by J. E. Cluney
© 2019 J.E. Cluney
All Rights Reserved
First I’d like to thank you for purchasing this book. I hope you enjoy the story. I’d love if you could drop me a review if you do, it’d mean the world to me and it’d help me reach more readers.
It is the second in a series, book 1 can be found here.
Institute of Supernaturals: Savage
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Chapters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
1
Cheering.
That’s what woke me up.
A chorus of whooping and screaming at the top of their lungs.
I groaned groggily, my surroundings slowly coming into focus.
I was in a pit, sand crunching under my face as I moved my body weakly. My limbs ached and protested as I moved.
I struggled to remember what had happened as I tried to get my bearings, my eyes flicking around me wildly.
A chained net was covering the pit in a dome shape while spectators were in the stands looking down at me. The walls of the pit were a variation of metal doors and stone walls. No way out considering the doors had no handles. Drop down, probably.
Seriously, what the fuck was going on?
The high red ceiling over the pit gave the room a strange feel, and I groaned as I sat up, taking in a few deep breaths. Fuck, my body ached badly.
We’d fallen. That’s what Thomas had said in the truck. Damien and I had fallen from the sky.
Guess that explained the aching.
I gritted my teeth as a million thoughts spun in my mind. Were my mates alive? Where were they? What had happened when Thomas had been torn from the truck?
Where was I?
I struggled to remember, images sliding in and out of my mind. Something grabbed me from the backseat, and I was injected with something else. Who grabbed me, or what? I couldn’t see them, I couldn’t pull the image forth. Just the darkness that followed.
And here I was.
Run Savage, run!
One of my boys had called to me mentally right before it happened.
But I couldn’t remember which one. Just the fear I had felt.
But that meant one of them was okay. So maybe they were all okay. Maybe they’d gotten away from all the hunters.
Damien. He’d fallen from the sky with me in his arms. Why? What had happened? Had he been shot? Being part angel meant he healed fast, but was it enough?
“Get up,” a masculine voice hissed.
I looked up, realizing there was a man on the other side of the pit, standing in just a pair of black shorts. He was toned and ready to kick ass by the wild look in his eye.
And he was focused on me.
“Where am I?” I asked as I carefully climbed to my feet, the crowd roaring over us. Why did I feel like we were suddenly in some weirdass gladiator shit?
“You’re in the pits,” the man answered, and my eyes slid up that athletic V-line, right up his toned, muscular chest and shoulders to an angular face with stormy grey eyes. The man had a scruffy brown beard, and his hair was a mess, like he’d been living in a cave.
“What the fuck is the pits?” I growled as I looked up at the bystanders calling out.
‘Fight’, ‘fuck her’, ‘break his dick’ were amongst the words shouted down at me.
What was this? Some gladiator sex battle?
What the hell was going on?
“You’re a kitsune, and you have to fight me. If I win, I get to have you and mate with you, if you win, you get to fight another day,” he frowned, as if I was the strange one for not knowing this.
Sorry for not getting the fucked-up memo.
Wait, he knew I was a kitsune?
I opened up my eyes, his aura dancing a fiery pink and white.
Like mine.
He was a kitsune.
My eyes widened in shock, and I opened my mouth to ask him more, but a bell sounded off, and the crowd erupted.
I snarled as he launched at me, baring his teeth as he moved with speed unlike my boys.
He was just like me.
I threw up my arm, blocking his raised fist and slamming my boot into his chest, sending him flying backwards.
Well, looked like I had to fight to get my answers.
So be it.
I took up a defensive stance, and the man sat up, giving me a strange grin as he climbed to his feet.
Then he was rushing me, and we exchanged blows. He was good, I’d give him that, and fast. I blocked countless fists and he blocked my retaliated ones. Damn, he was a damn good match in this fight.
I yelped as his foot swept under me, knocking me to the ground and he pinned me.
“Name’s Nate, you’re good, guess you’re new to the ring?” he asked, and he loosened his grip on me.
I just gave him a bewildered look.
“Look, blondie, you need to fight me or I’ll be forced to fuck you. ‘Mate’ in their terms. So do me a favor, fight back, I’m not overly excited to be their puppet,” he said softly. Now I realized why he’d loosened his grip on me, but this still made no sense. Who were the people he was talking about? Something told me it definitely wasn’t hunters.
I snarled and flipped us over, glaring down at him.
“Where are we?” I growled softly.
“Not sure, but you’ve been chosen by the Collector for his collection. He collects special kinds of supes,” Nate explained, his eyes flicking around wildly.
He roared and kicked me off, knocking the wind out of me as he straddled me, the crowd losing their shit.
I gasped for breath, and he gave me a brief apologetic look before his face hardened.
