Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
DECLAN
I hear her breathing on the other side of the door. My senses aren’t dulled as much as I’m sure the humans would prefer, even though I make no attempt to let them know how aware I still am.
I can always hear them coming.
Only right now, it’s her.
I was sure she was a dream until I could hear her on the other side of the door.
My dragon is agitated, almost itchy today, and it’s making everything else that much worse in comparison. It’s not very often I feel him this strongly. Even though the cuffs cut me off from actually feeling my dragon inside me, sometimes I can still get emotions from him.
She pushes the door open, but stops in the doorway to glance around the dimly lit space. “Declan? May I come in?”
I take a slow breath, and it almost seems to melt away everything I’ve been suffering with today. Her scent wafts over and it calms me even further.
“Of course.” I ignore the way my heart beats more erratically in my chest, as if her simple question, her simple care for my permission, has an effect on me.
She moves into the space and closes the door behind her. Her eyes go to something up over my cage and it holds her attention.
Her heartbeat is thumping unsteadily and faster now. She glances back at the door as if she expects someone to break in any second.
“If you used his or your brother’s code, the cameras aren’t recording at the moment,” I say quietly.
Her head jerks back to me. “What do you mean?”
“I heard them talking when they installed new security down here the last time I tried to escape. They don’t need the cameras to record when they’re down here because they’re here. And if the footage of them with us ever got out it could be damning, so he protects himself. His code is what shuts them off. You have to use his code out of here too and that’s when they turn back on.”
She frowns and then gives me a short nod. “I guess we’ll use that to our advantage,” she mutters, moving closer to me.
The mass of anxiety in my throat is hard to swallow around, as I watch her body sway as she moves around my cage.
“I wasn’t sure you’d actually come back.” Or if you were actually real , I think, not wanting to say it out loud.
I slept for shit, thinking about our encounter, wondering if it was real, or if I’d imagined her as a fantasy, a way to escape this prison.
She smiles softly, the gentleness in her eyes almost making me more weary, as if I’m afraid to trust it. “I told you I would.” She holds up a canvas bag and bites her lip. “I brought a couple things, but they don’t feel like enough.” After a beat, she adds, “I brought some for the other guys too, if you think they’d take them.”
I gesture for her to come closer, and I feel my dragon stir again. It’s always a relief when I can sense him. Only this time the agitation doesn’t feel like irritability. Instead, it almost feels like he’s preening for her.
Brianna steps closer, and before I can say much, she sits on my bed. If you can even call it that, when it’s so obviously not designed for any sort of comfort. The concrete platform is little more than an oversized step, rising from the floor and barely keeping me from the filth they seem content to let stew all around us. It’s not even long enough for me to fully stretch out on, making me always feel too cramped, too big for the space.
I watch with bated breath as she pulls things from her bag, sorting them into three identical piles.
Wet wipes.
Bandages and a tube of something that looks to be an ointment or an antiseptic.
Something small and bundled in paper towels, that smells sweet.
In the third pile, she sets a comb and hairbrush.
As if a need for grooming, cleanliness, was the first thing she thought of when she saw me.
The idea makes my stomach churn. I can only imagine the state I’m in. I haven’t seen my reflection in a long time, and I’d imagine I wouldn’t even recognize myself.
“I haven’t always been like this.” I gesture awkwardly to the torn, stained clothing I wear and the dirt clinging to what feels like every inch of me. “I used to be…”
She holds up a finger and presses it to my lips to shut me up. “You’re a prisoner. I don’t expect you to be able to take care of yourself, if you don’t even have access to a proper shower. Or bathroom.” She frowns a little at the bucket in the corner that gets emptied a couple times a week. If I’m lucky.
At least before they send us to the fighting rings, they give us five minutes under hot water with a bar of soap.
I guess their wealthy spectators wouldn’t care as much if they saw the filth we live in.
