Instinct

46. A Long Way To Go

The van jolted to a stop. Stephanie couldn't hear any traffic around them. In fact, she couldn't hear much of anything beyond the slam of a car door, metal against metal. The thin silver spikes protruding from the cuffs had seen to that. Not much more than the piercing of silver into a wolf's skin could do that.

She was still shaking, shuddering, and she felt like she'd never stop. It wasn't cold but she felt a chill creeping under her skin. Neither of them had said a word since the reality of the situation had set in. They'd just sat and swayed as the van swung around corners and the outside world became a formless thing, a memory.

Absently, Stephanie had pulled and worried at the cuffs. The blood under the metal told her that she'd done more damage to herself than she had to the things holding her there. Nothing could compare to the pain in her heart, however.

When the doors swung open, no one spoke. They just set to work on the manacles while the others stood tensely, impersonally by, ready to jump in if either of their prisoners decided to cause trouble. Neither did.

They really were in the middle of nowhere. An empty parking lot out in the woods (how long had they been driving? The light of the city wasn't even visible on the horizon), with a gravel driveway leading god knows where. Stephanie couldn't scent anything, not beyond the blood dried in her nose and down her throat. She cast a sidelong look to Liam, watching for his cues. He didn't send any. It seemed he was just as senseless as she was.

Across the way, hooded in the dark, was a line-up of three more dark vans. Their escort urged them on. Stephanie obliged, having no more the energy to resist than breathe currently.

An officer stepped out of one of the vans and gestured toward the back of it.

"There's still space left in this one," he said. "Just shove 'em in there so we can get on our way. Having all those dogs in the back isn't exactly my idea of a good time. Let's get it over with already."

Stephanie scoffed, earning her a hardened stare for her efforts.

"Oh what now, princess? Too good to ride with the rest of them?" he sneered.

Gracing that with an answer would be a waste of time, and she didn't have much breath to spare so she kept her mouth shut. However, she hoped the gaze she sent right back at him would speak for her.

He stepped back and unlocked the van's back doors. Stephanie couldn't quite stifle her gasp of horror when she saw the sheer number of wolves in there. Wide, agitated eyes peered out of the dark. Before she could so much as recoil, she was being shoved bodily forward, Liam just slightly behind her.

They fell into the middle of the crush together. Liam cursed under his breath as he landed on something wrong, and it took Stephanie a moment to drag in air once the spots of pain had faded from her limited vision. For the amount of bodies in there, there was surprisingly little noise to be heard above the engine.

The air was thick with body heat and the darkness was just on this side of too much; it was oppressive and complete. It took a bit of manoeuvring to sit up with her hands still chained. Despite having to have landed on at least one person, no one complained.

As Stephanie and Liam moved to resituate themselves, everyone seemed to adapt, to redefine their own limited space, tucked in tight against each other. Against her back, Stephanie could feel someone's heart beating through their thin t-shirt. She couldn't break the tense silence. Instead, she pressed her side against Liam's and tried to take deep breaths against the panic mounting in her chest. Beside her, he was trembling, and she never thought she'd see the day when Liam was that terrified.

He didn't say anything, no one did – but it spoke volumes.

And though Stephanie herself was terrified, she'd already been through this kind of hell before (if another variant of it). It wasn't so unknown to her. She felt through the dark for his hand, finding it not two inches from her own. His was surprisingly cool for the temperature of the air around them, frigid with shock. All she could do was offer him a squeeze and hold on tight, but she knew how much familiar touch meant.