Softer.
They. He tried to get his brain to focus on whotheywere, but each time he tried to catch it, the thought slid out from his mental grip. Suddenly, a vague face flashed before his eyes, followed by a sharp pain when he tried to focus on any details.
He remembered then, trying to get away. His plan. The pain of remembering twisted his gut, but he kept the bile down. This time.
Lycan looked at his wrists, freed but bandaged strangely, and looked around the room. This place was different. Even without his enhanced sense of smell, he could feel it.
It felt safe, but he wasn’t willing to trust that feeling.
A large man came into the room, clearly an Alpha, and Lycan watched carefully as the man moved toward him, bracing for what pain might follow. Had the Alpha only allowed the pain to recede to then take the healing from him?
Lycan’s eyes widened as an even larger man took up the doorway and commanded all of the attention in the room without trying.
Broad shoulders and a waist to match, biceps and thighs with muscles that his clothes only defined, the man was the perfect specimen to showcase a well-run inner wolf. Tall, broad, and strong. Not burly, but an athlete’s body. As sleek and carved as a pro-footballer. Dark hair and gold eyes set off a wolfish face that anyone should be able to see for its true nature.
Alpha.
That second man was clearly a Pack Alpha, young though. Even Lycan’s lack of wolf-enhanced smell didn’t matter because it was obvious by the man’s bearing, and his voice. Lycan’s wolf knew, no matter how deeply buried it remained, and any shifter, any magical being would know. A human would probably know. This man was the most dominant in the pack.
A memory flashed in his brain, but he was too sluggish to catch it. Had they met before? The thought caught in his throat.
Lycan expected a harsh voice, but instead this one was soothing, like a warm blanket or a satisfying warm drink on a cool day.
No, somehow, he had gotten away. This wasn’t the same place he had been. These weren’t the same shifters that had held him.
Maybe.
“I’m glad you are awake,” Alpha said, and Lycan attempted to get up. Laying down when Alpha was in the room, and another Alpha as well would not do. But Lycan found he was tangled in wires and tubes connected to his body.
“Sorry, Alpha. Sorry, sir,” Lycan quickly said, still trying to make his way out of the bed and keeping his head down. He could handle the beatings, handle not fighting back just to stay alive, but Lycan hurt too much right then not to try and avoid one if possible.
“Lay back, pup,” the smaller man told him, kindly, and yet his body tensed for the inevitable blow of laying down when Alpha and the other Alpha were in the room.
His eyes darted back and forth, between the Alpha and the Pack Alpha, trying to figure out the test.
Lycan felt his heart race. It was a trick. Where what Alpha told him to do was always something he could not. It was a trick so Alpha could punish him. Like when he was asked questions that had no right answers. The mental games he hated more than the physical punishments.
The smaller Alpha frowned at some machine, pressing buttons, and then Lycan started to relax, as if something was trying to force his racing heart to calm down.
“We are not going to hurt you,” Alpha said. Lycan didn’t believe the statement, but Alpha made it sound convincing.
Today then, maybe they wouldn’t hurt him today.
The smaller man looked to Alpha. “Maybe we should have Trav come in, too?”
Lycan stilled and tried to make himself small for the inevitable fight. No one questioned Pack Alpha. Alpha gave orders. And they were followed.
But, the Pack Alpha merely nodded, “Good idea.”
Lycan felt his eyes widen, but said nothing, trying to hide into the mattress.
A smaller omega, smaller than Lycan, entered and immediately went to Lycan, dipping a head at Alpha on the way. The omega put his hands gently on Lycan’s arm, and a small whimper went out when the omega began touching his arm in gentle strokes.
“Is this okay?” The omega asked, and Lycan quickly nodded. It was the Alpha’s order that this be done — why wouldn’t it be okay?
The omega beamed at him, but had tears in his eyes.
Lycan shivered. It felt so good to be touched. It made him feel floaty and a little like the lights were dancing around in his eyes. His brain was wonderfully disconnected.
