The Stinky Life I've Accepted

Chapter 5: Shifter Trouble!

Ryker

I am placed back in the cage gently, the boys making sure there were a lot of blankets and padding underneath me beforehand. 

My body aches from being stabbed by multiple needles, which I have considered too many to count. And let's not forget the item they forced inside me...I whimper at the reminder of such a nasty intrusion. 

The muzzle back around my mouth is proof that I was not happy about it. Along with the bandage on the blonde guy's arm. 

He doesn't seem to care as he pets me for a bit, humming along while the other boy disappears for a bit before re-appearing again with a bowl in his hands. 

He sets it down on the floor of the cage, and I stare at the pile of large food, even if it's only dry pebbles. The petting continues as I hesitantly poke my muzzled snout in, sniffing it. 

"Now that there's food, little guy, you won't bite me?" The blonde kid chuckles as he undoes the muzzle and draws away. 

I immediately dig in, the sensation of eating a full meal unusual and strange, but in a very good way. 

When I am finished, I have noticed that the boys have left, and content with my full stomach, I curl up and fall asleep.

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I wake up to the smell of shifters. And not the old faint smell I got earlier, but more so a present smell. Hissing, I scramble to the back of the cage, hunkering down. "Wow. You found all these little guys?" A deep voice asks. My bones aches at the sound, and I grit my small skunk teeth. 

"Yes. And we're still finding more. It's like something is drawing them in." A familiar voice says and a group of men and a few women appears, starting to walk down the aisle my cage is placed within.  

The "doc," whom I learned to hate early on, is leading them before the group stops suddenly, sniffing and tensing. 

"Dr. Kilstone, I think I know why." The deep voice says, belonging to a large man in the front, whose power and authority is radiating off in waves. 

An Alpha. Dr. Kilstone blinks and pales. 

"Ah, you mean a rogue shifter?" Two men break apart from the group, and I recognize them as trackers as they start walking down the aisle, sniffing and scent marking. 

I tremble all over, begging for their noses to be wrong just this once. But no. They stop right in front of my cage and peer in, their eyes wide and curious. 

"Alpha." One of them whispers with awe and the group walks up. The "doc" peers in, and smiles. "Well that explains some things. I was wondering why he was so skinny, and he seemed smart. He even calmed down in the hands of one of our interns." The guy explains as I huddle there, frozen with fear. 

The stench of these shifters are nauseating and disgusting. "Alpha, I wouldn't say rogue exactly. More like feral." One of the trackers mutters as the large man stares at me. 

"Yes. A feral male omega skunk shifter. Never heard that before." He mutters and something immediately clicks. 

The man widens his eyes, and breathes in deeply. 

"And my mate."