by Elena Lawson
A slim black device laid next to the lantern and my spirits soared as I recognized my phone. I pulled myself up but stopped short as the metal bit into my wrist once more.
I lifted my arm, inspecting the rusted manacle, and the chain that vanished behind me into the shadows. I tugged it but was met with resistance. My pulse skittered into an erratic pattern and I shut my eyes for a second, gulping down air to keep my cool.
Okay, Allie. You’re chained to a wall. Don’t freak out.
Do not freak out.
Except I was already losing it.
When I opened my eyes again, I noticed there were mouse droppings scattered over the stone, and the flickering light threw shadows over the space. It was a room. Or maybe a cave?
Focus. You need to focus. Where are you?
It was like it was carved out of the rock on purpose, the corners too precise, the floor too smooth. A man-made cave, then?
Water dripped from some unseen crack in the ceiling and suddenly I was dying of thirst.
How long had I been in here?
What happ—
It came back in a burst of clarity.
The woods. Devin.
He…he’d knocked me out.
He must have taken me here. Chained me up.
I tugged harder on the chain, rising slowly to stave off the dizziness as I pulled myself along the chain to the wall. It was made of stone, too, lending credit to my theory that this was some sort of cave. I found where the thick chain was fixed to the wall at around chest level with a strong metal loop that was drilled deep into the stone. Using both hands, I pulled on it, but wasn’t able to make it so much as budge.
I felt around the wall as my eyes adjusted to the dim, finding one, two, three other chains discarded near the base of the stone wall. Another at the same level as the one around my wrist. And two more nearer to the floor.
What the hell is this place?
A shrill ringing made me yelp and I spun to find my cell phone illuminated where it sat on the crate. It buzzed over the surface, moving slightly as the call came in.
Oh my god.
Wherever I was, there was cell service. I rushed to answer the call but tripped against the stone when my wrist was snapped back, the air knocked from my lungs as I hit the ground.
The crate was too far away. I reached with everything I had, gasping for unrestricted breath, but it was still several feet from my fingertips.
My phone buzzed insistently, the loud ringing echoing back to me from the stone walls. A lick of fury chased the anxiety from my veins, and I spun, positioning myself with my wrist pulled against the chain as far as it would go, and my legs inched toward the crate. I stuck out my right leg and the toe of my shoe just scraped along the edge of the crate. I pulled harder on the chain and lifted my body, giving it the last few inches of length I needed to nudge the phone. Grunting, I managed to shove it inch by inch to the edge of the crate, and then to the floor.
I grinned, pressing on it with the sole of my show and scraping it over the stones as I pulled it to where I could reach with my free hand. With clumsy fingers, I flipped it over and saw the caller ID flashing with a name.
Jared.
I could have kissed the screen, tears bloomed in my eyes as I answered the call.
His voice came through distorted, and I saw that I only had one bar, and even that was wavering. “Allie?”
“J-Jared,” I cried, “I need—”
A door that’d been concealed in shadow across the room banged open and I screamed as the shape of a man swept into the cell and the phone was torn from my grasp, a sharp explosion of pain and mottled stars in my vision alerted me to the fact that I’d been struck.
“Stupid bitch!”
The voice belonged to Devin, that much was certain, but it was laced with an animal growl that twisted the words until they sounded less than human.
I tasted blood on my tongue and spat onto the rock, holding myself up with weak arms.
I shed a tear for the lost opportunity. If I’d just spoken faster, I could have told him I was in a cave somewhere. He might’ve been able to find me. He’d at least have known I was in danger. He could’ve alerted the police.
Idiot.
“Where am I?”
“What have you done?” he bellowed.
I craned my neck to look at him, shrinking back from his tone and utterly unprepared for what I saw.
Green glowing orbs watched me with crazed fury. His face was half set in shadow and half alight with the orange glow of flame. His hands were talons at his sides and his body heaved with each hard breath he took—nostrils flaring.
A glimmer of white betrayed his elongating canines.
Breathlessly, I searched for the other signs with a hard ball in my throat. The thickening of the hair on his hands, the lengthening of his fingernails.
He couldn’t be.
No.
Jared would’ve told me. Surely he’d have known.
“You could have ruined everything!” he shouted, making to strike me again, but I lifted my arms to block the blow and he stopped himself, seeming to hold his breath. “Why Allie…” he trailed off, his voice breathy now. Subdued.
“Why did you have to make this so difficult for us?”
He fell back to sit on the edge of the crate and buried his face in his hands, when he looked up at me again the glow was gone from his eyes, and his canines were back to a regular human length.
Once he had himself under control, he let down his hands and pulled my phone from the floor, illuminating the screen as he tapped it and began to type out a message.
“What are you doing?” I blurted before I could stop myself.
His head snapped up and glared at me. I pushed myself back over the damp stone, my hands moving over loose bits of rock and mouse droppings until I had my back pressed firmly against the wall furthest from him.
“I’m fixing your mistake,” he replied tersely, jabbing his thumbs into my phone screen. One last hard tap and he hit the side button to turn it back off. “There.”
