Page 35 of Wild Wolf

“How?” I breathed, looking from Roary to the collar but as I glanced back to him I found him suddenly closer to me, so close that I gasped.

His arms closed around me and he shoved me back against the wall so hard that I hissed at the jolt of unexpected pain. Roary’s hand slammed against the wall above my head, his whole body going rigid with tension and I stared up at him in alarm.

“What’s wrong?” I asked because there was something so changed in him. There was something so alien about the way he had just moved, the way he had me pinned to the wall, the way his eyes clung to mine before falling to my neck, his chest rising and falling heavily.

Cain released a low growl from behind him and I looked up at him just as Roary lost control and lunged at me.

His body flattened me to the wall, his strength locking me in place but the gasp of alarm which escaped me was all aimed at the teeth he’d just driven into my neck.

My lips fell open but no words came as he began to drink, his body immobilising me against the wall, his muscles trembling where they pressed to me, stone crumbling above my head where his fingers dug into the bricks.

Cain shot for us but I lifted a hand, baring my own teeth. “Don’t,” I commanded, a horrifying realisation coming for me as Roary released a low groan and drank more deeply.

“This is so fucked up. How can this be happening?” Cain demanded, his body rigid with tension, the effort it was taking him to restrain himself more than clear. “He’s a Lion,” he insisted, pacing closer, seemingly unable to stop himself until his chest collided with my outstretched palm.

Roary snarled ferociously at his closeness but didn’t withdraw, drinking deeper, his body driving me back more firmly.

My eyes locked on Cain’s, my lips parted on the words which I couldn’t bear to speak.

We’d discovered the sickening truth of the experiments which had been taking place beneath Darkmore all this time. We’d seen what they’d been trying to do but I hadn’t dared let myself fear that fate would have come to Roary in the short time we had been separated. I hadn’t allowed myself to fear this reality until it had slapped me in the face and forced me to look it in the eye. Roary, my Lion, my beautiful, prideful Lion. What he was was akin to who he was. And this…

“Where is it?” I breathed, a tear sliding down my cheek as I moved my hand up Roary’s back and caressed his close-cropped hair. “Where is your Lion, Roar?”

With a savage jerk he withdrew, a noise of pure agony escaping him.

I cursed in pain myself as his fangs tore my skin with the sudden departure, blood spilling freely down my neck.

Cain was on me in moments, his hand at my throat, healing the wound but I pushed him off, closing in on Roary even while he backed away.

“Where is it?” I demanded, louder, firmer.

Roary’s hand closed over his mouth, his eyes on my neck where the blood no doubt still stained my skin, horror written across his expression.

“I don’t give a fuck about a little bite and a bit of blood, Roary,” I snapped at him, flicking a vine his way to yank his hand away from his mouth, revealing bloodstained fangs in a mouth which never should have had them.

I tried to hide my shock, but his flinch said I’d failed in that.

“I’m not the man you fell in love with anymore,” he rasped.

“Of course you fucking are,” I snarled. “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to leave your Lion in this place. So where the fuck is it?”

Roary swallowed thickly, glancing away from me and looking towards a door to the rear of the space.

“Drav…or Vard, whatever the fuck he’s calling himself. The motherfucker who did this to me has it. It was here though. He’s been showing it off to those sick assholes who want in on this twisted bullshit. I heard him saying he was going to be taking a meeting with one of them but I don’t know where he went after that. One of the Minotaurs he set to guard me didn’t like what he was doing and gave me the key to my cell, collar and cuffs. He said to take that door once I got out. That’s all I know.”

“It’s all we need,” I swore to him because if it wasn’t then I would make it so.

“Come on,” Cain agreed, shooting past us and throwing his shoulder against the door. It burst open, revealing a long corridor lined with cages, the doors of which were all wide open, leaving nothing in their depths.

“These were full earlier,” Roary muttered, moving to follow Cain.

I stepped beside him and took his hand in mine, winding my fingers through his and holding him tightly. He tried to pull back and I levelled him with a dark stare.

“I waited ten years to make you fall for me, Roary Night,” I warned him. “Don’t go thinking there’s anything which might ever make me want you less.”

“I’m not the man you-” he began but I cut him off sharply.

“Do you love me less for my scars?” I demanded.

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