Chapter Two
Aria
Darkness presses against my thoughts like wet cotton, heavy and suffocating.I drift somewhere between sleep and nothingness, my body floating, and unanchored.I think my eyes are open, but everything is black.
I hear boots.Voices.A woman crying.Metal screaming.Then a roar so deep it vibrates inside my bones.I try to move but I can't.My limbs respond like they belong to someone else, or no one at all.Pain flickers across my nerves in thin, electric threads.I breathe in ...and gag.
The air tastes like bleach and rot and the metallic bite of my own blood.
I’ve learned to identify those smells.Months inside this place trained me well.Maybe years, I’ve lost the rhythm of time.The Hunters are always careful to keep us disoriented.
Except tonight ...something is different.
There’s shouting.Panic.The sharp thud of bodies hitting the ground.Someone is fighting them.Someone strong.
I try to focus, but the drugs drag me back down.They dull my instincts, bury my leopard under layers of fog until she barely stirs.She hates it.I hate it.But she sleeps because she’s forced to.Because I’m too weak to help her.
Footsteps stop in front of my cage.
A growl, deep, furious, and familiar in a way that terrifies me.
My pulse spikes, frantic.I crawl backward until cold metal bars scrape my spine, my breath leaves me in shallow, shuddering gasps.I don’t know who’s out there.I don’t trust anything that sounds like power anymore.
Power has only ever brought me suffering.
The footsteps come closer.
My vision flickers—the shadows bending, light cracking through them.And then a figure steps forward, broad shoulders blocking the weak overhead bulb.He crouches, bringing himself level with me.
I blink and the world sharpens around him.
His eyes, Goddess, his eyes are like storm clouds over steel.Hard.Wild.And when they lock onto mine, something inside my chest twists violently.Heat pulses between us, bright and sudden.Then just as quickly, it fades and flickers out like someone blew on the flame.
I inhale sharply as pain stabs low in my stomach.It’s not physical but something else.Something ...elemental.
The man, no, the shifter, flinches at the same time.A tiny hitch of pain across his jaw.
His voice is rough, cracked with worry and something too gentle to belong in a place like this.
“Easy,” he says.“I’ve got you.”
Liar, I want to say.No one has had me for an exceptionally long time.Not in the way that means safety.But my lips won’t move.The drugs keep my voice locked inside.
He hits the cage door with his shoulder, once.Twice.I flinch with every impact, and he curses under his breath, bracing his feet like he’s about to tear the world apart.Another man appears behind him.Smaller and around the same age.He moves like a warrior, but my shredded nerves don’t care.Another male in the room means more danger.
My ears ring.
My pulse hammers.
