Page 12 of Out of Peril

“Can you show us your powers?” the woman asked when the man just stood there staring at me.

I sniffed the air.

Wolves? They were wolf shifters and Collectors? I was beyond disgusted by this revelation.

“She needs more room,” Dante said before looking up at me and giving a wink.

“Open the door and let her out,” Walter surprised me by saying.

“You heard him. Do it!” the woman demanded.

Much to my surprise, the men listened and slowly opened the door. I looked around in confusion. It had to be a trap.

“Grab the brats,” one of them said, awakening the beast within me.

I roared angrily and started to shift. My feet no longer numbered two as four paws hit the ground. I was as fast as a cheetah. My arms were separate though, with claws like an eagle. Piece by piece my body morphed.

“I give you the beast!” one of the men yelled.

Everyone was too in awe of my transformation to notice the kids climbing on my back as I stepped from the cage and allowed my wings to fully expand. They were more than ten feet wide.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the woman said.

Walter just glared.

Mate! my beast insisted.

For a second, I froze. I never dreamed my beast would recognize a true mate. That was a part of me that I'd long since pushed aside. Who could possibly love a beast?

I roared at the thought and pushed off the ground to soar through the air.

Chaos erupted below as realization of my escape set in.

I was too high for their weapons and there was nothing they could do about it now, but as I started to fly towards the open water, something pulled me back.

Mine, my beast growled.

With a reluctant sigh, I turned back and screeched as I dove towards the assembling crowd. My front claws reached out and snagged Walter Grimes from the pack, and then I flew away without another glance back.

Walker

Chapter 5

I'd slept in a chair last night and woke up with my muscles kinked. Popping a couple ibuprofen hadn't really helped. Did it ever? I knew a quick shift would fix it, but there was too much at stake. The risks too high for me to do that.

Instead, I donned a new pair of sunglasses and headed out to smile, shake hands, and pretend like a bunch of people locked in cages around us was perfectly normal.

Taylor and I hadn't attended an auction like this before. I hadn't even known such a thing existed. It disgusted me. From the second we arrived, something felt off. I couldn't put my finger on it. But something was definitely not quite right.

As we wandered around, I tried to put a smile on my face but my anxiety seemed to grow the closer we got to Nate. I was certain it was just nerves tinged with guilt. I understood why he was doing this, but I hated it. We all did.

Taylor nudged and me shot me a look.

“I'm okay,” I assured her. “Just studying our options,” I added, should anyone be listening nearby. “There's a lot to choose from.”

We stopped at the next cage and spoke with the witch, asking him to show us his powers. He did it with a smile, and I couldn't help but sense it was all for show. No one wanted to perform under these conditions. Well, maybe Nate. He was a bit sick like that though, only ever knowing a life of captivity.

Moving on to the next one we took our time strolling through the lines of cages. There were so many of them. In a normal auction setting you saw one or two at a time, and while the evening could run long, it was harder to grasp just how many witches were there. Being here with them all on display at once was overwhelming me. We simply couldn't save them all. And how many more places like this were there?

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