Page 84 of The Lands Defying
“What the fuck is this,” Leo croaks out as the other Elites shake their heads.
Darius moves from my back, looking into the next one, and his jaw ticks, his hand tightening around his blade. We all move forward, looking in cell after cell at the horrors that lay within.
With each one I hope not a single one is my pack member. Some we can’t even tell though, their faces ripped open as well as their bodies.
One thing is common though, they are all female.
The second-to-last cell on our side, Darius stares within it longer than the others, his face a mask of cold, hard fury. I come up next to him, bracing myself for what I’m about to see when I let out a startled noise.
I grip his arm as I look over the gray, clumpy skin of hind legs, recognizing it instantly. But then I move my stare up to the pale legs on either side of the rogures’s hips on the floor, my heart hammering within my chest as I move my eyes up and up and up.
Claw-like hands are piercing the shoulders of the female, its wolf-like face next to a head of dirty, blonde hair,
“W-what?” I stutter, my hands clammy as a scream wants to escape from my throat.
A rogure, but not.
It’s more humanoid. Its hind legs are like a rogure, but its torso is like us. Arms with clawed hands, it has human-like unseeing eyes but still with a small muzzle. Dark hair covering everything but its bottom half and its head. Its ears are smaller, just slightly pointed at the ends and from the looks of it, its cock is inside the woman. And they’re dead.
Both dead.
I choke on the vomit that wants to come up, quickly moving my mask out of the way as I rest a hand against a pillar that separates the cells, releasing the contents of my stomach.
I hear the other guys come over to the cell, my back to them as I hear murmuring words, but I can’t make it out as my vision blinks in and out.
What the fuck is that kind of rogure, and why the fuck was it inside that woman?
Gods, it was fucking her. Fucking her and they are both dead, and he’s still inside her.
I gag again, bile burning my throat and my vision blacks out longer. I slump against the wall, sweat peppering my skin, the room spinning. I hear a harsh curse and then I’m hauled into a hard body, and my face is moved into a warm, familiar neck.
I breathe in Darius, knowing it will help calm me as he murmurs quiet words. His hand moves in a circular motion on my back, and he rubs his cheek against the top of my head. I breathe him in deeper, needing to be closer, to make him stop what I just saw from replaying in my head.
Once I’m calm enough, his words register, and I pull away from his neck and shake my head. “No,” I choke out, “We’re not leaving. We need to find them, even if...even if they are no longer of this land.”
Another scream has me flinching, this one much louder, and all of our eyes go toward the double doors at the end of the row.
Darius looks at me intently, seeing the determination on my face before he nods. He places me on my feet, moves my mask back in place and covers my hair with my hood.
“We have no idea what’s in that room,” he tells me, and I swallow roughly, nodding. “Can you handle that?” he asks.
“I can,” I say firmly, straightening my shoulders. My voice is strong and sure. I can handle it, I think. I just didn’t expect whatever the fuck that was in that cell.
“You might see more of whatever the fuck that is,” Darius says, nodding towards the cell in question. I nod again. His eyes tighten, concern creeping into his gaze, those silver flecks appearing before they wilt away. “It’s taking everything in me not to remove you from here, to make sure you are somewhere far away from this place.” I let out a shuddering breath as he comes closer. “Do as I ask, when I ask.” A pause. “Vallier. My instincts are riding me hard.”
I can see the struggle in his tense body, the way his eyes are flickering with specks and flashing black. The least I can do is make it easier for him.
I lift up on my toes and bump my nose with his. “I will.”
He releases a breath that is so unlike him, and then looks toward his men that are still looking into that cell, their faces more pale than I have ever seen.
Josh stares at the ground, face ashen and hands loose. He’s just as disturbed as me at what is in these cells…and what could be of our pack members. Of Sarah.
I’ve never seen whatever the fuck that thing is in that cell, and I don’t ever want to again.
My mind goes back to the notes in Darius’s father’s basement, and I feel sick all over again.
It couldn’t be… could it?
