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I should have known better than to take my eyes off a predator.
The knife slashes through the bars, and only my quick reflexes save me as I roll back to avoid it. Getting to my paws, I snarl at him, my hackles raised.
“Enough!” Vale commands, his voice hard. “Go outside and get some air, now.”
Jai stands, going toe to toe with Vale who is only a bit taller than him. Vale doesn’t back down, and Jai eventually snarls before stomping past him, slinging the door open, and heading out. I see the trees beyond the door and smell the fresh air, but my eyes go back to Vale. Why did he stop Jai? He must see the question in my eyes.
“If I let him play with you, we won’t get answers. We would only hear your screams before he put you out of your misery. Don’t think this means anything. I still plan to question and kill you, wolf.”
Lightning cracks just then, and for a moment, those blue eyes flash like a memory before he turns away. “I wouldn’t sleep if I were you, wolf. I won’t always be awake to stop him.”
I watch him crawl back into his cot, and within a moment, he’s asleep. My eyes go back to the door and the madman standing outside.
Settling down, I focus on keeping calm. If I get too worked up, I will need to burn off energy by shifting. No, it’s better to remain like this for now.
Thunder rolls in the distance as rain splashes down, and my eyes go back to Vale.
Why did he seem so familiar for a moment?
Why did it feel like I’ve looked into those eyes before?
CHAPTER TEN
“Father,” I say, reaching for his hand. He pulls away from me, glaring down at me with hard eyes. Lucien once told me he loves us and that he just doesn’t know how to show us. Sometimes, I’m not too sure.
“Stay here,” he warns and turns to Lucien. “Watch your brother.”
“Yes, sir,” Lucien responds, taking my hand and tugging me deeper into the shade of the trees.
Father thought it was important for us to come tonight so he could show us the truth, as he called it. I’ve always known what hides in the dark. When most of my friends were being told not to be scared of it, my father told me everything that hides in it can kill me.
When I used to ask him to check under my bed, he would bring a knife, and more than once, there was something hiding under it, but tonight is different. It’s the first night he has ever brought Lucien and me with him while he hunts the monsters.
I don’t like it. It’s too dark and scary.
In the distance, I hear the howling of wolves, which makes me shiver and move closer to Lucien. “It’s okay, Val. I’ve got you,” he tells me. “They won’t let anything happen to us.”
I follow his gaze, watching my father command his men as they charge towards the sprawling ranch-style house. There’s a slide and a swing set to the left. I’ve been wanting one for years, yet the monsters have one.
A high-pitched scream of pain has my eyes jerking back to the house as the cocktails my father’s men have sail through the windows, the glass smashing and flames instantly engulfing the curtains and wall.
The scream comes again, filled with fear, and it sends shivers through me.
My heart races as something within me responds to that scream.
“Don’t,” Lucien snaps, tugging me back. “We can’t get in the way.”
My eyes go back to the wooden house and the flames currently engulfing most of it just in time to see something small dart from the wreckage, racing towards the forest.
Lucien turns to see a hunter stumbling from the house and glares at me, looking so much like our dad my heart squeezes. It doesn’t matter that he’s only a few years older than I am. “Stay here.” Grabbing a bucket of water from the well, he hurries to help him while my eyes follow the streak heading towards the trees.
I glance back at Lucien to find him distracted. Taking a deep breath, I hold my knife and hurry through the trees, knowing Father will be angry if one of the monsters gets away.
No one wants him angry.
He was right. It’s time to become a man.
Startling awake, I look at the cage to see the she-wolf watching me carefully. Its eyes almost mock me, as if it knows what I was dreaming of. It’s bad enough that it can hear my heart racing and smell the sweat covering my body.
