Claimed by the Beast Bundle

by Dawn Michelle

  He put the silver knife down and picked up another one. “Now the regular knife. This should heal faster, if we’re right.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut as he leaned over her, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She began to wonder if he was teasing her when she felt the knife push against her other shoulder and then part the skin. The pain made her strain against the cords and arch her back as much as the rope across her hip and under her shoulders allowed.

  He pulled it out and she collapsed onto the table. Crystal sobbed into the mask and blew bubbles out her nose from the tears draining into her sinuses. It was disgusting and it made her choke and gag, but she couldn’t stop herself. The steel knife hurt—nothing like the silver knife had—but she still felt the pain as it cut her flesh. She blinked through the tears and saw him staring at her, his eyes flicking back and forth between the wounds.

  She closed her eyes again and tried to calm herself. If she could keep herself from healing maybe they’d think she wasn’t one of their enemies. She wasn’t evil. She didn’t answer to the devil. She was a good person! She got good grades and just wanted to have friends and spend time loving Hank. What was so terrible about that?

  Crystal tried to stop herself from crying but couldn’t. They were going to kill her. Her shoulder was on fire and that was only the beginning. They were going to hurt her, and hurt her bad. They called themselves men of God but they weren’t. They were pigs! Paladins? Hardly! Unless they were the type of holy knight she’d read about who spread the word of God through raping and pillaging non-believers.

  Her eyes snapped open. Oh God, were they going to rape her too? She whimpered and shook her head as fresh tears fell down her cheeks. Robert glanced at her face and then returned his attention to her arm. He reached out, his hands covered in a latex glove, and wiped her shoulder off with a tissue. “Healing yet?”

  Was she? If she didn’t heal, maybe she’d be safe? She could promise them to never talk and they’d let her go. Or maybe she’d have to convince them she believed like they did, and then she could join their sick group of butchers long enough to get away. She couldn’t go to the cops, though; not with the county sheriff on their side. She’d have to run away and keep running.

  But first she had to stop herself from healing. She blocked out the pain and tried to focus on keeping herself from feeling it. Within seconds, the pain in her left shoulder began to lessen. It was healing! She whimpered and tried another tactic. Instead of ignoring the pain and willing it away, she focused on it. She let herself feel the agony and lived with it. She heard someone moaning and knew that she was doing it.

  She opened her eyes again and saw him frowning. “She’s not recovering from either,” Mr. Edgerton said.

  “Damn it!” Barnaby swore and stepped up to get a closer look. “We were so sure! Why did Chad want her so bad?”

  Robert shook his head. “She’s a beautiful girl. I heard that she stood up to him and gave him a piece of her mind. Perhaps he didn’t like that?”

  Mr. Dixon scowled and turned away. “Deal with her,” he grumbled before opening the door to the shed and storming out. The man with the pistol watched her for a moment longer and then looked up at Robert. He nodded and turned to follow Mr. Dixon out. He shut the door behind him, cutting off the extra light that had come in through the door and leaving them alone.

  Was this it? Was this when he raped her and killed her? More tears escaped from her eyes.

  “Well, it seems both cuts will heal normally. Unfortunately, you won’t live long enough for that to happen. I’m sorry to say that you’d have lived longer if we’d have been right, but we can’t have loose ends. We do the Lord’s work, ridding the world of demons and evil beings. Sometimes that requires the blood of innocents be lost. Regretful, but their sacrifice is for a higher cause,” Robert said. “I know you must have been a pure and innocent girl once. I remember Stephanie speaking highly of you. Are you at peace with the Lord, child?”

  Crystal’s eyes flew open as he picked up the steel knife. She stared at it, frozen with fear. Her lungs seized up and her throat squeezed shut. All she could do was shake her head as tears trickled down her face. It had nothing to do with her relationship with God; she was trying to tell him he didn’t need to do it. He didn’t need to kill her. She’d never tell anyone! Not a soul. Not a—

  “I’m not a priest, but I’ll see to it you receive last rites,” he said. “Close your eyes, pretty one, and dream of what reward awaits you in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

  He lowered an open palm over her face, forcing her to shut her eyes instinctively. His hand rested on her face and deprived her of sight. Crystal whimpered and realized she could breathe again. It had been her, all along. She’d stopped herself from breathing. Her reaction. Her fear.

