Chapter 26 Thor
Thor
She cried silently until sleep claimed her, and I watched over her until it did.
There was nothing I could do to comfort her. I sensed the change within her the moment he and Watcher brought her back. For the first time since meeting him, there was a gentleness in the way he placed her in her cage. She’d been dragged and thrown in before, but this was different.
He seemed different.
I smelled the air, tasting the change in her scent. There was a bitterness that hadn’t been there. A wrongness I could only associate with him.
It made my beast angry and scared; angry because it meant he had done something to her. Altered her like the others. But scared because it hurt her. Confused her. Whatever he’d done made her cry until she slipped into slumber, and it worried me.
My gaze moved to the newest cage. It had been erected between two wolf shifters behind the female prisoner. She hadn’t noticed it, though she seemed to have realised one of the nine male prisoners was gone.
The beast from the other world lay within the new cage, trapped in his shifted form. There were bleeding wounds across his back, dealt to him when he’d been thrown in the cage hours ago. The gashes had yet to heal, and in the hours since being brought here, he hadn’t moved.
His scent was no different than it had been before. Still sweet and strange, unfamiliar here in the prison. Untouched by him and his dark power. But when she’d been brought back, his scent had shifted ever so slightly, as if responding to her presence.
There were somehow fewer guards now, and Watcher had yet to return.
For a moment, I tore my eyes off the other cage to take in the rest of the prison.
The darkness was new, but I could easily see through it.
With the lights going out, there was a strange quiet that made the hairs on the back of my beast’s neck rise.
The rotation of guards changed out almost silently, like they were shadows along the walls. To most, they would go unnoticed with how quietly they moved. But I noticed every single one of them.
They were familiar faces down here, though none of them were Watcher. None of them were the winged male from the other world, either.
It was easy, falling into the calm, letting it brush over me like it had the others.
My eyes moved from the guards lining the walls to the female again.
I watched her breathe, the rise and fall of her chest calming my beast. Her hands cupped her stomach, fingers splayed over it protectively.
My eyes were drawn to the swell, which didn’t seem any different than it had before being taken.
But her scent shifted slightly in the same way the female shifters’ usually did when they were taken to isolation.
A need to protect swelled within me. My hackles rose as I realised what he’d done.
He’d never done it to a non-shifter before. Only to the beasts.
She was with child, and like the others, he would take it for himself.
Would the child be like me? Bred to live a life shifted and never see the outside of a cage unless it was to die?
The thought made the rage worse. The bloodlust I’d felt towards her shifted to him. It made my beast want to tear him apart for what he’d done.
It made sense why he carried her back to her cage, why he’d been so gentle with her. He never afforded the shifter females the same care, but she was different to him. He needed her for more than just breeding.
There were two scents, however, entwined with hers. Neither belonged to him, though I did vaguely recognise one of them from the other world. It reminded me of the scents here amongst the cages, reminded me of someone long dead—removed from this world by our captors.
The other scent was one I was unfamiliar with, but it was linked to the first.
The silence and calm of the cages was disrupted by the interior elevator opening and guards appearing, escorting a male figure from the lit interior. A bag covered his head, his legs dragging against the ground. He could barely hold himself up; the guards carrying him were the only reason he moved.
I watched the guards take him to the cage across from me where the eight other prisoners waited. The males within didn’t move, though they were awake and watching now. They were careful not to speak, to remain unthreatening.
A guard made it to the door first, pressing his hand against one of the bars to open it. “Any of you move, you won’t wake up,” he muttered, eyes on the eight prisoners.
Some stiffened, others bared their teeth. Anger darkened their scents, but so did fear. They were somehow weaker than they were before. It poisoned their scents.
One of the guards holding the male tore the bag from his head and threw him into the cage with his cuffs and chains still on. The male stumbled before falling to his knees with a groan, but the door slammed shut, the magic reigniting to trap them within.
“Fuck, I hate being down here,” one guard said as he stepped away from the nine prisoners. “The shifters are fucking creepy.”
“You would be too if you were stuck in a cage,” the first one replied. “Especially trapped in your animal form.”
“What, you feel sorry for the mutts?” another asked, stalking towards the hidden elevator.
“Of course not,” the first one spat. “Just fucking sucks for them.”
They would never understand. They were here because they wanted to be. They were not trapped in their own minds like the others, not trapped in their other bodies like us. They were given the choice to be soldiers in his army.
To them, we were nothing but mutts, but to us, the soldiers were darkness—destruction. They were fear and anger and everything we hated all wrapped in puny forms.
The elevator arrived silently, and they entered without another word about us being trapped in cages.
Once the doors closed, I turned my attention back to the nine males. The one still in chains moved to sit beside the shifter who was like me. With a silent breath, he rested his head against the bars much like she had, and tears fell free from his eyes, also.
“What happened?” the bear asked, keeping his voice low, quiet enough so the guards stationed around the exterior walls couldn’t hear.
