by Sara Summers
Shifters around the room were clutching their stomachs, children falling to the floor but biting back cries of pain.
The whole scene reminded me of my time with my aunt and uncle. The pain, the fear…
I tried to push Haiden aside, but he stood firmly in front of me.
“If one of us is dying tonight, it’s going to be me.” Haiden whispered.
“No.” I glared at the back of my mate’s head. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Where is Jazmine Daniels?” the man who carried the mermaid shouted. The woman in his arms writhed at the noise, and I was filled with pain for her.
None of the people around me spoke up. They were content with hiding me, apparently. They really thought I had come to save them, though I hadn’t gotten the memo.
A hand tightened around my arm, and I was suddenly being yanked through the crowd.
“She’s here.” Matt shoved me up to the men, and I fell to the ground at their feet. That was when I realized what was going on. They weren’t content with hiding me, they just didn’t want the attention that would come with being the one to turn me it.
Great.
I thought.
“Don’t touch her.” Haiden shouted as he pushed his way through the crowd. Two more shifters grabbed him, holding him in place. He fought the men, but nothing came of it.
“We brought her to you, now let us go.” Matt demanded.
“Of course. I am a man of my word, after all.” He chuckled, gesturing to the back door, the one he had come in through. “Go ahead. You’re free.”
At his words, everyone sprinted toward the doors. However, when they got outside, they all started screaming.
“You said we would be free!” a woman shrieked.
“These are cages!” A man shouted.
“Yes, you’re free to choose which cage you want.” the man’s eyes gleamed wickedly as the pack screamed and yelled and cursed and cried.
I closed my eyes to the noises, all of them bringing me back to the same images as earlier—the images of living with my aunt and uncle, of suffering because of them.
“What’s going on?” I demanded. “Why do you want me here? What happened?” The man dropped the mermaid shifter on the floor like she was a doll, then turned to talk to one of his men.
“This is your fault.” Matt yelled, grabbing my arm and ripping me up off the ground. “You did this!”
“I didn’t do anything!” I yelled back, screaming as my shoulder popped out of place. The pain brought spots to my eyes.
“Your parents wanted to save you, so they made all of us run. If we had died with them, we would’ve been free from all of this suffering.” He snarled at me.
“Stay away from her.” Haiden hollered, still trying to shove his way free from the grips of those holding him.
“I didn’t ask to be saved.” I winced as Matt dragged me forward.
“Good, because you won’t be.” He threw me to the ground next to the mermaid. “Kill her.” He ordered the men. I didn’t realize it at the moment, but no one responded to his order.
In the heat of the moment, I did the only thing I could think to do—I threw myself forward and shifted. My shoulder was already dislocated, and shifting only made it hurt more. There were things worse than pain, though. I forced myself to surge forward, away from the men and the mermaid and Haiden.
Then, I had two choices.
Stay and fight
Run
I was good at running—I was a cheetah after all—but I couldn’t leave my mate or the mermaid or any of the shifters trapped in cages. And that meant I had only one option.
I would have to stay and fight.
How was I going to fight off all those big men, who, on second glance, were carrying guns and other weapons? Good question.
Really, there wasn’t a plan.
My arm was killing me and my stomach was throwing a tantrum, but I had to do something.
The only option, really, was to shock everyone. Shifting from a cheetah into a butt-naked human being would do that, I hoped/assumed.
With that idea being my only sensible option, I closed my eyes and willed myself to change.
When I heard the gasps, I had to bite back a grin. They died out after a second, of course, and I really had no idea what to do after that. With a dislocated and possibly broken shoulder, there wasn’t anything I could do attack-wise as a human or a cheetah.
“Well, at least she’ll make the show interesting.” The man who had been carrying the mermaid said, after the gasps died down.
“Let all of us go or I’ll kill you.” I threatened.
How was I going to kill them? Beats me.
“Good luck.” The man cackled, then kicked the mermaid who was crumpled on the ground. Instantly, my stomach began to hurt again, more than before. I fell to the floor, writhing and gasping for air.
“Stop.” I cried out. The last thing I saw before I passed out was the man kick that poor mermaid shifter again.
Chapter 20
When I opened my eyes, I was in a cage. Yes, like a big, metal box. It wasn’t a barred cage, which I could’ve tried (unsuccessfully of course) to break out of. Instead, I was surrounded by metal.
“Well this escalated quickly.” I muttered to myself, looking around for a way out. What started as an innocent little barbeque turned into a group kidnapping attempt. Matt had pulled it off well, too, because I’d had no idea it was coming.
The right side: well, it was metal. No window, no cracks in the metal, nothing that could get me out or be used as a weapon.
The left side: Same thing. Nothing useful, just metal.
In front of me: More metal.
Behind me: More metal plus a door that was thoroughly locked.
Above me: Just plain metal.
Underneath me: Yep, you guessed it, metal.
As if that didn’t suck enough, I also wasn’t wearing any clothes.
Yeah.
So, to sum up everything I learned in that long one minute: I was sitting in a metal prison, naked, with no way out.