  A hammer smashed into her chest, breaking her into a thousand pieces. She convulsed and threw herself against the ropes. The pressure on her head intensified while Crystal writhed in agony that was easily ten thousand times worse than even the silver knife in her shoulder. He moved a little, removing some pressure from her chest, but she still felt like she’d taken a lightning bolt in her heart.

  Her heart! Crystal shuddered as she realized she couldn’t feel it beating right. She began to tremble just as her heart was quivering. He’d stabbed her. Stabbed her in the heart. She was going to die!

  Her toes and fingers began to tingle. She was losing strength already. How could it happen so quickly? She could hold her breath over a minute! Wasn’t that what the heart did, delivered oxygen? Why was this happening to her? Why now, when she had so much to live for!

  Even breathing was becoming hard to do. So hard. First her shoulders and then her heart. Even her thoughts were starting to get fuzzy.

  Her shoulder!

  She’d focused on willing the pain in her shoulder away and it worked. The pain started to fade because she’d felt her muscle and tissue coming back together. Could she do the same with her heart? Did she have time? She concentrated, pushing away the darkness that was trying to cover her like a warm blanket. She focused harder than she’d ever focused in her life. More than when she’d studied for her advanced algebra final and even more than when Stephanie had been feeding her fashion tips when they went shopping together months ago.

  The pain started to lift but it was so hard. So much work. She was breathless and ached all over. Her body felt heavy. Heavy and weak. She wanted to gasp for breath but even that took too much attention away from what she was doing.

  Help me! She begged the wolf inside her. The wolf that had become a part of her. If we’re going to live and figure this out, you have to help me!

  The wolf was silent. Not a growl or even the thump of a tail on the floor. Was she already dead?

  No! The wolf had become a part of her. Or maybe Crystal had become a part of the wolf. They were one now. Maybe her hands and feet shifted because when she needed them to change, they did it. The same with healing. She needed her wounds to heal and her body did it. Like walking or breathing.

  The pressure came off her face. His stubble on his cheeks scraped her lips but it felt like a mosquito landing on her arm. She didn’t have the strength to react. Something that felt as light as feathers brushed across her eyelids before a kaleidoscope of colors burst into her brain. She couldn’t make anything out other than triangles and circles of light.

  The light disappeared with a rustle of the tarp she was on. She heard a muffled echoing noise. Something about rising up and being saved. Then there was a thud of wood striking wood. The darkness began to fade away into a surreal scene where she found herself bounding through fields of grass chasing after a black and white rabbit. She was a wolf, white as the fresh snow. She ran effortlessly, closing the distance on the rabbit and knowing that once she caught it, her chase would be over.

  She turned, following the bunny, and caught a glimpse of other wolves at the edge of the forest. A gray and red one stood next to one with a silver st
ripe. Beside them were three others, but her eyes fell on the largest one. She knew him. He was her friend. More than that. He was special. Why wasn’t he hunting with her? He was pacing back and forth.

  Crystal slowed but so did the rabbit. She knew her prey was getting tired. She felt weightless. She could run forever. She turned towards the rabbit and then looked at the large wolf again. She turned towards him. Maybe if she went to him?

  She felt something bump her leg and turned to see the rabbit had come to her. It looked up and tilted its head. One eye blinked as it offered its neck to her. She opened her mouth out of instinct and prepared to snap the bunny up. She hesitated. This wasn’t how real animals acted. A rabbit would never give up like this. It wasn’t the way of things. Something so full of life, of natural life, would never give up fighting for life.

