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I’m here, Kiara. Are you safe?
CHAPTER3
Kiara
Safe?He’d asked if I was safe. I didn’t have a clue of how to answer that.
Something moved next to me and I jumped. My heart tried to beat through my chest as I sat up far faster than my bruised brain had expected, followed by whatever contents were in my stomach burning a path right back up.
I shifted so quickly the burn in my wrist barely registered. The rough cold ground hurt against my knees, but I wasn’t in control. My stomach was. I coughed and dry heaved several more seconds before a voice from the dark scolded me.
“Shh, they’ll hear you.”
I looked around and could see shadows of what must have been women. So many of them. My stomach wanted to revolt again, but there was nothing left.
“They?” I said in a croaked tone even as I tried to keep it a whisper.
“Yeah. The assholes who brought you here. Brought us all here.”
I looked around and several pairs of eyes glistened back at me in the darkness. This wasn’t where I expected to spend my first night as a mated wolf. Or maybe it was. The other shoe always dropped, didn’t it? No happy endings ever.
My skin itched like something was crawling over every inch, but nothing was there. My wolf paced round and round in my soul.
The throb of my head receded slowly as I healed. The room came into focus, or the darkness and the outlines of the bodies around me became more clear. There wasn’t much to see.
Disappointment seeped in.
I don’t think I’m safe. Where are you?
There was nothing from my mate for an entire breath or seven. I was failing at remain calm. Memories were trying to push past the rational thoughts. Memories of being locked in the basement waiting to be told if I lived or died or worse.
The air here was different, not the same as that basement in the first few years of being a slave. Still, there they cared little if I was happy and something told me this was the same. Strange how body odor and crying didn’t induce the most promising images. I chuckled as the insanity tried to take over.
This wasn’t all that different from my nights in Cripple Creek. All I was missing was a goodnight. I could remember it, because it was the only constant from the wolves that would lock me away.
“See you in the morning. We’ll know what your fate is then.”
I tried to wrap my arms around myself but just like before; it wasn’t much comfort.
Mate, I’m here. Just pretend like you know nothing. And breathe. I’m here. I will not allow them to harm you.
Here? He was here?
No. I am here. You are somewhere not here, and I don’t have to pretend when I do know nothing.
My head stopped swimming and all of my senses awakened. This time when I took a deep breath, my ribs didn’t ache and the burn from throwing up had all but disappeared.
This was what it was like to be a wolf, and I missed out on it for years. Healing rather than living in pain for weeks.
“Why am I not drugged?” I whispered to the girl next to me.
I shifted, and that’s when the burn of my wrist caught my attention again. One pain traded for a new one.
“The silver,” said a voice out of the dark.
“And they are seriously overconfident in themselves,” said a different voice.
Someone scooted closer.
