“He has to, for the security of the pack, though I agreedoing so out there in front of everyone is a bit thoughtless. There are those who’d rather put those memories behind them.” She gets a distant look for a few seconds, before shaking her head. “You’re not the first the WSSO has experimented on and I doubt you’ll be the last. It’s a touchy subject around here.”
“Because of the alpha’s mate?”
“She’s not their only victim. Now that I think about it, survivor is a better word than victim, don’t you think? Victim implies death.”
I nod again, hesitant to contradict her, but I sure feel like a victim. Not sure what else I’d call myself at this point, except packless. A lone wolf.
“My pack… they were slaughtered the night I was taken. Most were killed in their beds.”
Her entire body tightens. I’m telling her too much and I don’t even know why.
“Go on,” she urges, her hands clenched at her side.
“Maybe I shouldn’t.”
“Please trust me. Recounting the details will help you later.”
With a cautious nod, I continue. “Sometimes I wonder if the humans killed my pack just so they could take me without fear the males would come for me. I don’t understand why they didn’t take more prisoners that night instead of killing them.”
I pause, scrutinizing her expression. It hasn’t changed. She’s waiting, for the entire ugly truth. I hope I’m not making a mistake in trusting her.
“They’ve been using me to lure one or two shifters at a time over months. That’s the part that doesn’t make sense. They could have had dozens that night.”
“Plans change sometimes. Hard to say why they didn’t take more than you.” She takes a deep breath. “But it’s not the first time they’ve killed an entire pack and only taken one prisoner.”
“Is that what happened with Damien’s mate?”
“They killed her family, her pack, leaving no one to go looking for her.”
I sink into the cushions. “That’s what happened to me. There was no one left to look for me.”
“I’m sure all those shifters they’ve trapped feel the same. But you were wrong. Garrett came for you. And if he’d waited a few days, the rest of the team would have been with him.”
“I remember them, from the first time they found me. It took everything I had to convince them to leave. If I hadn’t…” My mind plays back the terror of that day. “There were four guards that day, hidden. They would have shot them, killed them, if I’d failed.”
“And for that, we are thankful you succeeded, but it doesn’t change the fact that Garrett defied his alpha. Damien will punish him.”
I understand, but it doesn’t sit well with me. He saved me, and now he’ll be punished because of it. “I wish I could switch places with those other shifters.” With Garrett. Keep him from being punished.
“Why would you say that?”
“Because I had a hand in trapping them. And now, the very thought that they’re being tortured makes it hard to breathe.”
“You can’t think like that, or it will eat you up inside. Their fate, whatever it is, is not something you want.” Her tone sends a shiver down my spine.
I swallow. “What if the humans are… experimenting on them?”
“They are,” she says with no doubt in her voice. “They… they used me to test the shifter virus.”
“I don’t understand. You’re alive. That virus killed thousands.”
She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a moment. “Yes, ultimately. But they conducted their research before that point. They had been trying to separate our wolves from the human part of us.” She shudders. “To make us fully human.”
I reach for her hand. “You don’t need to explain.” Or maybe she does. I think that’s why I’ve been telling her so much. This need for others to understand.
“I know. And it’s not something I talk about much anymore. I try to keep it in the past, but not… not fully, if that makes sense. We need to remember all the atrocities the WSSO commits, or we’ll lose this war against them. To them, they have two choices. Destroy all shifters, or make us human again. The first isn’t as easy as they believed, not with governments frowning on mass murder, especially when innocent humans get caught in the cross-fire. The second isn’t any easier, but the sick bastards think it’s merciful… something they can convince governments of, once they figure out how to do it. They don’t understand what tearing our wolves from us would do to us.”
I’d heard her theory of the WSSO trying to destroy our wolves. I never believed it until now.
