Madison's Song

by Christine Amsden

  Taking charge of a pack wasn’t easy under ideal circumstances, but to take charge of a pack in captivity with the approval of their captors was nothing short of murderous. Scott killed three wolves whose challenges gave him no other choice. In all three cases he had tried to give them outs, but he suspected that they had wanted to die. That they found the state preferable to captivity.

  Scott couldn’t blame them. If he didn’t have some hope of an escape at the next full moon, he might succumb to the same feelings. He wanted to tell them not to give up hope yet, but he had no idea how long they had been here, or how much they had endured.

  There were more than forty wolves on site, most housed in a large room that might have originally been designed as a warehouse. There were cages in the room, though the men and women weren’t put inside them unless they misbehaved in some way. Normally they were permitted the run of the massive room, guarded by a team of three powerful sorcerers.

  Scott suspected that there were other werewolves on site somewhere, and probably other creatures too, but he didn’t see any in his first week as a tool for Dr. Akin. He hoped they were being treated better than this group, which didn’t even have proper beds – only sleeping bags they threw on the floor.

  By comparison, Scott’s accommodations were luxurious. Dr. Akin never let him forget it, nor did the man fail to remind him at the end of their sessions that he was lucky. He liked to make dark insinuations about Madison as well, which Scott mostly managed to ignore.

  She was a constant temptation for him, being near him hour after hour, day after day. They still had to touch in order to link, although Scott hoped that wouldn’t be necessary for much longer. It would help in their escape if they only had to stay close rather than maintain contact. In the meantime, he spent hours each day seeing her, smelling her, hearing her, and touching her.

  How long would it be before he gave in to what he knew they both wanted? He still didn’t know if what she felt for him was a fleeting by-product of their situation, but after each passing day it became harder and harder for him to care. He needed her. He might have claimed her already, if it weren’t for his guilty conscience at failing to tell her what he knew about her brother. That knowledge alone kept him from turning their touches into caresses, and kept him from enfolding her in his arms. She wanted to be there. She wanted to comfort him. And he wanted that comfort.

  With only a few days left to the full moon though, Scott had a problem that was growing bigger every day he ignored it. There was no way Dr. Akin planned to leave him in that room with Madison at the full moon, not if he planned to keep using her as a sick combination of reward and hostage. Under any normal circumstance, Scott wouldn’t want to be within a mile of her at the full moon, but for their plan to work, they had to be together.

  It would be a risk. They both knew it, even if they hadn’t discussed the details. But it was the only way.

  Scott wanted to get out of here; he needed to get out of here. Madison wanted to know why she had to learn all of this in two weeks. Why not wait until the next full moon? And she had a point; if they slowed down, it would take away some of the pressure and she could learn everything she needed to know far more easily in six weeks, or ten. But every day there were new monsters to face, and every day Dr. Akin hurt more werewolves, and every day they risked separation or worse. What if Dr. Akin “volunteered” Madison for one of his experiments?

  No, there was too much evil and too much uncertainty here. They had to get out. Soon.

  “Your magical potential has already increased,” Dr. Akin told Scott as they walked down a long corridor together. A pair of stone-faced guards followed to make sure Scott stayed in line. It wasn’t necessary. He couldn’t do anything with Madison trapped in the cells below. “We haven’t been able to detect a potential difference in normal sorcerers until the height of the moon, but here we are at the half moon and you’ve already gone from 8.12 to 8.19. I can’t wait to see what happens at the full moon.”

  Scott was interested in the answer too; it was, after all, one of the keys to his escape.

  “What’s going to happen to me at the full moon?” Scott asked, hoping the question didn’t sound rehearsed. It was; he’d been trying to find an opening for over a week.

  “You’ll turn into a werewolf, I expect.” Dr. Akin chuckled at his own joke.

  “Madison’s scared.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll let you transform somewhere else. Well, if you continue to behave.”

  If he continued to behave? Was that his opening?

  “I’ve done everything you’ve asked,” Scott said. So much so that he worried whether or not they would buy it if he suddenly started misbehaving to get himself locked away in a room with Madison during the full moon.

  “Ah, here we are.” Dr. Akin paused outside a door, one that Scott had never seen before. “I’ve got something a little different for you today. Something I think you and Madison will find interesting. If you choose to tell her, of course. I can’t help but notice that there are a lot of things you aren’t telling her.”

  Scott stiffened at the implication that Dr. Akin had been listening in. He wasn’t going to like whatever lay on the other side of that door. But he hesitated only a moment before turning the knob and pushing his way inside. What he saw drew him up short.

  It wasn’t a large room at all. In fact, only three people – if they could be called people – were inside. All were in large cages like dog kennels, and none were exactly human anymore.

  Each of the three creatures looked up and sniffed the moment Scott entered the room. The one on the right began growling in earnest and throwing himself against the bars of his cage.

  Clinton.

  His eyes remained yellow like the wolf. He had more hair than he should have had, but otherwise he was human in form. What about his mind? What had they done to him and was it permanent?

  “You recognize your mate’s brother, I see,” Dr. Akin said.

  Clinton’s growl grew louder, demonstrating some understanding of Dr. Akin’s words.

