Page 7

Thor

T he pain was swift, but death was not.

The sound of the whip as it cracked through the air no longer frightened me like it used to.

After years caged behind these charmed bars, hidden in the caves beneath the mountains, there was little that scared me anymore.

Especially not our keepers. Though they came to anger quickly, it was not as severe as it once was.

I barely glanced up at the sound of heavy feet descending into the prison. Punishment would claim any who did. Sometimes Watcher wanted us to look upon him with fear. Other times, it did nothing for his ego, and anger meant retribution.

Today, though, I was too tired to look up and bask beneath his cruel gaze. As I scented the air, I took in the other, more overwhelming scents that followed him . He was a rare presence, but there were others. Most I didn’t recognise.

More prisoners, perhaps.

When the cages near mine opened, I finally looked up from the stone beneath my body. There were males, several of them, all different creatures being tossed into one large cell. They were bloody and wounded, weakened by whatever magic Watcher and he poured into them.

“Pathetic,” he spat. “And weak.”

I barely caught sight of another figure. A small female. Music sounded when she moved, as did the clank of chains.

One of the males grunted. “You are the pathetic one, Dante. A weak, little boy?—”

A hard crack filled the air, and the male fell silent, collapsing to the dirty stone floor.

“Anyone else?” There was no response to his question, at least not immediately. It didn’t matter, because the damage was done.

I felt the dark weight of his stare on me. I lowered my own eyes to the ground. To the stone I knew too well. The blood permanently staining the cage floor and the gouges where my claws left their mark were the only indication that I ever existed.

He moved in closer, his scent clogging my senses. But there was another smell, blood, that I knew did not belong to him. My heart pounded, jaw clenched, as I felt him move nearer, as the scent grew stronger.

Rage unlike anything I’d felt before clawed its way up my throat. I could not understand why, though.

“This one is the best you have?”

Watcher appeared, the toes of his bloodied, brown boots filling my vision. “Yes. The best tracker. The largest, too. Trained well. ”

He hummed under his breath. “And you can control the beast?”

Beast . I could tear him apart.

“Of course. He wouldn’t survive otherwise.”

The rage quietened. Watcher was right. But death would be better than the pain.

But it would not be swift .