Chapter 5:
I woke up feeling like superman had picked up a half-ton truck and bitch slapped me with it.
Everything hurt.
My muscles were sore, my head was pounding and my shoulder was burning with a fire that made me whimper. I don't remember the last time I even made that kind of sound. It sounded so alien as it resounded through the room. I finally forced my eyes open and tried to sit up, noting how hard it was to do so. I was about to try to stand when a hand suddenly touched my shoulder. The ache in my body was forgotten in that moment and I whirled around in a flash, retreating on shaky feet away from the person on the other side of the cot I had been unconscious on.
"Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you." the man's voice tried to calm me. My eyes finally moved to look over the man across from me and my mind automatically drew a blank. While l had expected one of the muscle bound monsters to have been who grabbed my shoulder, this male was rather thin in comparison. His skin was dark ebony, his eyes a soft normal brown and when he smiled at me I saw that his teeth were of normal denture, no enlarged canines to be seen.
"You're human." I blurted out with a dry throat seeming to be both baffled as oddly comforted by the fact.
He nodded reassuringly.
"Yes, I'm human." He whispered back to me. I was confused for a moment longer as I stared at him but then my eyes saw something at the wide neck line of his shirt, a gruesome looking scar that looked like some sort of animal he bitten into him.
"T-they-they...bit you?" I asked horrified and suddenly understanding. He smiled but the expression was grim, his eyes taking on a forlorn look that reminded me of my father's expression whenever I looked at old pictures of mother.
"Yes, I am a human mate...like you."
His words reminded me of the feeling of teeth ripping into my flesh and my hand automatically went to my neck, coming back sticky with half dried blood and puss. My head whirled, fear over taking me.
"Where am I? What happened? Why am I here? Who are you? Is my sister ok? Where is that bastard that bit me?" I started asking with increasing volume.
The young man gave me a warning look, his eyes widening and his eyebrows sinking down.
"Calm down. There is no reason to be so loud." He told me, his eyes quickly darting toward the steel door at the end of the room and then back to me meaningfully. He was sending me a silent message. Our conversation was being monitored by someone outside the door.
I nodded accepting his warning and his expression quieted.
"My name is Kyrie. Right now you are in the main pack house compound. You passed out after you were claimed and your mate brought you here but since you broke the law you are being held in the lower rooms instead of the upper levels where your mate resides until they sentence you." He began. I scowled, hoping that my sentence would be a long one indeed. If it kept me from the bed of the monster I didn't care if they made me clean up dog shit, eat pickled cow eyes, or clean toilet bowls out with toothbrushes for the rest of my life.
I would do it happily.
Kyrie must have seen my expression because his eyes softened.
"Your sister is fine and I'm sure you will be allowed to see her once the matter is settled. She's staying with a man named Nash. He came himself to deliver the message this morning."
Tears welled up in my eyes and I almost let out a sob. Oh Nash, thank God for you.
"Your mate is currently up in summons, trying to get you out of your sentence. He will probably be down to see you in a few hours." He continued carefully with a sympathetic look in his eyes which told me that he knew exactly how scared and confused I was.
"Why are you here?" I asked him, my voice coming out as a whisper even though I didn't intend it too. He sighed and ran his hand over his shaved head.
"I'm here to help you clean your claiming mark so it won't become infected." He told me, pointing to a bowl of steaming water that sat at the foot of the cot along with other medical supplies. "The werewolves wanted to send a human into talk to you since you seem to be a little...aggressive toward them. All of the other werewolves with female human mates were afraid to let then come in with you. My mate let me come because she figured since I was male you would have a harder time attacking me." he chuckled a little offering me a true smile this time, it lit up his whole face. I frowned at his comment.
"No offense but I could totally kick your ass. And I don't attack people." I grumbled. His smile lessened at his comment and once again he raised an eyebrow in warning. He stooped to pick up the bowl of water and a pair of scissors.
"I'm going to cut the shoulder of your t-shirt out so that I can get to your wound better, then I have some new clothes for you to put on." He informed me, already moving to the collar of my shirt at cutting it away from me.
I let him wash my sore shoulder, trying not to groan as he flushed out the punctures and dressed them with a stinging salve, leaving it non-bandaged so that it could drain. Then he handed me a pile of neatly folded clothes that matched the dark muted grey of his own.
