Chapter 2 #2
Larger. Bulkier. His fur was darker—nearly black, with streaks of deep gray rippling across his shoulders and chest like storm clouds. He moved with the kind of predatory grace that made her hindbrain scream warnings she couldn’t articulate.
Green eyes locked onto her. Not amber like Yarx’s. Not cyan like the one who’d carried her through the forest. These were sharper. Colder. The kind of gaze that evaluated and dismissed in the same breath.
“Need any help stabilizing the prisoner?” His voice was smooth. Too smooth. Like a blade sliding out of its sheath.
He didn’t look at Yarx when he spoke. His attention remained fixed on Elsa, unblinking, assessing every micro-expression that crossed her face.
Yarx snorted. “I’ve got it covered.” He didn’t spare the newcomer a glance, focused instead on whatever readings his tablet displayed. “She’s not going anywhere.”
The larger wolfman took a step closer. The room felt smaller. Elsa’s pulse kicked up another notch, hammering so hard she could feel it in her throat.
Yarx’s ears pinned back slightly. “I don’t think she’ll make another sudden, irrational action.”
Irrational. The word scraped against something raw in Elsa’s chest. Grabbing what she’d thought was a weapon while surrounded by monsters who’d kidnapped her from a crash site was the most rational thing she’d done since waking up in this nightmare.
But the truth of her situation pressed down with suffocating weight. Two of them. One of her. Legs that didn’t work. No weapons. No backup. No plan beyond “survive the next five minutes.”
She swallowed hard. Her gaze darted between the two wolfmen—Yarx, who at least seemed focused on keeping her alive, and the newcomer, whose very presence radiated threat like heat off asphalt in summer.
If she had to pick a lesser evil...
“I won’t resist.” The words came out steadier than she’d expected. Elsa forced herself to hold the green-eyed wolfman’s stare, even as every instinct screamed at her to look away. “I’ll stay calm. I swear.”
Her gaze flicked to Yarx. Back to the larger creature. “I won’t give you a reason to…hand me over to him.”
Yarx’s ears perked. His muzzle pulled into something that might have been a smile. “Smart choice.” He folded his arms across his chest, claws clicking softly against fur. “Even though it wouldn’t be needed. I would’ve been able to subdue you and knock you out if necessary.”
The casual threat should have terrified her. Instead, it just confirmed what she’d already suspected—Yarx was capable of violence, but he wasn’t eager for it. Not like the other one, whose stillness felt less like patience and more like a coiled spring waiting to snap.
The green-eyed wolfman’s lips pulled back slightly.
Not a smile. Not quite a snarl. Something in between that made her stomach drop.
“It doesn’t matter if you resist or not.
” His voice carried the weight of absolute authority.
“You’re an intruder. A prisoner. My job is to ensure you and your companions remain in line until the Alpha King decides your fate. ”
Fate.
The word landed like a stone in icy water.
Elsa’s breath hitched. “Fate?” The question came out higher than she’d intended. She shook her head, panic prickling at the edges of her thoughts, threatening to swamp the fragile calm she’d been clinging to. “This isn’t my fault. It’s not any of ours.”
The words tumbled out before she could stop them.
“It was the captain. I was the navigator—my job was just to read the star charts, make sure we stayed on our planned route. I warned him about diverging from the flight path. I warned him about exiting the sol system. He didn’t listen.
” Her voice cracked. “He thought he could play explorer, blaze a new trail through space. I didn’t want to come this far. I told him—”
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is.” The green-eyed wolfman’s tone was flat. Final. He took another step closer, and Elsa pressed back against the wall behind her, her useless legs a mockery of any attempt at retreat. “You crashed in the Holy Lands. That makes you ours now.”
The possessive pronoun hit her like a physical blow.
Ours.
Not “under our jurisdiction.” Not “our responsibility.” Ours. Like property. Like cargo. Like something to be claimed and disposed of at their convenience.
The wolfman’s muzzle shifted into something that might have been satisfaction. “The CEG holds no sway here.”
Elsa’s mind scrambled. CEG. Confederation of Earth Governments. They’d signed treaties with the IPA—the Interstellar Protections Agency—to ensure safe passage for human vessels. Protection for human explorers.
