Midnight River Shorts

Winston and Johnny

Johnny's POV

I lay on the cold, hard ground. The man beside me shifts and I can see out of my peripheral vision that he's looking at me.

"Hey." He whispers to me.

I look at him and shake my head silently.

He frowns and looks around, tugging on his chains.

"Shh." The man on his left shushes him quietly. "Don't put up a fight."

"Why not?" He looks at the man wildly.

"That just guarantees you'll be next." He says quietly. "When they take you, it's for days. They drain as much of your blood as they can before you die. Then bring you back here to recover."

"Where are we?" He whispers.

"Higher Parks." The other man whispers, barely audible.

"Shit." The man next to me mutters.

The door clangs open and most of us jump. A pair of footsteps echo around the room, walking to take their victim. The footsteps stop right in front of me.

"Well, Johnny boy!" I hear Frank, the Mate who rejected me, cheer. "It appears to be your turn!"

I can't hold the flinch in. "No, please no." I cry, begging to not have to go through the same process I've been dealing with for three years. "Please."

"Shut up." Frank snarls and punches me in the face before undoing my chains. He carries me out of the room over his shoulder as I cry back into their 'collection room' where they bleed us.

After I pass out a few times, they finally take me back to the other room and secure me to the wall with the chains. The new guy is brought back in after a while too.

I hate it here, so much. I try my best to stifle my sobs.

"Hey, Johnny." He says softly. "It's okay."

I sniffle and look at him like he's crazy. "Why do you say that?"

"It could be worse." He shrugs. "I've been through worse."

"What?" I gasp in disbelief. What could be worse than this?

"Remember how Wild Forest was decimated twenty years ago?" He turns to me.

"Yeah." I say quietly. I heard about Wild Forest, Broken Shadows, and Northern Mountain being decimated growing up. The first one was a decent pack attacked by the other two.

"That was my old Pack." He looks at the ceiling. "My father died during that attack. Then only a few days later, I was in a car crash with my twin and adoptive fathers, and we were kidnapped. We were split up. The boys were forced to train as mercenaries by Rogues. The girls were forced to train to pleasure men as objects."

"That's awful." I gasp, covering my mouth with my hands. That is worse.

"Yeah." He says, looking back at me. "So this, while inconvenient, is nothing. Rescue will come soon." He gives me a weak smile.

"How do you know?" I ask anxiously. No matter how confident he is, there's no guarantee that someone will get us out of here. I've been here for three years. There are Wolves that have been here longer. No one's gotten us out.

"I trust my Mate and my Pack." He grins tiredly.

"If you trust them so much, I'll trust them too." I give him a wobbly smile. I really hope his Pack gets us out.

We're startled out of our sleep by banging and shouting out in the hallway.

"Protect the assets!" Brent screams. "We need them alive!"