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Chapter 40

Alisha felt emptiness all around her. The last thing she remembered was the sound of a gun drilling in her ears before she fell into total unconsciousness. She tried to clear her head but it was impossible. It was as if his body was floating in the middle of the ocean.

He searched hard through his bond for his partner. He found nothing. It wasn’t as if she didn’t feel him either. It was as if she couldn’t reach him. At least the mark was still pulsing on his neck, indicating that he was still alive. But where.

Using all the effort he could muster, he forced himself to move. He stretched out his leg carefully to feel a cold, rough surface on the bare sole of his foot. Slowly she opened her eyes and it took her almost a minute to focus on her surroundings.

-Are you awake?” she recognised the voice instantly and tilted her head in that direction, causing the muscles in her neck to protest.

-Blaren,” she said in a mushy voice.

She saw him sigh in relief.

-You’ve been unconscious for three days, I was afraid you wouldn’t make it,” the wolf looked at her warmly and it seemed as if the weight of his shoulders melted away.

-Where are we?” Alisha shook her head dizzily. She didn’t recognise the scents around her and could barely organise her thoughts.

-I think you know that better than I do,” she said.

The woman blinked and looked around, swallowing an exclamation.

At the moment they were both locked in a cage two metres wide by six metres long, with a ceiling so low that it only allowed them to sit upright. Ideal for animals, claustrophobic for humans and plus two. The surface of the cell was rough and damp, leaving a dark stain on the edge of his arm. His clothes had been changed to two simple pieces of white cloth covering from his neck to his knees, in his case shorter and accompanied by a pair of trousers.

The outside was dimly lit by the light of a bulb in the ceiling. Unadorned grey walls, totally sterile, three or four tables here and there filled with wires and various medical instruments, some of them beyond imagination. And at the back a door, the only way into the place.

Alisha moved, trying to sit up. Blaren grabbed her arms and helped her until her back was against one of the bars. She felt as if her body wanted to give out at any moment. The wounds she had suffered were covered by bandages under the cloth and she feared they might open at any moment.

-I’m thirsty,” he said without realizing it, his throat dry and seeming to swallow sand.

-I’m sorry,” Blaren spoke in a whisper, “I don’t think we have that privilege.

-What happened, where are the others, where’s Christian,” panic seized her chest and memories of the night of the attack came rushing back to her.

-They managed to escape,” the wolf calmed her down, “Thanks to Eagle and Raudo.

Alisha looked at him in confusion.

-They are wolves from another pack, apparently they had seen movement and arrived in time with some of their pack. I don’t know the details, by the time they arrived someone had injected me with a sedative after throwing my brother out of the room to get him to safety after he was attacked. I can tell he’s fine.

Blaren’s words, though reassuring, didn’t put her at ease.

-You know what those things were,” she said of the attackers.

Alisha was slow to respond. She lowered her head and pushed her tangled hair back.

-They’re experiments on wolf b***d,” she said.

-Experiments?” Now he was the one with the unknown.

-I can’t give you much detail, because I don’t know them, I don’t have many memories of when I was a child apart from what I’ve seen in the visions, I only know that they’re my father’s work.

-And we thought your existence was already rare.

Blaren hadn’t realised the repercussions of her comment until he heard her apologise.

-Hey, you don’t have to do that,” she didn’t know how to respond.

-This is all my fault, if I hadn’t been in the house with you none of this would be happening and no one would have been hurt,” she remembered the wounds on Cristian’s skin and the ones that Blaren and the rest were sure to have as well.

-Alisha,” the wolf crawled over and knelt down in front of her, taking her by the shoulders.

-You’re not to blame for anything. Did you know this was going to happen? No. Besides, if you leave my brother’s side, I’m the one who’ll find you and bring you back.

-But-

-No buts, you don’t know how many years I’ve been waiting to see the genuine smile on his lips and the happiness in his eyes, just to have you. So I promise to get you out of here and take you to him, even if it costs me my life. So I need you to stay strong no matter what, we don’t know what will happen. Our priority is to stay alive.

He saw her nod slowly and he smiled.

It was at that moment that the sound of the door was heard and they both became alert. The figure of a tall man followed by two scientists stopped in front of them with an air of authority. Alisha clenched her fist until her palm bled and her whole body broke out in a cold sweat. The man simply smiled a faint, b***d-chilling smile. Blaren stood in front of her blocking her but a rod pierced the bars and whipped him with a strong electric shock that threw him into the other corner.

-Blaren,” she was about to go to his side in alarm when the rod came up to her chin, releasing tiny sparks and returning her to her position against the bar.

-I advise you to calm down and cooperate my beautiful daughter. A family reunion should not be so hectic.

Blaren began to sit up, trembling on the spot. A dark line ran down her arm leaving a painful mark. At the word daughter she raised her head quickly, her eyes wide in disbelief.

-You know, I would have liked to have caught more werewolf specimens alive like your mate, so my plans would have succeeded, but now I’ll settle for the two of you,” apparently they had confused the twins, “After all, he is a pure wolf and you,” he knelt down, “the best result of my experiment.

Alisha swallowed hard and her head began to ache. Those smells she didn’t recognise before for some reason were beginning to make more sense.

Her father pushed the wand away and sat up, picking up a suitcase that one of his companions had brought with him. He opened it and took out something resembling a small slender device.

-I’ve been waiting a long time for you to wake up, otherwise I wouldn’t be interested,” he brought it to his lips and blew in Blaren’s direction, letting out something very fast that embedded itself in the wolf’s neck.

A snarl escaped his lips and he pulled it out, throwing it aside as his body swayed.

-Our work today is done,” the man clapped his hands in pleasure, “I’ll leave you two alone to let the drug work its wonders, it was a pleasure to see you again my dear. See you later.

And with the same he left the place leaving them again in that slight gloom.

-Blaren,” Alisha called out to him as she caught her breath, “Blaren,” she received no answer either time.

She only saw in the shadows the wolf’s eyes turn intensely golden and his breath come out in a puff of smoke as he let out a whimper, the whimper of an excited wolf.

Note: the end is almost near, after a year of writing this story which was the first one I officially published.

Thank you for coming this far with me. Lots of k****s and we’ll continue