  “What have you done to him?” Scott asked.

  “We’ve been experimenting with ways to separate a werewolf’s transformation from the moon. To allow him to transform any time at will, instead of once a month against his will.”

  “The wolf is tied to the moon,” Scott said, though he doubted the doctor would understand. Only a werewolf could truly appreciate the bond between moon and beast. Scott wouldn’t go so far as to say disconnecting the two would be impossible. He’d seen too many impossible things in his life to make such sweeping generalizations. But he knew that if a werewolf wasn’t bound to the moon then it wouldn’t be a werewolf any longer. It would be something else. Something he didn’t trust. Something that might never be able to revert to its human form. After all, the beast didn’t have the ability to make conscious, logical choices. What would make it decide to turn back into a human if not the loss of the moon’s power?

  The man in the middle cage looked human but smelled like a werewolf. The final cage, on the other hand, contained a human. Or at least, a woman who smelled human. The strength in her as she began to slam against the kennel walls was incredible, but the reactions were off somehow. She wasn’t responding to their presence the way Clinton was. She wasn’t even responding to him. In fact, from the cuts and bruises all along her body she never stopped taking her aggression out on the walls of the cage.

  “What have you done to them?” Scott asked.

  “She was a military volunteer. They’re interested in specially enhanced soldiers, something we’ve had some luck with, but it went wrong with her.”

  “And with Clara?” Scott asked.

  “It did work with Clara, actually. It’s worked with this man.” He gestured to the werewolf in the middle cage, the one in human form. “It seems to work as long as we make the subject a werewolf first, but something has been going wrong with them. They’re emotionally unstable.”

  �
��You’ve locked them up. Werewolves are not meant to be locked up.” Especially alone, Scott didn’t add. The man clearly didn’t understand the need for werewolves to form a pack. Maybe he was one of those who idealized the “lone wolf” persona that only existed in books. Lone wolves were unstable by definition.

  “They need a leader,” Dr. Akin said. “A strong alpha to take them in hand. That’s my working theory, anyway. And you’ve shown your ability to be that strong leader with our other werewolves.”

  “You think I’m willing to do that here?” Scott asked. “For a traitor, a deranged human, and whatever that other one is?”

  “I hope you are, for your mate’s sake. And for the sake of the rest of your pack.”

  Scott whirled to face the sadistic doctor. “My pack? Where are they?”

  “Safe. For now. But we couldn’t have a pack running loose with no leader to keep them in line.”

  “They’re here? Where?”

  “I’ll take you to them, if you help me with these three. We might still be able to find a stable version of the formula we used on them.”

  Scott had to turn away from the doctor to keep himself from lunging at the man. Instead, he focused on Clinton, who he wasn’t much happier with at the moment.

  “Can you talk?” Scott asked Clinton.

  The boy stopped growling for a fraction of a second. He didn’t talk, but he did shake his head. At least he could understand.

  “Did you betray me?” Scott asked.

  Clinton snarled.

  “Why?” Scott asked. “Why did you do that?”

  Another snarl was his only response.

  “I can’t help these three,” Scott said. “They would undermine my authority with the other wolves, especially that one.” He pointed to the human.

  “I didn’t expect you to be able to take care of the woman.”

  “Then why show her to me?”

  “So you can kill her.”

  Scott whirled. “What? Why should I? She’s your mess. You clean it up.”

  “You’ve killed before. You killed three men this week.”

  Scott closed his eyes, picturing again the three men who had dared him to kill them. Who had wanted to die.

  “I kill when it’s necessary. And when it’s my duty. This is just...” Scott couldn’t bring himself to look at the feral woman again. The woman who had done nothing except to volunteer for the wrong experiment.

  “She’s not natural,” Dr. Akin said.

  “It’s your mess. Why have me do it?”

  “Because,” Dr. Akin said, “there is a small possibility you can go free at some point in the future. But only if you’re willing to help us now and then with certain problems.”

  Scott’s eyes narrowed and it was his turn to growl. “You want me to become an assassin?”

  “You already are one. We want you to be our assassin.”

  Scott shook his head. He couldn’t do it. Somehow he sensed that killing this woman would be a point of no return. His black soul couldn’t take any more.

  Not only that, but he saw the future mapped out ahead of him. Dr. Akin had seen that he could be controlled through threats against Madison and his pack. Would this be his life then?

  “Have it your way,” Dr. Akin said, “but remember that you have until the next full moon to decide.”

  Scott stood frozen. Was he being handed the answer on a silver platter? Perhaps, but Dr. Akin wouldn’t let this go without more threats and bribes. It wasn’t in his nature.

  “You know,” Dr. Akin said, “it strikes me that I haven’t introduced myself to your mate yet. I think it’s time we remedy that.”

  “No,” Scott said.

  Dr. Akin arched an eyebrow. “No? Then you’ll kill the woman?”

  “I won’t let you hurt Madison.”

  “I won’t,” Dr. Akin said. “If anyone hurts her, it will be you.”

