Chapter Two
“Have you been inside before?”
I looked to my seatmate next to me on the transport bus, startled to realize I hadn’t noticed him at all in the hour we’d been riding. I was still trying to come to grips with my situation, using the time on the ride to get my thoughts together. The question was a welcome distraction to the chaos of my thoughts at the moment, so I answered quietly.
“No, I haven’t. Have you?”
He nodded his head, the shaggy gray hair flopping into his eyes. He tried to lift his hand to push it back in a practiced move I was sure he’d done a million times before, but the chains on his wrists, shackled to his ankles prevented him from reaching.
“Yeah, I have. You’d think I would remember these damn chains, wouldn’t you?” He chuckled a good-natured laugh and nudged me with his shoulder. “So what did a clean cut cub like you do to get yourself sent to this hell hole? Too many parking fines? Didn’t pay enough taxes?” He laughed again, and I tried to join in.
“No, I’m innocent.”
“Sure you are, cubbie, and I am, too. We all are, sent away for being different in this Godsforsaken Province. So, now that we’ve established your innocence, what were you accused of doing?”
I turned my head away from him and his laughing brown eyes. I couldn’t see his reaction when I said the words out loud.
“I was accused of raping, murdering, and cannibalizing my neighbor, Emily.”
In the ensuing silence, all I could hear was the tires moving on the road and the wind against the window. Every second was taking me farther and farther away from my old life. This was what I was now. I was a convict, trading stories about the horrible things I’d done to warrant a life sentence in Starke.
“You’re right, cubbie, you are innocent. So who set you up?”
I was startled by the deep voice I heard from behind me, so I turned as best I could in the seat to see who had spoken this time. He was huge, taking up the entire bench seat by himself. His dark mocha skin gleamed in the sun coming through the windows, and his startling blue eyes pinned me to the seat.
“Why do you think I was set up?”
The giant laughed, and so did my seatmate. They laughed like they were sharing the best joke they’d heard in a year.
“Cubbie, I can just look at you and tell you’d never rape someone, let alone murder. And cannibalism? That shit’s just sick. Plus, I can smell the truth on you. You’re sad, but not guilty.” He leaned forward in his seat and sniffed the air near me, pulling my scent deep before letting it go. “You smell like innocence, goodness, and honesty. Believe me. There’s no way to fake that and fool me. I was alpha of my pack before my beta turned on me and sent me here. I’m very familiar with being set up.”
He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, ending the conversation. He was the first wolf I’d met in person, but he didn’t seem like the savage I’d been taught he’d be. He seemed, definitely not nice, but not so scary either. I turned back to the older man to my left, and he studied my face before turning back to the front of the transport.
“He’s right, you smell like innocence and cub, even if you are old enough to mate. What are you? Twenty-five? It doesn’t matter. You’ll be snatched up as soon as you get in there. I wish I could help you, but I’ve got my own back to watch. You seem like a nice kid. I wish you luck.”
The transport rolled to a stop at a huge reinforced fence in a perimeter I couldn’t see the end of from my window. It seemed to go on forever in the distance and rise too high for me to see out the small window. As we continued through the fence and moved toward a massive stone building in the distance, my seatmate spoke up again in a more hushed tone.
“I will give you some advice though. If that fucker Culin is still inside, stay as far away from him as you can. He likes to collect new boys for his sick harem. It’s a sentence for pain and death, cub. Anyone’s better than him. Oh, and try to find a big fucker to belong to. That’s the best plan for a morsel like you. Get yourself a protector, and you might make it for a while. Now, follow every direction these guys give you when we get there, or you’ll get a reputation as a troublemaker. You do not want that. I’m Jarvis. We might see each other in there, but don’t speak unless you’re spoken to. The species stick with their own most of the time and crossing over is frowned on. So you being a lion and me being a coyote, we won’t hang out and do each other’s hair. It’s not a slumber party, so watch yourself.”
I thanked Jarvis in the same hushed tone he had been using as the transport finally stopped in front of a loading bay. It looked like something you’d use more for unloading food than people, but I guess we were closer to things than people now. Just before the guard from the building climbed on board, I heard the wolf behind me rumble softly.
“I’m Kane. Don’t talk to me inside, cubbie. I’ll be joining Culin’s pack, and you need to stay away from that crazy fucker. What’s your name going to be inside?”
“My name is Danial, what do you mean my name inside?”
Kane resumed his relaxed sleeping position, so Jarvis leaned over to me and whispered the answer.
“You don’t use your real name inside, cubbie. You need something different to go by for your first time. You don’t want the guys in here calling you your name because when you get out, you’ll hear that in your sleep every night. If you use a different name, then those dreams don’t have anything to do with your real world. It’s a game we play. The guards call us by numbers, and we go by aliases. So Danial, what will your inside name be?”
I thought for a moment and then decided to use a version of my name I had always thought about trying. I hated being called Danny and Danny boy my whole life and thought Nial sounded so much better. Now I guess I’d have the chance to try it out.
“I’m Nial from now on. It’s nice to meet you, Jarvis.”
Jarvis looked at me with a little pity in his eyes.
“Nial, those manners are the kind of thing that's gonna get you killed, cubbie. Toughen up in the next thirty minutes, or you won’t last till the end of the week, son.”
The guards finally stopped chatting and made their way down the aisle to unlock our shackles and lead us off the transport. We all shuffled down the aisle. My legs weren’t long enough to make it down the steep steps of the bus, and I tripped, falling into Jarvis. He steadied himself, and I held onto him to get my balance back. That’s when I heard the sounds around us. The voices started low but got louder and louder the closer we got to the building.