I didn’t have to ask him to know what he’d done—what he likely had been doing since he first brought me here however long ago. He was keeping up appearances. Replying to the texts I’d probably gotten from Viv and Layla by now. We always chatted via text on Sunday and they would want to know how my night turned out with Jared.
Would they know it wasn’t me who was answering them?
Devin chuckled darkly. “Jared’s going to get the fourth-degree tomorrow. Fucker deserves far worse for trying to steal what’s mine.”
“What did you do?” I breathed.
He leaned in and tilted his head so I had a fully unobstructed view of his face in the lamplight. I pressed myself into the wall.
I’d broken his nose, hadn’t I?
I’d seen it split. Seen the blood spray from his nostrils.
But as I watched him carefully from my place against the wall, I noted there wasn’t even a scratch on him. Not even a drop of dried blood.
Apparently, they healed very fast. Noted.
“I can’t believe you were staying with him,” Devin snarled in disdain. “Of all people, Allie. Why him?”
I was afraid to answer. I didn’t want to provoke his wrath. I decided to lie, instead. “H-He offered, that’s all. I didn’t have any place else to go.”
Seemingly placated by my response, he pursed his lips and tilted his head, sighing. “It doesn’t matter now, anyway…”
My heart was battering at my ribcage. I thought for certain he would be able to hear it in the echoing space. It was all I could hear in the intermittent silence.
The drip of water from some unseen source above and the constant, hurried thudding of my pulse shoving blood through my veins seemed loud in my own head.
“Devin,” I pressed, trying to maintain a façade of calm even though a million other emotions were clawing for their chance to be heard. Pain. Anger. Fear. Hurt. The list was endless.
>
I could show none of them. I could show nothing that would provoke the demon slumbering beneath the surface of Devin’s flesh. If he lost it in here, I’d never make it out.
“Hmm?” he replied absently, pressing his thumb and index finger into his eye sockets.
I swallowed hard and dug my fingernails into the stone to steady myself. “What am I doing here?”
He didn’t answer, only released his hand and gazed up at me from his perch between his knees curiously.
“What are you going to do to me?”
Devin clucked his tongue and sat up straighter. “He really didn’t tell you about me, did he?”
A lance of hurt made my shoulders curl inward. “No,” I replied. Jared hadn’t told me about Devin, and now I knew that he did know. Why didn’t he tell me? Did I not have a right to know he was a wolf inside, too? It was easy to see it now, and I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t before.
There were so many times. So many times where I’d felt as though I was being watched and I’d shucked off the feeling. Now I knew it wasn’t paranoia. Devin had known I was living out in the blind in the woods. He followed me there.
Like Jared had.
Except, unlike Jared, Devin had dangerous intentions…and Jared only watched me to stop Devin from seeing those intentions through.
Why didn’t you tell me, Jared?
“Too bad…” Devin trailed off, flicking something from his fingers onto the stone floor. “I would’ve loved to have him hung for that.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Have him hung? Was he saying that if Jared had told me about Devin, he’d have been…what? Killed?
What the fuck was this world we were living in?
It wasn’t what I thought it was…
“Guess I’ll just have to do it myself.”
I sprang forward in a knee-jerk reaction. “You won’t touch him!”
Hard breaths were escaping from between my clenched and bared teeth as I pulled on the metal binds, surprising myself with my reaction.
Devin’s expression soured. In a flash, he was on his feet, his face a breath from my own, but I didn’t flinch this time. I stared right back into his glowing green eyes with a defiance I didn’t know I possessed.
“You. Are. Mine.”
I spat in his face, realizing a millisecond too late that it was a colossal mistake. A flurry of movement from the corner of my eye was the only warning before the back of his hand connected with my cheek, sending my head jerking to the left. An explosion of stars burst in my eyes and the metallic tang of blood on my tongue made me want to gag.
“Fuck you!” I shouted, but the words came out discordant and broken. “I will never belong to you.”
Strong hands came around my shoulders with a bruising grip and shoved me back until my spine connected with the stone wall. I exhaled sharply and slumped to the floor when he released me, blinking rapidly to clear the wave of dizziness.
Devin was heaving with the effort of keeping himself contained. It reminded me of that night. How he’d kept clenching and unclenching his fists, breathing heavily as he shook his head over and over.
Like he couldn’t make up his mind whether he wanted to kiss me or kill me.
It was the uncertainty that made it the most terrifying. In one moment, I felt like it was over, that I could trust that he wouldn’t hurt me again, and then in the next second, the beast could return, and he would descend upon me with a renewed fury.
Had his eyes been glowing that night and I just didn’t notice?
Because they were glowing now.
Bright and vibrant in the dim. The clearest shade of green I’d ever seen.
“You are mine, Allie. I’ve known it from the first time I saw you. Right after your father died. He was weak, you know. So weak it was pathetic.”
I struggled to rise, lashing out with my legs to try to kick him. How dare he! I muttered a string of curses under my breath, whimpering against the stone.
