I opened my eyes slowly to a dimly lit room. I felt warm. My eyes focused on some sort of woolly blanket that was wrapped tightly around me. Without moving my head I could see that I was in a small cavern-like room that seemed to be dimly lit. I was laying on what was a large soft item that I had seen almost every day of my life but I couldn't quite seem to place it. What frustrated me more was the fact that I knew what the item was, I just couldn't think of what it was used for or what the name of the item was.
I felt ill, ill enough only to notice the details of the things around me and acknowledge that I was feeling ill. Nothing more. Not able to even contemplate that I wasn't in a familiar place.
I then felt myself drift back into the world unconscious thoughts and dreams.
***
My eyes opened and focused on a worn black combat boot. I looked up the boot analysing every scratch and scrape that seemed to cross paths before going off on another adventure across the tough black leather. They had no doubt been worn many times maybe even every day since they had been bought. They weren't brilliantly well kept and they looked like they could last for another two years of everyday use. My eyes continued up as I got to a pair of dark ripped jeans, followed by a tight black t-shirt and a face. It was the werewolf boy!
“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” he smiled.
I was instantly trying to stand up to defend myself but all I managed was to back away from him a few steps but barely got to my feet before soreness rippled through my body and I fell backwards onto my bum and I found myself cornered. I hadn't been this sore since ... since before I could remember! I tried to give him some sort of curse to stay away from me but the moment I tried to speak a dry and fiery pain went through my throat. I was so thirsty!
"Steady there, Tiger," he chuckled and he grabbed me by the waist much to my protests as he tried to pull me into his chest. I kicked and thrashed as much as I could at him but ended up sitting with my back against his chest. Once there I felt I didn't have it in me to move another inch, like I had used up the last of my energy even though I had just woken up.
“Here,” he said as he helped me with the cup.
Was I five now? What with me being unarmed and him being a super strong, werewolf boy helping me to drink from a cup. At first every sip of water hurt and took effort to swallow but I was so thirsty that my body demanded more. It was only seconds before the whole content of the cup had disappeared. I was still so thirsty.
“Can I have some mo-” I began.
“No you may not otherwise you will throw up what I’ve just given you,” he said.
“Why am I still aliv-”
“Don’t ask that question either. My pack have been asking it enough already.”
“‘Your pack?’” I repeated. “You’re the alpha?” I should've killed him right then and there!
“That would be why I used the term, my pack,” he replied with a small smile.
“Do I get to know your name?” I asked feeling him brush through my hair with his fingers. If I had been feeling more alive I would've never allowed him to touch me, or even still be alive. He would be dead and I would be on my way home.
“Tom,” he answered. “What’s your name?”
“Kayla.” I replied before there was a moment of silence. “Are you going to turn me?”
“Are you asking to be turned?” he smirked with a raised eyebrow.
“No,” I snapped and he smirked.
I sat staring at the ground with my eyes half closed. I felt so safe to be in the arms of a werewolf but this was the werewolf who had killed my friends. He had killed them all with the exception of Jade who had only just managed to get away. My eyes felt so heavy but I refused to fall asleep, not in his company. Much to my dismay, my eyes closed but I wasn’t quite asleep when I heard talking.
“The pack are questioning your motives with her. Are you going to turn her, kill her, interrogate her? What are you doing with her Tom?” an aggravated voice asked.
“Well I can’t do anything until she’s recovered more. If I were to turn her now she would die, she’s not nearly strong enough. I could kill her but then I wouldn’t get any information and if I interrogated her now, she wouldn’t give up anything without some persuasion which she’s too weak for,” Tom answered from close by.
“What about the one that got away? They’ll recruit more, you know they will and they’ll be back. That girl probably has a tracking device inside her like the others did, when they come back with reinforcements, they’re going to know exactly where we are,” the other voice said.
“We’ll deal with it. The cave tunnels are dangerous and confusing to those who don’t know their way around them. Anyway, they won’t be back for a while yet.”
