With her hair hiding her face, all he saw was a teary eye as she backed away from him, trembling with fear. Her scent told him that she was human too. Perhaps she thought he was going to eat her.
He didn’t tend to eat humans as a rule, but would-be rapists he’d make an exception for if he could get past the stench of their unwashed bodies. But the woman didn’t know that.
He chuffed softly at her, trying to make her understand that he wasn’t a threat to her. The one eye he could see only widened further as she kept scrambling backwards.
Where did she come from? What if she was lost? She would need to trust him if he were to lead her out of the forest maze.
He changed to human to put her at ease, and if not that, then to at least communicate with her.
“Don’t be afraid,” he rasped, his voice and words distorted from years of silence.
“I won’t hurt you.”
She kept backing away. He took a few steps in her direction, careful to move slowly, to not startle her further.
When, suddenly, a metal claw snapped around his ankle and the ground caved in beneath him.
He shifted as he fell, trying to protect himself from whatever lay in wait, to face any threat in his strongest form.
But even mid-air, a heavy, metallic net closed over him, and when he landed at the bottom of a pit, his limbs were already tightly bound within the net, making him fall hard on his shoulder and side instead of his paws.
As he struggled to recover from the bone-jarring pain and having the wind knocked out of him, the net tightened even more, until he was squashed into a ball, his ankles practically contorted beside his ears. He couldn’t even open his jaw.
Fuck.
“Well, well,” a feminine voice said from above.
“You were right about this liger’s weakness for helpless women. Too bad we had to lose two men to lure him into the trap, but the reward will certainly be worth the sacrifice.”
Sin tried to roll his right eye toward the edge of the pit to see with whom he was dealing.
The waning light from a setting sun cast the woman who leaned over the pit in shadow, but he recognized her long hair.
It was the damsel in distress. She’d been pretending all along.
Another figure stood next to her. From his height and size, and a whiff of his odor, Sin knew him to be a Dark One. Then, three more joined them, a mix of Dark and human. All mercenaries after his hide. Or whatever it was that Queen Ashlu planned when she demanded strays like him to be captured and brought back alive.
Fucking fuck.
Three Dark Ones and two humans, likely armed while he was immobilized and hurt. These were not good odds. The pain and wounds would eventually resolve themselves, but he was trapped in a net with no way of escaping.
This was how Ashlu’s Hunters had caught him the first time and incarcerated, tortured and starved him in that dank, deep pit at the citadel. He couldn’t go through this again. He’d go mad. It was hard enough to endure this existence without his Mate while free and wild, but to be imprisoned…
He didn’t know if he was strong enough to bear it.
A rough groan vibrated through his throat as despair and anguish filled his soul.
Perhaps it was better this way. To give up and disappear.
Perhaps, one day, he’d be reborn and have a second chance to meet his One True Mate.
Perhaps, then, Zai would want him back. Would choose him too.
His muscles relaxed in surrender within the net, and he closed his eyes.
But just as a ragged sigh sifted out of his chest, sharp whistles sliced through the air, followed by the sound of flesh and bones being struck.
Arrows.