Comfortably Numb

Lya

If my counting was correct, today was the summer solstice. My birthday.

Interrogations were well underway.

I wanted to go home.

I understood what the shackles on the walls were for. It was so I couldn’t try and get away or fight back when they tried to beat answers out of me.

Lying was getting harder.

Tala was playing her part, obediently staying locked away and not healing anything, but I could tell it was getting harder for her, too.

The silver earrings, necklace, and bracelet set I had on had been torn away. I knew what they wanted - they wanted me to shift, admit I was a werewolf, and then ideally comply with their demands to try and get them to kill me. But we had suspected that when we came up with this plan, and I knew that I would let myself be killed before I gave up the pack.

The longer I was here, though, the more I wondered why we didn’t go with Trevor’s suggestion - lead them to the pack, and then destroy them on our own turf. At the time, I had adamantly refused that notion - I wasn’t about to okay us putting the entire pacl at risk. I still stood by that, but man would this be easier if we had planned for that.

I hadn’t seen outside so I didn’t know the exact topography we were dealing with, but I knew this area was just prairie land. That would just make blowing this popsicle stand all the harder.

It was impossible to get an idea of how many hunters were here, too. The only people I really saw were Alex Marsan and the silent guard that seemed to be around twenty four seven. It seemed there must be a handful of other hunters here, though, because a menagerie of different people would be the ones to bring food.

The last time I saw Alex, he brought a silver knife with him. He cut deep into my skin. I screamed, because getting fileted hurts, but he insisted it was the silver that was bothering me.

“Can’t you see she’s just human?” Danica shrieked. “Stop with the torture and just let her go!”

I felt bad. Her defense of me resulted in her just getting thrown against a wall and nearly knocked out. At least her wolf was fully present to get her patched up.
I cringed as I heard the door to our cell block open, stuffing myself further into the corner farthest from the door. I was still bruised and bloody from the previous day’s interrogation, and I was not ready for more. What was the likelihood that I could ask for a shower and some stitches, for my birthday? I hid my face in the oversized sweatshirt I refused to take off. Oliver’s scent had long worn off his sweatshirt and shirt I wore here, but I could still pretend it smelled like him.

“Lya,” Alex sneered, looking down on me through the bars. “You know, maybe I was a little unfair to you. I should have told you from the get go that we know you’re lying, and how we know you’re lying.”

My eyes grew wide. The pack. They couldn’t have actually gotten their hands on anyone from the pack, could they? My mind immediately went to Oliver. In all his rage, did he end up getting captured? I bit down on my lower lip, scared to hear just what they had over my head.

“That right there - that reaction is all we needed to know,” he chuckled. He crouched down, getting on eye level with me. “But why lie, my dear? We’ve told you how much more comfortable life here will be if you just work with us.”

I lifted my lip and growled at him. “What you want me to do is genocide, and I will not be a part of that.”

“Genocide, you say?” He paused, looking as if he was actually contemplating what I said. “I would actually argue we are doing the human race a favor, removing their only predator.”

I scoffed. Werewolves, a predator? All we did was look out for our own. The only humans that ever got killed in that endeavor were the ones hunting us. We didn’t start the war, but we were more than willing to end it.

“Is that why you hunters decided they needed to destroy a pack that was keeping the local communities alive?” I spat. I stood up. At that moment, I was willing to go toe to toe with him. “What was it that caused a group of humans to torture and destroy an entire pack of dogooders? You know, those people they helped fell into famine and the entire towns fell to rot after that. Was it jealousy? If the history books got it right, you went after the pups and the sick first. Even then, they didn’t seek retribution. They just tried to escape, giving you hunters space. What’s your reasoning now? Are you just scared, maybe some werewolf will come knocking on your door to collect on their debts?”

“Ah, the Wulvers,” he said with a smile. “So you know. Well Lya, we do have a birthday present for you. He should be by soon. I look forward to our next chat.”

Alex turned and left the cell block, leaving just us two prisoners and our guard. I scanned my eyes over the room, looking for a reaction. The usually statue-like guard leaned back against the wall, offering me one curt nod. I kept my eyes on him for a moment longer. Two foot taps. I let out a sigh of relief.

But Danica was wide eyed and confused. “Y-you’re a werewolf” she stuttered. I just shrugged my shoulders, neither confirming nor denying.

