Chapter 16
My arms feel like at any minute they’re going to detach from my body.
It’s been hours since Thane left me shackled to his bed, and my shoulders haven’t stopped aching for at least the past two.
On top of that, my stomach is now begging for food.
It’s been over eighteen hours since I’ve eaten, and the last thing I put in my stomach was champagne, which I threw up.
If I had known I’d be chained to a bed all day, I would’ve stuffed my face with the hors d’oeuvres instead.
More than anything, though, I’m mad at myself for not seeing this coming. Of course Thane wasn’t going to let me get away with sneaking into his study. Kieran explicitly told me the east wing was off limits. I knew the risk, and now I have to deal with the consequences.
The bedroom doors swing open to reveal Kole grinning like the fucking Joker.
“Who knew you were so kinky, Grey?”
I throw my head back into the pillow and release a loud groan. The last thing I need right now is Kole’s commentary, and after seeing the enjoyment he got when Thane threw me off the roof, I don’t want to be anywhere near him.
“What are you doing here?” My tone seeps with annoyance as I keep my eyes trained on the ceiling I’ve been staring at for most of the morning.
“Thought you might be hungry, but if you’d rather me go…”
“Wait,” I call out, lifting my head to look at him.
Kole turns on his heel and shoots to the side of the bed, wearing a smug expression I wish I could wipe off.
“I knew you’d be happy to see me!” He plops down on the bed, and I immediately scoot over as far as the chains will allow.
“The only thing I’m happy about is getting to eat. I’m starving.”
“Well, you’re in luck cause I have just the thing for you.” He pulls out a can of tuna and cracks it open. A wave of the stench assaults my nose, and I nearly gag.
“Ew! Get that away from me.” I turn my head away, pressing my nose into my shoulder.
“It’s either this or dog food,” he warns, pushing the can of tuna toward my face.
I glare at Kole, waiting for him to tell me he’s joking, but he simply cocks his brow as if to tell me, “Last chance.”
“Fine,” I huff. “Just get me out of these shackles.”
“I don’t believe I said anything about releasing you.” He pulls out a spoon and scoops up a bite of tuna, holding it out to me. “Open wide.”
“If you think I’m going to let you feed me, you’ve lost your fucking mind.”
“Did you forget how your last food strike went?” he challenges. “You might as well save yourself the torture.”
I hate that he’s right. Refusing to eat won’t do me any good. In fact, that’s probably what Thane is hoping for.
“I swear to God, if you make airplane noises, I’m going to bite your fingers off.”
A smile pulls at the corner of his mouth. “I didn’t take you for a biter.”
“And I didn’t take you for a servant, but here we are.”
“Oh, honey, you’ve got it all wrong.” He brushes his knuckles down my face, and I pull away. “I volunteered for this job.”
“And what job would that be exactly?”
“Enforcer,” he hisses, leaning so far into me that I have nowhere else to go. His eyes bounce back and forth between mine like he’s searching for something. Eventually, he leans back and holds out a spoonful of tuna. “Thane told me you broke into his study last night.”
“What else did he tell you?” I press, before reluctantly parting my lips. The fishy taste instantly fills my mouth, but I manage to choke it down.
“Just that no one was to go into the study.” My brows pinch for a split second before I attempt to mask the surprise, but Kole seems to pick up on it. “Now, why would he make that order?”
“You’ll have to ask him,” I say dismissively. “Where is he anyway? I would’ve thought he’d be the one punishing me today.”
Kole feeds me another spoonful that somehow tastes worse than the first.
“He has Alpha business to attend to.” A wicked grin spreads across his pale face. “So looks like you’re stuck with me today.”
“Lucky me,” I reply with mock enthusiasm.
I’m sure whatever Thane has planned for me today will be easier to take on if I at least have something in my stomach, so I finish forcing down the tuna, reminding myself to be thankful it’s not dog food this time.
“Alright,” Kole says, standing up from the bed. “Let’s get you out of these shackles.”
“Seriously? You couldn’t have just done that ten minutes ago?”
He shrugs, pulling a key out of his pocket. “I wanted to feed you.”
I blow out a breath of irritation, eyeing him with a deadly glare. “What? Is that like some weird vampire fixation since you only drink blood?”
