Page 58 of Brutal Mate

Kane snapped at him, baring his fangs. “She isn't human. She's one of us.”

Eddie threw up his hands.

“Kane's right,” Jack put in, moving to clap Kane on the back. “Miley is one of us, and so are all those newly transitioned in the barn.”

He then pulled Kane around to face him and gripped hold of his shoulders as he said, “Let's go rescue your mate.”

Chapter 22 - Miley

This couldn’t be happening, not here, not now. She wasn't going to have her first shift and risk dying in a damn laundry closet.

She tried to hold it back, sitting down with her arms wrapped around her legs, knees pulled tightly to her chest. But there was very little she could do.

It seemed, no matter how she tried to remind herself of all Kane had said, this shift wasn't going to be held off.

This was it. She could feel it. The beast within her was desperate to be born, and there would be no stopping it. It was strong, fully formed, powerful. And she was terrified and weak, shaking so badly that she could hear her teeth chattering.

The way the men on the other side of the closet door laughed made her wonder if they could hear it, too. They did seem like the kind to take pleasure and amusement in someone else's terror and pain.

Whether they were laughing at her or just laughing, it didn't really matter; it seemed her wolf wanted to tear them apart. Not that Miley could blame her. She was having a hard time being cooped up in such a small closet with no light and barely any air, too.

She would have liked to tear Christopher a new one as well, but how was she supposed to just let her wolf out?

Kane had only ever told her how to keep her in. What was she supposed to do if she actually decided to let her out? Of course, it was probably the total opposite. Something about letting all your rage and fear build up and just explode. But Miley was frightened at the thought of what might happen if she did that.

What if she turned too fast? Was that even a thing? What if it was so painful her heart gave out? What if she survived the transformation and they dragged her to this damn barn they had been talking about?

“What's the betting this one dies?” one of the men outside the closet said.

Miley's hearing had settled down. She simply heard everything now. It was as if she had just had to get used to it—she had no choice, and so she did.

She only hoped the full transition would be the same.

“Yeah, she did look a little weak and weedy,” another said, and Miley’s blood started to boil.

She was many things, and once she might have been weak, but now she most definitely wasn't. The things she had been through, especially in the last couple of weeks, most people couldn't even endure nightmares about.

“Shame, really,” she heard a third voice say. “She’s quite a looker. I bet she'd pup well.”

Bile rose in the back of Miley’s throat. They were talking about her as if she were no better than some breeding bitch they kept in their kennel.

In fact, she'd known guys with race dogs over the years, and they'd talked better about them!

“I'd definitely give her a pup or two,” one of them said, and that was enough.

Miley couldn’t hold back any longer. She had hoped and prayed that Kane would come, that someone would come to rescue her and her first shift might at least be with somebody she cared about, but it seemed that wasn't meant to be.

With her new eyesight, she lifted her hands close to her face in the near-darkness and looked at the thick black claws protruding from her nailbeds.

Sucking in a deep breath, she thought, you've tried beating it, now time to just go with it.

And as if her sudden acceptance was like the flipping of a switch, pain lanced through her entire body.

It was so excruciating that she doubled over, screeching through gritted teeth.

“Sounds like the fun has finally started, boys,” one of the men declared, and Miley growled low in her throat, battling the pain that surged through her in thick, heavy waves. “How long do we think she'll last?”

“I'll give her an hour, maybe two,” one said.

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