***
Jade’s POV:
“We have no idea whether they’re even alive or not,” Max sighed as he looked out of the window to his flat with his back turned from both myself and John.
Suddenly hope flooded through me and I wiped my tears away before grabbing John’s laptop and logging on using his secure password that I had cracked a few weeks ago. I went straight onto the GPS tracking system and typed in Nathan’s number.
The map on the screen took me to a part of the woods that we hadn’t even investigated. The dot on the screen was red and beeping on the screen. I looked to the properties bar at the side of the screen.
Form Inactive.
He was dead. I bit my lip as a few tears began to fall down my face. Hope was the only thing keeping me from having a metal breakdown. I typed in Kayla’s number into the search bar. I bit my lip harder, probably drawing blood. The red dot appeared on the screen out of the forest. I looked to the properties panel and saw something that made my heart skip.
Form Active.
“She’s alive! Look, she’s actually alive! They haven’t killed her!” I shouted.
Immediately Max and John were crowded around the computer screen. Max clapped his hands together and turned to one of the tech people.
“Get me a live satellite stream to those coordinates, right now,” he said so sharply that the tech person nodded furiously and took the laptop in a hurry. Max then turned to John and I.
“We’re going to visit the prime minister,” he said with a smile.
“Sir, live streaming but there’s nothing there, it’s just grassland,” the tech person said.
“What?”Max asked in disbelief.
***
When I opened my eyes again I saw Tom standing by my feet. When you were sitting on the floor and he was towered above you like a giant you couldn't help but feel incredibly intimidated how I distanced myself from my emotions. I had to be brave. I could be brave.
“Feeling better?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Maybe,” I answered.
He held out a hand which I took and pulled myself up. It took me a couple of seconds to get over the sudden overwhelming dizziness and my unsteady legs. We were clearly underground somewhere. My legs still felt unstable, like my knees could give way at any given moment and his intense stare didn't help. Then I suddenly noticed that there was a knife in his hand.
I felt my heart stutter and I unintentionally held my breath. The room was empty other than a mattress and a woolly blanket; there was nothing that I could use as a weapon, unless- I turned my attention back to Tom he took a step towards me and I took a step back but felt the cavern wall press against my back. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before leaping towards the mattress and throwing it towards him but all it did was bounce off him. He gave me quizzical look as if to say 'really?'. I grabbed the blanket and threw it but it just landed at his feet.
“This may hurt a little,” he said quietly.
Before I had any time to react he was right in front of me and I felt a sharp pain explode through my left shoulder. I tried not to scream by clenching my jaw shut and I somehow managed to keep the scream internal. Seconds later I was on the floor crying softly. The pain in my shoulder was indescribable. I felt Tom doing something to it; I looked to his to see his was bandaging it up. I was so confused … again.
Then I saw something on the floor next to me. It was covered in blood but I recognised it immediately, it was my tracker.
***
Form Inactive.
***
I stared at the small object. That had been the thing that had been in my arm since I was seven? That tiny little gadget? Tom sat down opposite me and I breathed out deeply.
“Aren’t you going to apologise?” I asked.
“For what?”
“Sticking a knife in my arm?”
“Why would I apologise?” he asked.
“Because it hurt,” I suggested.
“I'm an alpha, I don't have to apologise to anyone," he said standing up to his full height.
I stared at him blankly without saying a thing.
“What?” he asked with a shrug.
“That’s not very polite,” I muttered.
“Neither is coming here to hunt down my pack,” he answered.
I sighed and leant back against the cavern wall. It was surprisingly warm in here, it was then that I noticed that I didn’t have my leather jacket.
“What happened to my jacket?” I asked.
“It got shredded, why?”
“I liked that jacket,” I murmured and I thought back to when I was about to jump onto the helicopter but was grabbed by the jacket from behind. "Surely one wolf grabbing me from behind didn't shred my jacket?"
"Well, you got tugged around a bit, but I got them to not kill you."
