Under A Latent Moon (A Werewolf Tale)

Chapter 36

Ben scrapped at one of his restraints with a nail. He lifted his head and got a good look at her. Whatever he saw made his face pale. "Oh, Harley..."

She definitely wasn't going to be winning any beauty pageants any time soon, she knew that.

"It's no use," she told him, "we'll have to wait for Will to come get us."

Ben grew another claw and attacked his restraints with vigor. "We're getting out of here."

"Ben, you're going to break your--"

He cursed as his claw chipped. Though he didn't stop.

Harley dropped her head against the back of the chair. "If we can just wait for Will--"

"We're on our own for this one."

She frowned--or at least tried to. Her whole body wasn't quite working with her right now. "What do you mean?"

"I got out of here once, I can do it again." He muttered to himself.

"Again?"

Ben never stopped sawing away. "Will got caught, Harley." He said, "We came to rescue you but...it didn't work out."

So that was it then.

Her heart dropped. It was bad enough that she was here with these people being tested on like livestock, but Will and Ben?

With a horrible sinking feeling, she realized that Ben and Will must be part of that "control" group Selene mentioned.

As if summoned, Selene came back in, a bundle in her hands. Blackthorne followed close at her heels. "I've got Harley, you get him."

Ben saw the needle in her hands and struggled hard, especially as she lined it up with one of Harley's veins. "Leave her alone."

"Oh hush," Selene said and pushed the needle down.

Ben growled low, fighting his restraints. He hissed something to Selene, but Harley didn't hear. She was already drifting off...

~

"Look at you," her dad smiled and lightly cuffed her chin. "my little genius."

Harley beamed back at her dad. She loved it when he was home. He wasn't too often because Momma said his job made him travel a lot. But when he was he liked to play with her and ask her about how school was going and how her friends were.

Mathias never asked her anything.

Momma loved it when he came home too, and often Harley heard her giggling upstairs with her dad. When he was home, Momma always smiled.

"Dad, are you gonna stay this time?" Harley asked and took another bite of the pancakes her mother had fixed up for her.

Her dad ran a hand over her head. "For a little bit. Then I have to get back to work."

"You're always at work." Even when he wasn't at work, he was in his office at the house until past her bedtime.

"I know, sweetpea, but this time I'm really making progress. In fact..." He pushed away from the kitchen table and disappeared down the hallway.

When he came back, he had a silver necklace dangling from his pointer finger. "I got you something."

Little Harley's breath caught at the butterfly necklace. "It's a butterfly!"

"It is," he undid the clasp and put it gently around her neck. "It's very important. I need you to watch over it for me."

"I can keep it?"