  Chapter 28

  SCOTT RETURNED TO THEIR PRISON MUCH sooner than usual that morning, catching Madison off-guard in the middle of some meditation exercises she had been left to do. She scrambled to her feet when the door opened, but the stone faces didn’t just push Scott inside and close the door as they normally did. Instead, a man in a white lab coat followed him in.

  A very tall, very thin man.

  “Are you the man who convinced my brother you had a cure?” Madison asked.

  “I’m Dr. Akin,” he said, as if that were an answer.

  “Where’s Clinton?” she asked.

  Dr. Akin glanced at Scott, some sort of twisted smile curving his lips. “I don’t think Scott wants to talk about your brother. He did, after all, betray Scott to us.”

  It took her a moment to register his implications. When she did, she felt something growing inside her, something she rarely ever felt let alone showed to the public: Rage. Absolute, unequivocal fury.

  “Liar!” She threw the TV remote, the only thing she had to hand, at the doctor, who ducked.

  One of the stone faces lifted a rifle in her direction, but Dr. Akin barked out an order, “Stand down!”

  “Clinton didn’t betray Scott. He didn’t betray me! Why would he have? What did you do to him?” Abruptly, Madison changed tactic. “I want to see him.”

  “He doesn’t want to see you,” Dr. Akin said. “Told me so himself just yesterday. I did offer.”

  “I don’t believe you. I won’t until Clinton is standing right here in front of me, telling me so himself.”

  “You don’t have to believe me. Ask your friend, Scott.” With that, Dr. Akin turned and left the room. The door clicked shut behind him with an ominous finality.

  “What’s he talking about?” Madison demanded, turning pleading eyes on Scott. She had a horrible feeling she knew, but she didn’t want to acknowledge it. Couldn’t stand the possibility.

  Scott wouldn’t look her in the eyes. Madison crossed to him in two steps and pounded her fist against his chest. “Tell me what he’s talking about!”

  She couldn’t hurt Scott, but he flinched anyway, taking a step back.

  “Scott. Did you see him? Did you see Clinton? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  “He’s not human anymore,” Scott said.

  “I know that. I’ve been coming to terms with that for weeks!”

  “They’ve done something to him. Altered him. His eyes are the wolf’s even when it’s not the full moon. I’d bet he has superior strength and reflexes too.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know exactly.”

  “Did he betray you?” Madison asked. Then, softer, “Did he betray me?”

  Scott hesitated.

  “Tell me. I need to know. Whatever it is, it’s better to know.” She wasn’t convinced of the truth of that at all, but she did need to know. She needed to know if everyone she ever trusted was going to eventually turn against her. Clinton was all she had left. She had started making headway with her other brother, but if Clinton turned on her now...

  “What is it about me that makes everyone I love turn against me?” Madison was barely aware of giving voice to the question. Tears filled her eyes but did not spill. “Is there something fundamentally unlovable about me? Am I mean or rude or... I know I’m a bit selfish sometimes. I have trouble understanding other people. I can’t just look at a person and know he’s hurting inside. Cassie does. It’s amazing. She knew I was hurting when no one else did. Maybe if I were more like that.”

  Scott grabbed her upper arms with two hands like bands of steel. “Don’t talk like that. I don’t want you to be like Cassie, I want you to be like you.”

  Madison blinked up at him in confusion. “Why?”

  He groaned and closed his eyes for a moment, as if the answer pained him. “Do you have any idea how sweet you are? You’re...” He hesitated, his eyes still closed. “You care so deeply about people that you let yourself get hurt over and over again. You’d do anything for the people you love, and that includes the ones who’v
e already betrayed you.”

  Madison opened and closed her mouth a few times, but no sound came out. He was right. If her father ever asked her for anything she’d jump to help him, despite everything, despite knowing she wouldn’t get so much as a crumb of real affection from him. She wouldn’t do it for the affection. She didn’t know why she’d do it, but she knew she would. She’d probably even help Nicolas if he ever asked, though she sincerely doubted he would.

  Scott opened his eyes and stared at her in a way she found distinctly unnerving. As if he saw something in her that she couldn’t see in herself. It made her nervous. Made her want to push him away. Or bury her face in his chest. Therein lay the real danger. She wanted so desperately to love and to have someone else love her in return. She just didn’t know how.

  “I’m an idiot for caring about people. I still want my father to love me. He never will. I know that. But it doesn’t change what I want.”

  “That just makes you human.” The steel bands tightened around her arms almost painfully, but Madison didn’t protest. “This isn’t your fault, Madison.”

  “I’m fat too,” she said. “It’s stupid but every time I get upset, I start eating. Right now I’d kill for some chocolate.”

  “Stop.” Scott shook her, whipping her head back and forth dangerously. “It’s not you. Don’t think like that. You’re... It’s not you.”

  “But Clinton betrayed me, didn’t he?” Why? With Clinton of all people, why?

  “I don’t know. I know he sounded the alarm when he saw me, but I have no idea what he was thinking at the time.”

  “But you have a guess. You’ve got that intuition.”

  “It’s not telepathy or clairvoyance. It’s insight. And it’s not always right.”

  A hot tear slid down her cheek. She wanted to wipe it away, but Scott still held her firmly.

  “You’re beautiful,” Scott said suddenly.