Yup. It really happened.
I leaned backward against the wall and blew a piece of hair out of my eyes.
“This sucks.” I sighed. So much for making my parents proud. Apparently the pack had wanted to die that day, along with my parents. I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand why. Despite the things they’d been through, didn’t they want to survive?
I don’t know how long I sat there. Ten minutes? Twenty? Six hours? Three days? It felt like forever.
When the door finally opened, I wanted to cry in relief.
A woman stepped inside, and two of the guys outside closed and locked her inside. She handed me a cup of water and a large t-shirt, then gave me a small smile.
“How are you holding up?” she checked.
“How do you think?” I pulled the shirt over my head and lifted an eyebrow at her. “I’m locked inside a giant metal box with no idea what happened to my mate or the mermaid or anyone else.”
“They’re all fine.” She must’ve read the expression on my face, because I wasn’t buying the load of crap she was selling. I had seen the men and the way they treated people. No person in any of the cages was fine. “Alive. They’re alive.” She corrected herself. “Do you understand why you’re here?”
“Because everyone thinks it’s my fault they didn’t die with my parents.” I shrugged, folding my arms. The whole thing was ridiculous. My parents had sacrificed themselves for these people, and so what? So they could bring me in for the slaughter.
“No, we think it’s your fault that we’re here. You do know what this is, don’t you?” the woman checked.
“A cage.” I folded my arms.
“Not the place you’re being kept.” She shook her head. “Do you know why you’re not dead right now?”
“No idea.” I narrowed my eyes at her, the woman who had brought me a shirt.
“They call it the ‘Danger Z
one’.” She began. I picked up the cup of water; my throat was way too dry for the short time I thought I had been unconscious.
“People pay those men you saw so that they can come into an arena and watch two shifters fight. They put collars on us like animals, then set friends or lovers or parents and children against each other. It’s glorified dog fighting, only we are the dogs. The mermaid is how they control us.” She looked down at her lap.
“When we saw you on TV, we thought we could buy our way out. You’re famous, you’re one of the Shifty ladies that’s making shifters out to be the good guys. We thought he would trade our freedom from yours, but instead he just took you too.”
“You were going to trade me?” I asked, floored by the thought that someone would think they had the right to decide who was in captivity and who wasn’t.
“It was one life for all of ours. Thirty-three is always worth more than one.”
“Who are you to decide that?” I wondered. “My life hasn’t been all fun and games either. I was abused in every way you can imagine, I slept outside in the cold, I went without food when my aunt and uncle were in a bad mood. Even after that, I can’t imagine even thinking about forcing someone to trade me places. That would be horrible.”
“Not more horrible than suffering through this one more day.” She whispered. I stood up.
“Get out.” I pointed to the door. “I don’t know how you convinced them to let you inside, but get out. Shifters are meant to help each other, not bring their friends to be slaughtered.”
“It’s because of what we’ve gone through.” The woman shook her head at me like I didn’t understand. I gulped down some more water, then handed her the cup.
“Get out.” I repeated, gesturing to the door once again.
In all reality, if anyone could try to understand it would be me. Me, who had suffered for years, feeling alone and in pain. At least they were close to their family; I had seen mine brutally murdered in front of my eyes.
The woman knocked on the door and the men let her outside a few minutes later.
Something about our conversation really bothered me, but I wasn’t sure what. The woman had been uncomfortable, that much was clear. And her words obviously bothered me, because she had basically said she had the right to decide I would die so she could live.
Of course, the shifters fighting shifters got to me—how could it not? The idea of fighting the people close to you was so, so painful. But that wasn’t what really bugged = me.
As I stared up at that metal ceiling, I realized what it was that disturbed me so much. It was this:
She was willing to trade my life for hers. She thought it was worth it, that she could live with the guilt that would accompany trading your pain for someone else’s.
I realized that there are two types of people in the world. There are the people like me, who refuse to break, and there are people like her. People who give up their conscience to escape.
I could never be one of those people. I could never say that my life was worth more than someone else’s, I could never force my burdens on someone else’s back. I wanted to help people, not to let them fall.
I thought about that for a few minutes. Was there a way to unbreak people as broken as these ones? If so, could I help them?
Because I wanted to help them. I really and truly wanted to. I wanted to see people find their consciences and understand that everything would be okay eventually.
I couldn’t do that while stuck in a metal box, so I needed to get out.
Unfortunately, it looked like my only way to do that would be when someone else came to talk to me, and who knew how long that would be?
My mind started to slow down, and I yawned so massively that the yawn took over my face. I barely had time to wonder if I had been drugged before falling into a deep sleep that I couldn’t have woken up from if I wanted to.
Chapter 21
“Get up.” The man nudged my head with his shoe. That was going to leave an ugly bruise, I knew.
I’m a poet, and I didn’t even know it.
Yeah, that line never gets old. Anyway.
“It’s your big night tonight.” The man grinned.
With his unattractive grin, I realized that my shoulder had been dislocated earlier. They had fixed it while I was unconscious and I hadn’t even realized? And when the woman came in, it hadn’t hurt then either.
