Page 9

CHAPTER 9

brIAR

I ’m in the containment circle, yet again, watching Ryker pace back and forth. The days have all been a blur of attempting to shift, beatings for failing to fully turn into my wolf, and trying to heal myself enough to survive another day. In between beatings, the scientists and doctors have been poking, prodding, and running invasive tests to try to figure out why I can shift.

Anson always tries to make me feel better when I’m dumped in our cell after a session with Ryker, but there’s not much he can do for me. I’m mentally, physically, and magically exhausted. I need a break, but I doubt that’s going to happen anytime soon. So, I just suck it up and keep stalling as I try to figure a way out of here.

With how increasingly frustrated Ryker has been with me, I’m getting the feeling that my time is up. I’ve pretended to shift incrementally more every couple times he pulls me in here. First it was my eyes, then I showed off claws, then fur rippling over my skin, and the past couple times my magic has shown my legs breaking and reforming into hind legs.

The increasingly complex illusions are draining my magic faster than I can replenish it. I doubt I have enough magic to do more than change my eye color, so I have to hope that Ryker will be happy with that. Otherwise, he’ll hurt Annabel or one of the other kids he drags in here.

Annabel got moved to another cell block once Ryker realized how useful she is to control me. The only time I get to see the little girl is when Ryker’s threatening her. I’m sure she regrets ever talking to me, but I do everything I can to keep her safe.

A loud boom sounds, shaking the room and startling me. Ryker looks around, like he can see the source of the sound if he searches hard enough. Three guards burst through the doorway next to the two-way mirror.

“Sir,” one of them starts. “They’re here.”

“Yes, I figured that out, Rodgers,” Ryker snarls before turning to the three scientists cowering in by their machines. “How close are we?”

“We can’t solve the final piece until we actually see her shift.” Clark’s voice shakes as he gives Ryker the bad news. I breathe out an internal sigh of relief because they’re no closer to discovering how to strengthen their spell. All the data they’re collecting is on my mage magic, not my shifter power.

Ryker growls and stomps over to me. I brace myself for a hit, but he just growls and mimes strangling me. “I would kill you if I could. Now fucking shift. We’re out of time.”

Uh, okay.

That’s a very strange way to ask someone to do something for you. I tend to be more inclined to help people who don’t want to kill me, but maybe I’m the weird one.

“I can’t shift,” I remind him. “The suppression field is up.”

“Oh, you can’t?” Ryker lets out a bitter laugh before turning on his heel. He stomps to the door to the hallway before throwing it open. It hits the wall with a loud bang as he calls over his shoulder, “We’ll see about that.”

I stare wide-eyed after him, wondering what he means. I’m also curious who is here and what the urgency is. A tiny flame of hope flickers in my chest that maybe, just maybe, it’s my mates coming for me. I dismiss that pipe dream quickly because that’s all it is. Just a farfetched fantasy.

Ryker stomping through the doorway yanks me out of my thoughts. My stomach sinks when I see him dragging a teenage boy behind him. From the mop of curly dirty blond hair, I can already guess who it is. The terrified boyish face and light blue eyes when Ryker pushes him in front of him confirm that it’s Jake, the boy who was helping Annabel the first day. He’s always so patient with the little kids, and he’s one of their favorites.

Unlike his usual preference for knives, Ryker yanks a black gun out of the waistband of his tactical pants. He pulls the slide back and presses the pistol into Jake’s forehead hard enough to make the boy cry out in pain.

“We’re out of time, mutt. Your little games end today. You will fully shift. Each time you fail to shift, I’ll kill one of the whelps you seem so fond of.” Jake struggles against Ryker, trying in vain to get away. Rolling his eyes, Ryker slams the butt of his gun into Jake’s head. Jake’s eyes roll back, and he crumples to the ground, unconscious but still breathing. For now.

This is so bad. I’m so low on magic, I don’t know if I can even pretend to partially shift, much less make it seem like I’ve fully transformed.

I tear my panicked gaze from Jake on the floor to stare at Ryker pleadingly. His lips tip up in a mocking smirk. “Ah, I have your attention now, don’t I? You get sixty seconds to shift. At the end of the sixty seconds, I’ll kill the pup and bring in another one. Understand?” He waits for my small nod. “Your time starts now.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

How the hell am I supposed to do what he wants?

I don’t know, but I have to figure out some way to shift because I refuse to let Jake die. Pinching my eyes shut, I beg and plead with my magic to make me look like a wolf. It sluggishly tries to flow through my veins, but there’s just not enough of it. No amount of coaxing my power makes it buzz over my skin in the telltale sign it’s doing anything.

I’m still desperately trying to get my magic to work when Ryker’s taunting voice yanks me back to reality. “Time’s up.”

I open my eyes in time to see him aim his gun at Jake’s chest and fire three times. Jake’s body jerks from the force of the impact. As blood oozes out of the gunshot wounds and soaks his scrubs, Jake’s chest stills, the steady rise and fall of his breath ceasing.

“No!” I scream. It feels like my heart is the one that was shredded from Ryker’s bullets, the ache taking up residence behind my breastbone until it’s all I can feel. All my fear and devastation and soul-deep regret bleed into my voice as tears trail down my face. “No,” I whimper as I collapse to my knees, unable to tear my gaze from the boy I killed. While Ryker may have been the one to pull the trigger, I’m just as responsible. My failure is the reason he’s lying lifeless on the ground.

Smug satisfaction shines in Ryker’s gaze as he nudges Jake away from him with the tip of his boot. “Will someone remove this mutt and bring in the next one?” Ryker snaps impatiently. One of the guards standing next to the two-way mirror rushes forward to comply with Ryker’s orders.

