Page 23 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

My hand slid over damp, bumpy stone. The jangle of metal was loud in my ears as I moved. I winced as I attempted to lift my head from the hard, cold surface beneath it. The ache in the back of my skull radiating out over the entire surface of my scalp in a thudding, stabbing migraine.

The scents of stagnant air and musky animal fur clogged my nostrils, mixed with the unmistakable tang of body odor that I was afraid was my own.

A moan eeked out of my mouth before I could contain it and I reached a hand up to clutch the front of my skull in an attempt to stop the pounding pain.

But my hand came up short, jerked to a stop only a few inches from my forehead.

The bite of unyielding metal against my wrist made me snap into wakefulness.

I scrambled to sit up, disoriented with enormous black blobs crowding in at the edges of my vision.

The world tipped up and the floor fell away as a wave of vertigo claimed me, forcing me to fall back onto the cold stone, gagging as a wave of nausea twisted my stomach.

My stomach heaved, but it had nothing to expel.

My sides ached at the pressure until it was finally lifted and the dry heaving stopped, leaving me to shake uncontrollably against the stone.

There was little light in the space, but it was enough to see by as my vision cleared. A single kerosene lantern sat ten feet away atop a crate. Beside that was my pack, open and spilled onto the stone.

A slim black device laid next to the lantern and my spirits soared as I recognized my phone. I pulled myself up but stopped short as the metal bit into my wrist once more.

I lifted my arm, inspecting the rusted manacle, and the chain that vanished behind me into the shadows. I tugged it but was met with resistance. My pulse skittered into an erratic pattern and I shut my eyes for a second, gulping down air to keep my cool.

Okay, Allie. You’re chained to a wall. Don’t freak out. Do not freak out.

Except I was already losing it.

When I opened my eyes again, I noticed there were mouse droppings scattered over the stone, and the flickering light threw shadows over the space. It was a room. Or maybe a cave?

Focus. You need to focus. Where are you?

It was like it was carved out of the rock on purpose, the corners too precise, the floor too smooth. A man- made cave, then?

Water dripped from some unseen crack in the ceiling and suddenly I was dying of thirst.

How long had I been in here? What happ—

It came back in a burst of clarity. The woods. Devin.

He…he’d knocked me out.

He must have taken me here. Chained me up.

I tugged harder on the chain, rising slowly to stave off the dizziness as I pulled myself along the chain to the wall.

It was made of stone, too, lending credit to my theory that this was some sort of cave.

I found where the thick chain was fixed to the wall at around chest level with a strong metal loop that was drilled deep into the stone.

Using both hands, I pulled on it, but wasn’t able to make it so much as budge.

I felt around the wall as my eyes adjusted to the dim, finding one, two, three other chains discarded near the base of the stone wall. Another at the same level as the one around my wrist. And two more nearer to the floor.

What the hell is this place?

A shrill ringing made me yelp and I spun to find my cell phone illuminated where it sat on the crate. It buzzed over the surface, moving slightly as the call came in.

Oh my god.

Wherever I was, there was cell service. I rushed to answer the call but tripped against the stone when my wrist was snapped back, the air knocked from my lungs as I hit the ground.

The crate was too far away. I reached with everything I had, gasping for unrestricted breath, but it was still several feet from my fingertips.

My phone buzzed insistently, the loud ringing echoing back to me from the stone walls.

A lick of fury chased the anxiety from my veins, and I spun, positioning myself with my wrist pulled against the chain as far as it would go, and my legs inched toward the crate.

I stuck out my right leg and the toe of my shoe just scraped along the edge of the crate.

I pulled harder on the chain and lifted my body, giving it the last few inches of length I needed to nudge the phone.

Grunting, I managed to shove it inch by inch to the edge of the crate, and then to the floor.

I grinned, pressing on it with the sole of my show and scraping it over the stones as I pulled it to where I could reach with my free hand. With clumsy fingers, I flipped it over and saw the caller ID flashing with a name.

Jared.

I could have kissed the screen, tears bloomed in my eyes as I answered the call.

His voice came through distorted, and I saw that I only had one bar, and even that was wavering. “Allie?”

