Page 29 of Denying Her Mate (The Wolves of Black Mountain #3)

CLOVER

T he cuffs around my wrists chafe the skin underneath. There is no reason for these to be on me, and in all the time I have been at the facility, they have never chained me like this—not since the first day I arrived.

They want me scared.

They want all the girls scared.

Fear makes us more malleable, easier to direct. People inflicted with fear take direction just to quiet the noise within them.

I glance up under my lashes at the row of women standing opposite of me. They are chained too, their wrists bound in front of them in silver.

They use it for a reason.

Silver repels most supernatural entities, wolves included. I can feel the way it saps my strength and burns my skin where it touches.

The men who hold us here don’t care about that. Our comfort is nothing to them. Movement to the left of me has me lowering my eyes quickly.

I stare at a patch on the floor in front of me, noting the way the tile is cracked in the corner. It spiderwebs out, the ceramic eroding a little more every time someone steps on it.

That is how I feel.

The experiments, the torture, the mind games—it is only a matter of time before my thoughts fragment, and they win.

I can’t let them beat me.

Boots come into view, black steel toe with new laces. I don’t know why, but I focus on them, as well as the pants tucked inside them. I don’t need to know which guard it is. They are all as evil as each other.

“Number forty-seven. Step forward.”

The harsh, acerbic snap of his words makes me shudder involuntarily. I don’t want them to know they affect me, but muscle memory is a powerful thing, and my body remembers the torture they’ve inflicted on me in the time I’ve been locked in this white prison.

I was lost in my thoughts, so I didn’t realize no one had moved. I risk a glance under my lashes again and see the guard pacing, a baton clutched between gloved fingers.

His hand flashes out, smacking a girl diagonally across from me in the gut. She folds at the waist, whimpering in pain. “I don’t like to repeat myself, number forty-seven.”

“I didn’t know. I’m still getting used to—”

He strikes her again, this time driving her to her knees. I grit my teeth so tight I can feel my jaw trembling beneath the force. The urge to call on my magic, to put him on his knees, burns through me like acid, but I know better.

I am controlled by magic far stronger than my own. Every woman here is. If I fight, all I will do is hurt myself and earn time in isolation. That won’t further the cause. I need access to this new intake of girls if we’re to escape before they are brainwashed.

The girl is on her knees sobbing uncontrollably. It won’t help her. The men and women who work here don’t have souls, something that is made clear as she is dragged to her feet and escorted out of the corridor.

One day I’ll save you and everyone here.

It’s an empty promise to make. I have no power, no strength, and no ability to fight against the people who hold us prisoner.

I make it anyway, because the only thing I have left is hope, and if I lose that, I will give in. I’m not ready to lose everything I am.

I am Clover and they cannot take my name.

“Number nineteen.”

Cold douses me as my number is called. I don’t want to move, but my feet force my body out of my position in line. I do not have the energy for a beating today. I have barely recovered from the last one.

I keep my eyes lowered, my hands pressed together as close as the cuffs will allow.

The boots step into my line of vision and I force my eyes to stay down. Even though I know the voice, I desperately want to look into the eyes of the man in front of me. How can they be so immune to the atrocities being committed here?

This close to him, I can scent to his wolf. He is a delta, a kind of enforcer within a pack. The fact he is here tells me one of two things. No pack would have him, or he chose the lone way. Neither path is a good one to walk.

“Don’t give me any shit today, number nineteen,” he speaks in a low voice, but I hear the threat threading through his words.

I shouldn’t react, but the corner of my lip kicks up into a smirk. Fuck him. Fuck everyone within these walls.

I don’t respond, knowing it will get me smacked with that heavy stick of his. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.

“You’re learning.” I’m not. My resolve still burns like fire within my gut, but I have become better at hiding my intentions from these people I think of as enemies. “Follow me.”

He pushes his baton into the small of my back hard enough to bruise and to force me to walk. I wonder what delights wait for me today. I know a new influx of wolves was brought in this week. I heard it from another hybrid, one whose brain was so addled by all the experiments that she wouldn’t be able to lie even if she wanted to.

I focus on the tile under my feet as the baton is insistently pressed against my spine, despite walking at pace. I pause at a door, waiting for the guard to step forward and press his key card to the black box at the side of the frame. As soon he touches it, the red LED on the front turns green, and the sound of the lock disengaging snaps through the air.

The door slides open, and I step through it.