There was another awkward silence in which I was unsure of what to say. Thankfully he spoke first, but once he spoke I wasn’t sure I was quite so thankful.
“My beta has given me some options and I think that they’re good options but you probably won’t like them very much. I can kill you or turn you but either way I have to interrogate you first. I haven’t decided yet but-”
“Can’t you just… let me go?” I asked quietly.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because it leaves your werewolf killing group with another player and my pack would probably kill me,” he answered.
“How about just keeping me human?” I asked.
“That’s going to turn out well, a pack of werewolves and one human.”
He raised an eyebrow at me and I sighed and slumped back into the wall, I couldn’t even remember leaning forwards. Why did this have to be so difficult?
“When did you start training to be a hunter?” he asked casually.
“When I was seven,” I said quietly. I then found myself closing my eyes and remembering everything from that first day.
“They gave you guns when you were seven?” I heard Tom ask curiously.
“No,” I answered still with my eyes closed. “We studied theory for a year, the next year we had target practice with guns, bows, crossbows, slingshots and anything else that we could use to defend ourselves. At first we hardly ever got to use the weapons and we just continued the theory and began doing physical fitness training. Our health was monitored by John and Max closely-”
“Who were they?”
“John's our instructor and Max's John’s boss. When we turned fifteen Max and John began assessing us on lots of different aspects; stamina, strength, speed, logic and agility. We were graded out of five on each aspect and if we scored lower than a three we weren’t allowed to go on any missions that month,” I explained.
“What kind of missions are there?”
“Each mission is different. There are bag and tags, surveillance, interrogations and kill on sites,” I opened my eyes at this point to see him looking straight at me.
“Why were we a kill on site?” he asked as he fiddled with something.
“Most werewolf cases are. Werewolves are dangerous, powerful and are often the cause of missing people. We’ve only bag and tagged one werewolf pack in all the time I’ve been with the team and left two packs after putting them under surveillance for months on end,” I explained.
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
I sighed deeply and looked at him. “Your forest is very close to a town, we did as we were told to and we were aware that you were expanding your pack by … a lot in the past six months-”
“Expanding my pack and living near a town is an excuse for killing us!” he shouted.
I shrunk back against the wall.
“It’s our job to work for the government to stop more people from going missing,” I said trying to defend myself.
“It’s your job? Did you ever think that maybe the people that I turned wanted to be turned? That they knew there was a pack of werewolves and they came and asked me to be turned?” he shouted.
“I didn’t choose my job! I was selected for it!” I shouted, surprised at my own voice. “If I say I want to quit my job, they’d kill me.”
“So you’d rather kill people as a living than let yourself die?” he asked looking at me with his brown hair covering his dead serious face.
“Most of the things we kill are already dead, hags and vampires, banshees are neither dead nor alive,” I said.
“They’re not things, they’re people! And I'm alive! I have a beating heart!” he shouted and I remained silent. “...What do your family think of your job?”
I somehow managed to shrink back further into the wall and a tear trickled down my face.
“You don’t have any family, do you?” I heard him say, he was barely audible above the sound of my family screaming.
I snapped out of it seeing the wolf boy right in front of me, he was reaching forwards to towards my uninjured shoulder.
“Don’t touch me!” I shouted as I leapt away from him.
He looked almost offended my reaction as I sat a meter away from him, then his face straightened and he stood up. His eyes swirled with yellow and a second later he was the huge black wolf. I stared in horror. I was unarmed and there was nothing that I could use in self-defence.
The jet black wolf moved paw after paw closer to me. I sat and stared then as he leapt my hunting instinct kicked in. Somehow I was out of the way of his pounce but before I had time to face him again he flung me against one of the walls. When I looked up to see him advancing I knew I didn’t have enough time to get up so when he got close enough I kicked him in the jaw.
The wolf let out a yelp before I felt his claws rake down into my side. I let out a mild but not outrageous scream as the wolf moved away from me and suddenly he was human again with a small amount of blood coming from his mouth which he wiped away effortlessly before coming and kneeling down next to me.