"These should fit, before you complain about the color it is standard for our status." He informed me passing over the faded boring clothes. We had a uniform? What are we the screwed over by monsters brigade?
"Thank you Kyrie." I whispered. He nodded.
"You're very welcome. Get dressed quickly after I leave. Your mate should be visiting soon." He said but his eyes added the rest as he raised an eyebrow at my naked arm. And you sure as hell want to be fully clothed when he gets here.
I sat on the cot after I changed my clothes feeling sick, tried and extremely anxious. If I had any food in my belly I would have thrown it up by now but all I had done so far is retch up stomach acid which burnt my mouth and throat. The room was bigger than my room at home. The walls were stanch white and the floor was a marble green color tile which made me think of pool water that had grown algae. The only piece of furniture in the room was the cot and there was a toilet and sink in the corner but no mirror or partitions to keep it out of view from the rest of the room. I had already folded my old bloodied and torn clothes and put them on the floor at the foot of the cot so I didn't have to look at them.
My thigh sheath was gone, my gun gone and my satchel nowhere in sight.
I took a deep breath in trying to calm the pounding of my heart.
There had to be a way out of this.
There had to be.
I would rather be dead that be the sex toy for one of these monsters and have to give birth to monster spawn.
I would rather die.
Maybe there was still some way I could tip the scale to where they would have to kill me? I sighed and shook my head. If I had already pulled a gun on and shot at a werewolf without being instantly put to death then I would have to actually kill one to be put on death row now. Without my weapons though the odds of that happening were slim, I had no fantasies about being able to fight hand to hand with a werewolf and win. I'm a realist before anything else. I would have to have a strategic and defensive advantage with an offensive measure to try to bridge the gap between their brute strength and my half-starved human muscles. And it wouldn't hurt to fight dirty.
My hand went to my shoulder to lightly touch the swollen punctures in my skin and muscle. Why? Was fate mocking me? Why would I, someone who hates werewolves above all else, be chosen as a mate for one of the beasts? I heard Cheyenne's snide remark about how being a monster's mate may not have been such a bad thing and I chuckled a little darkly in my own amusement.
Cheyenne, the professed werewolf lover, had cowered like the rest of us when one actually showed up on her doorstep. It made me sadly amused, angry and even a little bit sorry for her. I'm sure whatever this ass hole that bit into my shoulder said to her must have frightened her severely. I know that in many ways I despised Chey, but she was the only family I had left and the thought of something happening to her made me want to kill something. Especially werewolves.
On that note the door suddenly flung open and I let my eyes raise just enough to tell that the devil that I just had been thinking of was in the doorway. I didn't want to look at him. I wanted to set him on fire and fill his chest full of silver bullets, not look at him. I heard the door close and the lock click in place and I practically felt the finality of it.
I was locked in this room with a monster, and there was no way out.
"Do you have ANY idea how much trouble you have caused?" he growled at me, still standing at the doorway. I ignored him, looking at where the wall met the floor with bland interest. "The whole council was in an uproar. You're lucky you just shot at me because if you had shot at anyone else you would most definitely be dead by now."
I frowned. Damn. If I had known that I would have just made a last stand on the river bank and empty a clip instead of getting my gun all wet trying to escape.
"Are you even listening?!" the monster shouted at me, stepping across the room in seconds, coming into my personal space. I just ignored him and continued to stare at the wall. But apparently the rule with wasps, that if you don't bother it, it won't bother you, doesn't carry over to these werewolf monsters. He let out a snarl and grabbed my shoulders roughly, dragging me up off the bed and shaking me a little. I held back the pain-filled groan that threatened to spill out of my mouth when he grabbed my torn up shoulder so tightly.
"Look at me." he growled. I didn't. There was nothing he could do to make me look at him...or so I thought.
"If you don't look at me right now I'll bite you again and not let go until you submit" he growled.
My eyes betrayed me at the thought of his teeth breaking my skin once more and my eyes made contact with his, defiantly, or so I hoped. His black eyes shone in smugness and a hint of an emotion that made me want to vomit again. I didn't even know what the emotion was specifically but it made my skin rise into goose bumps and fists clench in revulsion. And then suddenly he pulled the wide collar of my shirt down to expose the wound pinning my arms to my sides.
Was he going to bite me anyway?
The sick lying bastard.
