Chapter 7
Oh, God…please let it stop!
Everything hurt so goddamn much and she wasn’t sure how much more she could take. She just wanted to go back to the void where the pain was somewhat bearable, but she knew that it would be over soon.
This was…
This was…
A scream tore through her lips as she felt more of her flesh being ripped open. She tried to push away, to curl up so that she could go back to that black void that promised an end to her suffering, but no matter how hard she tried to move, she couldn’t.
No sound beyond a pathetic whimper passed her lips. Her arms and legs betrayed her, refusing to move as she lay there screaming inside her head, begging for it to stop, but it didn’t stop.
Not even close.
The pain, oh God, the pain was too much to bear. She tried to shake her head, tried to beg for mercy, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t do anything, but lay there as more of her skin was ripped open, sending searing pain through her neck and down her back until she swore that her back was about to snap in two from the pressure.
She tried to beg, tried to let go, but something or someone wouldn’t let her. No matter how badly she wanted it to end, it wouldn’t. She would give anything, absolutely anything to make this stop.
A scream echoed throughout her head as she felt her skin torn open on her side. She tried to fight off whatever was attacking her, but she was still stuck somewhere between that void and this pain filled existence that she wanted to escape from. Unable to do anything, but suffer, she continued to lay there as the process continued, she’d feel razor sharp fangs tear into her in one spot before moving on and tearing open a whole new section of her body as she laid there, helpless to do anything to stop it from happening.
The only coherent thought that
ran through her head was damning Drew to hell and back for doing this to her. He hadn’t let her die in peace, but had literally thrown her to the wolves. She wondered if he’d simply thrown her body in the back alley and she was being devoured among the trash back there while hookers did whatever they could to earn enough money to get through the day. Or maybe for shits and giggles he’d tossed her body over to one of the Packs that he was trying to enlist as an alley.
Nothing would please them more than having a little fun with Drew’s unwanted mate. It would certainly clear things up nicely for him, she told herself as she became aware of the warm, wet heat pouring down on her and the cool, unforgiving tile beneath her body. One minute there was intense pain like she’d never felt before and then…
There was absolutely nothing but her, the cold tiled floor beneath her and the hot water pouring down on her trembling body. Slowly she began to feel her arms and legs and after a few minutes she was even able to pull those trembling extremities closer against her weak body.
The sounds of the shower running slowly came into focus next as did the sounds of someone getting sick. Already regretting the action, she forced her eyes open and nearly cried as she saw all that crimson red being washed down the drain, off her body. For a minute all she could do was stare as the water continued to wash her blood down the drain.
“Fuck,” she heard the familiar groan that forced her to look up in time to see Drew, naked and covered in blood from his mouth to his stomach, standing over the toilet with an equally bloody hand over his stomach as he bent over and vomited a mixture of blood and what appeared to be silver.
Unable to do anything else, she simply watched him, deciding that it was better than watching all of her own blood go down the drain. When he was able to catch his breath, he flushed the toilet and simply said, “Shift.”
Hoping that he was talking to someone else, she simply laid there, staring at him as he stumbled towards hers. “Shift!” he growled as his fangs shot down.
Shift?
She could barely move. She shook her head, because as much as she would love to shift and heal her wounds, she couldn’t. She was too weak, too tired to do it and in that moment, she wished that she was able to use her power without shifting so that she could simply heal her wounds without going through the agony of trying to shift this close to death.
“Shift!” he snarled through a muzzle that was more wolf-like than human as he continued to come towards her, his body expanding, thick, hard muscle covering his expanding limbs as he continued to grow, becoming more animal than man by the second until she had a nine foot werewolf joining her in the shower.
When he growled, she knew exactly what he expected of her. “No,” she said, weakly, shaking her head. “I can’t shift.”
Another growl, this one more vicious than the last, but it didn’t frighten her. Nothing did right now, not with everything going numb and the pain finally disappearing. She didn’t try to fight it, didn’t try to hold on, she simply closed her eyes, felt her body let go and-
Screamed as she felt the large jaw with razor sharp teeth wrap around her neck. Another growl, this one more demanding, but she couldn’t do anything, especially not like this, so she tried to shake her head only to stop immediately when she felt those razor sharp teeth tear her skin apart.
It was an act to teach her, her place, to put her in submission, but most of all, it was meant to piss her off and it did a great job of that.
*-*-*-*
Well, this was a wonderful turn of events, he thought dryly as he lay on the cool tile, panting and wishing that he could reach up and turn the temperature of the water higher to warm his freezing human body, but thanks to the late night snack of silver that he’d decided to have and the fact that he’d used his last bit of energy to shift so that he could force her to do the same, he could barely move.
What he could do was watch the seriously pissed off seven foot werewolf stalk the normally large shower while she growled and snarled at him as the water continued to soak her beautiful black fur. He should glare back at her, make one last effort to shift in a last ditch attempt to save himself, but he was too fucking tired and cold to anything more than close his eyes and pray that she didn’t rip his balls off while he was passed out.
*-*-*-*
“Hey, Drew,” Ryan said, walking into the large bathroom as he glanced over the very promising list in his hands, “I think our staff problem is a thing of the…oh, shit,” he ended on a groan when he spotted the large and seriously pissed off werewolf take a threatening step towards him even as it kept its large body protectively over Drew’s pale, unconscious one.
“Good evening, Kara,” he said, clearing his throat uncomfortably, because he’d seriously thought that she’d be dead by now, not shifting her body so that she could launch herself at him and tear out his throat if he said the wrong fucking thing. “How are you feeling today?” he asked in his most jovial tone, really hoping that she didn’t follow through with that murderous gleam in her eye, because he really didn’t feel like getting torn apart by his Alpha’s unwanted mate this early in the morning.
Correction, he didn’t feel like getting torn apart by his Alpha’s marked mate this early in the morning, he amended as he took in the scent of his best friend’s mark on the furious werewolf