“I can’t keep these things. If someone comes in and sees us with them, they’ll…” I cut my words off before I reveal too much. Her father and brother may be evil, vindictive men, but it’s not my job to tell her such things.
There’s still even half a chance that she could be one of them.
“We’ll figure something out, if you let me keep visiting you. You shouldn’t be forced to live like this.” She starts looking around my small cell, as if she’s trying to decide what else I need. Or where she could hide things.
“At least I still live.” I give her half a smile, and it hardly reaches my lips.
“What is that?” She points to the tray of food provided this morning. Her nose turns up, and I can’t blame her.
I haven’t been hungry enough yet to try to force down the brown slop filling the main segment of the metal tray.
“My food rations for the day.”
“Oh, God, you need something better.” She immediately picks up one of the paper towels wrapped around something. “Try these.”
I take them from her and unwrap them carefully. The soft warmth feels good. I unfold the paper towel, revealing two chocolate chip cookies in a plastic bag.
“Cookies?” I raise an eyebrow at her, even as a full grin breaks out on my face. It almost hurts, like I’m using muscles that have forgotten how to act.
The scent of fresh baked cookies fills my cell and for once I inhale deeply as my mouth salivates. I lift one to my mouth and all but groan as the delicious treat dances along my tongue. It takes as good as it smells. The chocolate and cookie together are heaven in my mouth. It feels good to taste something fresh and appetizing, like I’m getting something utterly forbidden. I close my eyes and enjoy the bite until I swallow it.
“Are they okay?” she asks with a little concern in her voice.
I take another bite of cookie before I answer her. “It’s delicious. It’s hard to tell right now, but I’m positive, this is the best cookie I’ve ever had.”
She grins proudly, but I notice her eyes keep falling down to my mouth. I quickly swipe my hand over my mouth.
She just grins. “I can try to bring more down tomorrow. You probably don’t get much that’s fresh. Maybe some fruit or something?”
“You don’t have to bring anything.” I crawl onto the platform next to her, careful not to jostle her neat piles. “I’m just glad you actually came.”
She lets out a breath, like she’s been worried I wouldn’t accept her. “Can I go give these to the other guys, and then come back? If they’re also eating that slop, I’m sure they could use some cookies too.” She stands, carefully picking up two of the piles.
“Of course.” I give her a smile, even though the idea of her being out of sight again, the idea that she might decide to stay with one of them instead, makes my stomach churn and makes my dragon’s hackles rise again.
“I’ll be right back.”
I watch as she leaves, wishing I could lean out of the door and keep an eye on her while she talks to the others. I know I can’t, though, not without severe pain.
At least she left the door open, and I can hear her.
She knocks on another cell door.
“Hello? I think you talked to me a little last night? I brought some things for you.” She almost sounds nervous, and the primal part of me is glad.
I don’t like that she’s talking to another shifter.
“Slide them through the slot, love.” Ewan responds quickly, a bit of a laugh in his tone.
“Oh, okay.”
Gods, why do I care so much what tone she uses with them? Why do I care whether she’s interested in talking with either the wolf or the bear? It’s not like she’s mine.
Thinking about Marcel, I can’t help but believe it’s better if I don’t have a mate at all.
“I’m Brianna, by the way.”
“I heard your name last night, love.” He lets out a chuckle—an actual chuckle—and adds, “Ewan. But I doubt Declan wants you getting too friendly with me.”
My dragon bristles, and I feel a snarl start to build in the back of my throat.
She can talk to whoever she wants.
I repeat it in my head over and over.
No need to shout, Dragon. Or stake a claim. I already know where your head is. Keep it there.
Fuck. He can hear me? It’s been so long since I’d connected to anyone, before Marcel in the ring, and now I’m just shouting at Ewan?
Tell your little mate to keep her trinkets. I want none of them. The bear’s voice in my head feels like he’s perpetually hoarse, or like there’s some damage to his vocal cords that somehow translated to his telepathy as well.
She’s not my mate.