He laughs, unlocking the shackle from my left ankle. “No, Grey. It’s not some weird vampire fixation. I just like tormenting you.”
“Yeah, you and everyone else around here,” I retort, holding out my wrist for him to unlock. Kole frees me from the last shackle and pulls me up from the bed by both of my wrists. My pulse skips when he leans in, brushing his lips against my ear.
“If you would just behave it would be a lot less fun for everyone.” His voice is rough, and when he pulls his head back, his icy blonde hair catches in mine.
He pauses, releasing one of my wrists to push my hair behind my ear.
The gesture of it is so foreign to me that I don’t even move when he does it.
I just stand there, staring back at those white irises.
“Behaving has never really been my thing,” I finally manage, pulling my other wrist from his grip.
He takes a step back, turning for the door. “We’ll see how long that lasts now.”
We stop by my room so that I can change and brush my teeth before heading out to the garden, where a gust of wind chills my bones. I look up to see dark clouds passing overhead, signaling a storm is coming. Given the fact that I woke up in chains, I’d say that’s pretty fitting.
I continue to follow Kole over to the pens, which are now empty, though I doubt they’ll be that way for long.
“Really? He’s putting me back in the pen?”
“Not today,” he answers simply.
“Then what are we doing here?”
A mischievous look flashes across his face before he takes off in a blur. Within a matter of seconds, he reappears holding a shovel and a bucket.
“Get to scooping,” he says, handing me the two.
I look to the pens and realization quickly sinks in. “This is my punishment? Scooping wolf shit?”
“This is one of your punishments,” he clarifies, stretching his arms out a little further.
I roll my eyes and take them, knowing it’s pointless to put up a fight.
Kole will only enjoy it more if I resist, so I’m not going to give him the satisfaction.
Instead, I toss him a feigned smile and step into the first pen.
The stench isn’t too strong, which I’m thankful for because the last thing I need is to throw up again.
Still, I opt to breathe out of my mouth as I begin shoveling the massive piles of shit.
Once the bucket is completely full, Kole sends me to the edge of the woods to dig a hole to bury it in.
“You’re pretty good at this,” Kole quips, watching me with amusement.
“Good at what? Scooping shit or burying shit?”
He chuckles, shaking his head. “Labor. I thought you would’ve given up by now.”
“Didn’t realize giving up was an option.” I start to put down the shovel, but he shoots over to me, wrapping his hand around mine so that I can’t let go of it.
“It’s not.” He looks down at me with a challenge, but he’s not going to get one from me. I’m just going to suck it up and get this over with.
I jerk the shovel away and begin scooping again. “I’m not someone who gives up easily. If I were, I’d be dead like the rest of the humans.”
“So over the last three years, you never thought about giving up?”
I can feel his eyes on me, but I keep my head down, continuing to shovel.
“I didn’t say that.” I pause, waiting for Kole to make some snarky remark, but he doesn’t.
“The thought had crossed my mind, but in the end, I just didn’t have it in me.
Maybe if my life had been some kind of fairytale, I would’ve called it quits, but after you all took over, it kind of felt like a gift. ”
“A gift?”
I lean up against the chain link fence, taking in Kole’s stunned expression. “Okay, maybe gift isn’t the right word, but there were a few positives that came with the end of the world.”
“Like?”
I shake my head. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me,” Kole insists, propping himself up along the opposite side of the pen.
I can tell he’s not going to let this go, so I turn my attention back to the poop, hoping it’ll make this feel less personal.
“After it was all said and done, it sort of felt like I had a new lease on life. One that belonged to me and no one else. All of the old rules didn’t apply anymore.”
“What kind of rules?”
“The kind that felt like shackles, chaining me to a life I never asked for.” I look up just in time to see Kole’s expression shift from curiosity to pity. “Careful Kole. That look you’re wearing almost makes you look like you care.”
“Who’s to say I don’t?”
I exhale a hollow laugh. “You made it pretty obvious you don’t last night. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got work to do.” I pick up the pail full of shit and head back to the edge of the woods to bury it.
By the time I get through all the pens, I feel like I could collapse from exhaustion. The rain held off, but thunder has begun to rumble, which means a monsoon will be arriving any minute.
