Page 3 of Thayne
“I get it, Ned, but did you have to break my rib for it?” Earl wheezed out, before he groaned in pain.
Leave the ribs alone; those are one of the best parts.Her comment made me slightly nauseous but I still couldn’t help but smile at the fact that he was in pain. He deserved much worse for what they were doing, but I’d take whatever I could get at this point.
A feeling of helplessness descended on me, causing my animal to whimper and curl into herself. No one was coming for me; Iwas an orphan with no home. The one family I thought was there for me was the one that turned me over to these fuckers. Jimmy and Lucy Wayne were my last foster parents; they were also the only ones who knew I was a shifter.
I’d spent my whole life in foster care, moving from home to home, until the Wayne’s. They took me in when I was thirteen, treated me like a daughter, even when they found out I was shifter. They knew if anyone found out what I was they would take me away and do god knows what to me. So, they taught me to shift out in the woods away from people and got me colored contacts to hide my eyes. They protected me from the people like the ones that were about to auction me off.
That was until Lucy died of cancer a year ago. Bills started piling up and Jimmy got desperate for money. He called me saying that he needed my help with selling some of Lucy’s things. I knew whatever he wanted for them I’d pay so I could have a small piece of Lucy with me. She loved me when I felt unlovable and alone in the world. It was the least I could to help out the people who took me in. Unfortunately, when I got to his house things didn’t go like I thought they would. The last thing I remembered before waking up in the cage was drinking a cup of ice tea at the kitchen table. After listening to the men when I woke up, I knew Jimmy was the one who turned me over to them. My animal whimpered again and the desolation I felt at realizing I was alone once again in this world took hold.
My only hope lay in a miracle that one of the other shifters in the hold with me had family looking for them. If someone was out there searching for at least one of us then maybe we had a chance at escape. As the minutes and hours ticked by, that hope was starting to dwindle to praying and then begging whoever was watching to send help.
Thayne
Thanksto the prostitute’s help, I knew the location of where the auction was going down. I was surprised to find it right in the middle of the city. The people who ran this auction clearly had zero fear of being caught in their dirty deeds. To the outside viewer, it looked like a run of the mill high-end restaurant, but with my shifter abilities and some observations, I could tell it was anything but a run of the mill restaurant. Taking up a position in a vacant office space across the street from the building made it easier for me to plot out the best point of entry. There were at least two guards on the roof, they were keeping themselves hidden, but I could hear their thoughts loud and clear. They were bored off their asses and one had to take a leak.
Two more guards were at the door, one posing as the maître‘d and the other sat at one of the bistro tables outside. I could make out the imprint of their guns through their clothes. The guy playing the maître’d was bitching about how he was a highly trained mercenary not some fucking babysitter for rich fucks. Meanwhile the guard at the bistro table was thinking about his grocery shopping he needed to do on the way home.
Finally by the loading dock were two more guards. One was tall and lanky with shaggy hair and the other one was shorter with a stockier build. They were bickering about the shifters and what would make people want to buy them. My animal started pushing against my skin wanting out. I had to remind him we needed to wait for the right time. His need for blood was assuaged when the two humans started trading blows. Watching the tall lanky guy hit the ground followed by a pained yelp made both of us smile. This is where we will enter when the time is right I declared and my animal hummed his agreement.
The auction was scheduled to start around eight; we had about four hours before the bidders started showing up. My plan was to have the shifters gone and the building turned to ash long before anyone showed up. Sitting patiently in the shadows of the building, I watched the guards at the loading dock. Eventually the lankier of the two needed to take a piss and he went inside the building, leaving the stocky guy all alone.
Walking out the back door to the building I’d been using I made a wide circle until I was walking towards the loading dock. The stocky guy immediately started towards me yelling at me to go away. I shook my head at him and touched my ears to let him know I was deaf. He grumbled then tried to make the motions for me to leave and I gave him my best-confused look.
“Do you understand what I’m saying to you? You gotta get out of here. Geez!” He flung his hands in the air and turned around in his frustration and that’s when I struck. My hands went to his neck and snapped it with ease.
I wanted to chomp on him.My animal grumbled at me. I shook my head as I reminded him we had shifters to rescue.
Just as I was getting the stocky guy leaned up against the back door, the lanky guy came out. It took him a moment to realize what was happening then he started reaching for his gun. Luckily, I’m faster than most humans are and grabbed his arm with the gun and wrenched it behind his back forcing him to drop his weapon. He tried to wrestle himself loose, but with my shifter strength, the struggle ended as quickly as it started when I cuffed him behind the ear, knocking him out cold.
Wanted to chomp on that one too, he looked like a good chew toy. My animal growled at me as I dragged the guy through the door he just came out of. You can wait ‘til we get the other shifters free, asshole, and then you can chomp on whoever the fuck you want. He sat in my head wagging his tail with happiness like a fucking dog. Shaking my head at him, I placed the unconscious guy against the wall beside the door and looked around for something to tie him up with.
