Trapped

*Eli*

A sharp pain hits the top of my skull. In front of me I see nothing but tree bark, so I try to turn my head, but the pain intensifies. I guess I hit the tree head on, so I'm pretty surprised to be awake. I move what I remember as my broken leg last time, but now it's a hand, so I must have pas...ed out and returned to my human form at some point.

How long have I been unconscious?

Kelly!

I must move now, as I need to see if she is okay; I need to help her. I use my good hand, which at this point isn't much better than the other, to push against the tree and try to get up and turn at the same time. But something stops me.

“The piece of shit is awake,” says a hoarse voice right above me, and now I can feel that whoever it is is holding me down with a huge muddy boot.

Some dust catches in my throat, I cough, and I keep trying to get up or at least turn around to see who is holding me down. The male voice is definitely unfamiliar.

I feel someone else approaching and another man says, "That seems like one we should worry about." Nathan! Bring the kit.

A kit, that should be a first aid kit. But if they're here to help me, why is this guy holding me down with his foot?

'Kelly!' I call on the mental link, but she doesn't answer. I try to contact some of the others who were with me, and they are all quiet; I feel a knot growing in my stomach as I imagine what happened to them. Finally, the guy lets go of me, and I turn and sit up, instantly seeing why my sister and packmates haven't responded.

They are all tied up and unconscious.

The second man laughs. "Yes, we have your friends, and we also have you," he says. "That'll teach all you damn rich pack-loving kids to come to our territory!"

I look at Kelly, who is bleeding from the head and has her hands tied behind her back. She's unconscious, and I breathe a sigh of relief as I watch the gentle rise and fall of her chest. She is alive. Apparently, she hasn't transformed, so she's fully clothed, unlike me right now.

The man follows my gaze, and smiles widely to show a mouth full of rotten teeth. "Oh, you like the girl, huh?" Is she your girl?

I glare at him and finally find my voice. "She needs medical attention!" he shouted.

"Oh, it'll be fine," he says. —Head injuries are complicated. They look much worse than they are. But you have bigger problems, big guy.

"Who are you?" I ask.

Series. “See, that's the problem,” she says. "You should know exactly who the hell I am because I run this territory, and you're pas...ing through it without authorization."

“It means you didn't ask for permission,” says the first man who had set foot on me.

“I know what it means,” I say.

"Oh, the smart guy thinks he's better than us," the first man shouts. "Just because we didn't have a fancy school to go to doesn't mean you're better than us!"

“I didn't say it was,” I say. I can't believe she's wasting her time on these... renegades, they must be... when I need to get to Kamila. The pain in my head is throbbing, and I feel a little sick, but I gather my strength for the words I need to say next. “I need to know how mine are,” I say with authority, using my ET1 voice. —Why are they all unconscious?

The second man laughs. “Oh, looks like we have an ET1 here, guys,” he says out loud, then he looks at me. —Nathan, where the hell are you?!

“Here, Pete, sir,” says a young guy holding an old tackle box and running toward us.

“We don't need ET1s here, rich boy,” says the second man, Pete, as he steps aside to let the boy approach.

“Somehow you seem to be the ET1,” I say. —If you are so independent, why are you together as a pack?

I try to transform but my head is so dizzy I can't concentrate, and the boy, Nathan, has already opened his box and is pulling out what appears to be a giant syringe.

“Hurry up,” Pete tells him.

Everything starts to look blurry, and I take one last look at Kelly before the world goes black.

***

I wake up again, and this time I'm in a room of some kind, and now my head hurts even more. I hope they didn't really stick me with that dirty needle since I pas...ed out on my own, although I fear that's what they did to Kelly.

I look down and see that I'm wearing ratty, dirty sweatpants, so at least I have some clothes on, but all I can think about is Kelly, and Kamila, and the rest of my people. I gotta wake up; I can't just lie here when everyone needs me.

'Kelly!' I scream again into the mental link.

'Here,' he replies, weakly.

'Oh, thank the Goddess!' say. 'Are you OK?'

'I'm fine,' he says. 'I'm in some room alone. And you?'

'Same,' I tell him. 'Is everyone okay?'

'Trevor does, and a couple of the others,' he says. 'But I can't contact Ben or Liam. His accident seemed pretty serious, and I think they are...'.

She stays quiet, but I know what she means. Although Kamila and her cubs are always at the forefront of my mind, my people here need me first to get them out of here... wherever 'here' is. 'What do you know about these renegades?' I ask him.

'Nothing,' he says. 'I didn't even know they were here. However, they have women and children here. I woke up right before they took us inside, and this looks like some old, abandoned hotel or something. I never knew there was anything around here.'

'I guess we're all in separate hotel rooms then,' I say. Looking around, I can now see that the broken and dirty furniture in the room was once pretty, like what you would find in a luxury resort. I've never heard of anything like that around here either, but then again, we're pretty far out of Gene's territory, and I'm not familiar with anything in this direction.

'Can you get up and walk?' I ask him.

'Yes, but there's a guard outside.'

'I probably have more than one, then,' I say. 'Can you shapeshift?'

'I haven't tried it. One second,' he says. A few seconds later she says, 'Yes.'

'Okay, I'll try the others.' I contact Trevor and the other warriors who accompanied Kelly, except Ben and Liam, whose families I'll have to contact later, and they're all in enough shape to shapeshift, so we discuss a plan to get out of here. We're far more experienced in organized combat than a group of renegades, but I don't take for granted anyone who's had to fight just to stay alive for who knows how long.

Not to mention my head is still spinning, and my hand is mangled. I'm not exactly in fighting shape.

The doorknob turns, and I prepare to shift, but when I see who comes in, I stop myself. He is young, maybe sixteen or seventeen years old, and is holding a basket with what appears to be medical supplies.

And she looks terrified.

He approaches me, slowly. “And—I'm here to heal your hand,” she says softly.

I nod, but for now I don't say anything. Why would they send a young girl alone with an ET1? They've never seen me before, and it could be someone like Kane for all they know. Whoever this Pete guy is, he's putting his people at risk for no reason.

We say nothing else as she applies herbal ointment and wraps my hand in gauze that doesn't exactly look sterile. I wonder why they are wasting their supplies on me when they obviously have so little. I decide I could probably get some information from her.

"What's your name?" I ask.

“H—Heather,” he says.

“Hi Heather,” I say. “I'm Eli.” There is a pause as she continues wrapping my hand. “I never knew about this place,” I say. "How long have you been out here?"

"I don't know," he says. —Forever, for me.

"Were you born here?" I ask.

“Y—yes,” he says. —I mean, as far as I know. “I've never been anywhere else.” He finishes and closes his box, giving me a shy smile without making eye contact before walking out the door.

'What happened?' Kelly asks in the mental link.

'They sent a young woman to wrap my hand,' I say.

'A girl? Alone with a strange ET1? They are crazy?' ask.

'I'm starting to think about it,' I say. 'We have to get out of here as soon as possible.'

Just then the door opens again, but this time it's Pete and two tall, thin men.