Page 49 of Wulf's Pack
Skylar nods.If I can, he won’t be very happy, but he’ll keep his word. We just need him to think we’re grateful for allowing us this opportunity. He can’t see our hatred.
Bree straightens her spine, and I brace myself. I’ve got a decent poker face, but abused, enslaved shifters is asking a lot of my control.
The doors slide open, and the smell hits me first. Blood, urine, feces, and something else I can’t identify. “You’ll have to excuse the smell,” Samuel says jovially. “With them so wild, we can’t do much more than hose them down, and we have to tranq them in order to clean out their cages, so we only do it once a week.”
Rage bubbles up inside me, but Skylar quickly calms me down. She doesn’t go full power like she did upstairs, but I start to move a little slower.
The next thing I notice is the sound of barking, hissing, squawking, and snarling. It’s like a zoo. If the zoo were full of rabid animals. Again, my rage tries to consume me, but with Skylar’s influence, I manage to keep calm.Don’t use too muchof your power. You’re going to need it if you have any hope of bringing these shifters back.
We walk down a dimly-lit corridor until we come to a large, open parking garage-type space. Along one wall is a row of cages barely big enough to fit the animals they contain. There are eight of them. Three wolves, a black bear, a jaguar, a coyote, and a pair of hawks. When we come into view, all of them attack their cages, crying out and even foaming at the mouth. I can’t see a speck of humanity left in them. I’m pretty sure this is a lost cause, and it’s going to kill me to have to walk away and just leave them here. They need to be put out of their misery.
“Hawks?” Skylar asks. “That’s new.”
Bree and I take it in and try to keep a lid on our anger. I was almost okay with Samuel upstairs, but this is unforgivable. How can I be allies with a monster like him? We still need to get out of here alive, though, so we need to keep up the act.
Samuel puffs up his chest and steps in front of the birds’ cage. “I was skeptical at first, but one of my competitors acquired one and suggested we see what a fight between them would be like. They’re surprisingly vicious.” He points at the pair that are now flying at the bars, trying to attack him. “Especially these two. They were mates, and hawks mate for life. Even feral, they work as a team.”
“Mates?” Skylar gasps, trying and failing to mask her horror. Her eyes fill with tears. “Samuel, these arepeople.How can you do this? Don’t you have any heart at all?”
So much for keeping our cool and trying to remain gracious. Skylar can calm my temper, but who can soothe her broken heart? I pull her into my arms, and she buries a sob in my chest. I run my hand over her hair. “Shh, honey. It’s okay. You have a chance to help them.”
Samuel frowns as if he either doesn’t like seeing Skylar cry, or he doesn’t understand why she’s so upset. “There’s no needto torture yourself,” he says. “They’re not people anymore. They don’t have feelings. Not a single rational thought. They’re just mindless creatures.”
Even if that were true, they were people once. I know he didn’t wait until they were feral before he took them from their lives.
I’m lucky Skylar’s here. If she weren’t, I wouldn’t be able to resist trying to kill the bastard.
Skylar pulls her face out of my chest, but doesn’t leave the comfort of my arms. “Theyarepeople,” she says. “And theydofeel. They feel pain. It’s the pain that turns them feral. They’re suffering.”
He sighs, knowing he’s not going to win this argument. He steps close to us and ducks his head to Skylar’s level in order to give her a soft smile. He lifts his hand as if he’s going to wipe away her tears, but I manage a growl, and he pulls back. His disappointment is clear, and I don’t understand it. He thinks so little of shifters, but he’s genuinely fond of Skylar.
“If there are really still people in there, you’ll be able to bring them back,” he tells Skylar softly. The warmth in his voice is sickening. He really does think he’s giving Skylar this magnanimous gift. “Save them, and they’re free. I made you a promise.”
Skylar sniffs and pulls out of my arms, swiping at her wet cheeks. She blinks her big, watery eyes at Samuel, and her chin quivers. “You swear?”
Samuel loses the battle with his restraint and brushes his thumb across her cheek. “You know I always keep my word.”
I snatch her out of his reach with another warning growl. He lifts his hands in surrender.
Skylar takes a moment to regain her composure and looks at the cages. I lean down to whisper in her ear. “Start with thehawks. If they still fight as a team, they most likely still feel the mate bond. It could be enough, like with Preston.”
Skylar hiccups and nods. She takes my hand, dragging me with her to stand in front of the hawks. She sits down cross-legged and tugs me down with her. “I’m going to have to use my full strength.” She looks up at Bree. “You may want to sit down. This will hit you even harder than it did upstairs.”
I don’t like that this is going to leave us vulnerable in front of Samuel, but there’s no other choice. We have to try. I scoot beside her and clasp our hands together. “Do whatever it takes.”
Skylar squeezes my hand, takes a deep breath, and then the scent of honeysuckle drowns my senses. My body relaxes, and my mind slows. I slump against Skylar’s shoulder, barely aware of what’s happening. “Skylar…”
“I’m sorry, Wulf. It will pass.”
One by one, the feral shifters start to droop. They stop attacking their cages and stop snarling. Quiet settles over all of us, and the shifters all lie down as if to take a nap. They must be exhausted. This is likely the first time any of them has felt any sort of relief in a long time.
“Will you open the cage?” Skylar asks.
“Absolutely not.” There’s no leniency in Samuel’s voice.
“They won’t attack.”
“I’m not risking you.”