I can’t resist lifting my eyes a little, trying to take in everything. There are control rooms to the left of me; glass windows that overlook the corridor show views of a wall filled with TV screens. I only manage to glimpse pictures of cells and rooms similar to the ones I had been forced to use my magic in.

I reach inside me, trying to access my magic, and when I find it, it is chained just like my hands are. The silver not only dampens my wolf side, but also my witch. I am as defenseless as a human, and that is a terrible thought. Humans are weak. I do not wish to be helpless.

To the right side, there are doors evenly spaced. I don’t know where they lead, because I have never been in this part of the facility before.

A frisson of unease opens inside me, and my mouth is suddenly dry. Where have they brought me, and why?

I must slow my steps, because the baton slams into my spine, making me groan as pain races through my back.

Son of a…

I grind my teeth together to stop from screaming obscenities and pick up my pace. Wherever we are going, he wants us there fast.

I’m directed in front of a door. “Wait here.”

I sense the guard move away, though I don’t see where he goes. I lift my head a little, wondering if there’s anything I can use to my advantage in this moment. The door in front of me is locked. I can tell because the little black box at the side of the door frame has a red LED glowing on it, not green. Not all doors can be opened using the cards. I have come across some that can only be opened by a voice on the end of their radios. I don’t know how to get past those.

As I glance around, I notice the screen in the corner of the room, near the ceiling. For a moment I’m not sure what I’m seeing. There’s a woman pressed against the wall, her palms flat to it, the white gown she is wearing blending into the wall.

I don’t know what she is so afraid of, but her terror is palpable even through the screen. My gut churns savagely as I forget where I am, and that my eyes are meant to be lowered at all times. Instead, I watch with horror as a huge male steps into view.

He is completely naked, the globes of his ass filling the screen. The female tries to run, darting to the side, but he grabs her around the waist and forces her against the wall, face first.

Bile climbs up my throat as she disappears beneath his huge form, but I don’t need to see to know what is happening. His hips start to move in slow thrusts.

The horror of what I’m witnessing has me pressing a hand to the wall to steady my suddenly weak knees.

I knew evil happened within this hellhole, but this?

This is a whole new level of evil.

I get a glimpse of long hair, and a hand splayed out to the side of his rutting body, as if trying to escape from him.

But there is no escape. She is caught like prey beneath a predator.

The sound of boots on the floor behind me force my eyes down as tears of frustration and anger prick my eyes. Is it not enough they take our minds and destroy our lives? They also rape us.

The baton hits below my chin, forcing my jaw up and my gaze with it. I find myself looking into pale blue eyes that hold no kindness. His face is weathered, leathery like old shoes. I want to spit in his eye, hit him, and hurt him in the same way that girl is being hurt.

“Did you see enough?” he sneers, as if he enjoys seeing the anguish on my face. He probably does—all the guards here are sadistic fuckers.

“What are you doing to them?”

Questions are not permitted, but my tongue moves before I consider the consequences. I need to know, even though I am scared of the answer.

His lips tug into a dark macabre smirk. “Saving us, of course.”

I lift my gaze back to the screen. The male has his head buried in the girl’s shoulder, his body molded against hers like a second skin. All I see is terror in her expression.

The guard twists to look up at what I am seeing, and when he looks back, the smirk has intensified. “They’ll be stuck like that for at least the next hour, until his knot recedes, and he does the job he was sent in there to do.”

Male wolves only knot during a female’s heat cycle. Those only happen between mated pairs, and the way that woman is reacting—they are not mates.

Which means…

I don’t even know what it means. “What job is that? Raping her?”

I’m pushing my luck asking, but this guy seems willing to chat. He leans into me suddenly, crowding my space in a way that makes my skin crawl. I recoil back until my spine hits the wall behind me and I have nowhere to go. I have never felt more weak or vulnerable than I do in this moment. My entire life, I have relied on the senses and strengths that society hated me for. The guard presses against my body, the smell of his wolf filling my nose as his mouth goes to my ear.

“Don’t you worry, little tau. Your turn will come soon enough, and when it does, I’ll be watching on the screen as he takes you, unless I’m allowed to take you myself.” He pulls back, and I’m sure he must be able to hear my heart thudding in my chest. “You’ll all do your duty, just as we will all do ours.” He runs his tongue over his bottom lip. “I hope I am the one who gets to knot inside you, number nineteen.”

I stare at the back of his head as he moves to the door, pressing his key card against the box to unlock it. I didn’t think my situation could get any worse, but the horror I have endured so far will be nothing compared to what is to come.

The story continues in Awakening His Mate…