Chapter Three
Don’t trust the warden.
I heard Sallyann’s voice in my mind long after I left the infirmary. He was a slight man, balding head, and completely ordinary. Ordinary except for the aura of sickening magic that clung to his skin like an oily film. He made me feel slimy just sitting across from him in his tiny office. The meeting went about as I expected. He offered me protection, and I seemed to think about it before telling him I needed time. I didn’t have any interest in this meeting. My mind kept wandering to this man Ze and what I could expect when I finally met him.
After several platitudes and promises to get back to the warden about his offer, I was escorted out of the office by yet another guard. I was taken to a room with bedding and supplies stacked to the ceiling.
“Grab one sheet and one blanket. You don’t get any more than that since you animals seem to run hot most of the time. No need to waste supplies. You get one extra change of clothes over there. Grab one of those bags in the corner. Those hold your personal supplies. You’ll be responsible for your own laundry like everyone else. If you have any money in the facility store, you might want to get some other clothes and supplies, that’s up to you.”
He wasn’t mean, only matter of fact about the whole process. After I gathered everything, including a pillow and case, he escorted me through a series of locking doors and long hallways until we spilled out into a massive open area, with a soaring ceiling that went up three stories.
There were tables and chairs in the middle of the floor, almost all occupied by different shifter species. The big cats were to the left. I could see a group of random predators near the center back, milling around, but not forming a cohesive group. I could see a gathering of smaller prey animals around the edge of the room, many keeping their backs to the walls. It was a smart move in this place.
The wolves took up the right side of the room and most tables. I saw Kane in that area, standing on the edge of the gathering that seemed to surround one man who sat on his chair, kicked back and looking like he hadn’t a care in the world. I thought that must be Culin. He looked in our direction when we came out into the area. His intense gaze followed me the entire way across the central area and all the way up the stairs to the top floor. When we turned back to the left and down the walkway, I finally saw into the cells.
Each one had one set of bunk beds on one side and a small desk and chair on the opposite wall. The distance could be reached in one step. Toward the back were a toilet and a sink. Some of the cells had art on the walls. Some had even painted the walls with chalk pictures and drawings. All of the art had one common theme. They were all images of nature. I saw landscapes, the sky, flowers, oceans, and mountains, anything that would remind the occupants that the earth and the natural world still existed, even if they couldn’t see it anymore.
We moved the entire way down the walkway until we got all the way back the way we had come. He showed me the last cell on the way, so I tentatively walked in and took in my new home for the rest of my life. It was a little bigger than the others, both wider and deeper. The desk was a little bigger, and the chair even had padding in the seat. What caught my eye even before all of that, though, was the shelf. Above the desk was a large bookshelf against the wall full of novels, notebooks, and even what looked like textbooks.
I would have looked longer, but the guard banged on the bars at that moment.
Bang, bang, bang
“Get your bed made and get your stuff stashed, I don’t have all day to stand here and watch you drool over books.”
The bottom was already taken, so I had to stretch up to try to get the bed made. It was a struggle, but I finally got it done. I picked up my clothing bundle off the desk and found my drawer in the back between the end of the bunk and the back wall. I must have still been in shock because I kept thinking about how efficiently they had used the space in the cells.
As soon as I was done, I thought I would be left to my own devices, but I was terribly wrong.
“All right, now get out on the floor.”
I had been silent this entire time, but I finally had to break down and speak.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Get out onto the floor. This is floor time. You’re not allowed in your cell during this time of the day in case we need to do inspections. You also have to have a specific number of hours in the sunlight according to the law, so you have to stay out on the floor under the skylights. So, move your ass and get out there. I got shit to do, and I’m not a babysitter.”
I had no choice, so I moved past him and began the very long walk back down the walkway and down the stairs. The guard never said another word, just walked by me at the end of the stairs and disappeared through the lockdown doors at the end of the floor. I looked around the seating area again from this different angle and saw the big cat species to the right now. I knew from what Jarvis had said, that I needed to stick with my kind. I walked slowly over the floor toward what seemed to be the cat shifters. I could recognize the aura of a few panthers, a mountain lion, a lynx, and two tigers. There was even a lion somewhere in the midst of the group, but I couldn’t see him yet.
I was almost to the first table when the back of my neck was roughly grabbed, and I was turned around. The tight hold on my neck was supposed to mimic the hold of a mother biting her cub’s neck. It was done to incapacitate the cub and get its attention, but I had never shifted, and it didn’t work on me. I fought the hold until I looked up and saw Culin was the asshole manhandling me. I fought harder, but his grip tightened and began to hurt down to the bone.
“Ah, we have a cub who likes to fight. I like a little fight.”
I gritted my teeth and gave him my best glare.
“Let me go, now.”
He laughed, and it had an edge to the sound that scraped up my spine. That sound told me he was dangerous, although I couldn’t explain how I knew. I just knew I was right and this wolf could not and should not be trusted. His laughter finally faded, and with the little I could see from my position, I could tell every eye was on us now, which had been his purpose for the loud guffaws in the first place. The once noisy floor was now almost silent except for Culin’s maniacal laughter. As the laughter finally died, he turned his deadly gaze toward me and snarled. Drool spilled from the corner of his mouth, and his teeth grew sharp as I watched. When he spoke again, his voice was two octaves deeper, and his tone was all menace.
“I don’t take orders from anyone. Ever. You’ll learn, or you’ll die. I especially don’t take orders from a cub who was born wrong and can’t even shift. In our pack, we always killed the niffs before they could breathe a day. Cull the pack, so the pack stays strong.”
To our left I heard a muffled sound, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. The sound irritated Culin, though, because he took his gaze from me for a few seconds to turn to his group.
“I said,Cull the pack, so the pack stays strong!”
This time every wolf in the group shouted over and over, “Cull the pack, so the pack stays strong!”
The shouting was so loud that the words echoed off the walls, rebounding back and resounding for a long time after they were done. Once his will had been done, Culin turned back to me.