“They took me to see Dante,” the male replied just as quietly, voice trembling.
“Did he say anything about Adrian?” one of the other males asked, moving to the blonde one’s side. “What happened?”
The chained male shook his head, though I watched as he turned towards her cage. “She was unconscious on a bed when I was dragged in. Dante was…doing something to her. I couldn’t do anything. The guard who took me, the one that was different, he shifted and slaughtered the others.”
A chill rolled down my spine, gaze flickering to the creature’s cage. He remained unconscious, unmoving. Now, I knew why he was here.
“Dante stopped him, and I was knocked out. I think…I think she’s pregnant.” The chained one shook his head, dropping his head in his hands. “He was doing something to her. But I never got a chance—”
“Shit,” the second male said, also turning to stare into her cage. He drew in a deep breath before shuddering. “I smell it. But it must have been hidden before.”
“Sable,” another one of the males growled. “She’s the only one who would have known to do that.”
“Yes, and now he’s done something to Ivy. And he’s done something to Adrian. I think…I think he’s the father, and that’s why Dante wanted me there to see it.” The chained one sat back. In the darkness, I watched him close his eyes.
Silence fell over the males, tension thickening the air. Looks were shared, looks I couldn’t understand. They were not the same as the looks guards would pass one another before deciding the fate of a beast, but I knew they were coming to some kind of understanding.
Especially when their eyes landed on the female.
I allowed my beast a chance to take her in again. She curled in on herself, arms wrapped protectively around her middle. The two scents that intermingled with her own gradually grew stronger. The chained one said he knew who fathered her child, but there were two.
Two scents from two sources.
The darkness didn’t last long.
White, blinding light lit up the prison, coating the cages and cavernous walls, cutting through the once thick darkness with ease. From the platform leading into the prison came shouts and cheers as the beasts and prisoners were startled out of their rest.
I remained still as the female prisoner shot up, covering her face with her hand. She made a strangled sound in the back of her throat as she tried to move, but she tensed when she took in the guards gathered above us.
The other world beast also woke, growling low in his throat as he moved to a seated position in his cage.
For a moment, there was a feral look in his eyes, a darkness that had my beast’s fur rising.
The other world beast locked eyes on the female prisoner and stilled, staring at her until she finally noticed him.
The female sucked in a breath and moved to the bars closest to him. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but she quickly closed her mouth. Perhaps she remembered the warnings of the soldier who threatened the beasts with punishment if she disobeyed.
“Beasts!” Watcher shouted, his voice carrying out around the prison. A different kind of tension arose at his appearance.
Beside him was the winged male from the other world, the one the female prisoner seemed to hate. She stilled at the appearance of Watcher and the male.
On Watcher’s other side was another face I familiarised myself with. He only appeared with the winged one, but I recognised him from before. From the boat.
“Our King has made great progress on the war! And today, he wants to celebrate!” There were no sounds from the beasts, but the guards who flooded the prison cheered. They descended into the prison, and from the corner of my eye, I watched the doors to the elevator open and more enter.
A chill rolled down my spine at the sight of chains. Chains that were used against the female.
“The Pit will be open for battle!” Wolves, feral and lost to the influence of the king, howled. Above, the cages of flying beasts rattled as they flung themselves at their bars.
The Pit was for their amusement.
And now, they were picking their competitors.
My stomach sank with Watcher’s next words.
“All will fight. Except for our special guest, the bitch Queen. But she’ll watch.
” From the corner of my eye, the female prisoner shuddered.
“To start, there will be ten rounds in the lead up to the best fight I think we’ll ever have!
This one will be evenly matched: no chance Thor will destroy his opponent! ”
My ears picked up at the sound of my name. The female looked over her shoulder at me, eyes swimming with…guilt, sadness perhaps.
“Tonight, Thor will go against a creature he’s only fought once.
A creature not from our world.” Attention turned to the cage behind the female’s.
The beast from the other world finally stopped staring at the female to look up at Watcher.
The feral glint in his eyes faded into something else.
“Xerxes, beast of the Old World, versus our very own, Thor!”
The cheers turned to a dull hum in my ears as I took in the female. She turned her back on Watcher, eyes wide and full of fear.
“Only one will survive!” Watcher finished with a flourish, sounding proud. “Put your bets in, boys. Who will it be? Until then, the fun starts now!”
Guards swarmed the cages. Beasts fell silent as they were pricked with the Fae thorn to stay quiet, while others were placed in chains.
It took all my control not to fight the guards who came for me.
To not tear them apart to reach the female.
Guards went to her, too. Locked cuffs around her arms and tied chains to the collar around her throat before dragging her from the cage.
My beast wanted to fight back, to slaughter those who put their hands on her.
But her eyes flickered to mine, dark with resolve.
And for some reason, that quietened the rage.
A collar like hers went around my throat, went around the throat of the other world beast.
And to the Pit we went.