LIAM: I WOKE UP WITH MORE ACHES AND PAINS THAN WHEN I’D INITIALLY FALLEN ASLEEP.

I attributed that to my poor sleeping conditions just as much as my injuries, but at least I was alive. That had to count for something. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I heard talking, now.

There were men in the room again, one of them observing the various wolves in their cages. The other talking on the phone.

“Yeah, we are thinking we’re just about ready to film. Just need another day for the last one to finish up.” he paused, catching my eye staring at him. I didn’t look away.

“Sure.” He finished, before hanging up.

He came over to my cage, looking at me with a small grin.

“Wakey wakey, how you feeling?” He spoke to me like I was a friend of his.

“Ugh.” I turned away, not interested in talking to this asshole.

“Feelin a little rage in ya?” He asked me, continuing. “Like you might wanna bite someone?”

“Wanna find out?” I challenged, staring straight at the bars of my cage. He laughed, standing up.

“You’ll learn your place soon.” He patted my cage, jogging my memory. I realized he was probably the same guy who sat in the back of the car with me. My memory was struggling to keep up with the situation I was in. I wondered why.

The two men wandered out of the room, talking among themselves as they went. I watched their backs as they left, before my eyes drifted to the door to my cage. I grabbed the bars, rattling them gently to test their give. Then my eyes went to the latch, the one that the doctor locked before when he left me in here the second time.

Only, he didn’t lock it. I saw it right there, the lock was on it but not secured. All it would take is a light tug and it would fall apart.

I reached over to it, barely making contact with the tips of my fingers. I knew I could reach it, but my body was fighting me, becoming sluggish with exhaustion. I was stubborn, trying to fight sleep but even I knew that even if I escaped from the bars I’d just end up passing out midway later.

I fell asleep while I thought about what to do.

LIAM: THE NEXT TIME I WOKE UP, IT WAS TO BRIGHT ORANGE LIGHT SHINING THROUGH THE WINDOW. I COULDN’T TELL IF IT WAS SUNRISE OR SUNSET, BUT I KNEW I MUST’VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR A LONG TIME.

“How long was I out?” I asked after a while, to no response.

“C’mon, guys. I’m not gonna tell anyone you answered a simple question.” I tried, and got nothing. I huffed. These poor people were broken. One of the wolves whined in response, and I wondered if they were shifted would they talk to me.

At least I didn’t feel particularly tired, anymore. I sat up in the cramped space, craning my neck to be able to fit properly. I looked at the hunched, defeated expressions on the people around me. I sighed. I wanted to help, but had no idea how to. Then I remembered the broken lock on my cage.

“Look who’s awake!” Someone interrupted my thoughts, and immediately my hand dropped to my lap from where it had been about to sneak toward the lock.

It was the guy again, he turned to call someone down the hall, and soon enough the doctor appeared. Or was he a scientist?

Was he both?

The lab coat fixed his glasses on his nose, said something to the man, then left.

My head hurt.

Too soon for me to fiddle with the lock, the men reappeared with two of those smokers again. Some of the wolves became agitated, jerking around in their cages only to be shouted at into silence.

Those of us who were still human, they sprayed with the smoke by dousing the cage in a blanket of that awful smoke, which felt even worse than before, coating the back of my throat in this film of chemical that reminded me of too-strong perfume. I coughed and sputtered, as did the other people who were exposed to the smoke. The men in the room wore respirators as the entire room became a smokey pit.

They put the smokers down, and returned with cameras in hand. One took photos with his, the other recorded video.

A few minutes passed, and the people in cages began growling low in their throats and thrashing about in their cages. It was frightening, a cacophony of snarling and growling as everyone started cracking and breaking together as they shifted from human to wolf. I realized the purpose of the smoke now, something about it made the wolf come out.

I braced myself for a shift that never came, and I sighed in relief. I wasn’t ready.

“Hurry up.” the man with the video camera said to me, kicking my cage. I backed away toward the wall, and surprised myself when a low growl emerged from my throat.

I startled myself. I didn’t know where that came from.

“Hey doc, one of em’s not changing!” The man with the photo camera called.

He emerged a moment later, peering into the room and making eye contact with me.

“He might not be ready yet.” Was all he said as he left, and I can’t believe I managed to hear the ‘dumb dog’ he muttered as he walked away.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The man with the video camera shrugged. “I’ve got enough footage for now. We can try again tomorrow.”

“Whatever.” Said the photo camera guy. The two men left the room, shutting the door behind him.

I felt myself relax a little. I felt no fear, for some reason. Just rage. I barely resisted to contain another growl as I launched for the broken lock on my door, fingers squeezing between the bars and ripping it off.

It took a few minutes to pry the damn thing open, but I managed to lift and open the latch on the top of the bars, before making my way to the bottom. I was aware of every set of eyes in the room being on me, enraptured.

I burst out of my cage, barely catching it before it slammed into the cage next to mine.

I felt energized, amped up, whatever analogy you could think of to explain that I had too much energy when I needed to be quiet. I walked over to one of the empty cages, lifting it up with surprising ease before carrying it over to the door where I set it down as carefully as possible against the wood.