  Chapter 3

  Crystal closed her mouth and turned back to the others. She lifted her head and howled into the night sky, only to find her body jerking and her chest aching for breath. She blinked and reached out to push the tarp away, but her arms were still tied down and trying to move them made her shoulders feel like they burst into fire again. She buried her mouth in her left shoulder as she coughed, trying to muffle the noise as much as she could.

  How long had they been gone? Could they hear her? Were they coming back? She gagged some more and mistakenly tried to cross her arms to cradle her sore chest. Her ribs ached and she still felt like a tiny animal was chewing its way out into the center of her chest.

  Crystal managed to move her head enough to push the tarp covering her aside. It didn’t help; she couldn’t see any better. She tried to hold her breath and open her eyes wider but her entire body was tingling like she’d licked a nine-volt battery. Or a few hundred of them. Her arms and legs were twitching and jerking as her healing heart struggled to pump blood through her tired body.

  She had to get away. They knew about her friends. Maybe not who they were, exactly, but Chad’s dad and his twisted order knew they existed. She’d fooled them, but if they came back, she wouldn’t be able to do it again. Getting away while tied down by ropes that felt like they were electrified was her next challenge.

  A fresh tear coursed down her cheek. How could she possibly escape? She didn’t even know where she was!

  Crystal took several deep breaths, flushing out her lungs and forcing her chest to expand. It ached at first but after a dozen such breaths, she was breathing easier. She shrugged her shoulders and felt a little stiffness in the left one. Her right shoulder still throbbed with a raw ache. Moving it renewed the burn and brought a snarl to her lips.

  A vision of the rabbit flashed through in front of her eyes. The rabbit had been a symbol. Or maybe something more—an angel? The angel of death? If she’d caught it, would she have been gone forever? She wasn’t sure, but she shuddered at the thought. She wasn’t ready for that. She had someone she loved and someone who loved her. She had her whole life ahead of her, and it would be a long life if what her pack-mates said was true. Life, love, a family someday. Yes, too much to live for. She’d just died and come back. Escaping some stupid ropes was nothing!

  She arched her back and pushed up against the ropes. They itched and burned the harder she pressed against them. Silver in the ropes? She tried to contort herself to bite the rope under her arms and over her chest but she couldn’t reach it. She gasped and fell back, her breasts burning from where the cord had dug into them. She shook her head and ground her teeth. This was stupid, she was a—

  Crystal’s eyes widened. She wasn’t just some stupid high school senior. Well, she was, but she was more than that. She was special. She’d been changed by the Beast. Not the same Beast that Mr. Dixon and Mr. Edgerton spoke of, but the real one she knew all too well. She’d beat the Beast. Killed it with her own blood and her own hands. She was a wolf, and she needed to get away.

  A wolf didn’t accept capture or defeat. It would chew its own foot off to escape a trap. She couldn’t reach her hands or feet, but that wasn’t the point. She knew now that the unstoppable will to live was part of her. Maybe it always had been? Maybe that’s why the Beast wanted her in the first place.

  Crystal smiled and shifted. She was done asking, begging, and trying to force it. She just did it. She’d gotten her body to heal itself and she’d made her hands and feet shift before. She’d sprouted fur when her body felt it needed it. Now it was time for more. Just like the time she’d helped her neighbor’s son who she babysat learn to ride a bike. The body knew how; it just needed to be told to do it.

  She wasn’t ready for the pain. Every time she felt her feet shift, she felt the stab of agony that faded within seconds. This time, she felt her bones shifting everywhere. Joints and ligaments twisted and burst. Some bones lengthened, stretching muscles and ligaments, while others shortened. Even her skull changed, putting a pressure that made her black out long enough for her heart to beat three times. Granted, it was hammering in her chest again, but it still filled her with panic.

  Her skin burned where it dragged against the ropes. Fur burst from her pores, so fluffy and white it seemed to glow in the shed. It protected her from the silver cords but did little to soothe the burns left behind.