“Don’t touch him,” I growl as the guard bends down to pick up Jake. I’m not letting them take his body to do who knows what with. I surge up and rush to the edge of the containment circle, baring my teeth at the henchman who looks up at me in alarm. “Touch him and I will personally rip out your heart and shove it down your throat until you choke on it.”

The goon stops his movements to stare at me in shock. Ryker hauls him up by his shirt collar and gets in his face. “Don’t listen to her, you moron. The cur is making empty threats. Now get rid of him before I decide to rip out your heart and shove it down your worthless throat.”

When Ryker releases him, the guard rushes to pick up Jake’s limp form and carelessly swings him over his back. Helplessness tries its best to squeeze my lungs and suffocate me as I watch the Knight take Jake away while not being able to do a damn thing about it.

As much as I want to curl up into a ball and give up, my failure trying its best to swallow me whole, I can’t because another guard drags in Annabel. The little girl is silently sobbing as the Knight throws her to her knees. Ryker stands behind her and aims his gun at the back of her head. “Maybe this one will provide a better incentive. Your time starts now.”

“I can’t shift!” I shout at him, the panic making my voice shake. “What the fuck don’t you understand?” I’m past the point of caring if he punishes me for my disrespect. In fact, I would rather him take out his frustration on me instead of Annabel or another kid.

“Not my problem.” Ryker drops his hand holding his weapon and lifts his wrist, tapping on his watch face. “Time’s a ticking, cur.”

Staring into Annabel’s terrified brown eyes, I silently plead with my magic and my wolf to do something. I can’t let her die. I can’t be the reason she never grows up or gets to go home to her family or ever has her mom’s French toast again.

Despite my begging, my magic doesn’t do anything. Ryker tsks at me. “Time’s up. I would’ve thought you’d care about the whelp more than this. Oh well, we’ll try another one.”

As Ryker raises his gun and his finger brushes the trigger, I scream, “No!” All my heartbreak and rage and crushing sense of failure bubble in my chest until pure magic bursts out of me. It swirls around me and the room like a tornado. It tosses Ryker, Annabel, the guards, and scientists around like rag dolls before slamming back into me.

My muscles pull taut and my back arches from the force of the magic. I close my eyes as I feel like I’m falling endlessly. Time seems to stand still before I eventually stop feeling like I’m in free fall and can feel the solid ground underneath my feet again.

In a daze, I open my eyes to see Ryker staring at me with unbridled excitement from his spot on the floor. He scrambles to his feet and rushes over to the scientists. “Tell me you got that.”

Wondering what has Ryker so excited, I stare down at myself and see pitch-black fur-covered paws where my feet should be.

Holy shit .

I did it. I actually shifted past the suppression field. Pride that I managed something no one else has before quickly turns to a sinking feeling. I have to hope that the havoc my magic wreaked messed with their instruments and I didn’t just give them the key to eradicate shifters.

Clark struggles to stand from where he’s slumped by the three machines. Adjusting his glasses, he presses a few buttons on his computer before pumping his fist in the air. “We got it!”

Ryker claps the younger man on the back. “Good work, son.”

I close my eyes and hang my head. I fucked up. Big-time.

As soon as all the fear and rage drain away, so too does my wolf. I’m left kneeling on the cold hard tile, feeling weaker than I’ve ever been. It’s a struggle to lift my head and look for Annabel. It takes me a moment to find her form huddled up under an overturned table behind a pile of debris.

At least she’s safe.

For now.

Ryker stalks over to the containment circle. Grasping the brown stone in his palm, a flair of brown magic I hadn’t noticed before lights up his hand. He passes into the circle without a problem right as another deafening boom rattles the room.

“Sir, they’ve made it through the first barrier. It won’t be long before they get here. We need to leave before that happens,” a burly guard tells Ryker.

Ryker gives him a curt nod of acknowledgement before he fists my hair and hauls me to my feet. I have to bite my cheek to keep from crying out at what feels like a thousand white-hot needles stabbing all over my scalp.

He gets in my face and gives me a chilling smile. “It seems our time has come to an end, mutt. You have been a pain in the ass from the moment you were born. I just need one last thing from you.”

I don’t have time to wonder what he’s referring to because I feel a sharp pain in my abdomen. I look down and see his serrated knife lodged in my stomach. As I watch in shock, he drags it across my stomach. The searing pain that follows the blade almost makes me black out. He then roughly yanks the knife out, crimson liquid gushing from the wound as he does so. Ryker makes sure to coat the blade fully in my blood before handing it off to another Knight who carefully places it in a lidded container.

I gasp as he lets me drop to the floor. Landing on my back, I bring my hands up to cover the giant, ragged hole, trying, probably unsuccessfully, to keep my intestines from spilling out. I pant as the pain that feels like I got punched by a UFC fighter, repeatedly, turns into a strangling sensation that makes it hard to breathe.

A third crashing noise rocks the room. Ryker grits his teeth before stalking out of the containment circle. Flashing me a taunting smile, he says, “Enjoy the last few minutes of your life, cur. You should bleed out before the ceiling caves in on you. If not, you’ll be trapped here by the spell and crushed to death by multiple tons of concrete or impaled by rebar. Either way, it doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is that you’re dead and can no longer interfere with our plans, now that we have what we need from you. I refuse to let a worthless mutt like you destroy my life’s work. While I would love to watch, I unfortunately have to leave before the whole facility is destroyed.” Without another glance in my direction, Ryker, the guards, and the scientists rush out of the room, leaving me injured and barely conscious on the floor.