Mangled Heart (On Hold)

[.chapter.twenty.four.]

"You think she's really his mate?" A gruff voice muttered.

"I don't know. Maybe," someone replied.

"But she doesn't have a mark! Surely if she were mated to an alpha she'd be marked already."

"Well..." Even through the haze I was listening through, the second voice seemed defeated. I groaned and tried to roll over, whimpering as my shoulders spasmed with pain and my body stayed in place. "She's waking up!" I peeled back my lids quickly, on high alert now that I realized they were talking about me. I quickly realized two things. The first, I was standing upright, chained to a cold cement wall. My arms were stretched above my head and my wrists and ankles were securely clasped by cuffs attached to the wall. The second...

I was naked.

Completely and totally naked. It hurt to scream, but I did it anyway, trying to yank my hands free of their restraints to cover myself up. A chuckle come from the corner of the room and I stopped my struggling to look over and found two men sitting at a metal table, cards in their hands and money sitting in the middle of the table. The younger one was the one who spoke first. "It's no use, dollface, those cuffs are strong enough that even an alpha couldn't get out 'em." Both men snickered and I narrowed my eyes.

"Where am I? Who are you? What do you want?" The one who hadn't spoke stood up and set his cards down.

"Don't even think of looking at my cards," he warned with a point of his finger to the younger man. I recognized him as the man from earlier with the deep voice. "Now," he said, turning to face me. "Our alpha told us to get him as soon as you woke up, but," his eyes slide down my bare figure, making bile rise to my throat. A greedy look took over his eyes and he gave a terrifying smile. "Why don't we have some fun, first, eh? What do you think, Roge?" The other man, Roge, stood up and grinned, nodding slowly.

"Sounds good to me, Burt." Burt ran his thumb down the side of my torso.

"So soft," he murmured in a tremulous tone.

"Don't touch me," I warned, my heartbeat speeding up. Both men laughed loudly.

"Oh sweetheart," said "we can do whatever we want. Don't worry, we won't hurt you too much," he said in a happily.

"Speak for yourself," countered Burt, making them both start up with another laughing fit. Anger overtook me and I narrowed my eyes, spitting on a laughing Burt's face. Red filled his features as he snarled, moving his hand to slap me.

"Men!" Called a loud voice. Both froze in front of me and turned quickly to the door across the room. There stood a tall, red headed man with a bulky build. He stood up straight, feet apart, arms crossed as he glared at Burt and Roge. "Is there a problem here?"

"N-no, sir," said Roge, jumping as far away from me as he could. "We were just..." his eyes widened as he lost his voice.

"Just what?" He raised a red brow and tilted his head in a mocking sort of way, knowing full well that he'd just scared the crap out of the man. "Hm," he said calmly when Roge was still too frightened to answer. "Burt?" He turned to the man who'd gone stock still in front of me. I couldn't see his face, but by his rigid form, I'd have guessed he was scared as hell. "Care to tell me what the hell you were doing to the alpha's prisoner?" Burt lowered his head.

"She spit on me," he said plainly.

"As she should have, you jackass. You were supposed to come get me or the Alpha when she woke up and instead you...?" He left the sentence open, already knowing what it was they were going to do. Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "I'll deal with you two later, for now I'm giving the both of you 3 seconds to get the hell out of my sight." Two audible gulps were heard before he called in a loud voice. "THREE!" Roge bucked it out of there before the word was even fully out of his mouth, and Burt followed behind at a slower pace. That is, until the red head boomed out, "TWO!" Burt was gone in a flash, stopping only at the door to glare at me.