The cells looked a lot like the ones in human prisons that you see on TV, though the bars were much, much thicker. It took me a little while to register him, curled up in a corner as he was. There was no bed, no blankets, just a tap and a small reinforced hole in the ground.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
The voice sounded rusty, corroded from disuse. He uncoiled himself, forcing me to look up and up as he stood. He grinned through the smears of dried blood across his face, through the matted fall of his long black hair. Those ice blue eyes burned into mine as he slowly inspected every inch of me. “I knew you’d come. Closer, little queen, closer.”
I took a step towards the cage before I’d even thought about it, only the hands of Finn and Aaron stopping me from fulfilling his order. I blinked and frowned, looking down at where their fingers dug into my skin. When I glanced at Finn, he gritted his teeth, putting everything into keeping me where I was. I brushed them aside, something that made the black wolf laugh, but stayed put. What was that?
You wear my mark, little queen.
My gaze jerked up, and I met those blue eyes head on, my hand straying automatically to the place where he had bitten me.
“What did you do?”
His teeth were bright against the grime of his skin. He smiled with all the light-heartedness of a child, tossing his snarled mane over his shoulder.
“That’s the question, isn’t it? All I know is,” his hands went to the bars, something that had the soldiers stepping forward, “biting is an intimate thing, y’know. The feel of their flesh in your mouth, swallowing down their blood. I’ll be seeing you, little queen, a whole lot more now.”
The guys started to growl, but I held up a hand.
“How? You’re locked up in a cage. You piss and shit in a hole. You won’t be seeing anyone but these fellas for the rest of your life.”
He shrugged nonchalantly, pushing away from the bars before shivering and turning into his Tirian form, the wolf looking like it was only just contained by the room. Those red eyes stared into mine for a moment, before bolts of electricity arced out from the roof, walls and floor, forcing the wolf back into his human form. He lay on the ground, laughing between rasps of breath before rolling to his feet, standing short of the bars again, but now he was in a much better condition. His skin was now clear, pale as the moon, his hair a long fall of black feathers. He crossed his arms, smiled down at me with a cruel twist, as my eyes compared the well-muscled form in front of me with the black wolf of my fevered visions. The men started to curse when his hand went to his dick, but the shouted threats didn’t stop him, and neither did the pulled out tasers.
“Sweet dreams,” he said as the electrical bolts zapped out again, and he fell to the floor.
31
The drive back home was a quiet one. I’m sure the guys wanted to say they’d told me so, but they thankfully kept their mouths shut.
He was posturing, I tried to tell myself, trying to look like a big man while being locked in a cage.
That one is a threat, my Tirian replied, one I don’t know if I can protect you from.
Well, that sure put a downer on my mood. When we rolled in, Jack and Hawk were still working on the fence, but I just glanced at them. I had bigger fish to fry. I sat down at the dining table when we got in, trying to process. A cup of tea and some biscuits appeared in front of me, then a warm hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Finn standing there, along with Aaron.
“He can’t touch you,” Finn said.
“Who can’t touch her?” Brandon asked, striding out of the kitchen and over to the table. “I thought she was just looking at the dickhead in his cage? What the fuck happened?”
That threw the cat among the pigeons, and I sat there quietly as the guys filled each other in.
“You said she’d be safe,” Slade snapped.
“She was, is. He got electrocuted a few times while pronouncing vague threats.”
“What fucking threats?” Shaun said.
“He said he’d see me again. He’s locked up behind metal bars and concrete, and there was a metric fuck tonne of men with guns there. It was just empty threats. Don’t let it worry you, I’m not going to.”
I picked up the cup and took a big sip of tea, feeling the need for something to ground me as much as anything.
“I’m talking to the boys, see if we can’t beef up security along the fence,” Shaun said, opening the sliding door and stomping outside.
“What’re you thinking, Aaron?” Slade said. “We get some munitions up here, set up some defences?”
“You clear that with the alpha?” he asked.
“I can’t see her refusing the request. She’s already distraught the prick got through in the first place,” Finn said. “We should have anticipated this, built the house security up before we even brought her here.”