Apparently, those protections ended at the edge of known space.
She turned to Yarx, desperate for something—anything—that might soften the weight of the other wolfman’s declaration. “Is that true?” Her voice came out barely above a whisper. “You’re just going to hand us over?”
Yarx’s amber eyes held steady. No pity. No apology. Just weary acceptance. “It’s the truth. I’m here to make sure you’re well enough to stand before the Alpha King.” He paused. “That’s all.”
The finality in his voice made something crack inside her chest.
Before she could respond—before she could beg or argue or do anything that might change the trajectory of this conversation—Yarx stepped closer. His gaze shifted to her hair, tangled and wild where it fell over her shoulders.
“Hold still.” One paw lifted, claws extending slightly. “I need to check how your head healed.”
Elsa jerked back instinctively. Her hand flew to her skull, fingers brushing against—
Cold metal.
Smooth. Unfamiliar. Embedded in the soft skin just behind her ear.
Her heart stopped.
“What is this?” The words came out sharp with alarm. Her fingers traced the edge of the device, panic rising like bile in her throat. “What did you do to me?”
“Universal communicator.” Yarx’s tone suggested this should have been routine. Expected. “I implanted them in each of you before putting you in the Tear Domes.”
The casual way he said it—implanted—made her stomach lurch.
“You’re prisoners,” Yarx continued, his expression unchanging. “But it’s easier to handle you if you understand your orders. If you know what’s expected of you.”
Elsa’s fingers lingered on the device. The implications crashed over her in waves. They put something in my head. While I was unconscious. While I was helpless.
“You had no right—”
“You’ll find you have no rights here.” Yarx’s amber gaze hardened, cutting through her protest like a knife through paper. “But if you want to make it through this, I’d suggest you save your energy for what’s ahead.”
The green-eyed wolfman shifted his weight. The movement drew Elsa’s attention back to him, and she found him watching her with that same cold assessment. As if cataloguing her reactions. Measuring her worth.
“What’s ahead?” She forced the question out through numb lips.
Neither of them answered.
The silence stretched. Blue light pulsed from the walls. Somewhere in one of the other domes, someone stirred—a flutter of movement behind the translucent barrier.
Yarx’s ears swiveled toward the sound, then back to Elsa. “Rest while you can.” His tone shifted, taking on the kind of finality that ended conversations. “When your legs work again, you’ll be presented to the Alpha King. Until then, stay here. Don’t move. Don’t cause problems.”
He turned toward the green-eyed wolfman. Some unspoken communication passed between them—a flick of ears, a subtle shift in posture.
The larger creature’s lips pulled back again, revealing teeth that caught the blue light. “I’ll be outside.” His gaze slid back to Elsa one last time. “Don’t test my patience.”
Then he was gone, his massive frame disappearing through the doorway with that same predatory grace.
Yarx lingered a moment longer. His expression was unreadable—somewhere between professional detachment and something that might have been sympathy, if she squinted hard enough.
“The Alpha King will decide what happens to you,” he said quietly. “If you’re smart, you’ll accept whatever he offers. The alternatives are...” He trailed off. Shook his head. “Rest. That’s an order.”
He left before she could respond.
Elsa sat alone in the medical bay, surrounded by pulsing blue light and the soft hum of alien technology. Her fingers found the implant behind her ear again, tracing its edges compulsively.
Prisoner. Property. Theirs.
The weight of it settled over her like a shroud.
She glanced at the other domes. At the shapes of her fellow captives, still locked in healing stasis. At the table where the medgun sat, useless as a prop now that she knew what it really was.
Then she looked down at her legs. Still dead weight. Still useless.
But the numbness was fading. Slowly. She could feel something now—pins and needles, the ghost of sensation creeping back into muscle and nerve.
Soon, Yarx had said. Soon she’d be able to stand. To walk.
To be dragged before an Alpha King who would decide her fate.
Elsa leaned back against the curved wall and closed her eyes. Outside the medical bay, she could hear the low rumble of voices. The click of claws on stone. The steady hum of whatever power source kept this place running.
The sound of her captivity.
And beneath it all, quieter but no less insistent—the frantic rhythm of her own heartbeat, counting down the minutes until whatever came next.