Cadged Loyalties: My Domestic Wolf

Story One: Heir to the Throne Prt4

Chapter Four: Feral Beast

  Zayne woke with a start, jerking into a sitting position and growling. At first he didn't know where he was, it was dark and he was disoriented and his first thought was to get away. He slammed into the wall behind him trying to scramble to his feet and a can fell onto his head. He let out a shout and tried reaching up to his head but found his hands bound and tied behind his back, and then he noticed his feet were also tied together. Zayne struggled, trying to get free but only managed a rope burn where the ties cut into his skin.

   When he finally had calmed down enough that he wasn't panting and wiggling on the floor like a crazy lunatic he heard voices. It sounded like shouting and arguing, he couldn't make you any of the words but he knew he heard Joseph's parents' voices and maybe that scary lady Mrs. Clair. Zayne frowned and shimmied around till he could press his ear to the door.

  "...If he were any other color he'd be tossed away into a Puppy Mill for a year!" Zayne heard Diana argue.

   "But he's not; he's a black pelt and must be treated as such." Mrs. Clair's voice cut through the door as if it had literally cut, Zayne felt a growl rise up inside of him at the sound of her voice.

   "Ladies please, we can settle this logically." Johnathan interrupted.

   "There is no settling he nearly killed Daniel! I want that Feral mongrel dead!" Mrs. Clair snapped. Zayne heard something glass break and a whimper. There was silence after that; Zayne strained his ears to hear something, anything. Zayne had been accused of Feral before, in the fields when his temper got the better of him. It didn't bother him anymore, at least he wouldn't admit to it bothering him.

   "The pup hasn't been taken in for training yet," Mrs. Clair's husband spoke up, breaking the long silence. "This is an opportunity to correct his behavior without wasting a perfectly good laborer." There was another bout of silence then Mrs. Clair spoke up.

   "That's a lovely idea; I'm going to teach him a lesson about touching my son."

   "It was Daniel's fault!" Joseph suddenly spoke up. "He was making fun of Zayne and-"

   Diana cut him off, "Joseph, not now." Joseph tried to speak again and his mother again shushed him. The adults talked for a little while longer and soon Zayne's fate was settled.

   Then Zayne was yanked from the pantry and muzzled, he didn't fight or say anything when Diana offered an apology for how things went. Zayne felt to betrayed to feel like forgiving anyone. Joseph and Mabel had been sent away so they couldn't interfere with Zayne being unceremoniously shoved into a car and taken away.

   Zayne stared down at his feet for the entire drive and when they pulled down the long gravel driveway towards the glamorous mansion, Zayne felt the knots twist up in his stomach. He was yanked out of the car the Wolf Warden, a big burly lumberjack looking man with a scruffy beard and cold glare. The Greys stepped out of the car with Daniel and Lily following close behind.

   "Take this Feral mutt to the Wolf Den and throw him into one of the solitary confinements until I come for him." Mrs. Clair ordered the burly man who nodded and pulled Zayne roughly, practically dragging him. Zayne bit back a growl when she called him Feral, it didn't bother him, it didn't...

   Lily growled out furiously as he passed them, despite her slight form and that she stood to Daniel's waist in her wolf form she still looked like she could do damage. Being that she was under ten years old her collar was looser around her neck; this was an intentional design because pups had a hard time separating their emotions from the trigger that makes them shift. Getting angry, upset or scared could trigger a shift and if the collar were tighter around their neck like it was for adults, pups would be dropping dead left and right.