I woke to a dirty rag being stuffed in my mouth, the force of it being shoved in my mouth waking me. My arms are killing from the position I hung in. I gag on the rag. It was doused in wolfsbane, my tongue felt like it was being eaten by acid and I could feel my taste buds burning off. I could taste my own blood and feel my tongue sizzling as I screamed around the rag in pure agony. The room smelt heavily of wolfsbane, the air thick with its strong scent, it was like I was inhaling it with each breath.
Ryker is watching me with demonic black eyes. His eyes will forever haunt me, the way he looked at me with pure hatred made my blood run cold and my stomach drops somewhere dark and cold, gone was my mate as I now stared at the feared Lycan King. I could not understand what I did to deserve such punishment, such torture, and at his hands.
I feel for my wolf, she weakly lifts her head, a horrid whimper leaves her and echoes through my head making goosebumps rise on my skin, I could barely feel her like she was fading away from me. "We need to shift 46, we need to get out of these chains,” I tell her.
She whimpers trying to move closer to the forefront of my mind before collapsing. I could feel I was losing her as she became the weakest I had ever felt her. Forced to focus back on my surroundings when Ryker started dousing my entire body in wolfsbane. He didn't even flinch as it got on his skin, eating it away. While I tried to scream and beg him to stop, the rag prevented me from making an understandable response, my begging falling on deaf ears. My screams gurgled as I choked on my blood, feeling the rag burning and sticking to the roof of my mouth while my entire body felt like it was on fire, every cell a burning inferno.
"I warned you, I told you what would happen if you tried to hurt my family" he growls at me. I shake my head weakly, trying to ask what I did, who I hurt. I don't remember hurting anyone. I only remember attacking Tim. He was going to kill his brothers. Was I not supposed to save them, I couldn’t live knowing I caused their deaths because I abandoned them.
"Please" I beg but the words made no sense as I tried to speak them just a gurgle noise coming out.
Ryker walks off going to the corner of the room. I try to see what he is doing? Turning my swollen face to the side, I feel my stomach drop when he returns with a pair of snips in his hand. His lips pressed in a hardline as he turned them in his hands, he was going to torture me.
"46 please you need to come back, you need to help me" I beg and cry for my wolf. I can't feel her anymore like she just disappeared. I was on my own, completely and utterly alone with the monster I call mate.
Ryker kneels next to me and I jerk away, swinging from the chains when he grabs my foot in his vice-like grip. I close my eyes, tears pouring down my cheeks when I feel the cold metal press on my little toe before feeling intense pressure and the click as the snips cut it off.
The scream that left my lips when he cut it off couldn't even be muffled by the rag and I choked on my scream. The air leaves my lungs becoming lodged in my throat at the searing pain. I thrash but it is no use as one by one, he cut each one-off. My throat was hoarse from screaming, my face burnt with my tears. I could feel every wound oozing out my blood.
When he is done, he gets up showing me before placing my toes in a jar on the table. I throw up, choking on the vomit and I am forced to swallow it down. Feel it burning my lungs as I inhale some.
Ryker then gets up and walks out of the room pulling the cell door closed behind him. I try to see my foot, but all I see is my blood dripping on the floor, feeling my broken arm dripping my blood on my face. I am surprised it held together while I thrashed.
I lose consciousness again. Coming too for the next round and this continues every few hours, forcing wolfsbane down my throat and ignoring my pleas as he stuffs the rag back down my throat. Nothing I do or say stops his torment, stops the pain he inflicts on me, I pray for death pray that he just kills me, just the sight of him alone each time he comes into the cell makes my heart thud harshly against my ribs while I pray it stops beating, stops beating forcing me to live with the horrors of what he has done. He was a monster, I now understood why everyone feared him, I now understood completely. He was a monster, I was his mate and he didn’t feel a thing toward me, no mercy just pain. All I have known is pain. I wished for my wolf to help me, or even just to hear her voice and let me know I wasn’t alone in this vessel of broken flesh.
But all I got was silence making me wonder how she endured the pain for years for me, not having me near, the silence from her was deafening and I didn’t understand how she remained sane through years of torture. I thought being in darkness was maddening, no I was wrong it was being alone that was the worst torture of all, left to nothing but your senses and feeling completely helpless.
Chapter 27
Ryker
On the third trip down to the basement I opened the cell door, her head popping up and I could smell her fear and I watched in amusement as she wet herself just at the sight of me. She instantly starts crying as I figure out another way to torture her, inflict more pain on her, she would regret ever hurting my family. I look at her toes that sit in the jar before deciding to grab the wolfsbane again. I didn't understand how she was still alive, surely she had no more blood to bleed.
I grab her foot about to smother it in wolfsbane only to freeze before looking at the jar. What the fuck! That is not possible. I look up at her before looking back down. She had toes, she shouldn't have toes. I removed them, you can't grow limbs back but she has somehow managed it. Though they didn't quite look right, I could tell they were definitely growing. I cut them off all the way back yet here she has half toes to the knuckle.
What is she? Nobody can grow back limbs, what exactly had they been doing while experimenting on her, I had never witnessed anything like it before. Even if I lose an arm there's no way I could grow another. How was she even healing? I had given her enough wolfsbane to kill half my pack, yet here she was still alive and breathing, still bleeding profusely like a tap had been turned on. Her wounds not closing, yet she managed to grow back toes?
I shrug, well then I will remove them again, let's see how many sets she can grow, how much I have to remove before they stop growing back altogether. This just made torturing her easier for me. I get up walking back to the table and grab the snips. I walk over to her and she whimpers but is much too weak to struggle anymore. Bending down I grab her foot when I hear a commotion upstairs. My mother's voice hits my ears and I drop the snips before walking out and closing the cell door behind me.
Walking upstairs, I open the basement door and I see my mother and father. I closed the basement door and I could see Mavis talking to them. My parents raced upstairs to my brothers and I followed after them.
"Where is your mate?" My father asks as I approach him.
"In the cells" he nods going over and checking his sons. I lean on the doorway. My mother grabs Ace's hand kissing the back of it before brushing what little hair he had from his face. When she does the same to Tyson though he wakes, stirring under her touch, his eyes opening and his voice a croak.
"Mom,” he says softly and I move from my position to go to him.
"Mama is here my boy, I am right here you are going to be okay,” she tells him fussing over him, tears staining her cheeks.
"Ace! Where is Ace, he is hurt,” Tyson says in a panic, trying to sit up.
"He is right beside you,” I tell him and he looks over to the left and lets out a breath.
"I tried but I couldn't shift fast enough, then Ace was hurt. I tried to stop it, but everything happened so quickly.” He pauses for a second, his eyes darting around the room. “Wait, where is Reika,” Tyson says sitting up alarmed.
"She is downstairs,” I tell him and Tyson nods, looking relieved. I couldn't imagine how terrified he was seeing his brother being ripped apart by someone he thought he could trust. The thought alone angered me, that she could be so cruel to inflict that on two young boys.
"Rest sweety," mom tells him, kissing his head and his eyes flutter shut.