Discovering his mate - A Silver Shifter Series 4

Chapter 12 - Nina

I always wondered what my mother felt when she was stuck in the house. Everything burning around her, no way out, knowing that she was going to die. I suppose it wasn't the death part that was making me afraid right now. It was the unknown torture that this person could bring on me and my father. I had never met a female shifter before, and she was nothing I had ever imagined. They all told me that female shifters were crazy, you couldn't have a normal conversation with them, and that you couldn't even go near them without them attacking you. That female shifters were more animal than human. Dolly Dunin was nothing like that. She spoke clearly, even with a sense of elegance and understanding. She listened, she didn't attack us or touch us in any way. I suppose you didn't need to when you had a gun. I found it strange that she had a gun. I would have gone with her even if she didn't have one. I couldn't win a fight against a female shifter.

From where I sat, I could just see over the ledge, as I watched the house burn down. As I watched the lion gang trying to put it out and the arrival of the police officers. I wanted to yell for them, scream out for Todd but I knew they wouldn't be able to hear me. After she had made us change into plain grey sweat suits, she threw our clothes in the house. She did the same as she did with my house. Covered it with kerosene and through in a Molotov cocktail. The house exploded with such force. I doubt they would even find the clothes when the fire died down.

The cave that we stood on now was on a trail that went from the plantation to the protected forest. I could tell that no one had been up here in a while as the trail was overgrown and difficult to walk through. I was no hiker. I wish I had gone to the station to get my phone before I saw Dad. At least then I would have been able to contact someone, prank the station or message anyone. There were so many times during the walk-up that I would have been able to send a message without her knowing. Then at least we would have stood a chance of being found. No one was going to be able to discover us, up here in the mountains.

Dad had a hard time walking through the trail, he had fallen a few times. Even though my dad was strong, he had been a labour and fighter all his life. He was ageing, he couldn't handle the long uphill walks or scrambling up a mountainside. He had cuts on his legs and arms, he also had a bruise forming on his face from where he fell. I had no hope of anyone finding us up here. I tried to talk to Dad about running for it, but he said she would outrun us. That she would be able to scent us and track us down. There was no way to get free of her and even if we did, we were in a dense forest. Unless we know how to get out. There was no way we were going to make it safely. It seemed to take hours to get to the cave. She had walked up to us in the aged care centre like she was a resident. Interrupted the yelling match that Dad and I were having. I thought she was a resident; she was old enough to be one. Though Dad knew straight away that it wasn't another resident. He had pulled me behind him and tried to get her to leave me behind. But there was no way I was going to stay while she tortures and killed him.

When we got to the cave, she made Dad tie me to the chair, hitting him every time he didn't do it tight enough or correctly. The cave itself was not very deep, it had a fire pit to one side and a bundle of blankets on the other, which I assumed was her bed. There was also a bucket of water in one corner and piles of old bones in the other. There was also a smell, mostly of an unwashed person and animal waste. It was all I could see from the chair that was tied too.

Dad was chained in a shifter gag, though she had beat him for nearly thirty minutes before putting him in it. I could tell by just looking at him that his leg was broken, and his left shoulder was dislocated. His nose was covered in dry blood, from having his nose broken again and again. It was horrible to see. I learnt that shifters could heal quickly, usually within minutes of the injury being caused. However, that was for minor things like cuts, wounds, or minor breaks like a nose or a finger. Long bone fractures or penetrating wounds can take longer, up to a day. When Dad has originally attacked his heart healed quickly but the deep wound that opened his chest took nearly a whole day to repair. I knew that his dislocation wouldn't heal on its own, even though it would try. Even if we did get out of this, I wouldn't be able to carry him down the mountain.