I turned my attention to the locks of the cages next. They were cheap, the kind you get from dollar stores. There were no keys to be found, but I knew I could fix that. I started with the door to the teenage girl, grabbing the smoker and listening carefully to the rest of the house. I ignored the growls of the girl as I grabbed the smoker, focused on the men in the house. I could hear them. They were watching TV. I recognized the voice of the character from my favorite TV show and once again, I felt sick. I grimaced as I waited a beat, a second. BANG

It didn’t break right away, I was too nervous the first time. No one seemed to bat an eye outside, used to the rattling of the hounds in the cages. I did it again, breaking the lock. Still nothing from our captors.

I unlatched her cage, releasing the girl inside. She only hesitated for a moment before joining me outside of the cage.

I went to the next cage, and knocked the lock off on the first try.

“Can you turn up the volume?” I heard this time. I smirked, even better than before.

I released this wolf, but they refused to leave. I frowned.

“If we all leave together, they won’t be able to catch us all.” I told them. They whined. I got down low, to make eye contact. “I won’t make you run, but this could be the last chance we get. Are you coming?”

The poor thing just stared at me. I frowned, sighing. I turned to the next cage. This wasn’t a very big room so there weren’t too many to go. but still enough that I wondered for a second if this would actually work. I decided I didn’t have time to worry about it.

It took two hits to knock off this lock. Still nothing from the captors.

Again, and again. I beat off the locks of the cages, releasing the wolves one by one by one. The smoker had a gnarly dent in it, and I was worried it wouldn’t be able to finish the job. Good thing I had another one at my disposal.

I smashed the smoker into the last lock, it didn’t break.

“What the hell are those damn dogs up to?” Someone asked outside, and I froze, so did the wolves that chose to follow me. It became so silent in here that you could hear a pin drop.

“Hm. Weird.” They walked away, returning to the TV. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I broke the lock off, finally.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m gonna go check on them.”

“Fuck, hurry up.” I commanded the wolf as I quickly threw open his cage. I grabbed another cage, throwing it on top of the first one. There were more cages at my disposal, now. I dragged one more over, barricading the door just as the man tried to open it.

“What the shit?” I heard from the other side of the door. “Did someone lock this?”

I ran to the other side of the room, dragging another cage underneath the window, uncaring for how loud I was being now. I tore out the window screen and desperately tried to open it but the window was jammed, stuck, maybe even sealed.

I grabbed the unused smoker on the floor and hurled it as hard as I could through the window, breaking it with a loud smash. If that didn’t alert them to what was going on I wasn’t sure what would. There was banging on the door, now. I saw a glimmer of the man who kidnapped me through a crack in the door, before I turned to the window and knocked as much of the glass out of the way as I physically could with the busted smoker before urging the wolves to jump through.

“Go, go go!” I rushed, running up to the door and pressing with all my might against the cages to keep the door shut. More people were on the other side, pushing it open. I knew I didn’t have time.

As the last wolf jumped through the door, including the one who was hesitant to leave, I sprinted and hopped through the window, catching cuts in my hand from the glass I pressed against in my escape.

Without me holding the door closed, they were able to burst through into the room, although it was too late. The wolves and I were running like the wind.

BRIAR: THE HUNTERS SAID THEY HAD SOME CLUES AS TO WHO WAS BEHIND THE RECENT KIDNAPPINGS, AND WOULD BET MONEY THAT THEY WERE THE VERY SAME PEOPLE WHO TOOK LIAM.

They had reason to believe they were after werewolves. For what purpose was lost on them, but they clearly knew enough to hunt them down with certainty.

I sat in the car, we left Pete at home so he would be safe from harm, but I couldn’t be dissuaded from joining the raid. I had no combat experience, I didn’t belong here.

I didn’t care, though. They had my mate.

They explained they found an old house in the middle of the woods while they were out that had leftover equipment in it like whoever occupied it left in a hurry. Among those things, kennels. The kinds that house big dogs. The house stank of fearful wolves, both feral and human alike. They checked up and down every possible avenue leading into the woods where Liam was taken in case there was any hint of abandoned property somewhere in them, with me riding in the back seat, but nothing turned up.

That was yesterday.

Today they had to travel to a different set of woods on the other side of town. A bigger, more plentiful set of woods, but there were more hunters there.

“What are the chances that they’re in these woods?” I asked.

“Dunno yet.” Deacon answered honestly, “We need to find some evidence, first.”

He was the head hunter, and the one who agreed to let me come along. The other group of hunters were in a separate car, traveling the opposite direction.

The window was left open, a way for Deacon and Marie to scent the air for any sign of wolf.

We were driving around the edge of the woods for what must’ve been 30 minutes when suddenly Deacon piped up.

“There, you smell that?” He said, allowing Marie to lean over his body and smell the air as well.

“I do.”

I rolled my window down, hoping to catch the scent as well. It was so barely there, I don’t know how they noticed it. It was a wolf.

“Gotta find a road, there’s no way they took him on foot.” Deacon said, slowing the car to a creeping roll as he searched ahead for any sign of a road.

“There, in the brush.” I called out, my eyes barely picking it out among the foliage, but I could see tire tracks.

“Good eye.” Deacon agreed, pursuing that worn down trail while Marie spoke.

“We might make a hunter of you yet, Briar.” She said.

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t care for hunting, I just wanted Liam.

As we went down the trail, I tried not to worry about the sound of a smaller car trailing behind. I couldn’t see it, with how the woods were in the way, but I could hear it.

It was following us.