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Time was passing and I had lost all concept of it. I was so weak that I fell asleep whenever I was left alone for too long. I had no idea when they brought me meals. I must have passed at least one of their terrible tests because water was usually left within my reach, unless I was in one of the examination rooms.
Even if I wanted to fight with them, I couldn’t. I barely had the strength to keep myself upright, much less swing a fist. Frankly, I wasn’t even sure they were underfeeding me; between the silver, all the tests, and feeling pretty positive that my pacemaker had gone on the fritz, it was no surprise that I felt like death warmed over.
At least it’s still warmed over.
It was hardly a comforting thought, but it was all I had to hold onto as I was strapped to a wall, upright, my weight resting against the restraints as I waited for Dr. Brenner to show up and start prodding at me like a piece of meat. They’d even removed my silver collar for whatever experiment he wanted to run next, but I was so tired, I could barely keep my eyes open, much less try to make a run for it. Hell, if they left me waiting long enough, I might actually fall asleep. If that’s what it took to conserve energy…
The door opened and I stirred, lifting my head enough to see. I had no energy to argue with the guards anymore, but I still reserved a growl for Dr. Brenner. He was so calm about the entire thing, like experimentation on living people was perfectly normal. I might be a shifter, but I was still human. I lived most of my life as human.
Dr. Brenner was more of a monster than any werewolf I had ever met.
I lifted up my upper lip to snarl, but it wasn’t the doctor who strolled in and closed the door — it was another guard. I paused, waiting…but no one else strolled in afterward. He took up a position between me and the door, giving me a brief look before assuming the blank stare into the middle distance.
To my surprise, my wolf stirred slightly. She felt just as weak as I did, and I wondered if this was the way she always felt. If this is what I’d done to her, hiding her away for over a decade.
I didn’t have time to feel bad for her or angry at myself, though, because as weak as she was, she was insistent. Something about the guard had caught her attention. It took me a moment to gather my focus, but when I really studied the man, I realized he wasn’t like the other guards.
He’s a shifter?!
The scent was faint, and I wasn’t sure if that was my own failing strength or because he was trying to mask it with something else, but now that I had identified it, it felt like it took up the entire space.
He smelled…he smelled familiar. My wolf whined softly, her ears flipping back as she tucked her tail. She was still bothered, and it wasn’t just because he was a shifter.But how do we know him?I certainly didn’t associate with mercenaries, and when I was a teenager, I barely ran into other wolves. If I had, I didn’t bother making myself known. If anything, I actively avoided others.
I tried to pull my memory back further. I didn’t remember any wolves specifically from my childhood outside of my pack, even though I was sure we had social events sometimes. When you had a pack as small as Aurora, it was important to make connections with other territories. He wasn’t a member of my pack; they’d all been killed. They’d been killed by—
My heart stumbled, and for a split second, I thought the shock would stop it all together. If I wasn’t strapped to a wall, I would have probably swayed, if not fallen all the way to my knees. As the man shifted his position a moment later, his inner wrist was revealed, and I saw the flash of a black bird. My stomach lurched, and my worst fears were confirmed.
“How could you work for them?” I hissed, unable to stop myself before the words came tumbling out. “How could you?”
He finally looked over at me, as if he wassurprisedI would dare speak to him. The man just smirked and looked forward again.
I growled softly, forgetting to be exhausted for a moment. “How could you work for these people?” I demanded.
After a moment, he looked back over and raised a brow at me as if I were too slow to understand what great purpose was being served here. “Shifters have been forced to hide in the shadows for centuries,” he replied. The subtle grin he was wearing gave me the heebie jeebies. “They’re so much more powerful than that. Deserve so much more than that.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Are you crazy? Shifters almost went extinct because humans were soafraid!What makes you think they’d change their mind a second time around?”
His grin grew and my skin crawled even more. “We don’t need theirapproval,” he replied, shaking his head. “Once the doc figures out the secret here, we won’t need humans at all. We’ll live the way we want to, and they won’t get any say in the matter.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that, but any of the ideas that came to mind were horrid. While I didn’t like living in fear of discovery, the idea of terrorizing everyone else sounded just as bad.
I bit the inside of my mouth, trying to keep the man talking. “How do you justify hurting other shifters then?” I demanded, quashing my fear with my anger.
He shrugged, looking just as passive about it as Dr. Brenner did. “Worms have to die so you can catch fish. Not every wolf is the picture of shifter perfection. It’s just the natural order of things, to weed out the weak.” He turned back to me, leering.
I wished I could rip his tongue out. “What is wrong with you?”
The guard stepped forward as if he didn’t hear me, stopping only inches away from my face.
“You don’t have to be a worm, you know,” he said, his tone a little softer.
I reeled backward, repulsed by the mere implication. When I didn’t say anything, he kept talking.
“I know which one you are. You’re the last wolf of a pack; you could be a queen in a kingdom.” He grinned at me and I wanted to gag. My throat felt like it was closing. He reached forward to brush his hand over my arm. I couldn’t even jerk away. “I could get you out of here, you know. We could have our own pack. I see all sorts, and you’re one of the most spirited. I bet you’d have strong pups. Produce an alpha heir.”
My stomach turned over, and for once, I was glad it was empty. “I’d rather be with the worms than throw away my own people for personal gain,” I snapped, spitting at his shoe. “I’d rather die than be your mate.”