"Do not underestimate me," he said before standing up and walking out of the room. I heard the door lock behind him.
***
I opened the door to the room and walked out to be faced with my beta, Kix.
“You alright?” he asked as I turned to lock the door.
“Yeah, I'm fine. Just a small kick to the face,” I smiled as I wiped away some more blood.
“I take it you turned her?” Kix asked as I closed the door and locked it behind me.
“Not quite, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the other ones,” I muttered.
“What do you want to do with them?” Kix asked me as we began to walk down one of the tunnels.
“I want to kill them but it's probably not the best way to go about it, is it?”
“I think we should have killed them where we found. I also think that we should interrogate them some more and see what we can get out of them considering your attempts with the girl didn’t go to well … were you trying to seduce her or what?”
“I don’t even know,” I muttered. “I’m going to pop in and see the boys, I’ll see you later, or do you fancy joining me?”
“Joining by far,” Kix smiled.
***
I had managed to prop myself up against the wall and watch the blood seep through my white shirt. For a while I just stared at it wondering how much blood I was losing and how long it would take to stop. What if I bled to death ... here ... alone? I slammed my head into the rock wall behind me in frustration.
The room was so dusty and I had enough time to analyse every particle and every crack in the wall. How in some parts of the room the dust was all piled up whereas in others there was just a tiny layer of it. I could see some dust particles still floating in the air from … the fight, if you could even call it that.
I ended up trying to restrict my breathing so that my side didn’t move so much but that failed when I nearly suffocated myself. God I felt sick. I incidentally moved to try and get my head in a position where I wasn’t breathing in dust. A shot of pain ran up my side and clamped my jaw shut to repress a small cry of pain.
After what felt like hours and probably was hours, I heard the door click open. I closed my eyes but didn’t move. I heard the sigh and the footsteps coming towards me that were muffled slightly but the dust. Then I felt my t-shirt being lifted away from the wound, pain instantly jetted up my side yet again and I let out a muffled cry.
“Shh,” Tom’s voice whispered soothingly.
I wanted to kill him! As soon as I could stand I would kill him without a second! I would kill him and kill his whole bloody pack! I would avenge my friend's deaths.
I then found myself crying which sent jolts of pain though my side but I didn’t stop, I couldn’t stop. My friends were dead. They were actually all dead! I would never see them again.
“Hey, shh, it’s okay,” he whispered as I felt him lift me up which sent more pain shooting through me.
It was okay? I had an open wound across my side that felt like someone was constantly prodding it! I felt myself leaning against his chest like I had last time. He tucked some of the many loose strands of hair back behind my ears before placing something cold on my side causing me to take in a sharp breath but the relax slightly.
I closed my eyes and thought of the time our team had had together in Africa and the sun was disappearing below the horizon and sending waves of orange, yellow and red out across the evening sky like God had selected his brightest paints and used the sky as a canvas.
"It hurts," I murmured as another tear fell down my face. Why did I say that? Duh, obviously it hurt!
"I know," he whispered.
"Tell me something," I said so quietly that I doubt he heard but he did.
"Like what?"
"Like what your pack thought when my group arrived here," I said.
He sighed.
"Well, when you first arrived we thought that you might be students but that idea was ruled out and replaced when you all started walking around with bows and guns," he said. "I thought it would be best for the pack to lie low until you left but then you saw me while I was spying on you so ... the plan changed."
"Why not just kill me like you killed the others?" I asked.
"We didn't kill all the others," he said.
"Yes because Jade got onto the helicopter," I said trying not to move but needing to at the same time.
"Yes but there's another two alive," he said.
I froze before looking up at him in disbelief. My side stung like hell but I didn't care. Who was alive or was he just messing with my head?
"The last boy and the leader," he said.
"Nathan and Alex? They're alive?" I whispered with tears in my eyes.
"Yes."
