Page 87 of The Lands Defying
Another shadowed body appears, quick hands grabbing onto the little body with urgency, but I saw her swollen face before she moved back into the cell. Katy, his mom.
Runa growls low inside of me, seeing what I’m seeing, wanting to go to them as I try and control my relief and terror at them being here.
“They are here,”Josh replies, his relief evident that we have found them, though we don’t know if all of them are there with this angle and the low lighting.
My hand moves to Darius’s hand, and he squeezes it, and nods. He saw them.
A shuffle to my left has my gaze settle upon Jerrod. His eyes are harsher than I have ever seen on the giant of the man as hestares at the cell they are in, the harsh grip on his axe causing his knuckles to whiten.
We’re coming, just hold on.
“It shouldn’t be long now,” Mathew says, his dark eyes looking at the beast raping the woman. “Hopefully this bitch will survive.” Survive? I think back to the dead woman. Gods, how many have there been like her?
“We have had three successful deliveries this month,” Frederick says. “All boys, unfortunately, but they will be useful.”
“Of course.” Mathew nods, looking down at the beast laying before him. It snarls up at him, those chains clanging harder as it looks like he’s trying to rip his throat out.
Frederick lifts up a vial that looks similar to the ones on the shelving in front of me, and takes the cap off. Moving it toward the beast’s head, he brings his hand up to grab its lower jaw. The beast growls and tries to twist out of Frederick’s grip, but ultimately, it’s chained down and has nowhere to go.
Frederick tips the liquid contents into the snapping mouth, uncaring that some spills down the sides as the beast starts to shake wildly, growling and grunting.
“There,” Mathew says. “Unchain him and put him in the cell with the new female. Let’s hope they can produce what we need. I don’t want to disappoint Lord Higher again.”
“I think we will get a female this time,” Frederick says, beginning to unchain the shaking beast who doesn’t even look coherent anymore, its eyes are glazed. “We always go through phases of boys, it’s time for females now.”
“The beast has been examined and determined to be a successful breeder, at least to get a pregnancy.” He looks to the other beast raping the woman. “We have been doing this for a very long time now. He will get her full of his seed and she will birth a new generation like the others, no matter what that looks like. I have no doubt.”
A long time? New generation?
Darius lets out a small growl, and all of our heads whip toward him, terrified of being detected, and also terrified of what Darius will do. His powers float out around him in tendrils, two thicker and longer mass-like tails moving up and slightly away from his back, the tips showing above either of his shoulders.
Shit.
“Dar,” I whisper as quietly as I can as more growls pierce the air, and his eyes hit mine so fast that if I had blinked I would have missed his head turning to me.
I see it then, why he’s so angry.
This is what was meant to happen to me, to breed the new generation like Charles had told him.
“We need to get Katy and Oscar, we need to see if there are any more of my pack here.” His head tilts, the whites of his eyes bleeding black.
We can’t be found yet, I need to get my pack somewhere safe, I need to get to them.
“Darius,” I say in a low, warning tone as quietly as I can, and his nostrils flare. “My pack first, destroy later.” I reach forward and let a little power come to my fingertips and press into his arm.
The blue wraps into his black, welcoming and calming, a gentle prodding until finally, Darius’s eyes return to normal, the black strands coming from him, slowly retreating back into his body.
I let out a quiet breath as his nostrils flare, getting himself under control. We don’t lose eye contact the whole time, and I wait him out, knowing he can come back.
When he nods and tilts his head toward the cells where Katy and Oscar are, I breathe a sigh of relief.
“You, your pack, and Jerrod will go to them,” he murmurs quietly, jaw ticking. “Port out when you have them. We will go tothe other side and cause a distraction once we have cleared the cells and found no other members. Or anyone else.”
“How will you distract them without them knowing?” I ask as I watch Frederick drag the still-shaking, and not fully conscious beast over to a cell on the right using a chain around its neck.
He opens the bars with a wave of his hand and shoves the beast inside, releasing the chain. So magic is how they open it.
Another scream, another ferocious growl, I know that beast is raping someone else inside the cell he was put in.