  Crystal lay on her side, panting, when the shift was completed. Her body trembled from the memories of the pain. She felt better, mostly, but she was afraid to move. That much pain couldn’t go away without leaving something behind. She picked her head up and looked down at herself. The movement felt strange. She blinked several times and tested her legs. She tried to laugh in delight but huffed instead. Her following grin felt more like a snarl.

  Crystal worked herself out from under the chest and waist cord. It slid across her fur without bothering her in spite of how clumsy her movements were. She slid off the edge of the wooden table and crashed to the floor, twisting instinctively but still landing on her side and hip. Or in her shifted form, her haunch. Her breath burst from her chest and she growled softly as soon as she could.

  Crystal lurched to her feet, worried that the noise would bring the killers back. She stumbled and fell again, her legs unsteady. Crystal lay still for a moment and then crawled forward, inching under the table, and then stopped at the far side of it. She stared up at the door and frowned. Could she work the button latch without a thumb?

  She took a breath and glared at the floor again before trying to climb to her feet. She pushed with her front paws and reared up on her hind legs. Her head smacked the bottom of the table and knocked her back onto her belly.

  Crystal growled and had to roll onto her side to glare up at the table above her. This was harder than she expected!

  She rolled back onto her belly and tried her hind legs first. She set them and lifted, coming up with her haunches in the air. She slowly pushed her front legs out and straightened until she was standing on all four legs. She lowered her head and twisted her neck to look back at herself. “Cool,” she tried to say but it came out as a soft woof.

  Crystal turned her attention back to the door. She needed to get it open and get out. She could shift back and open it, but she had no idea where she was and what would happen outside. She took a few awkward steps and craned her head up to stare at the light in the ceiling. They’d turned it off at some point. Probably when Mr. Edgerton stabbed her and left. That meant electricity. They had to be somewhere civilized. A naked girl running through a neighborhood was not the way to hide.

  So she needed to stay a wolf. She nodded at her decision. She could shift and shift back, but the memories of the phantom pain made her shiver and growl. Even if she did try, she couldn’t do it like Hank and Ember did. It took her time to shift. Seconds, if not longer. Plus it made her black out. There was no telling how many bad things could happen in that time.

  Not to mention she didn’t know how to run and hide. She turned and looked at the dark shed. It wasn’t big by a long shot, but it was at least twice as long as she was and half as wide. She nodded to herself again and t
urned to try walking. She had to figure out how her new form worked if she was going to use it.

  She’d paced up and down the length of the small shed more times than she could count when she decided she’d had enough. She went back to sit in front of the door and stare up at it. She looked down and saw a glint at the bottom of it. She lowered her head and sniffed. A few tiny notches in the seal at the bottom let fresh air in and reflected tiny beams of sunlight. That meant it was daytime. A few hours or more? How long had she been out from the shot they gave her?

  Crystal moved back to sitting and reached out with a paw to press against the door. It was solid. She huffed and picked her other foot up. No change. Moving slowly and carefully, she stood up on her hind legs and climbed the door with her front legs until she was at the level of the latch.

  Crystal stared at the latch and then looked at her front paws. Could she shift one of them back to a hand? She snarled, her lupine version of a frown, and shifted her paws until one was on the wall beside the door. She used her other paw to tap the button on top of the latch, popping it loose and then letting it fall back in place.

  She snorted and leaned forward, opening her mouth to bite at the latch handle. She felt her teeth clamp against it and used her paw to pop the button again. She pulled, opening the door and flooding the shed with light, even though it was only open a crack. Crystal let go and dropped down, nudging the door shut and latching it in the process. She stared at it and growled as a scream built up in her.

  Crystal forced the scream back in her throat and set herself to try opening the door again. This time without making any stupid mistakes. Being a wolf was a lot harder than she thought it would be!

  Chapter 4

  Crystal opened the door and pushed herself away from it. It swung open enough to let a sliver of light in, along with fresh air. She breathed it in and almost yelped with joy. She smelled exhaust from cars and the dryer vent from someone doing laundry.