As soon as I was through the door, a cacophony of voices bombarded my head. I gripped my head as I tried to control the onslaught of so many voices at once. Usually I had more control, but there were so many screaming for help. Slowly I was able to lock down my ability and get the voices under control. How many fucking shifters did these assholes have trapped in here? My animal growled his anger, yeah buddy join the fucking crowd.
Looking around the space I was in, there was a small desk with a chair in one corner and a loveseat against one wall with a frosted glass door next to it. It looked like some kind of office space, probably for the loading dock manager during ‘normal’ business hours. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at that thought. These rich assholes actually thought they were going to get away with selling shifters. They were about to be in for the shock of their lives.
Making my way to the frosted glass door and instead of using my mind reading, I used my sense of smell to see if there were humans on the other side. I was only picking up shifters and a helluva a lot of them at that. No wonder my head felt like it was going to explode. Opening the door slowly I looked inside the room ahead. There were rows and rows of cages packed with shifters in their animal forms. As soon as they got a whiff of my scent, all their eyes were on me expectantly.
I tried to send out calming vibes to all of them but some of them were getting anxious. Suddenly cages started rattling, their whines and growls were getting more insistent, and that’s when shit got real. The door leading into the storage door burst open with two guards. I ducked behind a large cage filled with a grizzly. He looked at me pleadingly and I reached for the latch on his cage as quietly as possible. The guards yelled at the shifters to shut up and started pointing their guns at some of the smaller cages.
The latch to the grizzly’s cage popped open and I moved onto the next cage as he barreled out aiming directly for the guards. Both guards yelled as the grizzly rushed them. Before they could even get their weapons up, he had them both on the ground under his enormous paws. They were struggling but they had no hope of getting up with 600 plus pounds of grizzly on top of them.
While he was holding them down, I made my way around the room opening cages as quickly as I could. As I made my way down another aisle of cages, I caught a delightful scent. My animal was demanding I find the cause of the scent but I forced myself to keep opening the cages. The scent kept getting stronger the further down the aisle I went; it was like fresh honeysuckle on the vine. My mouth began drool as I got closer to the source.
My mind was so focused on locating the scent I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. Suddenly, a bullet went whizzing past barely missing me. When I glanced up there were two guards coming through the frosted glass door behind me. Before I could take action, a gorilla, a porcupine, and a raccoon were on them. The guards tried to fend them off, bullets bouncing off the ceiling, but soon they crumbled to the ground dead. The shifters looked at him and nodded toward the rest of the cages.
Turning back around I came face to face or nose to scent with what was causing my distraction. Inside a tiny cage, no bigger than what would hold a kitten there was a fox of some sort. She looked up at me and as soon as our eyes locked, we both knew.I could see the astonishment in her eyes and her mind was going a millions miles a minute. My hands fumbled as I worked the lock on her cage open. As soon as she was free, she jumped into my arms shaking. My animal was practically dancing inside me while I pulled her close to my body hoping to calm her fears.
Mate, it’s our mate, we finally found our mate. Ain’t she a pretty little thing, I promise not to chomp her. Okay maybe a little chomping but only in a good way.
Scarlett
Ooooh he’s sexy,do you see those eyes girl they look like the inside of those stupid fruit you like to eat the ones with all the seeds.Those are Kiwi’s and what do you mean our mate.Smell that, go on take a big whiff of him.With ‘him’ holding me, so close it was hard not to smell him and damn did he smell like my favorite milk chocolate with a touch of cherry. I couldn’t help the hum of appreciation that emanated from me.
When I chanced a look at his face, he was grinning from ear to ear down at her while slowly petting her fur. My fox gave a happy little yip before deciding she was going to proceed to lick him to death. He was laughing, well at least his body was moving like he was laughing and there was a smile on his face, but the sound that was coming out was more of a raspy laugh. I wondered for a minute if whatever they had given me to stop me from shifting was affecting my hearing. Then some giant naked man came up to the guy holding me and waved his hand in front of his face.
“What’s the plan to get out of here?” The giant naked man asked while doing something with his hands. Wait, was that sign language? Was my hero deaf? The man holding me shifted me in his arms so he could free one hand and proceeded to sign back to the giant. Did I mention he was naked? Everywhere? Yeah I checked, even there. The man holding me let out a growl from his chest and naked guy took a step back and covered his giant junk. Meanwhile the guy holding me gave me a look that said he knew exactly what I was thinking.
“Look I get it she’s your mate, but we need to get out of here. So far, I’m the only one who has been able to shift back, probably because my metabolism blew through whatever they gave us. Luckily there’s noise canceling shit in this area, they wouldn’t want anyone to hear us screaming for help.” The big naked man growled looking around at the other shifters in the room before continuing.
