Page 2 of Wolf Forsaken

"There's three for sure, but probably more." He winced and his eyes shut. "How could I have missed this?"

“Where’s Ivy?” I plopped down next to him, and he rested his head on my shoulder. I tensed but didn’t pull away. Not too long ago we had been ready to maul each other, but now I felt no ill will toward him.

At least not at that moment.

“I don’t know where she is. They knocked Eli out on the lawn, and one of my pack members was getting ready to pick him up to take him somewhere. Two guys were handling me. They punched me in the stomach, and I passed back out. Woke up in here. I'm going to fucking kill Dante.”

They didn't find us? Thank fuck for small miracles. A mutiny we could deal with, but if those evil bastards found another pack to torment...

It was quiet for a bit and I assumed Cole had fallen asleep, but he sat forward and looked at me with his brows furrowed. "What's your deal? Who were you talking about that might get us?"

This was not a conversation I wanted to have naked on the floor of a cage. It wasn't a conversation I wanted to have at all.

"It's a dangerous world." I didn't meet his stare and looked out across the room. "My pack had cages like this too. We had cots, though. I didn't appreciate it enough."

"Is that what happened to you?" He wasn't going to stop until I told him, was he?

The memories of the building they kept us in made me shudder. Small cages. The smell of fear. The noises.

"No. My pack..." He wasn't like Eli, who just let me be. I jumped to my feet and tried to open the cage door again. Maybe it had magically unlocked since I'd last tried it. "Eli."

Cole groaned as he repositioned himself. "There's not much we can do for him locked up in here."

"You don't care what happens to your omega?" I glared at him over my shoulder.

"I care, but if I worry about him too much right now, I'm going to lose my mind. When they come back down here, I need one of us not to be crazy." He smirked and then coughed, the sound a bit wet, like he had fluid in his lungs.

"I'm not crazy." At least, I didn't think I was. Okay. Maybe I was a little off kilter, all things considered.

"Could've fooled me." He squinted up at me as if he was having a hard time focusing. "You trespassed into my territory, attacked my omega and my mate. What else could you be?" His head lolled to the side again. He was struggling, and I didn't know what to do to help him.

There was no point in arguing with him. Ihadattacked, but I also hadn't been in control of my wolf. If he needed to focus on my shortcomings to feel better about what had happened to him, I'd let him. For now. "How long do you think we've been down here?"

"Overnight." He lowered himself so he was lying down. "I think I'm dying."

I knelt down beside him and put the back of my hand against his forehead. "You're burning up. Your wound is probably infected."

He needed food and water to regain his strength so he could shift. We could heal in our human forms, but it was much quicker if we were wolves.

The lock at the top of the stairs unlocked, and the door opened. I stiffened and put myself in front of Cole. He wasn't my alpha or even my friend, but my wolf's instinct was to protect him.

Dirty bare feet came into view first, and then Eli's scent hit me. It was a mixture of fear and anger. He looked like he'd been through hell, with disheveled hair and dirt and dried blood covering his face.

Behind him was a man I didn't recognize, but Cole must have because a guttural noise came from him. "Joseph. Let us out of here right now." He tried to sit up, and I put a hand on his arm to stop him. He needed to stay still and rest.

Eli's eyes filled with tears as he looked past me at Cole. "I need to tend to his wound." He set down a metal bowl with what looked like dry dog food and another bowl that had water outside the cage.

"No, you don't. The alpha was clear that you were to drop off their food and not talk to them. Let's go." The guy completely ignored Cole, keeping his eyes on Eli.

"Eatallyour food." He winked just as Joseph smacked him on the back of his head and grabbed a fistful of his hair.

"No talking!"

I lunged at the bars, my lip curling back to show my teeth to the man who was practically pulling Eli by the hair back to the stairs. Eli's eyes pleaded with me and he mouthed the word 'eat' before batting the guy's hand away and walking up the stairs in front of him.

"This is all my fault." Cole groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I was so distracted with Ivy that I missed all the signs of a coup."

I shook my head. "Don't blame yourself. It takes longer than a week to stage a coup of this magnitude. He's probably been planning it for a while."

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