"Please, you have to take me to them," I pleaded.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because it is my decision as alpha of this pack to keep you all separate," he answered with such an authority in his voice that I didn't think I should reply, so I remained silent. And we both stayed silent for a long time.
"I thought I might die in here," I said quietly.
"And you think you won't now?" he asked.
I bit my lip before replying. "I- I was just sat there watching myself bleed."
Suddenly the door opened and a man came walking in, and I immediately tensed every muscle in my body, ready to attack him should he get too close to me. I recognised him as the one who we had captured. He leant casually against the wall opposite us and watched us. Tom seemed completely unaware of his presence, or just not bothered.
"Well, isn't it nice to see the hunter and the hunted having a cuddle," the man smirked.
A low rumbling growl sounded from the chest behind me that sent shivers skating through me.
"Relax, I'm just kidding," the werewolf smiled. "I just came in to tell you that Laura wants to take a group off on a hunting party down the valley."
"Who does she want to take?" Tom asked from behind me.
"Roxie, James, Tricks, Cello and Albert," the werewolf answered.
"Yeah, tell her to stay out of trouble and to keep to the North, we don't need any more for a while," Tom said.
"Will do, Tom," the werewolf smiled and was about to walk out of the door before stopping and looking closely at my side which was on full show now as Tom had pulled up my t-shirt.
"You really got her, didn't you?" the werewolf smiled.
"I guess I did," Tom answered and with that the other werewolf left the room and shut the door behind him. I felt a bit invisible. Had Tom told him not to talk to me directly or was that just their way of showing subtle hostility?
There was a moment of silence before I spoke.
"Who was that?" I asked.
"Kix, he's my beta," Tom answered.
I didn't reply instead I began to think, perhaps even too much. Why had I shown so much hostility towards Kix but not to Tom. Was I now just accepting of the fact that Tom was going to not respect my personal boundaries and manhandle me any way he liked? Maybe I still had hope that by showing hostility, others might leave me alone.
"You tensed up a lot when Kix came in," Tom commented absentmindedly.
"Sorry," I said quietly. Why was I apologising? "I'm not too good around werewolves. Plus I figured he might be a little pissed off from me shooting him."
Tom chuckled from behind me. "You shot me too, remember."
I hated to say it whilst I was in some sort of underground cavern with a hell-load of werewolves, but I was bored. I generally was bored out of my mind. Suddenly the door burst open and Alex fell into the room. Tom was no longer sitting behind me but standing up in front of me.
"Keep track of your new pets!" a voice growled from the other side of the door. "I found him wandering around in the tunnels near the sleeping quarters. I could do a better job than you."
"Are you challenging me, Mia?" Tom asked, his voice low, ringing with authority that made me just want to go and hide in the corner.
I looked to Alex who lay unmoving on the floor in front of Tom. I couldn't help but scramble forwards but before I made it past Tom, he purposefully stuck out his foot in front of me to stop me from going any further. I could've just pushed past him to get to Alex ... and push past him I did.
"Alex?" I whispered once I was next to him but suddenly I was grabbed from behind by Tom. I yelled out in protest seeing the bruises across Alex's face. Alex needed me, he needed help! Tom put a hand across my mouth to muffle the yelling. He might've still been talking to that she-wolf but I didn't care! I wanted to help Alex.
I clenched my teeth down on his hand and I immediately found myself pushed up against the wall with Tom's face inches from mine.
"Unless you want to find yourself with a bite from me, I suggest you just sit quietly and you never ever bite me again." His voice showed pure authority and all I could do was nod as he dropped me to the floor like garbage.
I watched as the woman took the unconscious Alex out of the room by the back of the shirt and Tom gave a quick glance around at me before following her out of the door. Hearing it click as he locked it I sighed and it was only now that I realised the throbbing pain in my side was excruciating.
I sat back against the wall, thinking about how this had managed to happen. I was stuck in a cave with a hell load of werewolves- My stomach rumbled filling the stillness of the small cavern. My attention was brought not to the sound but to the pain that came with it. When was the last time I had eaten something?