The doors swung open. At first, I caught only scents; one smelled like lavender and patchouli, another like lemon, and the last one…
The last one had a scent that was all too familiar to me.
Child me didn’t react to the other presences, but specificallyhis.
The bear shifter entered the small room of cageswithout a word, wearing the gear of a soldier under the false king. There was something in his eyes, a glint of understanding, but not familiarity.
A tightness coiled around my lungs at the sight of him in my memories. My mentor had been my warden.
The memory disappeared like another crack of lightning. I drew in a sharp breath as my eyes flew open, the image of the cell washed away by the reddish light of the war room.
“That was a development I did not expect,” someone said beside me, their voice muffled.
“What happened?” another asked, this one beside me. “Is he even here with us right now?”
There was a moment of hesitation. “I think he’s coming to terms with the fact that the male who mentored him is the same one who held him in a cage under Dante’s instruction.”
That was the last thing I heard before darkness claimed me, and the memories of my childhood took hold.
The crackof the whip woke me out of sleep. There was no pain, but the scream of another male had me turning in my cage to witness the whip fly again, slicing through his delicate skin.
The boy, maybe older than me by a few years, fell to the ground in a heap, blood spilling from three long wounds in his back.
Fear crashed into me when the eyes of Watcher fell on me. He smiled that cruel way he always did when something bad happened on the outside.
I counted the others, making sure they were still here. That between falling asleep and hearing the whip, Watcher hadn’t taken any of them.
But pack was still there. Still ten. Cowered in the corners of their cages, hiding from the male who only brought us pain.
“Who here wants to give it a try?” the demon urged, his voice tainted with eager cruelness. “Who wants to make me proud?”
No one made a sound. It was either that or the pain of the whip.
Pain by shift, or pain at his hand.
“They aren’t going to shift that way,” another said. His voice was deep, easy to recognise. He liked to witness the pain sometimes. Came in with Watcher but did nothing to stop him.
We called him Warden. He kept us here while Watcher got to unleash his power upon us.
“You think so?” Watcher questioned, turning to Warden. “I think if they feel enough fear, their beasts should take over. Protect them.”
Warden shook his head. “You’re a demon. You don’t know the instincts of a shifter.” He pushed off the far wall and entered my line of sight; he had coarse, long hair neatly pulled back, the scruff of a beard, and he was larger than Watcher, with muscles that were bigger than me.
“They won’t shift from pain. They need their beasts to be brought out by an alpha.” Warden’s dark eyes flickered over us all. “They’ve been together too long and won’t answer to either of us.”
Watcher grunted, slamming the door of the cage shut and stepping away from the bleeding boy within. “Aren’t you a fucking Alpha?”
“I am,” Warden replied. “But they’ve already created a pack amongst themselves. I told you andhimnot to keep them together.”
“Our king doesn’t answer to you,” Watcher seethed. “Make it better. He wants them shifted and integrated. If you think you can pull their beasts out, then do it.”
With that, Watcher left, the doors slamming shut behind him. Warden didn’t react. He remained still, with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn’t seem to care that the boy continued to weep from his wounds, that his blood covered him, and that the others were afraid. He eyed each of us instead.
When the weight of his stare landed on me, I didn’t move. I felt the presence of something else. A push inside my mind that shifted to a tug inside my chest. And then?—
I woke with a start,heart pounding. Pain and fear radiated through my body, tight around my muscles. Each breath felt harsh, laboured as I took in the room.
There were no bars, no cages. No children naked and huddled in corners. No demon with a whip watching over me and no bear shifter wanting us to shift.
