Chapter 8
Unlike being stuck in a jail cell, this time I had access to the sun so I could keep track of the day.
I lay on my back, making shapes out of the clouds, watching the sun move across the sky, all the while pretending I was laying in a meadow with the scent of dog roses wafting over me.
Not laying in the dirt, muzzled and tied up as various werewolves wandered by.
They talked as they passed, staring, pointing.
I wished I could say it hurt, but I’d grown up being the one that was pointed at.
I was old hat at going to my happy place now.
A shadow fell over me and I squinted up at Kole’s towering figure.
Great.
I sat up and he crouched, placing a bottle of water next to me.
Without a word, he removed the gag and held the bottle to my lips.
I drank greedily, not knowing when I would get more.
He pulled the bottle away too soon, replacing the gag before I could speak.
Not that I was going to. Being chained up had given me plenty of time to get my ego in check.
I was back to playing nice and I was done letting my temper get the better of me.
I had eleven days left until the ceremony.
I couldn’t waste anymore of them in jail or chained up.
He left me and I sighed. My body ached to be up and moving.
I wasn’t a person that did well sitting still.
My whole life I was an outdoors girl. Climbing trees, swimming in lakes.
Getting lost in the woods had never scared me, because it had never happened.
Even if I didn’t know where I was, the outdoors had always felt like home to me, so I could never feel lost in it.
The afternoon ticked by and I got hungrier.
As the sun started to fall, Kole came again and repeated the water bottle routine.
He took me inside to use the bathroom but immediately chained me back up when I was done.
Once again, I didn’t try to speak, knowing that was the point of the gag. Speak when spoken to. Got it.
Night began to draw in and the cold came with it. I waited for him to return, to relent and bring me inside, but he never came and the colder I got, the deeper my hatred ran. I shivered in the pink dress, curling into a ball. With no shelter, the wind was inescapable.
I fell into a fitful sleep haunted by loneliness and loss but sometime in the night raised voices woke me.
I squinted an eye open, staring into the darkness, but I didn’t move.
Eyes were on me as they had been all day.
Eyes belonging to a person I couldn’t see but knew had earlier been Konnor and now night had come, it was Kallum that watched over me.
“This is insane. How long are you going to leave her out there for?” Kara’s voice was unusually harsh as she hissed at her brother. I followed the voice all the way to the top floor where a window was slightly ajar.
“I don’t answer to you, Kara.”
“As your sister, no. But as the pack doctor you absolutely do. What you’re doing is dangerous and you know it. She’s barely eaten in four days, and you’ve chained her up outside, exposed to the elements. She’s human. She isn’t as resilient as we are.”
“She’s safe. She has to learn,” Kole replied. “We have all been disciplined worse than this.”
“That’s different,” she snapped. “We’re wolves, this is our culture, we understand the rules.”
“She was disrespectful. I can’t tolerate that.” His tone was immovable, a rank arrogance there that made me hate him even more.
“Of course she was! Since she got here she’s been kidnapped, knocked unconscious, chained up, jailed, chained up again, and starved.
Oh and not to mentioned she discovered that werewolves exist and she’s being forced to mate with one of them.
No shit, she’s pissed! She wouldn’t be a Luna if she took that lying down. ”
I hated all of these wolves, but if I had to pick a favourite, right now she was top of the list.
“You need to watch your tone.”
“And you need to get the council Elders out of your ear. Do you really want history to repeat itself? Because if you keep pushing, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
My ears pricked up at that, wondering what she could mean, wondering if that information could help me get out of here.
“No, I don’t want history to repeat itself, which is exactly why I’m doing this. I know what will happen if I go easy on her.”
“This isn’t the same situation and you know it.
What you’re doing won’t work. You can’t force her into submission like you could with another wolf.
She’s human, Kole. The bond won’t sway her like you’re convincing yourself it will.
Your domination won’t sway her either. You have to do this right.
Be as fair and patient as you can. Give her room. ”
“Room to what? Escape?” He gave out a cold laugh. “Give her lenience so that she can be free to reject me and disrespect me as much as she wants? You know how the bond works. I have to build trust.”