“He’s got a few good kitsune males batting for him, not like me. They’ll fuck you up if you don’t treat them as a real threat. And you don’t want to join his breeding program,” Nate growled as he held me by the throat. His grip was weak though, and I knocked his arm aside and used my aura arm to fling him off. Something he had not been expecting at all.
A breeding program? Seriously, what the fuck was going on?
The bystanders broke into deafening screeches, chanting about my aura.
Guess not many of the kitsunes used it. Who were these people though? And the Collector?
Nate rushed at me again, and I realized we needed to get this done. It was obvious the fight wouldn’t be over until one of us was incapacitated.
And it ce
rtainly wasn’t going to be me.
I ducked as he drew near, striking my hand hard into his throat as he sputtered and collapsed.
A move I’d known for years to defend myself thanks to Thomas’ teachings.
He held his throat as he wheezed, and I apologized softly. He gave me the slightest of nods, and then I kicked him hard in the head.
He fell backwards, out cold from the blow.
A whistle sounded off and the crowd exploded, screaming out my name.
How did they know my name?
“Savage! Savage! Savage!”
I gritted my teeth at the droning chant. I wanted answers. Now. Who was I going to have to beat the crap out of?
A metal door slid up behind where I’d started from, and I glanced back at it.
Did they really think I’d just walk on through there?
I looked around at the people staring down at me, my eyes picking up an aura glow on the chain netting overhead. Spelled obviously. I couldn’t escape through it, I knew that without trying.
So the only other option was through the doorway.
I instantly reached for my kitsune blade, cursing when I realized it wasn’t there. My mind jumped to Leon, and all my worries came smashing back into me. But I had to focus. Shit had gotten weird, and as much as I was beyond terrified for my guys, I was useless to them here, or dead.
I glanced down at Nate. He’d be okay, if he was like me, he’d recover fast.
He was interesting for sure, too bad I couldn’t get my answers from him now.
I steeled myself, gulping back my uncertainty as I put my big girl pants on. I’d killed all sorts of supes, surely this little… whatever the hell it was, was another walk in the park.
Hopefully.
2
Tristan.
I whistled a soft tune as I hung in the basement, looking over at Jackson, Sav’s brother. Guess we were torture buddies?
No, he wasn’t chained up to the ceiling like I was. He was handcuffed to a rail on the wall, able to sit on his butt.
I was chained up almost exactly the same way as I’d chained my little vixen up. Kinky.
“What the hell were those guys? With the wings? He healed me, the blond,” Jackson groaned as his head moved.
Finally, he was awake. I was worried he’d never wake up.
“Part angel,” I said nonchalantly, and Jackson’s face rose with a look of disbelief.
“And you?” he murmured.
“Demon-born,” I shrugged, although it was difficult to do with my arms chained up.
“Where’s Sav?” he groaned, blinking as he rested his head back against the wall. Someone must have hit him hard in the head considering the trickle of blood down his temple.
Me? I’d been captured and weakened with holy water. Dousing me in that stuff burned, but nothing permanent. I’d survive.
“Pretty sure these fucks have her,” I growled.
It was obvious the hunters had her.
I’d heard Damien’s distressed cry when she was torn away from him after he fell. Magic had brought him down, which was confusing. Leon took off to find her, to give chase. That was the last thing I knew before I got caught, and one last emotional sensation of distress and despair from Leon. That was why I believed they had her. He’d not been able to save her.
But no amount of reaching out with my mind resulted in me sensing her. Maybe they had her warded from me?
A bolt slid overhead and a wooden door creaked open as the light came on over by the desk at the base of the stairs.
“Come to get kinky with me?” I called out as footsteps tromped down the stairs.
“Shut your fucking mouth, demon,” a curly red-haired man growled. Yep, definitely a hunter in that redneck attire. I’d never come across a hunter who wore a suit, always these hicks, and well, Sav too, I guess. Her brother wore more casual clothing, but he still reeked of hunter.
I didn’t bother to correct the freckle faced man as he scowled at me. A few sniffs informed me more about him. The engine oils and car fumes that swirled off him indicated he was a mechanic by day, and the grease stains marring his tank top and plaid long sleeved shirt over the top added to that assessment. His jeans were scuffed and torn, and the boots he wore were old and weathered.
“If it’s not to get kinky, why am I here?” I asked again, flashing him a genuinely bemused smile.
I was met with a flask of holy water sloshed over my face as I hissed, the water burning me like acid. And yet, it did nothing to my half human skin. Thankfully.
I swore at him, then flicked my eyes to Jackson who was giving our visitor a hard stare.
“What do you want us here for, Sean?” Jackson said, his voice laced with distaste.
So this little prick was Sean. I’d remember that.