“But you…”
He licked his lips, and suddenly his eyes were alight. “You were so strong, Allie. You took his death in stride. You never let anyone see your pain, but I saw it. I saw you. The real you. I saw you working every day to make your own way. I saw you when you lied to your selfish aunt and uncle so they wouldn’t have to feel guilty for leaving you. I followed you when you moved out into your father’s old blind in the woods. And bit my tongue when you lied to everyone you knew about it…even me.” He was shaking his head now, his hand coming up to rub his chin as he inhaled deep, expanding his chest. His eyes gleamed.
“Can’t you feel it?” he asked me after a momentary lull, kneeling several feet away so he was at eye-level with me. “We’re fated mates, Allie. And once you’ve completed your first shift, we’ll be together. Forever.”
I clutched my stomach, afraid I might hurl.
“I-I don’t understand…”
Devin reached out to me and with no place left to move away, I turned my face into the stone. His fingers gently stroked the side of my face unmarred by his knuckles. I shuddered and my stomach heaved at the contact. “You will,” he said softly and then his fingers vanished, and I sensed him moving away. I opened my eyes again cautiously, wishing more than anything else that he would leave. Just leave me in the dark and cold alone to rot away.
I’d prefer that than to live a life of servitude as his…as his what? His mate?
I didn’t know what the fuck that meant, but I didn’t think I wanted to.
He pointed up toward the ceiling. “This is a moon room,” he said, and his expression was placid, almost kind. It was scarier than when he looked angry.
“You see…when a changed wolf first shifts, their animal urges can be…uncontrollable. People can get hurt. Or worse, they could capture us on video. The witches don’t like that. It creates a big mess for them to clean up.”
With no other option, I shifted to lay my aching head back against the wall and wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly colder than I think I’d ever been in my entire life. I listened even though I wished I could stuff my ears full of cotton and not hear any of it.
“So, my people—our people—created these. For the first year or so of moon-triggered shifts, we’ll keep you in here. Until you can control yourself. That circle up there,” he said, eyes peering above where he stood. I craned my neck to follow his gaze and found I could just make out the smallest crevice in the rock, forming a near perfect circle. It was damp and therefor darker than the rest of the stone ceiling. Water dropped from one side to splash against Devin’s face. He wiped away the moisture, unperturbed. “It opens to allow the moonlight inside. You’ll shift with or without it touching you, but it’s faster this way.”
Devin pocketed my cell phone and I stifled a whimper. He went to the hidden doorway across the room and procured a plastic bag, moving in close to set it down next to me.
“And then we’ll start our own pack. Ryland thought he could kick me out without retribution…he was wrong. We’ll build our own force.” Devin shook as he began to pace, and I watched his fists curl until the knuckles turned white. “A force bigger and stronger than his. He’ll see his mistake in forsaking me.” His leg reared back, and he kicked the crate hard, sending it sailing into the wall. The kerosene lantern careened into the air, but as the wooden box blew apart into small wood fragments, some of them hitting me in the shins and forearms, the lantern didn’t break.
Devin caught it before it could. He set it down with shaking fingers.
His outburst could’ve just cost us both our lives. If the kerosene had spilled and the flame had been exposed, we’d be burning right now. As it was, I only had a few more scrapes and cuts to add to my growing collection.
He turned numbly to the door, scooping up my pack and its spilled contents and shouldering it. “I’ll be back,” he said in a monotone voice. “Eat. Drink.”
I eyed the plastic bag, realizing it had the mark of a grocery store on it, but it wasn’t one I knew. It
wasn’t a store in Forest Grove. My heart sank. Where the hell had he taken me?
“The full moon is in two days,” he said, vanishing into the shadows on the other end of the space. “That is when I’ll awaken your wolf.”
17
I awoke with a sting in my cheek and aching bones, but the migraine I’d had prior to falling asleep had gone.
It was a small mercy, but one I couldn’t be grateful for since when my eyes adjusted, I found myself still inside the cave-like space. Without the presence of light, it was impossible to tell what time of day or night it was, let alone if I should be awake or sleeping.
The meager meal of sliced fruit in a plastic cup and a box of crackers Devin had left for me lay open a foot away where a mouse feasted on the corner of a discarded bit of cracker, its beady eyes watching me as its body shook.
My first instinct was to shoo it away, but who was I kidding? It wasn’t like I could stomach any more than a few tiny morsels I’d already managed to get down and keep down before I eventually passed out. “Someone might as well eat it,” I whispered to the tiny rodent instead. I reached over and grabbed another few crackers from the open bag.
The mouse began to scurry away but paused before it vanished from view. I held out the crackers to it. “Here,” I told it. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”
The little critter hesitated, running this way and that on a zigzagging path that eventually led it back to the discarded cracker. It resumed eating the small piece that was left and then came for more, inching slowly closer.
“Go on,” I told it, a small smile tugging at my lips made the bruises on my cheek sting. The little mouse drew forward and took the proffered crackers. It stared at me as still as the bits of wood and stone around it, and then it skittered away with its bounty.
I stared at the spot it’d vacated, the smile slipping from my lips in favor of a frown. I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep, but it wasn’t the first time I’d passed out since Devin left, which made me wonder if it’d somehow already been two days.