When the Stars Align

Chapter 8

      'Urgh, I feel like shit!' thought Diana as she woke in one of the many rooms in the compound. It was a room for hosting small gatherings in order to show off some of the "merchandise" to possible buyers. It had been an awful week of constant buyers using her to do stunts, tricks, and modeling. The man who had stopped by days prior had her show off at an underground meeting for the most wicked of men and women around the world. More like the men and women of the underworld of humanity. Politicians, mafia leaders, court officials, and even those of top government police, if memory serves correctly it was called the FBI and CIA.

      Diana's body was still in her cheetah form with the blasted muzzle on her face. A studded green collar around her neck attached to a chain leash attached to the floor anchor so there was no way for her to make an escape attempt. It was a 'gift' from that businessman, and the Hunter/Huntress association decided to keep it on her in hopes of it pleasing more buyers.

       Just as Diana was starting to get her bearings, the door was slammed open and Ashley walked in. "Get up you worthless piece of shit! Time for you to return to your home! Oh, I mean cage, but what's the difference to you? It will be your home till the end of your days," Ashley smirked as she unhooked the chain leash and started to make her way out of the room without giving Diana a chance to get her footing. This caused the poor cheetah to twist her foot and pain coursed through her being. She held in her whimper as she didn't want to feed into Ashley's sadistic pleasure. She just continued to follow to her cage in hopes of getting an actual decent sleep before another customer came.

      Making her way down the few halls, she finally saw the door that led to the basement. Right after Ashley opened the door, Diana went to take a step but then was forcefully pushed down the stairs. Each step dug into different parts of her body before she crumbled at the bottom. Diana felt like the world was spinning before her eyes and there was a loud ringing in her ears. She couldn't even make out Ashley's dark laughter in the background along with a few whimpers from her fellow shifters who witnessed the abuse brought upon her. "Stupid bitch, GET THE HELL UP! It was barely anything compared to what might happen later. Now hurry the fuck up I ain't got all day!" Ashely grumbled as she noticed the damn girl not getting up to be locked away.

      It took another moment before Diana was able to get up and move to her cage. She thought she was doing pretty good moving but the rest watched as she swayed left to right with a limp to her cage. It was obvious that it was taking all of her energy to make it. Once she was inside, she collapsed on the floor not bothering to get in a more comfortable position. Ashley slammed the cage door, locked it, and took her leave not wanting to stay any longer.

      It was silent in what the shifters had labeled their room as the dungeon room. All the shifters kept their eyes on the poor girl since she gets the worst of abuse compared to everyone else. It was always a mystery as to why since they all were rare shifters. Also, Diana was the most highly sought-after "merchandise" out of all of them. Then again, the Hunters just brought in another rare shifter, a fox. He was kept in the cage right next to Diana and hasn't woken up since being dropped off yesterday. It shouldn't be too long before he woke up to his new nightmare, though. This place was hell to all shifters yet even more so if you were a rare shifter. They had to act like their animal counterpart all the time, degraded, abused, starved, and made a mockery out of doing animal showings. Sometimes a client wanted to see their human form. When this occurred the shifters were extremely uncomfortable as they usually are looking for a sexual business. Rare was it to attend an event. For not only being rare shifters, their human form was of unique characteristics causing many to fall in love with their unique beauty.

      Diana couldn't rest with everyone's eyes on her so she finally decided to sit up and lean against her cage. Luckily for them, since they had been together for a long time, they were able to create a bond of sorts and could communicate through telepathy. "Hey, Jackson. How are you? Anything I should be aware of?" she questioned with a little tilt of her head.

       Jackson diverted his eyes to the cage right behind her as he said, "Not much to report. Molly along with Augustus and I were bought for an exotic animal showing. The buyer seemed like a type of heiress of some sort. She didn't give us the creeps at least. The hunters found another shifter though. He's right behind you, a fox."

       Diana's eyes widened as she swiveled her head to look behind her. Sure enough, there lay a red fox. It was lying on its side with its head facing right at her. She couldn't help a surge of protectiveness come over her. She has always felt protective of all the shifters here and would be antagonizing the hunters so she would receive more of the abuse. Yet this was an overwhelming feeling for her. It bore into every fiber of her being to save this fox shifter. 'I promise to do everything within my power to protect you. I promise' was Diana's thought as she laid down again, gazing at the fox till darkness took over and she finally succumbed to her exhaustion.