CHAPTER 73

The words hit me like a physical blow. This strong, terrible thing that wound its way around my heart. I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe.

Just like he intended.

"Time to bring the merchandise home," he grinned before slamming something to the ground.

Shit. I'd been too wound up in his words, in our emotions, to notice the device, almost orb-like in shape. It flattened when it hit the floor...

I screamed, unable to help myself, all of my senses on overload. Needles pierced my skull, drowning out the other sounds in the room, my vision blurry and doubled as a high pitched screaming siren rendered me unable to barely move.

The wolf in front of me was bent over too, uncomfortable, his face twisted into a grimace, but he was not debilitated.

My wolf howled in agony, writhing painfully inside my mind.

What the hell was happening?

"The doc didn't create weapons without a kill switch," the murderer taunted, in my blurred vision I could see him shake his head violently. "Shit, that fucking hurts," he grinned stalking toward me, still bent over slightly. "I can't imagine what it's like for someone with enhanced senses. Probably absolute hell."

He charged, and I reeled to the side, but not fast enough. His body slammed into mine and we both hit the concrete pillar behind me. Pain split up my side, sharp and vivid, making it suddenly hard to breathe. At the same time a searing, burning sensation opened up on my left where the wolf stabbed me with something.

My eyes glazed slightly. I could taste blood in my mouth and a wetness crept down my neck from my ears. I wheezed in a breath as well as I could and swung back, but my movements were sloppy. The world was spinning, nothing staying where it was meant to stay.

Suddenly I was belted from the side. I hadn't even seen him move. I tried to catch my balance but ended up tripping over something on the floor. I fell, hard, unable to catch myself properly.

"It must be somewhat of a letdown," he stood over me. "One day you're the peak of creation. The most powerful creature on this known earth, then you're stolen away by some asshats with a conscience. All that enhancement, all the training, wasted. And by the time you even realize what happened, they've moved on to something even bigger and better."

I scrambled to stand, but a boot to my side had me sprawling, this time I heard the bones crack. I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out at least one sense that was now working against me.

An experiment.

It couldn't be. An orphan I'd come to terms with, an outcast too, but this...

Why hadn't they told me? They'd known, and they'd kept it from me. Left me to flounder and suffer alone, completely lost in the world. And now this...

I hoped Aiden's men hurried.

I must have glanced toward the door or something because the man above me chuckled.

"Oh, we were prepared for your friends. They're getting a special treatment right now, all six of them." He crouched down. "I'm afraid no one will be coming to help you."

Fuck. Shit.

Get us over to the device. My wolf gritted.

Hope flitted in my chest. Because that was one talent we had that I would bet he hadn't prepared for. All his fancy toys were electronic.

And without them, he would be nothing.

"Now, I do have a directive to bring you in alive," he crouched, just out of reach. Confident in my state of disablement. "It would be better for you if you simply cooperated, but I'm willing to bet that you wont. Because that's not the way you were built. Blood always tells true, after all."

I didn't open my eyes, it hurt too damned much and it was making me nauseus. But I followed my wolf's guidance when I turned and snapped at the man.

I didn't reach him of course. He was too quick, and prepared for an attack and my movements were too sloppy, but I had edged almost three feet closer to the device.

Not close enough, my wolf was panting now, her pain tolerance was high, but this was edging in on even her abilities. The sound...and whatever else was coming from that little disc, was like razor blades, that were pelting us and then slicing from the inside out.

"That's what I thought," the murderer's voice held false disappointment, he closed in on me again, a good boot in my side sending what felt like shards of glass through my chest. He must have bent over me, because his voice came from directly above where I huddled. "I guess we'll have to play a little first. I wonder if the theives wore off on you at all. You called them your parents, didn't you? Do you think you can beg as prettily as your 'mother'?"

The image of my mother, begging for mercy, her dark curly hair tangled in blood from her battered face. Her dark eyes wide with fear...

