“Ah, lively as always. Now sit up. Do it. Ah, there’s a good girl. When you hear that buzzing sound you shift. If you don’t, my boys will shock you again. Understood?”
“Fuck you,” I said again. They could shock me all they wanted. I wasn’t shifting on demand.
“Tsk, tsk.” She reached her arm through the bars to cup my cheek in her hand. It was an affectionate move but, in this situation, it was weird as fuck. “My poor, Ember, it seems your father didn’t teach you anything with his beatings. That’s a shame. All that pain for nothing. At least mine taught me manners and obedience. You’re just as wild as the day you were born.”
“I will not go along with whatever this is.”
“Oh, my strong-willed beauty, you will. You will learn to do what I say, when I say it. Pain has a way of doing that to a person. Trust me.” She said it in such a way it made me wonder what else her parents, especially her father, had done to her.
“Boys,” she said again, rising to stand and back away from the cage.
They shocked me again, longer this time. My head slammed into the floor, and I bit through my tongue. Still, I refused to shift. Stella pulled a chair over to sit in front of the cage. She watched as they repeatedly shocked me until I vomited blood.
“Okay, boys, let’s give her a break. We can start again when she’s healed.”
The sensation in my chest had become unbearable. Liam was going crazy trying to get me to respond, but I couldn’t. I had tried. I couldn’t figure it out. Now I was too weak to even try. My hand pressed against it, stroking the spot where I felt it the most.
“He won’t find you here. You can pull on that bond all you want. You’re stuck here with me for as long as I want you.” She crouched in front of the cage, the position revealing she wasn’t wearing underwear beneath her minidress. “That was a lot of fun, Em, but next time put up a little fight. That would be more exciting for me. So, give it a go, okay?”
Pull on it? I thought as I watched her leave. I tried pulling at Liam.
His next ‘pull’ was so hard I groaned a little. I wasn’t sure if what I’d done had worked or if he just happened to pull at the same time. But I knew one thing after that last one from him: Bond or no bond, Liam was going to do whatever it took to find me. He’d kill whoever got in his path. I knew it in my bones.
Liam may look like a handsome businessman, but the memory of Charles’ reaction when he saw him enter the guesthouse told me there was way more to him than met the eye. He got what he wanted no matter what it took. And from the way he’d pulled at our bond, he wanted me.
Until he found me, I wasn’t going to just sit around waiting for a man to save my ass. No matter who that man was. I would do what I could to save myself.
A loud clunking sound drew my attention to the door. It was one of the olive-green men with a tray. The scent of meat reached me, and my wolf growled almost as loud as my stomach. We were both starving.
He slid the tray through a slot at the bottom of the cage. “She’s giving you the good stuff. You must be special.”
I ignored him and pounced on the thick juicy steak. I didn’t bother with the utensils, just picked it up and tore off an enormous chunk. My eyes rolled back, and I moaned. It was almost as good as the steak I’d had at Liam’s that first night. But it could have been a roasted rat for all I cared.
“You’re a pretty one,” the man said, staring at me while I ate. I glanced up at him and growled. “And feisty. I like that.”
I glanced up at him again, an idea coming to life. But the door opened, ruining any plan I could think of.
“Carl, back up,” Stella said as she entered the room. “She’ll tear you to shreds before you get to the good part.” The man bowed his head and left the room. Stella sat in her chair and looked me over. “You’re a mess.”
“Gee, I’m sorry. Silly me should have freshened up for you after all the torture.”
“Don’t be a smartass. You could have used the utensils like a civilized person.”
I tossed the steak back onto the plate. I’d lost my appetite. “What am I doing here, Stell? What’s going on?”
“This is the training facility. It’s where I teach my shifters how to perform. You’re a little harder to train. But I expected that. You’re stubborn and that’s okay.” She smiled at me. “So, take your time. There’s no rush. Not right now, so let’s have fun. Okay?”
After Stella left, I finished my dinner and then stared at the door she’d left through trying to wake myself up from the nightmare my life had become.
I focused on the connection to Liam. I still hadn’t figured out how to pull it, but I was starting to feel more from him. His emotions were coming through as if they were my own. They’d been there all along, under the surface, I just hadn’t understood what they were.
He was furious and scared.
I rose and went to the cage door. The lock was electronic. They must have key cards like hotels use because there was no keypad. I looked around the enclosure for something I could use to hit it, but all they’d given me was a plastic tray, a paper plate, and plastic utensils. I shrugged and grabbed the tray.
I smacked it against the lock and groaned in frustration when it shattered. “Dammit,” I said aloud. Too weak to think anymore, I closed my eyes and let my body heal.
Sometime later, I woke to Stella running one of the cattle prods along the bars of the cage. “Wakey, wakey,” she said with a weird smile. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”