Chapter 6
Jade
The days came and went. I didn’t know how long I had been in here and I started to not care. I didn’t care as I was carted into the co-ed bathroom or as I was forced to strip down before my guard and Lucas. I became a shell of the human I had once been in a short course of time. They were trying to break me and it was working.
The cold water pelted my back and I no longer felt it. I could no longer feel anything but every day Lucas’s eyes would stare into mine like he could will my wolf back. Like he could bring me back from the emotions I had drowned in.
A stiff towel was shoved into my arms as the water shut off. I didn’t even care if the soap was washed from me all the way. At one point I had cared, I had scrubbed and scrubbed until my skin was red. But those days had come and gone faster than I wanted to admit. The fight in me was dying out. I could feel Lucas’s eyes on me as I dried off with what felt like sandpaper. I didn’t dare look at him. The guard didn’t like how much we talked. I didn’t want to know what would happen if he thought there was something happening between us. Which there wasn’t but it didn’t matter. He was watching me now and it would be too much. So I ignored him.
My shoulders slumped forward as the towel was ripped from my fingers, a shift dress was thrown at me. It was different from the scrubs I had been forced to wear. The rough dress fell above my knees in an indecent manner for the human world. But around here, did it matter? I had seen a manner of all different kinds of clothing on the prisoners that didn’t look like prisoners. I had even seen some wear fishnets for clothing, their nakedness on display for the rest of the prison to see. Not one person had blinked an eye. I had seen the horror on Lucas’s face but I didn’t question him. He had said he had been forced into this life.
Our bare feet dragged on the concrete floors as we walked back to the room. But something felt different. I couldn’t pinpoint it so I looked up for the first time in a week and met Lucas’s stare. His jaw was clenched and his eyes were ablaze with fight. The guard was ignoring us both but there was a slight twitch under his left eye.
Our door opened up and Lucas was shoved into the room as the guard shackled me to himself. Lucas turned and let out a snarl before he came barreling at us. The guard slammed the door in his face. The doorframe glowed blue as Lucas pounded on it.
“Looks like the little witch has taken a liking to you.” The guard snickered and my back went straight at the new information. “Oh, he didn’t tell you? Yes, witches can be turned but its a very painful process. He suffered for weeks before he finally gave himself up to the wolf. You should have seen him fight.”
Nausea rolled through me as he jerked me down the hall, away from Lucas. Were they finally separating us? “Where are you taking me?”
“The big boss is ready to see you now.” And that was all he said as he dragged me down the hallway on weak legs. I tried to keep up but his strides were too long and my legs were too weak from not eating much each day. Just enough to keep myself alive but not enough to bring in too much wolfsbane. I could smell it now when I went to eat. I knew which foods were laced stronger. Like the meat. The meat was filled with it but other things like potatoes or mac and cheese didn’t have nearly as much. My body hated the sides and needed the protein desperately but I couldn’t allow myself to be any weaker. I wanted to escape but I didn’t know if I had it in me.
“Keep your head down or he will rip your throat out.” The guard whispered to me. I blinked and looked up at him. His eyes were dark blue again, instead of the piercing white blue they normally were. He led me to a set of massive double doors. They slid open to reveal massive steps that led to another set of double doors. The click of the lock seemed to echo off of the walls as he unlocked the handcuffs around my wrist. The need to rub my raw wrists was overwhelming. I kept my arms at my sides as he walked me to the top of the stairs. My legs protested with each climb and by the top of them, I was winded. I sucked in big gulps of air before the doors in front of us were shoved open.
There in the middle of the room was a man. He was all alone with a woman kneeling at his feet. She had a silver collar around her throat. I almost missed it with the way her orange hair fell around her shoulders. She was dressed in a bodysuit that fit from right below her neck and went down her legs before it disappeared inside a pair of black lace boots. The man cocked his head and my attention was brought to him. I couldn’t feel his power, but I could see it in his eyes. They were depthless and the green in them seemed to go on for an eternity. They were eyes that would bewitch you. I tried to pull my gaze away to observe his other features. He wore a similar outfit to the woman on the floor and his black hair was long enough to brush the top buttons on his own dark bodysuit.
“Hello there,” his voice purred around me like he was beside me and not several feet away. “It is so nice to finally meet you.”
I shivered against the feeling of his presence beside me, even though he was so far away. His chin lifted a notch as his eyes roved over my body. “And what is your name?”
I could feel the defiance rising up within me. I gritted my teeth. “You already know my name, don’t pretend otherwise.” The fight that had seemed to disappear from me in the last week was back with a vengeance.
His lips lifted in a mock smile and I noted his long canines. “Yes, Jade Rivers, I know everything there is to know about you. I know where you go to school. All the classes you take. The vacations your parents frequent.”
My blood went cold at that admonition. I tried to keep the look off of my face but I knew he could feel the shift in me.
“Your parents aren’t my concern, at least not yet. If I had prepared my men accordingly I would have used them to my advantage and kept them from leaving.” He shrugged like it didn’t matter one bit.
“What do you want from me?” Anything to keep the topic off of my parents. Would they be protected by the pack even with me gone now? Would Rafe protect them? If not him, would Tracey. As werewolves, we accepted the responsibility of the humans that lived around us. We pledged ourselves as their guardians.
“There are many things I want from you but for now, I want to know about your mate bond.”
All I could do was frown. “Mate bond?”
His lips curled up into an actual smile. “You don’t know then. That explains the lack of claim marks, but it doesn’t explain your wolf lurking below your skin.”
Something inside of me rose up. Something wanted to tell him about the dreaded night when everything had changed but I knew better. The guard beside me brushed me with his hand and clarity came back to me. I wouldn’t tell this man a thing about me or my past. If he wanted to know so badly, he could find it out on his own.
He cocked his head and the smile slipped from his face. “You aren’t as talkative as I like.” His eyes snapped to the guard beside me. “Is she eating enough?”
The guard bowed his head before he spoke. “Yes, she is eating most of her meals.”
I blinked. It was all I could do to not give his lie away. He knew I wasn’t eating all of my meals.
The man in front of us frowned. His dark brows pulled together. “Is the wolfsbane not strong enough? She should have bent to my will.”
“Is that how you do it then? You drug us all and expect us to be complacent.” A red tinge washed through his bronzed face as I spoke. “You will never have what you seek. Your power doesn’t come from within, it comes from a drug. You will never have anything. You are weak.” I didn’t know where the words came from because they certainly weren’t my own. For a moment I felt hope. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that somehow Nalia had broken through.