“How do you hide your wolf? You just smell human.”

I offered the kid a half smile. “Maybe I’m just an ally then. You don’t have to be a werewolf to think kidnapping and killing innocents is wrong - no matter the species.”

Danica sat back against the wall, clearly lost in thought. Carefully, I started poking around the walls built up closing off Tala, making sure there were no cracks or holes she could slip through.

That was close.

It was one thing for them to know I was a werewolf. It was another thing for me to wolf out and make them think I was an unstable werewolf. Tala was on my side here, though, and I truly believed she would do her best to make sure things stayed under control. We both had the disadvantage of the same things pissing us off.

I leaned against the bars of the cell, trying to get a closer look at Danica. Her eyes grew hard, though.

“I don’t believe you’re a werewolf if you can touch silver like that,” she stated.

I let out a long sigh. This kid was clearly not my insider. “Danica, did you grow up in a pack?” I asked.

“Yeah, I did,” she muttered, eyes glazing over. “It was a really nice pack, too.”

This piqued my curiosity. Since living at Snow Moon, the reasons people left pack life interested me. “What happened?”

“Rogue attack. About nine years ago now.”

I wanted to press for details, but I felt like they wouldn't come, so I let it be. So, my birthday slipped away slowly. I bit back a flash of resentment that raged through me. Why did it have to be me here?

Life at the pack was supposed to be when I changed my life for myself. No more moping and hiding. Start putting myself first sometimes. Make real friends. For the most part, I had made pretty good headway on fixing myself, yet here I was - taking one for the team I just figured out I was on less than two months ago.

Thoughts of Oliver swarmed my mind. We were going to take a mini vacation up to Norridge for my birthday. Maybe he went without me. I wondered if he would move on now that I was out of the picture.

Jealousy reared its ugly head, though, curling its claws around my chest. How long would it take for him to kiss someone else? Would he take them to our spot along the river?
Flames roared across my body, but not the kind Oliver’s touch would ignite. These were a raging inferno, threatening to burn me alive.

I could feel Tala pacing, begging to be let out. Her anxiety creeped in and mingled with my own. I fell to my knees, fighting the urge to shift and hunt down whatever was causing this insufferable pain. But as the clawing in my chest got harsher and the burning across my body took over, I felt canines descending and claws breaking skin.

It was so all consuming that I didn’t even notice someone entering my cell. All I could think about was the fur beginning to sprout out along my arms. The concussion against the wall and hands around my throat cutting off my oxygen pulled me out of the oblivion just enough to start getting a handle on my wolf. My tongue and throat burned as something metallic was stuffed in my mouth.

“Control yourself, Luna,” the person ground out through his teeth. “You know he wouldn’t betray his fated.”

And just like that, I was free from his grip. I crumpled up on the floor and watched as the guard turned and exited the cell, returning to his position, again unmoving.

One curt nod and two foot taps.

I’d get out of here.

And then I would kill her.

“L-luna?” Danica stuttered. “How did you get here?”

I shot a glare over at her. “It’s a long story.

“What pack?” she asked. “Why don’t you smell like a wolf?”

I let out a sigh. “That’s for me to know. Please just trust me.” I was asking a whole lot of people to trust me recently, and to be honest, I was starting to wonder if I was worth trusting. It sure seemed like this mess was a lot more than we signed up for.

Danica glanced over to the guard. “Is he part of your pack, too?”

I bit my lip, thinking over this response. Our mole was a Wulver, I knew that. I was definitely linked to the Wulver Pack, but was I actually in the pack? “Yes,” I said slowly. “Kind of.”

Danica looked frantic. “Really, Lya, I have to know. What pack? They’ll come for you, and I don’t know if I’ll be safe here when they do.”

I let out a short laugh. “You seriously think you’re safer with hunters than you are a werewolf pack?”

“I’m a rogue, Lya!” she hissed.

“Oh.” I bit my lip. “You are just fine with my pack, I can promise you that.”

Danica scoffed, turning away from me. “Not likely. I can think of exactly one pack that doesn’t have it out for rogues, and that’s the pack that took mine over when my dad died.”

I studied the girl carefully, dots starting to connect. I let it be, though. I didn’t exactly want to talk, either. I just curled up in the corner of the cell, nursing my own wounds.
The Runaway Rogue
Detail
Share
Font Size
40
Bgcolor