“Well, dickhead, you chose supes over your own kind. That fake sister you had, you went to her, and instead of killing her, you just spoke to her. What were you hoping to achieve, huh? You’re a hunter, they’re monsters!” Sean spat as he raised a hunting blade to point at me.
He’d tugged it free from his belt, and I wondered just how he intended to torture us. Was I here to tell them how to kill Sav without her bad luck condemning the poor bastards, or was I here to help them find other supes? That was more likely.
“She’s not a monster, she’s different,” Jackson growled.
“You’d be surprised how many of us aren’t monsters,” I droned in annoyance.
“I told you to shut the fuck up!” Sean snarled as he rounded on me. If I was unchained, I could handle the little twat with ease. Sure, he looked like he worked out, but I was a demon-born.
Come at me bro.
“He’s right. Sav, she’s different. And if she is, then why wouldn’t others be?” Jackson growled, flicking a still not fully trusting gaze to me.
“Wow, you really have gone off the deep end,” Sean grinned as he took a few steps closer to Jackson and knelt down before him. “They’re abominations, all of them. Savage was just a tool. Imagine using one of them against their own kind. It’s fucking gold,” he sniggered.
I couldn’t withhold the growl from emanating deep within my throat.
They’d used Savage, they’d twisted her to their ways, lied to her, turned her into their perfect soldier.
“You really think they’re anything like us?” Sean gave a sharp laugh.
“Sav was,” Jackson retorted.
I gritted my teeth as Sean lurched forward and socked him right in the jaw.
“You need to get your head screwed on boy!” he roared. “Your father is so disappointed in you! You didn’t tell him where to find the bitch when the witch came to you first. Luckily we had the witch’s phone tapped,” Sean’s twisted grin made me want to plunge my hands into his ribcage and rip out his heart.
“My father betrayed Sav. She trusted him. I knew what he was doing was wrong,” Jackson snapped, spitting out some blood as his jaw hardened.
“I think you're a lost cause. Infatuated with her, aren’t you? Bound to happen, being a kitsune and all,” Sean chuckled.
Jackson’s face dropped with shock, and he wasn’t fast enough to mask all his emotions. I’d seen it.
He cared for Sav, deeply. More than a brother.
Well, that was a delicious tidbit of information.
“What do you want from us?” Jackson growled as he strained against his cuffs.
“We want you to get your head right. The others are upstairs deciding on how to deal with you. As for him, we need answers,” Sean said as he rose, running his thumb over his blade to test it.
“Well, I’m an open book, really,” I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice.
“Those supes, the winged ones, we want to know more about them. They got away, along with that fire elemental. But we’ll find them, with your help,” Sean gave me a cocky grin, his murky brown eyes glinting in the shitty lighting of the basement.
This was terrible compared to my dungeon. They
needed some tips on decorating, and furniture. I’d never allow myself to have such a shocking dungeon.
Then again, mine was a sex dungeon.
“Well, guess I’ll tell you everything and you’ll let me go free?” I snorted. As if.
“No, we will just allow you to die quickly,” Sean said, grinning wickedly.
He lurched forward, and I couldn’t pull my legs up fast enough to defend myself as he swiped at my abdomen.
The blade stung like hell, and I knew instantly that he’d had a priest bless the weapon. I managed to glimpse the cross imprinted into the blade as it pulled back, slick with a line of my blood.
I bit my tongue, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d hurt me, despite the throbbing, burning sensation.
Voices rose up overhead, and I heard Sav’s adopted father’s name mentioned. Thomas. That was him.
Someone stormed down the stairs, shouting obscenities as they joined us in the basement.
“Now, you two fucks, where the hell is Savage?!” he practically shrieked as he shook with rage.
I glanced over at Jackson, and the look of contempt and hatred, along with a smidgeon of fear and loyalty, told me everything I needed to know.
“Well, Thomas, I guess I have no clue, considering I thought she was here,” I smirked. “And for wanting to murder your adopted daughter, you’ll be riding a one-way ticket to hell my friend.”
“You know damn well she’s not,” Thomas snarled.
What I wouldn’t do for my nifty demon blade right now to hack out his eyes. Too bad my possessed blade had been destroyed by one of their unique handguns, infused with magic. They’d been learning from the witches, getting help. Just how many witches walked the fine line between supernatural and human? There were some that weren’t powerful enough and didn’t know the truth of supes, weren’t raised in an inner circle. Those were the ones that helped the hunters.
“Where’s your sister, boy?!” he screeched as he spun on his son, his grey jacket flapping behind him as he moved with fury.
And Sav had thought this guy was worth calling father for so long?
Damn, he’d had her twisted good.
“I have no idea, I thought you got her,” Jackson growled through gritted teeth.