“J-Jared,” I cried, “I need—”

A door that’d been concealed in shadow across the room banged open and I screamed as the shape of a man swept into the cell and the phone was torn from my grasp, a sharp explosion of pain and mottled stars in my vision alerted me to the fact that I’d been struck.

“Stupid bitch!”

The voice belonged to Devin, that much was certain, but it was laced with an animal growl that twisted the words until they sounded less than human.

I tasted blood on my tongue and spat onto the rock, holding myself up with weak arms.

I shed a tear for the lost opportunity. If I’d just spoken faster, I could have told him I was in a cave somewhere. He might’ve been able to find me. He’d at least have known I was in danger. He could’ve alerted the police.

Idiot.

“Where am I?”

“What have you done?” he bellowed.

I craned my neck to look at him, shrinking back from his tone and utterly unprepared for what I saw.

Green glowing orbs watched me with crazed fury. His face was half set in shadow and half alight with the orange glow of flame. His hands were talons at his sides and his body heaved with each hard breath he took, nostrils flaring.

A glimmer of white betrayed his elongating canines. Breathlessly, I searched for the other signs with a hard ball in my throat. The thickening of the hair on his hands, the lengthening of his fingernails.

He couldn’t be. No.

Jared would’ve told me. Surely he’d have known.

“You could have ruined everything!” he shouted, making to strike me again, but I lifted my arms to block the blow and he stopped himself, seeming to hold his breath. “Why Allie…” he trailed off, his voice breathy now. Subdued.

“Why did you have to make this so difficult for us?”

He fell back to sit on the edge of the crate and buried his face in his hands, when he looked up at me again the glow was gone from his eyes, and his canines were back to a regular human length.

Once he had himself under control, he let down his hands and pulled my phone from the floor, illuminating the screen as he tapped it and began to type out a message.

“What are you doing?” I blurted before I could stop myself.

His head snapped up and glared at me. I pushed myself back over the damp stone, my hands moving over loose bits of rock and mouse droppings until I had my back pressed firmly against the wall furthest from him.

“I’m fixing your mistake,” he replied tersely, jabbing his thumbs into my phone screen. One last hard tap and he hit the side button to turn it back off. “There.”

I didn’t have to ask him to know what he’d done, what he likely had been doing since he first brought me here however long ago.

He was keeping up appearances. Replying to the texts I’d probably gotten from Viv and Layla by now.

We always chatted via text on Sunday and they would want to know how my night turned out with Jared.

Would they know it wasn’t me who was answering them?

Devin chuckled darkly. “Jared’s going to get the fourth-degree tomorrow. Fucker deserves far worse for trying to steal what’s mine.”

“What did you do?” I breathed.

He leaned in and tilted his head so I had a fully unobstructed view of his face in the lamplight. I pressed myself into the wall.

I’d broken his nose, hadn’t I?

I’d seen it split. Seen the blood spray from his nostrils.

But as I watched him carefully from my place against the wall, I noted there wasn’t even a scratch on him. Not even a drop of dried blood.

Apparently, they healed very fast. Noted.

“I can’t believe you were staying with him,” Devin snarled in disdain. “Of all people, Allie. Why him?”

I was afraid to answer. I didn’t want to provoke his wrath. I decided to lie, instead. “H-He offered, that’s all. I didn’t have any place else to go.”

Seemingly placated by my response, he pursed his lips and tilted his head, sighing. “It doesn’t matter now, anyway…”

My heart was battering at my ribcage. I thought for certain he would be able to hear it in the echoing space. It was all I could hear in the intermittent silence.

The drip of water from some unseen source above and the constant, hurried thudding of my pulse shoving blood through my veins seemed loud in my own head.

“Devin,” I pressed, trying to maintain a facade of calm even though a million other emotions were clawing for their chance to be heard. Pain. Anger. Fear. Hurt. The list was endless.

I could show none of them. I could show nothing that would provoke the demon slumbering beneath the surface of Devin’s flesh. If he lost it in here, I’d never make it out.

“Hmm?” he replied absently, pressing his thumb and index finger into his eye sockets.

I swallowed hard and dug my fingernails into the stone to steady myself. “What am I doing here?”

He didn’t answer, only released his hand and gazed up at me from his perch between his knees curiously.

“What are you going to do to me?”

Devin clucked his tongue and sat up straighter. “He really didn’t tell you about me, did he?”