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“No? So you’re not three nutjobs hunting me and my family for kicks?” He stills. “Does the hunt get you hard? If so, you’re not much different than the wolves you hunt.”
“I won’t tell them you changed or it’s both our heads,” he hisses. “If you’re smart, though, you’ll play along and give them what they want.”
“I was never good at playing it smart,” I tell him, but I change back, done talking to him. I have what I need for now.
Instead, I close my eyes and rest, knowing I will need it. This cage, though crude, will do the trick for now. With only one of them here—the one that seems reluctant to hurt me—I can almost relax as I sleep, caught between dreams and nightmares.
The smell of smoke fills my lungs, choking me. The acidic taste makes me gag, and bile claws at my throat as tears burn behind my eyes. I turn to look, watching the flames eat what’s left of my life before spinning around and sprinting towards the forest—the one place I know I will be safe if I can get there.
I pump my legs and arms faster, pushing my body for all I’m worth. If I don’t, I’ll die here just like everyone else.
Run!The roar is in my head, the memory echoing inside me making me sob and stumble.
“Wolf! I found a wolf!”
I jolt awake, my gaze clashing with a bright human pair. Fuck, I must have slept deeper than I meant to. The nightmares always have that effect on me. They shroud me in their smoke and darkness, making me unaware.
Jai sits before me, close enough to touch the bars.
I feel my body tense, and he cocks his head.
“I wonder what wolves have nightmares about. You were whimpering in your sleep.” I flash my fangs, and he grins. “Is it us skinning your brothers and sisters and using them as our rugs?”
I don’t give him the reaction he wants. He’s practically vibrating with the desire to see me leap at him like the feral animal he thinks I am so he has an excuse to attack me. The others want me alive and need me for answers, but this one? He wants my pain and death, and I will not give him an excuse for it.
I relax, watching him as I lay my head down on my paws.
I can hear the other two snoring on the cots in the corner. It’s dark in here, but my eyes can see the specks of dust floating in the air between us. My wolf side lets me know the moon is high, the call to it never leaving. It’s late into the night, when the world is quiet and darkness takes over.
Darkness most use to cover their evil deeds.
Like this one.
There is madness in his gaze, but something under his skin has my hair standing on end. It’s happened before when I met a true monster in human form, but this is something different—this is an awareness.
This man is not completely human, but from his and the others’ reactions, I can tell none of them know.
Interesting.
“When they let me kill you, and they will, I think I’ll keep your skin as a blanket.” He smirks, pulling out a wicked-looking knife. The slight blue sheen lets me know it’s infused with wolfsbane to cause the most damage and stop us from healing as they gut us. He keeps talking, obviously realising I have no plans to respond. “The others think you are someone important, someone we can use. Me? I don’t give a fuck who you are. You’re an animal—an animal I’m going to enjoy putting down.”
I glance at one of the cots as someone’s breathing picks up, letting me know one of them is awake. They say nothing, though, so I look back to Jai. He’s oblivious to his fellow hunters, stroking the blade like one does a cock as he watches me.
I wonder if he enjoys killing and if it gets him off.
There’s certainly enough crazy in his gaze to answer that. Hunters enjoy what they do. Most are trained soldiers who cannot do anything but kill and need an outlet, while others are simply in it for the money, but some like Jai do it for this—the pain, the kill. They hate us monsters so much, they crave our deaths. It usually stems from something, and it makes me wonder what happened to Jai to make him hate wolves so much.
We limit our contact with humans and bar ferals, and we don’t ever attack humans. Even hurting hunters is forbidden unless agreed on by our alpha. It can lead to declawing and dismissal from a pack. We are not to draw their attention at all, and murder does that, but the hunters are getting bolder, spreading out into the secluded places we live, hunting our full pack.
Everything is changing, and so must we.
When I kill these three, I will not ask for forgiveness. I will bring their heads on pikes for my pack.
“They say that if you cause enough pain to the wolf, you’ll turn back. Shall we see?” He leans forward, but I don’t move.
“Jai, enough,” Vale calls, half asleep.
My eyes do not move from the threat until Jai leans back. Only then do I glance at Vale to see him scratching his head. He’s wearing nothing but low-slung grey joggers, showing off impressive muscles for a human, but I almost smirk at the bleeding gauze covering his shoulder. He notices and glares at me, but that momentary distraction is what Jai needs.
