Kalen groaned, tasting thick blood in his mouth. He coughed and it welled up along with bits of teeth and bone to splatter onto a metal floor. One eye cracked open, the other had been crushed and leaked from the socket. He was in some kind of van with his arms cuffed behind him.

Hands gripped his shoulder and rolled him onto his back, a weight dropping onto his waist. The ganger girl from before sat on him, grinding on his pelvis as he groaned in agony.

"That's it. Wakey, wakey, white boy." she said giggling and leering down at him. You ready for some more fun?" She leaned on his chest and Kalen bit back a scream as she pressed on his broken ribs.

"I think he likes you, Skeeze." Another voice jeered.

"Stacy..." Kalen managed to wheeze through smashed lips.

"Looking for your little girlfriend?" Skeeze mocked "She's Tanks property now. Oh, he'll take real good care of her." she laughed and gripped Kalens chin. The action sent another lance of pain through his jaw. "He said I could have you though."

The van suddenly lurched to the left as it went around a bend and she turned to slap her hand against the wall of the vehicle.

"Hey! Watch it, Zip! Where the fuck you learn to drive!" In response to her complaint the van swerved again and she toppled ungracefully to the floor and off of Kalen, the gang all laughing and hollering.

Kalen ragged breaths wheezed through his broken nose. It took all of his concentration to not let It out and heal. Hurt as he was he knew there was no way he could pull It back, to keep It under control. He had to bear the pain. He had to find Stacey.

What the hell happened? The last he remembered he had opened the door. Then a metal fist. Blackness. Pain. A whole lot of pain. Kalen had heard a booming voice between the blows, laughing about an address written inside a book cover. More pain. He had almost let It out then. It was raging. Smashing itself at the mental bars It clawed for release. It would take the pain away, but Stacys voice had fortified his resolve as she screamed at the gangers to stop hitting him.

Kalen forced it back into the cage. He wouldn't let It hurt her.

Tires squealed as the van it slid to a halt. The gangers piling out and pulling him along with them. His vision swam, it was dark, deafeningly loud music screeched through what looked like the parking lot of an old tenement blockhouse. There were a few rusted and patchwork cars parked haphazardly as cybered up punks lounged, drinking and pumping drugs into their bodies. A small group huddled around the trunk of one, pulling out boxes.

"Yo, Skeeze! Where Tank be at?" one yelled as Kalen was dragged past. "I need him come take a look at this score."

"I'll tell him." Skeeze replied as she and a few other gangers shoved Kalen through a old emergency exit. He was pulled along, up stairways and down halls covered with graffiti and old faded rock posters. They finally stopped at an apartment, it's door wide open. Dragging him the last few feet they tossed his broken body onto a ratty old couch. Kalen could hear Stacy yelling somewhere to his right. He twisted around, calling out to her.

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"Tank!" Skeeze said walking over to a doorway ignoring his mewling. "J-Rokk wants to see you. Says he bagged a good score. Figured you want to check it."

Tank walked into the room, his armored prosthetic arm and clothes still spattered with Kalens blood. Stacy struggled as he hauled her in by her elbow. Her lip was bloodied and she kept attempting to twist from his vice like grip.

"Alright, gimme a sec." he said before spotting Kalen. "Hey, meat! You still alive, eh? Shit boy, you can take a beating, I'll give you that. Your face is looking like ground up dogfood."

"Let her go." Kalen wheezed.

"Go? Nah, I don't think so. You made me look bad in front of my crew. So now you and your girl got to work off that debt." he said, "And I aim to work you both real hard, you get me?" Tank leaned toward Stacy his hand groping her chest, leaving bloody stains on her white top. She pulled back and slammed her forehead into his face. Tank's nose crumpled, blood spurting to cover his mouth and chin. He squealed like a pig, throwing her onto the floor covering his face as tears welled in his eyes.

"Oh, fuck. I'm going to make you pay for that shit." Tank raised a foot as if to kick her but then grunted and stepped back, snorting through his nose and spitting a wad of blood at Stacy as she backpedaled away from him.

" Chuck, Skeeze. Watch these two. Make sure they don't go nowhere." Tank said as he walked from the room shouldering past a one of his crew who glanced down and then leaned on the doorframe.

Skeeze plopped onto a ruined chair and twirled the thin chain connected to her collar, a wickedly evil smile plastered on her face.

"God, Kalen." Stacy whispered as she crawled to him and cradled his head in her hands. "You'll be alright." She said in his ear. Kalen blinked his one good eye at his Queen Bee. She was worried for him? He could feel It in his mind, pawing at the bars. Not the rage filled release it he felt so often, instead this was... different.

"Why?" he said as she stroked his blood matted hair.

"Why, what?" she said pulling back to look at him.

"At... the bus stop." Kalen managed to croak out, "Why... did you... try to help me?" Stacey blinked at him as if not understanding.

"Because you were in trouble." she finally said.

Kalen laughed at that single statement, the gangers looking to each other in confusion. She was so pure. Broken ribs ground against each other as his chest shook. He didn't care, didn't feel the pain. She was everything he desired. No more than that, she was everything It wanted too. God, he loved her so much. He couldn't explain it. He had spent so long forcing his yearning down, thinking he had some sort of ridiculous crush. A silly fantasy from being alive and alone for so long. But it wasn't that. The love came from something deep. Something primal. Something he couldn't control.

Kalen had once read that wolves mate for life.

It was bonded to her.

"I could never hurt you." He said looking at his Queen with a grin.

Stacy smiled sadly at him, nodding. Tears trickling down her cheeks as she took in his ruined face.

"I know." she said.

She was trying to reassure him. Most likely thinking he didn't have much longer to live.

Kalen shook his head and chuckled some more as his voice strengthened. His dislocated jaw clicking back into place as he moved to sit upright.

"That was a statement. Not a question." Kalen said, his eye turning golden. "When it happens, don't look it in the eyes. Keep your head down and don't run. Okay?"

Stacy kept staring at him as she knelt at the edge of the couch. Kalen felt his crushed eye socket puff and fill as the skin and bone regenerated, his broken lips scabbing and healing as she watched in a state of utter confusion. Power welled up inside him and he rolled his shoulders, the chains on the cuffs snapping like a gunshot.

"Sit your ass down." Chuck yelled from the doorway striding forward to smash an old lamp across Kalens back. He stepped back baffled as Kalen barely flinched.

It stood and turned, gripped the couch with a now clawed hand and sent it tumbling to crash through the wall of the derelict apartment. Tatters of clothing hung from its muscular body. A growl rumbled up from a furred, barrel sized chest and over the glistening ivory white teeth that protruded from Its lupine maw.

"Sssuup... Mmmeat..."

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