“By chaining her up and starving her? Great logic, big brother. That’s your mad wolf talking for you. The brother I knew would never have done something like this.”
“I won’t let her starve. But I have to be firm with her and the claiming is non-negotiable. If I allow her to disrespect me it makes me look weak. If I don’t claim her my wolf will continue to make me unstable. The pack will not follow an unstable leader.”
“I know that, but?—”
“I understand why you’re concerned,” he cut her off, and I heard her give a derisive snort.
“Do you? She’s not just my patient. She’s my Luna, my sister, my family.
Mother to my future Alpha. I’m connected to her as another female in this pack.
She’s mine to protect. What you’re doing is splitting our pack down the middle.
The females are uneasy from it, the males are conflicted.
They’re hard-wired to protect her and instead they have to watch you hurt her. ”
Something inside me clenched at her words.
The idea that they cared about me. I began to feel the treacherous beginnings of hope, hope that I might finally be truly loved.
But it couldn’t be true, it never was. I rejected those dangerous feelings and instead looked at her words objectively. I had far more power than I realised.
“And you think I’m not trying to protect her?” he snapped back, his voice rising.
“Then protect her from the council! From their archaic beliefs. They’re relics, Kole. Relics we should have buried years ago.”
“Their methods and beliefs are what will keep her with me.”
“Their methods are what will keep her chained to you, unwillingly. Do you really want to force her at that mating ceremony, to hold her down while you claim her? Because I don’t want to see that.
None of us do. Get it right, brother. If you break our Luna with your bullshit ego trip, you’ll have a female rebellion on your hands and not even the moon herself can save you from that. ”
I heard a door slam and only a cold silence followed.
I smiled to myself. Right there was my hope, a giant crack in his armour. There, lying cold and hungry chained up in the dirt, I knew I was getting out of here.
The next morning, as the sun was rising, Kole came to me, water bottle in hand.
I lay on the ground, not sitting up this time, playing the weak female.
He knelt, removing my muzzle gently and holding the water bottle to my lips.
I sipped, moaning as the cool liquid fell over my tongue.
I did my best to look vulnerable. It wasn’t hard. I was so fucking tired.
In silence, he undid my collar, leaving it in the dirt.
I stiffened as he slipped his arms under me but I allowed it.
I needed to be smart. Winning his trust was the first step, but I had to be careful not to earn it too fast and make him suspicious.
He carried me all the way to his room where he placed me on the bed.
I looked up at him. He looked so conflicted I almost felt sorry for him.
What’s your next move, Kole?
“Take a shower. Then we try again.” His tone was clipped, any trace of kindness gone. I stood on shaky legs, refusing his hand when he offered it to me.
I showered quickly before realising my fuck up. I’d forgotten to bring clothes into the bathroom this time. I wrapped myself in a towel before poking my head around the door to see Kole sitting on the bed.
“Could you turn your back please? I forgot to bring clothes in here.”
He clenched his jaw and nodded. He moved to the window, looking out at the view. I scurried into the closet, grabbing underwear from a drawer on my way. I dressed quickly in another silly dress and met him back in his room.
The sun was high and the bustle from below told me the pack was awake.
He stood. I eyed the chain in his hands but said nothing.
Gritting my teeth, I stepped forward, holding out my wrists.
His eyes widened in surprise at my submission.
I didn’t look away as he attached the cuffs, his eyes darkening as he gazed back at me, a hint of the wolf inside.
This time he didn’t have to drag me, I followed him downstairs to the hall, bile rising in my throat all the while. Once again, there was stark silence as we entered. I kept my chin up, my eyes fixed on nothing as I walked. I refused to look at any of them.
Up on the platform, Kole took his seat and I was once more faced with that wretched cushion.
Except this time, I submitted to it. For now.
Rage burned in my gut, a fire I couldn’t afford to stoke just yet.
I let it sizzle. I would save the explosion for later, when I could put that firepower to good use.
Here, chained up in a room full of werewolves, it was pointless.
Kole had told me many times now that I had to learn and I was learning.
I was learning their every weakness, every gap in their defences.