolf?”
Thaniel shook his head. “No, Real’s something different. He’s my friend.” No matter how betrayed he felt, he knew that Real had no way of knowing what would happen when he left Thaniel that night. His intentions had been good.
“Nice friend,” Jax muttered sarcastically, but Thaniel shook his head.
“He didn’t know what would happen,” he said in defense of his friend. He didn’t know what Real said or did to make Arlow allow him to stay in the building, but his friend hadn’t wanted to push his luck, and had to sneak down just to see Thaniel.
Tierney and Jax asked him a couple more questions, then Jax stood up. “I’m going to go find something to get these off.” Jax nodded at the hardware around Thaniel’s ankle and neck.
“So why would they do this?” Tierney asked, indicating the chains and room, after Jax left.
Filled with horror and guilt, Thaniel slowly met her gaze. “I’m new. I can’t control my beast. This way I can’t hurt anyone.” He licked his cracked lips before lowering his head in shame, overcome with self-loathing once again. “And I’m also their whipping boy,” he whispered.
“Whipping boy?” Tierney’s voice rose with horror.
“The weakest becomes the whipping boy,” he mumbled.
***
After Justin was killed, Arlow and another wolf had jumped on Thaniel. “Oh no you don’t,” one of the wolves said as he whacked Thaniel across the head.
“Looks like we bagged us a wildcat.” Another wolf grinned, showing sharp, yellow teeth.
Arlow and the others laughed, then as Thaniel struggled against them, they dragged him through the living room and into the kitchen. “Yup. He’s a wild one. But we’ll fix that,” Thaniel heard them say as they opened a door and descended into a dark basement.
It was his worst nightmare coming to life. Thaniel’s heart was racing and his head ringing as Arlow boxed his ears again. The wolves dragged him through piles of junk stacked to the ceiling and over to a— What is that? Panic had him struggling even harder at the wall that rose up in front of him. It appeared to be a soundproof room. A couple more knocks to the side of the head stopped his struggles. Then he hyperventilated as they threw him inside. Unbalanced and with spots forming in his eyes, he hit the cold cement floor—hard.
The wolves guffawed again as he gazed blankly up at the meat hook hanging above him. Thaniel began to suffocate as the past mixed with the present in his mind, and then he passed out.
When he came to, he was naked. There was a metal collar around his ankle and neck with a chain connecting them that led to an O-ring embedded in the cement floor. Thaniel scrambled back until he couldn’t go any further. With a startled cry, he began to struggle even more, but weakened from his change and lack of food, he quickly tired. That’s when he realized he wasn’t alone. A sadistic chuckle sounded and then he was hit with a bucket of icy-cold water.
“You are filthy, little cat,” the voice said and as he cringed back onto a dingy single mattress, two more wolves entered the room.
They strung him up so that his arms were above his head and hung by his chains from the meat hook. Then the torture began.
***
Thaniel didn’t tell Tierney all that, but still the horror on her face said she understood.
“That’s awful. I’m sorry, Thaniel. No one should be treated like this. I don’t care why they did it, it isn’t right,” she said with so much vehemence that he blinked, stunned. He didn’t understand why she cared. Nor could he make sense of the intense effect she had on him.
When Jax walked back in, he held up a set of keys. Thaniel’s eyes widened and he shifted nervously as Jax knelt down and worked on unlocking the cuff around his ankle.
Then the other man, the one called Sami, came in holding a blanket. “The only clothes here are big enough to dress an elephant,” he joked, though no one laughed. He was even bigger than Jax, Thaniel realized, and watched as Sami dragged a hand through shaggy, sandy-blond hair. Green eyes full of compassion watched Thaniel, but he didn’t say another word, nor did he come any closer.
Eventually the lock clicked and Jax carefully eased the cuff off of Thaniel’s ankle. Triumphant, Jax set the restraint aside and reached up to unlock the neck collar. Although Thaniel didn’t know how it worked, he had been told that the neck collar kept him in his human form, and now, his heart began to beat furiously. What if he changed as soon as it was off? Suddenly nervous, he couldn’t help the hiss that escaped him as he shied away.
“Shit, sorry.” Jax backed off.
“Here, I’ll do it,” Tierney offered. “Thaniel?”
Thaniel slowly peered up at her through his web of filthy hair.
“I won’t hurt you,” she said.
Thaniel just stared at her. He knew better than to trust her. What if she was like Elianna? Then he remembered the tingling that tried to warn him away from the girl, the tingling that he’d so blatantly ignored. He’d since wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t ignored what his senses had been trying to tell him.
Tierney held his gaze and against his better judgement, he found himself believing her. If she was telling the truth and they really weren’t trying to fool him, well then, it would be nice to be free and away from here. He thought briefly of going back and looking for Peanut, but he realized the chances of the cat still being around after all this time were impossibly slim, and it would only break his heart even more.
He assessed the three in the room with him. They were so big, so beautiful. To be free … Trembling, he took a deep brea
th for courage and tilted his head. He could do this. It would be fine. When her fingers lightly brushed his neck, the contact was such a shock that he hissed. He hadn’t had any physical touch—that wasn’t torture related––in so long that it was all he could do to hold still. Please don’t let this be a trick, please.
Chapter Seven
Hope
THANIEL COULDN’T believe he was free. He snatched up the hoodie, yanked it over his head and pulled it down. Tierney reached back, took the blanket from Sami and held it out to Thaniel. Instinct had him shrinking back once again. They may have just freed him, but that didn’t mean he trusted them. With memories of recent events in the front of his mind, he knew the trouble he could get into.
“Thaniel,” Tierney said and waited for him to meet her gaze. When he finally did, she slowly reached out and touched his hand and he could feel how rapid his pulse was beating. “I don’t blame you for not trusting us, but none of us will hurt you,” she said. “Use your senses and you’ll find I’m telling the truth.”
Thaniel wondered if that was something he could now do. Sure, he hadn’t gotten any tingling like he did with Elianna, but that didn’t mean these people were harmless. In fact, he was pretty sure they could be very deadly, and just because no warning bells were going off, didn’t mean they wouldn’t hurt him.
Besides, he could be defective now that he was no longer human. Yet as he looked into her eyes, he found himself lost to the depth of emotion he saw there. Heart in his throat, and knowing he was taking a chance that could end up backfiring, Thaniel held still as she covered him with the blanket. Then, he stared a moment at the offered hand before reaching out and taking it in his. Legs shaky, he stood as Tierney helped him to his feet.
Dracones Boxset Books 1-5 Page 94
