“You don’t like the shirt? I can get you a different one.” He held it up, inspecting it like he was trying to figure out what was wrong with it. “Yeah, I guess it’s a little boring. I’ve got one with a pineapple on the front. It’s clean, I promise. I washed it a few years ago.”
What the fuck was happening? And what was a pineapple?
When he finally looked my way again, he stared hard into my eyes. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do. Intimidate me?
“I’ve never seen eyes like that,” he murmured. “They’re really beautiful.”
My mind went blank as his words burrowed into some unknown part of me.
Beautiful…?
I’d never seen my eyes but I knew from the way Hunter and Hayes insulted them that there was something wrong with them.
They definitely weren’tbeautiful.
I glanced from the chain to him, wondering if I should just kill myself before he could get his hands on me. Break my own neck. I could do that, right? I’d just have to?—
“Hey, you don’t have to be afraid, I’m not gonna hurt you.” He let go of the shirt and raised his hands up, palms out. “Myname is Cain and this is my home. I just brought you here to help you, to stop the—the bleeding.”
He was standing about five feet away, not moving, but that could change in an instant. My gaze flitted down to the chain again.
“Oh, yeah, I’m sorry about that, I just didn’t want you to wander around and hurt yourself before I had a chance to get that off you.” He moved to the pillar, removed the padlock, and started unwinding the chain. “It was just a safety precaution, considering how banged up you are.”
What…? Was this a trick?
This was a trick. No, he was going to drag me somewhere else, but where?—
“There you go.” He let the chain fall to the ground, his lips stretching wide across his face, showing his teeth. His eyes crinkled at the corners, and…was he smiling at me? Why?
Hunter and Hayes would often smile while doing something particularly cruel because it gave them endless joy to torment others.
I backed up and bared my teeth, growling at him like the animal I was.
I snatched the chain up, quickly pulling it in before he could get his hands on it again. My ankle was throbbing, my chest on fire with the most excruciating pain. It was like needles being drilled into my skin, and every movement, no matter how small, sent flames of agony licking through my chest and across my shoulder.
A wave of dizziness swept over me. I wobbled where I stood, but kept my eyes on the stranger, who was still standing beside the pillar. He’d raised his hands again, like that would somehow make me think he was harmless.
Yeah, right. A man that size was built to inflict harm. He was a walking weapon, and he couldn’t fool me.
“I can get that off you, if you want.” He gestured at his face, and then his dark eyes dropped to my neck. “And that. I don’t know what they’re for, but they don’t look very comfortable.”
My muzzle? And collar? Why was he offering to take them off? Was this another trick?
He moved to a table by the wall, opening a long metal box sitting atop it.
He pulled out some kind of tool?—
Panic and dread rushed through me as he stepped toward me with the gigantic metal tool. I backed away, a small, frightened sound escaping from me before I could stop it.
The man paused, those dark eyes flitting over me, his lips pulling down in a frown. He glanced at the tool in his hand. “You don’t have to be afraid, I’m not gonna hurt you. I just want to help you.”
Before I could say or do anything, a flash of black flew into the room, hurtling toward me.
“Luna, no! Get?—”
I jolted back, raising my arms when I couldn’t move out of the way in time. Something crashed into me, knocking me down, and I cried out as pain rocketed through my entire being. It paralyzed me, froze my lungs, filled my ears with static.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t?—
