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The fear that comes from knowing that I could have lost her in that lake suffocates me worse than the water that flowed into my lungs while I was under the surface.
I realize I left Ayden mid-conversation, but I’ll go back tomorrow and find out as much as I can. I need to know everything so I can protect this woman,I don’t know how I’m meant to let her out of my sight after this, and the depth of feeling I have for her scares me. We barely know each other, and yet she means more to me than my pack brothers.
“Who are we to each other?” I ask the question, pressing a kiss into her wet hair.
She doesn’t answer, and for once, I’m okay with her silence.
Chapter 6
Dove
The room is sterile. The walls are white, and the floor is tiled in the same color. There is a metal-framed bed in the corner, the blankets the only color in the rest of the space. They’re light blue and scratchy in a way that makes my skin crawl.
I want to move, to get up, but thick cuffs wrap around my wrists, holding my arms in place at my side, the buckles digging into my skin. Fear sits in my gut, churning my stomach unpleasantly. I don’t know why I’m afraid, but I know I need to be.
The sound of the lock scraping back fills my awareness, and I lift my head off the bed as much as I can. That deep-seated terror is building even more, making bile climb up my throat.
When the door opens, two guards step inside. They are as sterile as the room. Their white tunics and pants melt into the walls.
No. This isn’t happening.
Not again.
I tug against my bonds, trying to free myself, even though I know it is in vain. There is no escape from the cuffs holding me or from this room. I’ve learned that the hard way.
The one nearest to me is gripping a metal device in his hands, twirling it between his fingers in a way that is so menacing that my breath catches in my throat. I know what that thing is capable of. It is used to subdue, to keep us in line without damaging our bodies.
Muscle memory is a powerful thing. My body cringes away from it, my legs twisting in my restraints as if I could somehow crawl out of bed.
“Don’t…” I whimper, but my fear only seems to excite him more.
“She’s already begging,” he says to the other guard. “Have we broken you already?”
I want to scream at him that I’m still here and fighting, but I hold my tongue, knowing he’ll make it hurt worse if I don’t. I shouldn’t have spoken at all, but I’m not thinking clearly.
My silence makes him laugh. “Relax. I won’t hurt you unless you force my hand.” The smile he gives me is not reassuring. “Did you sleep well, number nine?”
It grates on me to hear him call me that. I am not a number. I have a name.
What is it?
My temple throbs as I try to remember. It is as if everything in my mind is locked behind a titanium door I can’t breach, and yet I keep pushing.
Fear of passing out forces me to stop and release the tension inside me.
He needs to die.
That thought doesn’t come from me, but from my wolf. I’m latent. I remember that, though not from before the white room. There’s nothing from before I came here.
I know my wolf can’t shift because they have tried to force her out of my body so many times since I’ve been here. They ignore my screams of agony as they push for her to emerge, but she never does—and she won’t. From what I’ve learned, most of the women here struggle with latency.
“I don’t like being ignored,” the guard says, and I realize I zoned out.
“I slept okay.” I force the words out.
The guards are savage, and whatever I say will be used as an excuse to hurt me. They enjoy delivering pain far too much. But my answer seems to satisfy him because no pain comes.
All the guards here are wolves. In a pack, they would barely rank. Weak links, sent somewhere like this to torment those who cannot fight back. The guard with the device is the weaker of the two, his wolf barely giving off any strength at all. I guess that’s why he gets off on torturing me.
