Page 10 of Wolf Betrayed

Chapter Three

Shane Bruins was in hell. His body ached as what felt like flames licked up his back and down his legs. His bones creaked as he thrashed on the bed, and he held back a moan. It was as if someone were holding each of his limbs and pulling, but his bones weren’t going in the same direction. Sweat covered his body, and bile filled his throat.

He was dying. There could be no other answer.

He didn’t want to die and had fought with every ounce of his being so he wouldn’t, but it seemed he hadn’t been strong enough. In the end, he’d only been a man in a world of power, greed, and magic.

That wasn’t what he’d signed up for all those years ago.

A cool cloth was wiped across his brow, and Shane leaned into it, craving the sensation.

“Wake up,” a voice urged. “You’re doing so much better, but we need you to wake up.”

He frowned at the man’s voice. Shane would much rather sleep. With his eyes closed, the pain wasn’t quite as bad. Another wave of nausea rocked him, and he knew that what he’d just thought was a lie. He didn’t sleep anymore, he just tossed and turned and prayed for the agony to cease.

“Fight it,” another voice urged, this one far stronger than the first. Something inside Shane pulled at him and urged him toward the deep voice. It wasn’t sexual. No, it was…power. As if whoever spoke was in charge of something far greater than Shane could understand, and whatever was inside him at the moment needed to be close to that.

“Maybe we need to bring Charlotte in,” the first voice said softly. “She seemed to calm him the most.”

“She’s at home. Where she should be,” a third voice snapped. This one was just as deep as the second but didn’t have the same effect on Shane as the other. Instead, all Shane wanted to do was wake up and see who the man was. Whatever demons lay within him calmed at the man’s voice, and that let fear bleed through Shane faster than it had before.

A fourth voice came closer. “Keep speaking, Bram,” the voice ordered. “His heart rate slowed again at your voice. I know you don’t want to acknowledge it, but it’s helping.”

“This is more complicated than it seems, Walker,” Bram grumbled back, and Shane calmed even more. He couldn’t explain why that was happening, but if the pain eased even a little, he’d take it.

“They always are,” Walker mumbled by Shane’s side. “Now tell him to wake up, Bram. He can’t stay in this state, and we need to know what he knows.”

What did Shane know? He wasn’t sure anymore, but since he’d come to the conclusion that staying as he was only meant more pain, he might wake up fully now.

Might.

Someone mumbled something he couldn’t quite understand, and he rolled to his side, another fresh wave of pain slamming into him. He’d been trained not to react to torture, not to let the pain take control, but nothing had prepared him for this. He twisted and turned in the sheets as if he couldn’t control any part of his body. He screamed until his throat became raw, and when someone helped him drink water to soothe it, he screamed again.

This wasn’t the Shane he’d grown into, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever be that person again.

The last thing he remembered before the fiery pain was saving a shifter named Ryder from the clutches of a man Shane had worked for. A person he had sacrificed everything for. He’d signed up to protect his people and his country, and when word of shifters came out into the public, he’d found himself on the wrong side of history.

Not all humans hated shifters. Not all soldiers were required to fight them.

He’d been one of the soldiers to protect them at first and hadn’t been in the know when it came to whatever Montag had planned for his secret experiments. As soon as he’d found out, he’d tried to stop it, but it had been too late for most of the wolves in captivity, and too late for him as well it seemed.

Montag had injected something into his system, and Shane had no idea what it was.

It burned. It ached. It was killing him.

He’d gone to the only place he thought could save him. Ryder’s Pack. And somehow, he’d been able to get there and find the place without dying. He’d begged for help, and they’d given it to him. He’d honestly thought he’d only have a small chance at survival as soon as he stepped foot on wolf land. He’d unknowingly been the enemy, and even still, knew his life wasn’t completely in his hands.

He was at the mercy of the wolves that surrounded him now, he was sure of that. They wanted to know what he knew, but they hadn’t hurt him to get the information. That was more than could be said of those under Montag’s care. The wolves were trying to help Shane now, and he would accept their assistance. Even if it meant giving up part of himself in the process.

It was the least he could do after what his unit had done to their Pack and the other wolves around the country.

People shuffled around him, and Shane mentally leaned toward the voice that had calmed him, even if it had only been for a moment. This Bram could help him, and Shane didn’t know why. The only other time he’d reacted like that was when he’d smelled a sweet and floral scent in the room with him earlier. Whoever had owned that scent hadn’t spoken, however, so he didn’t know who it was. He only knew that that person wasn’t in the room with them now.

He didn’t want to think about how he could suddenly discern scents so easily now.

“Wake up,” Bram whispered in his ear. Shane shivered at the feeling of the other man’s breath on his neck. “You need to get up. Lying in bed will only prolong the pain. We’ll help you, damn it. But you need to help yourself first.”

“Nice bedside manner there,” the first voice said wryly.

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