Chapter Thirteen
Lissa: Under Siege
The sound of men shouting and hurried footsteps jolted me awake. My head throbbed from the impact of the tranquilizers, and my body still felt heavy and sluggish. Through the fog of consciousness, I could hear frantic voices arguing and the clatter of metal against concrete. The once-pleasant hum of the barn had turned into a cacophony of chaos.
The clamor outside grew louder, punctuated by urgent commands and the thudding of heavy boots on the floor. The sound of a door slamming open and shut was followed by the heavy growl of a bear shifter. He seemed like the leader of these criminals. I could hear his voice clearly, cutting through the din with a cruel authority.
“Get the goods packed up! We’re on a tight schedule!” he barked, his voice dripping with disdain. “Move it before the cops show up!”
His commanding presence was unmistakable. The leader, a massive bear shifter with an aura of cold efficiency, seemed to be at the center of the commotion. Despite the chaos, his voice held a certain calmness, as if he was detached from the urgency of the situation.
They needed to get out of there as the authorities had been alerted. I silently wished that we didn’t get out of here in time. I wanted them to get caught.
A big, burly man approached my cage, and I could smell that it was the bear shifter.
“You should be ashamed for turning on your own kind,” I spat.
“My own kind,” he laughed, then squatted in front of my cage, getting within a few inches from me. “You aren’t my kind, bitch.”
I narrowed my eyes at his choice of words. “You’re a shifter, like me.”
“Yeah, so. I deserve to get paid however the fuck I want.”
“And usually, those like you get what is coming to them.”
He let out a loud laugh and sniffed, “Yep! And it’s in the form of a huge paycheck, too.” He stood up and shouted to a guy across the room, “Knock this one out.” He glared at me as he added, “She’s going to be a fighter. I can tell.”
My skin crawled, thinking of how I would be dosed up again. I didn’t need this. None of us did. I rolled onto my left side and kicked the cage door as hard as possible with my right foot, knowing it wouldn’t give way. I had to show him he was right. I was a fighter because once I did get free, and my mind was clear of their drugs, I was going to rip his heart out first, and my dragon would make a feast of him.
“That’s right, bitch,” he chuckled. “You’re going night, night so that I won’t be hearing a peep from you, and you won’t cause any trouble than what you’re worth.”
One of the men, presumably one of the thugs working for him, approached me. His face was set in a stern expression, his eyes betraying no emotion. He glanced at me with a look of utter indifference.
The guy approaching me must’ve found something amusing. He smiled at me when I tried to growl at him. If this magical collar around my neck didn’t hold back my dragon, that growl would have come out louder and rumbly. It would have been intimidating and not cute.
The hairs on his neck would stand up, and once I shifted into my dragon form, he would probably shit himself before my dragon snapped him into pieces.
His disregard for me, for my plight, only fueled the fire of my anger. I had desperately hoped that someone might care enough to listen, to understand that I was more than just a commodity. All of us women were worth more than what they were doing to us. But here was this brute, focused solely on profit and was completely indifferent to suffering or treating us like we were nothing more than animals.
I tried to call out, to plead with him, but the weight of my fear and the lingering effects of the tranquilizers made it challenging to think clearly. My voice came out weak and ragged. “Please, you don’t have to do this. You can let me go.”
He didn’t even glance at me.
“Shut her up,” the bear ordered. “We don’t have time for her sob stories. The cops will be here any minute. Move!” he uttered.
Before I could protest further, the thug stepped forward, holding a tranquilizer gun. I saw it coming too late. A sharp prick in my arm, followed by a cold wave of numbness, spread through my body. My vision blurred, and the edges of my consciousness began to fray.
The last thing I heard was the bear shifter’s indifferent command to his men. “Get her packed up and ready. We’re out of here.”
As the darkness closed in, I tried to focus on a single thought, a single hope. Vince. Please find me. Please save me. I held onto that hope, even as the tranquilizers dragged me into unconsciousness.