Weird.
“Let go of me.” I yanked my arms out of their grip, but they just grabbed onto me again.
The men dragged me through the building (I hadn’t even known I was inside a building, though on second thought, I hadn’t frozen inside the metal box so it made sense), past fifty other cages. Some were boxes like mine, but most were actual cages with bars.
The people inside gave me solemn looks as I passed by, and one of them saluted me. Maybe they recognized me as one of the girls fighting for shifter equality, or maybe that was just their way of telling me they were sorry I’d ended up in such a sucky situation.
They led me into a car and then blindfolded me. I’m not sure why they used a blindfold, because honestly, I was their prisoner and had no idea where we’d even left from.
A few minutes into the car ride, they undid the blindfold. Maybe they realized it was pointless or maybe they wanted me to try to figure out where I was. I was clueless, but didn’t bother thinking about it. I was just glad not to be blindfolded anymore.
The mermaid was on the floor in the back of the car, and I could see her laying there in pain. There was a dull ache in my stomach, and I knew it was the warning to me not to try and escape.
“Is there anything I can do to help you?” I whispered.
She didn’t answer me, moving a little on the floor.
“No talking.” The man in the front seat barked.
I looked back again, and the mermaid opened her eyes a little. She mouthed the words,
“I’m sorry.”
My heart hurt for her. She wasn’t choosing to hurt us, but she didn’t get a choice. She was being forced to do things that went against her nature—mermaids didn’t hurt people unless they had to.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” I mouthed back.
She gave me a small, weak smile.
“Thank you.” She mouthed back, before closing her eyes and turning away.
She must’ve been in so much pain, I could hardly stand thinking about it.
A few minutes later, they put the blindfold back on me. We parked, and then they yanked me out of the car and dragged me somewhere that I still couldn’t see.
I could still hear though, and what I heard terrified me.
I heard people cheering, but it wasn’t happy cheering like during a high school football game. It was the kind of cheering that people do when they’re somewhere they know, deep down, that they shouldn’t be.
It was apparent even with the blindfold that in this case, the somewhere they shouldn’t have been was a shifter fight.
We were in the ‘Danger Zone’.
I couldn’t have slowed my mind if I tried. Did they want me to fight? Were they going to make me fight? Would they make me fight Haiden?
They would have to be idiots to do that. There was no possible way that me or Haiden would ever fight each other, no matter how much they hurt us or tried to force us. Haiden and I were soulmates, we would die before we purposefully hurt each other.
When they handcuffed me to the bars on the outside of a cage, I realized I had been wrong with all of my assumptions. They didn’t want me to fight anyone. No, they wanted me to watch someone fight.
My heart sank when I realized it, because I knew who I would have to watch fight.
“Are you excited yet, Jazmine?” one of the men taunted me. “The big, bad cheetah shifter, and it’s her big night.” He cooed.
“Why is this my big night?” I feigned ignorance, hoping I’d get some information out of the guy by pretending to be confused.
“Tonight, you ge
t to see the boss break your soulmate.” The man’s grin was sleazy, and if he’d been a little closer I would’ve kicked him right where it would hurt.
“Why would you want me to watch that?” I put my free hand on my hip.
“Because after he breaks, we’re going to kill him. Then we’ll see how much you want peace between shifters and humans.” He snarled.
I was a shifter, which meant that I was literally an animal. But in the sense that humans use that term, that man was the real animal.
“You can do whatever you want to me or Haiden, I will still fight for peace. There will always be people like you in the world, but lucky for us, there are good people out there too. It doesn’t matter how many horrible people there are, I’ll fight for the good ones.” I vowed.
“Sure you will.” The man chuckled. “Your feelings will change when he’s lying dead on the dirt.” He gestured behind me with his head, and I spun around. There, on one end of the cage, stood my soulmate.
He was cut and bandaged and bruised all over. I gaped at him, looking at the massive bruises on his face and chest and arms. They were so many different colors, too many to have happened in just one day.
Haiden’s eyes caught on me, and they widened when he saw me. I clutched the bars, wanting to be close to him.
“Jazz.” He mouthed my name, looking dazed. “You’re alive?” he whispered. Though I couldn’t hear his words, they chilled my heart.
There were so many things I wanted to say, but a cage separated us. I settled for mouthing,
“I’m okay.” And giving him a small smile. He took a deep breath and nodded, and I turned back around to look at the man.
“How long was I unconscious? How many times has he fought?” I demanded the man answer me. I asked the question he’d been dying to answer, that was apparent when I saw his cocky grin.
“Two weeks.” He told me. “Your soulmate has fought fourteen times, thinking you’re dead.”
“Did he hurt anyone?” I stepped forward, as close to the man as I could get with the handcuff chaining me to the cage.
I didn’t ask for my sake. I wasn’t worried about how him hurting me would affect me or hurt me; it wouldn’t. Haiden hadn’t been given a choice. But when everything was over, I was certain that if he had hurt someone, he would carry guilt with him for years.