A low growl echoes in my head before he continues, Where I come from, a shifter doesn’t deny their mate easily. Do not deny what not every shifter gets.
My mate? There’s no way. She couldn’t be.
“Declan?” Brianna’s voice startles me, and I lift my eyes to hers quickly.
“The bear says he doesn’t want your gifts.” I blink a couple times, trying to reconcile what the bear said.
You don’t have to be rude about it. You could take the cookies at least. It was nice of her to think of all of us. Ewan’s voice sounds full of mirth in my head too, making me even more irritable at the two of them.
Both of you, stay out of my head. It’s hard enough to think right now without your voices adding to it.
“He doesn’t?” Brianna’s face falls, and I immediately want to pull her into my chest and wrap my arms around her, just like I would do to my sister if she were upset or hurt. “Why?”
I sigh. “He has made it clear he doesn’t want friends here. I think he believes it’s easier that way. No friends mean no chance of having to kill someone you care for to survive.”
She gasps, and once more I’m reminded just how much she doesn’t seem to know about why we’re here. Why we’re prisoners.
“You could give the cookies to Ewan, though. He would appreciate them.”
Brianna looks at the small pile of gifts she dared to bring down here. “I guess that would be okay.” Then she looks back up at me. “How do you know the bear doesn’t want the stuff?”
“Shifters can communicate telepathically. It’s how we talk to each other when we’re animals. He sent me his thoughts on the matter while you were talking to Ewan.” I smile softly. “How come you only brought one brush?”
Her cheeks pinken and she bites her lip. “I thought, if you didn’t hate the idea, I could brush your hair. I don’t know what the others look like, I didn’t know if it would be something they’d want.”
“I would be honored to let you.” I smile softly. “You were very thoughtful to even consider bringing things for us all. Thank you.”
The words stick in my throat a little, partly because it’s been so long since kindness has been part of my life, and partly because I can’t get the bear’s voice out of my head, calling her my mate.
Would I know, even if I don’t have my heartstone? It seems more and more that the heartstone seems to find its way to where it belongs, one way or another.
My brothers seemed drawn to their mates, even before they realized why, even if Ash would deny that to his dying breath.
There’s no denying that Brianna feels different than any other human woman I’ve interacted with, dragon or otherwise.
But is that because she truly is different, or just because she is the first to show me kindness in months?
“I hated seeing how you’ve been living, and how no one seems to care if you heal, or if you get infected. I wish I could’ve brought more, but I didn’t have a lot of time, and my father monitors me too closely for me to sneak off to shop for things.” She purses her lips. “I could probably get a few more things, though, if there’s something you constantly need. It just might take a bit.”
More sweets. These cookies are incredible.
I chuckle. “Ewan suggests more sweets.” Sitting down on the floor in front of my platform that makes up my bed, I add, “I’m happy just to have your company. I…” I swallow again, ignoring the lump, glad I’m staring at the concrete wall in front of me, and not her face. “I was losing myself before you appeared last night.”
Instead of sitting on the bed again, where I hoped she’d sit, she squats in front of me and picks up my hands in hers again. “Oh, Declan. I’m so sorry you’re down here. I swear to you, to all three of you, even if the bear wants nothing to do with me, I will do whatever I can to try to get you free.”
“Sweet princess, do not make promises that you can’t keep.” I reach up and gingerly cup her cheek, still worried about leaving dirty marks on her, but unable to help myself. “We’ve been captives for months. I don’t expect you to be able to do something the rest of the supernatural world hasn’t been able to accomplish.”
Some of us have been captive for years. I have only been here for months, but before that… The bear’s thoughts fade out of my head again, and I want to reach out, to hear more, but I won’t.
Not while Brianna’s here.
“They didn’t have me.” She winks at me, and then stands tall again. “Now, while I brush your hair, I want to know more pleasant things about your life. Where did you grow up? What were you like as a child?”
“I’ll tell you my stories, if you tell me yours, princess.”