*'You don't need to prove anything, Raven, my girl.' Mother was kneeling in front of us. She was a sort of frail, plain looking woman, with dark curls that were always bound in a tight bun, her features hidden behind a set of huge glasses that she shouldn't have needed, but somehow did. To everyone else in the pack she was unimpressive, her wolf was weak, she was only nominally attractive, she despised hunting, and was terrified of confrontation.*

*She had none of the qualities that the Cedar pack valued, but to me she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Full of the softness and gentle understanding that I so desperately needed.*

*'They think I'm weak,' I growled at her, my little ten year old hands balled up into fists.*

*'So let them. They will think whatever they will think. You can never prove your worth to someone who refuses to see it, Raven, it's a waste of your time. But here's the thing.'*

*She put her hand on either side of my face, which was wet with tears of frustration.*

*'The only one who needs to know who you are is you. And I'm going to tell you something. You are worth more than any of those girls combined, worth more than the entire pack. You are stronger too, you are so strong that sometimes it scares me. And that is something you have to know, but keep locked up in your heart. You cannot challenge them. Not any of them...'*

I screamed and inside my wolf howled. Partly in pain from the needle like blades that were scrambling our mind, and partly in rage. He tried to make them into thieves. Into something simple, with me being nothing more than a coveted possession.

But he was wrong.

I wasn't sure why they had done what they had, but they'd cared for me..for us. I knew they did, because we could still feel it. The only people who ever had. And now they were gone, and it was because. of. him.
We opened our eyes, and, even through the spinning and tossing of the room around us, latched onto his.

Fury. Unbridled fury as we pushed my pain, my anguish at him. Every searing hurt, every betrayal, every deep, dark emotion that possessed us came bursting forth as I screamed again.

His eyes widened, his pupils going dark, the whites around his irises growing. Even in the chaos we could hear his heart slam against his ribs, his breathing turned sharp.

"You want me to beg?" I growled at him, and my voice was not my own. It was dark and husky, filled with the pain and rage of a tortured beast. "Then please, let me show you what pain really is."

Then we were doing something I couldn't describe. We held his gaze, even when he tried to tear away from us, we wouldn't let him, and we felt. No more shoving things down, no hiding our emotions away, every single thing we pushed at him, harder and faster.

A drop of blood, thick and heavy leaked from his nose, but still we pushed. Somewhere a man was screaming in agony, and it took us a moment to realize that man was him, and we kept going anyway. We remembered the day we'd found our parents, broken in their own home, scrambling to get away from whatever had found them, we remembered their blood, remembered digging their graves, alone and dirty and wild with grief.

"S..s...s..st...stop...stoooooop.." he managed.

We laughed, but it wasn't a kind sound. It was the deranged sound of someone who'd finally broke. Who the world had pushed to the very brink and then shoved over the edge.

"Would you like to beg?"

Tears, true pained tears, leaked from the corner of his eyes.

It should have felt good. Righteous, like justice served. We could draw this out, make him suffer like they did, like we did.

The disk fell silent, and it was like the weight of the world lifted. We almost collapsed with relief, but we didn't relax enough to let our hold on this murderer go.

*We have nothing to prove*, my wolf echoed my mother's words and I wondered if she had seen the same memory.

Still we held him, no longer forcing our pain on him, but not letting him go either.

"Where is Thostchild?" I demanded.

"New York State, near Oswego. The facility is beneath Lake Ontario," the tears were coming faster now and I was certain he wasn't meaning to spill the information.

"What the hell do they want with me?"

"Experimentation, I imagine. You were taken before your abilities peaked. The doctor will be curious. Once he's discovered what you're capable of he will cull you, just like he did the rest."

The rest. There were more like me.

"Like the werejaguar."

"Two Sixteen. Yes, he should be the last of your generation."

"What was our purpose? Why create...us?"

"Power. If they could make you stronger. Fit. Indestructible. Then we would have advantage over other nations raising their own freaks. Especially if they could reproduce the results, or breed..."

I was starting to lose him. His words were worming through me, pulling away my determination, my focus. I had one last question.

"You said they had something bigger and better, what is it?"

His eyes had been focused on mine the entire time, but I could feel his resistance double, his fear skyrocket.

"No one knows what they are."

He tore his gaze from mine and spat to the side, a bloody stream hitting the floor. I'd pushed us past both his limit and our own.

I swayed to my feet.

He lunged at me, but this time he was the one disoriented, and while I was injured and exhausted, he was no match for my speed. I slipped around his strike, a sharp claw extended...and then hesitated. I'd never killed with my bare hands before.

*He'll never stop hunting us*, my wolf told me. *We have no choice, it's him or us.*

She was right, I could feel it down to my very bones.

I took no pleasure in the swipe that took the majority of his throat, there was no satisfaction, no relief. I severed his head for good measure, but it only left me numb.

Revenge was a cold bitch.