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Her expression and posture relaxed once more, and she gave a soft laugh. “And here my brother said you were aggressive,” she said, reaching out tentatively, as if she wanted to pet me.
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about that under normal circumstances, but I was elated enough to learn that she was Castor’s sister that I really didn’t care about being treated like a dog. That was better than what I deserved. I pushed my forehead into her palm and nuzzled it happily, my tail thumping involuntarily on the cot behind me.
Well, that was embarrassing.
Renata gave a musical laugh, but stifled it when Dr. Kelly looked over his shoulder. “He’s so serious,” she mumbled under her breath once he looked away.
“If you’re not busy, go into the back and fetch the new bandages,” Dr. Kelly ordered without looking up from the sutures he was working on.
“Yes, sir,” Renata said with a sigh, giving me an apologetic look. “Here,” she said, taking a cloth strip and tying it around my forearm to keep the needle in place. “I’ll be back to check on you in a bit.”
I wagged my tail on purpose this time, since it wasn’t like I had a whole lot of dignity left, and it seemed to be an effective enough way to communicate that I wasn’t a threat.
Throughout the evening, Renata stayed true to her word and came back every now and then to check on me. She even brought over a hunk of dried meat from the rations closet, which gave me something to occupy myself with other than listening to the blood drip.
When I glanced up, one of the other hunters was staring at me like I had sprouted another head, but he quickly looked away when I caught him looking.
I sighed, laying my head on the cot while keeping the jerky beneath my paw. My mind was still lupine enough to hold onto the irrational impulse that anyone was going to try to steal my slobbery meat stick.
At some point, I must have drifted off even though I only meant to close my eyes. The sound of shouting in the distance drew my attention, and I lifted my head to find Dr. Kelly and one of the other hunters whose injuries weren’t quite as severe over by the door, conversing in hushed, confused tones.
The sound of a gunshot rang out, and the hunter immediately drew his own revolver before tearing out into the hall. One of the other wounded hunters—Logan, I thought I’d heard Dr. Kelly call her—tried to get up from her cot, but Dr. Kelly pushed her down by the shoulder.
“Stay put,” he ordered, walking over to the door to lock it, I assumed.
I leapt down off the cot and walked over to the end of my chain. Dr. Kelly cast me a wary glance over his shoulder, but before he could scold me for being up, the door exploded outward and screams erupted from further down the hall.
Renata screamed and Logan jumped to her feet, drawing the blade at her side as three hunters in the Order’s familiar red uniforms filed into the room. The one in front wielded a blade that was freshly bloodied, and I couldn’t help but wonder what had become of the other wounded hunter who had just left.
Even though our interactions had been limited to him giving me nervous glances like the others, the thought enraged me somehow. Maybe it was just the territorial nature of the beast I had become that found the idea of invaders so offensive. Even though this place had been more of a prison than a home to me, it was Castor’s territory, and hearing his sister scream in terror unlocked something within me.
I gave a snarl of rage before I could even fully process what was happening, and the nearest hunter’s eyes landed on me, widening in disbelief. “An alpha?” he asked incredulously.
Logan seized on their shock and struck out with her blade at the hunter closest to her. He was too fast, though, and brought his boot up to kick her in the gut hard enough to send her flying across the room.
The hunter who seemed to be the leader of the group was approaching me, so I sank to all fours and braced myself, my fur bristling. The hunter’s eyes glinted with curiosity. “So David was right,” he murmured. “These fuckers really do have a pet alpha.”
David. That must have been the hunter who’d tried to kill me on the rooftop.
“He doesn’t look like any alpha I’ve ever seen,” said the soldier next to him.
Logan was still dazed and trying to recover, while Renata and Dr. Kelly had Bryson, who was still unconscious, and the other three patients in the corner across the room. None of them were fit to fight, and none of the intruders were wearing the uniform of a “Rosebud,” which was the Church hunters’ pejorative term for the Order’s new recruits. I wasn’t sure how high ranking they were, but they were probably a lot more experienced than anyone here.
I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to take on one of them, let alone all three. The Rosebud alone had come close to doing me in, and if it hadn’t been for Castor and Arrow’s arrival, he would have. All my fights thus far had been in the interest of chasing other monsters off kills, or hunting unsuspecting humans who were ill-equipped to fight back. I had also been a raging beast who knew no fear during all those encounters, so I didn’t have high hopes in that regard, either.
“Guess we’ll just have to take his head back to General Atticus and see what he says,” the leader said, a sadistic grin on his face.
As soon as the hunter raised his blade and his arm came within reach, I lunged to the end of my chain once more and clamped my jaws down on his forearm. His flesh and bone yielded easier than I had anticipated, and with one swift jerk of my head, I tore his hand off. It was still gripping the blade as his forearm sprayed blood like a fountain.
The hunter cried out in shock, collapsing as he clutched his bleeding stump. I tried to grab his fallen sword, but my clawed hands were too clumsy to wrap around the hilt properly, and the other two had already recovered from their shock enough to be prepared to attack.
Somehow, their movements seemed to be happening in slow motion. Or maybe adrenaline was just allowing me to process them faster. In any case, it gave me the time I needed to assess and calculate, even if it felt like the strategizing was coming from some other hidden nature rather than my conscious mind.
The hunter to my right was closest, if only slightly, and he had a pistol, which seemed like more of a pressing threat than the dagger in the other’s hand. There was still the matter of my restraints, so I grabbed the silver chain binding my collar to the wall. Just as Arrow had promised, the silver burned my palm and the pain was almost too agonizing to bear, but I put the rage it stirred within me into my attempt to rip the chain out of the wall.
At that moment, I heard another gunshot and felt a strangely cold sensation in my upper right shoulder blade, but it didn’t hurt. That probably should’ve concerned me more than anything, but the searing pain in my hand was too intense for it to register.
The stone wall began to crack around the post my shackles were bound to, and a few chunks of debris fell off on the next tug, but it still wouldn’t budge.