“Now what?” I ask, handing back the shovel and shit-stained bucket.
“Now you clean the dungeon.”
“The what?” I gasp.
“Oh, come on. Surely you’re not surprised we have a dungeon,” he remarks, discarding the shovel and bucket.
“I-I mean, I guess I didn’t really think about it,” I admit, now wondering why it never crossed my mind.
“Well, now you know. So let’s go.”
When we get to the side of the house, there’s a stairwell that leads underground. As we descend into darkness, dim lights line the walls as Kole guides me through a maze of tunnels that I’d surely get lost in if I tried to find my way back out. Eventually, we reach a door with three sets of locks.
“A bit overkill, don’t you think?”
Kole peers at me over his shoulder while he sifts through a ring of keys. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you knew what lies on the other side.”
“If that’s your attempt to scare me, you’re going to have to do better than that.”
He stops flipping through the keys and whirls around, grabbing a hold of my face with unnecessary force.
“You’re ballsy and tenacious, Grey, but don’t forget you’re living among creatures who could rip your heart out without a second thought.
” He turns my face away and runs his thumb over the mark.
“This may protect you from most of us, but there are others out there who live by only one code… and that is to kill.”
When he turns my face back, there’s a darkness in his eyes that wasn’t there before.
Almost as if there’s a hint of fear behind them.
A moment of weighted silence passes between us before he turns his attention back to the door.
Once he’s gotten through all three locks, he motions for me to continue down another dark corridor.
To the right is a narrow path, and somehow, I know it’s the one that leads to the beasts Kole just warned me about.
The farther we walk, the colder it gets. Even the air has gone stale, and there’s a prickle of unease crawling down the back of my neck as we take another turn, stopping in front of another door with only one lock this time.
“Stay close behind me,” Kole orders, before turning the key.
The moment the door creaks open, we’re accosted by snarls and hisses.
Vampires and werewolves reach out for us between the bars of their cells.
I flinch, reaching for Kole’s wrist when one of them howls, but quickly release it, regretting that I had shown even an ounce of fear.
The word, “human” spews from a few of them, but most of their threats are muffled by the continued growls and sneers as we make our way down the wide stone corridor.
Once we reach the far end, there’s a set of unoccupied cells. Kole stops at the last one, and as he unlocks it, I see that two of the walls are coated in blood, pooling across the ground. He kicks a bucket full of water and tosses me a large scrubbing brush.
“Get to work.”
I bite back any snide remarks, knowing it’ll only amuse him, and dip the brush into the bucket. The prisoners eventually settle down, leaving the two of us in awkward silence, the only sound coming from the bristles scraping the bloody wall.
“So, what earns you a spot down here instead of in the pens?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder at Kole, who is leaned up against the wall with his arms and legs crossed.
“The truce that was made before the Last War has weakened over time. Now that most of the humans are long gone, the rift between our two species has grown. It’s in our nature to want to claim power.
Over time, there have been groups that have formed with the intention of breaking the truce.
” He nods to the occupied cells. “Once Thane gets the information he wants, they’ll be killed for their treachery. ”
“And what happens if Thane can’t stop these groups from spreading?”
“War,” he answers simply, as if this isn’t the first time he’s thought about it.
I keep my attention trained on the wall as I process the information, trying to figure out if a war between the two species would be a good thing.
The idea of there being only one species to worry about certainly sounds appealing.
Maybe I’d be able to find somewhere to finally settle down.
Somewhere free from the monsters that have plagued the world. Somewhere to call home.
Hope swells in my chest as thoughts of the future run wild in my mind.
Thoughts that have no business existing while I’m still being held against my will.
Even if a war did break out, it wouldn’t be like the Last War.
Both sides won’t be easy to annihilate. It could take years for either species to eradicate the other.
A loud bang pulls me from my runaway thoughts, and I whirl around to find Kole standing on the outside of the cell with a sinister grin spread across his stupidly handsome face.
“What are you doing?” I screech, yanking at the cold bars.
He pulls the key from the lock and dangles it in front of his face. “Enjoy your new room, Grey.”
Before I’m able to get another word out, he shoots away, leaving me in a frozen stupor while I realize what my real punishment is.