I tensed for the pain as he leaned into the crook of my neck and he put his mouth over the wound but there was none. Instead I felt something warm and wet gloss over the punctures in a way that felt oddly soothing until I figured out what it was.
His tongue.
Ewww. He was licking me. Gross. He pulled back slightly and growled softly in my ear before suddenly planting a kiss underneath it, kissing down my neck. My heart was hammering in my chest. What the hell was going on? He moved back down to the wound again this time sucking on the inflamed skin so hard that it hurt.
"Let go of me damn it." I finally snapped, struggling away from him. He stopped sucking on my neck but didn't back away. He was still so close to me that I could feel his smile against my neck.
"There's my feisty little female." he murmured against my skin and I felt outraged. He had done all that just to hear me speak? This was one messed up son of a bitch...literally.
"Call me that...one more time." I growled my fists clenching. He chuckled low in his throat, his breath sticking into my skin.
"Feisty little-" he began but he didn't finish because at that precise moment I jerked my knee up and slammed it into his crotch. He let go of me and doubled over in pain. I jumped back away from him and smirked to myself.
I guess not even these monsters could avoid man's most embarrassing weakness. I was thinking I was pretty hot stuff until I realized something.
I had just kicked an extremely aggressive man/monster in the balls but I didn't have anywhere to complete the second part of the drop kick to the family jewels procedure...run.
He looked up at me with a furry that made his black eyes seem to burn in their sockets. He stood up from his crouch and I immediately realized that I might have picked a battle that I couldn't win. His face contorted with rage and he looked at me with his lips raised in a snarl.
"How dare you endanger our future children like that?" He snapped, his teeth elongated. And with those words the fear that I had felt shattered and fury reigned.
"I DON'T WANT YOUR FUCKING CHILDREN!" I screamed at him.
In a blur he had crossed the room and sank his teeth into my neck. I fought against him, clawing at his face, but his grip only intensified, pushing so hard that I heard my collar bone snap under the pressure and the most blood curdling scream I had ever heard in my entire life come out of my mouth as I fell to the floor with him on top of me.
When he finally did let go, he grabbed my hair and forced me to look at him despite my shoulder's protests.
"You will have our children and you will love them." He snarled in my face, my blood dripping down his chin and clinging to his elongated teeth. For the first time I actually saw the monster and the memory would be forever burned in my memory. All I could do in response was lay there, I was too stunned to do anything else. Why couldn't I move? Say something in response? I felt tears brim in my eyes and spill over for the first time since my father was murdered. A rough thumb suddenly raked across my cheek, whipping away my tears.
"Don't cry." He whispered, his voice sounding completely different from before. His tone was now worried and soft.
He's psychotic.
Totally insane and he wanted...no was planning on forcing me to have his psychotic monster children. Suddenly I let out a choked cry and then stared straight up sobbing, my chest heaving in spasms under his weight and my eyes blurring with more tears, my nose threatening to blow snot bubbles.
"Shush...you're ok baby." he tried to soothe me, making it worse. "I'll make it stop hurting, it'll be ok." He whispered as he dropped his head back into my bleeding neck and I wailed in fright, choking on my tears and trying feebly to push him away. "I'm not going to bite you sweetheart, you don't need to be afraid." He continued to whisper into my neck and I wanted to vomit, or go curl up in a corner and die, or just bash my head against a wall until my skull cracked open. He was insane!
His lips came down on the bite and he started to lick it again, lapping up my blood that was pouring out of the punctures.
He eventually pulled back when he had decided he had salivated in my wounds enough. My sobs had died down to silent tears and snuffles, feeling numbness fill my body. He traced my broken collar bone with a confused expression for a moment after he leaned back and then moved his hands to cup my face between his palms.
"I'll send someone to fix that good as new." He whispered, leaning forward to press his forehead against mine. "I love you so much." he whispered to me and I felt my skin go cold and warmth ooze between my fingers where my fingernails dug into my palm. And with that he got up, bending to pick me up too and putting me down on the cot.
"I have to go to work but I'll come back. You have to go to a hearing before you are released but afterward I'll take you home and we can spend more time together ok?" he asked, his black eyes looking at me searchingly. I just continued to cry, shaking so bad that the cot rattled. He touched my forehead gently with his lips and then turned and left the room. I wiped the kiss off my forehead with my bloody palm, probably leaving a trail of red.