The Wild Hunt (Downworlder Series, #1)

Chapter Eighteen: Beasts of Burden

I bit at my fingernails as I paced in the bedroom. Back and forth, back and forth, again and again. My nails beds ached and bled as I chewed on my fingernails. My beast was scratching at the walls of my mind in agitation. We couldn't take being caged anymore. We had been stuck in that room for nearly four days and hadn't been let out. My skin itched and my beast snarled.

There was no help for me either. Ajax started his incessant pacing a few days ago and two days ago he had shifted and refused to come out of his beast. I couldn't doubt that it was a majestic creature. Shaggy brown hair with muscles that rippled underneath its skin, it looked more like a wolf than a beast though. My beast appreciated the sight of it but she was now too agitated to appreciate anything.

I covered my ears as Ajax's beast started to whine, scratching at the wall in the corner he was huddled in. I stalked towards the door and banged on it hard. "Let me out of here!" The door rattled and I could hear the guards talking behind it. I wanted to cry. I had never felt so trapped and confined before. I was used to running the streets, used to being able to go when I wanted. Ajax had already gotten into trouble He had escaped out the bathroom window. He was returned tied up, bruised, and pissed. We then had bars welded over our bathroom window.

That hadn't helped our situation in the least. Everything had compounded until my mind felt like it was to the point of fracturing. I screamed at the door making unintelligible sounds of anger as I tried to bang it open. Tears streamed down my face as my beast slammed against the inside of my skull. My head throbbed painfully as she did it again and again. The door was ripped open and large hands grabbed my arms and I slumped forward, reaching for the open expanse of the hallway.

"Get your shit together." The words were carried on a wave of pure dominance that battered at my already frustrated wolf and caused her to only snap and snarl. My teeth elongated and I snapped them together, growling as I tried to escape the arms to run out of the cage I was stuck in. "Make sure he is down and tied!" I was held to the chest tightly, the person dragging me from the room as I struggled to escape

My heart thudded in my ears as I fell into a kind of stupor where my beast attempted to unleash her agitation through me without actually shifting. The world felt muffled as the person dragged me down the hall. I couldn't keep track of anything as I was dragged through the hall and down the stairs. My beast fought the entire way down until we were shoved through the door and finally released. The room was large and my beast was torn between attacking the person who brought us there and running, exploring the newest freedom we had been given.

She snapped and snarled at the man before she forced herself through my body, snapping bones, popping and twisting joints as her large form ripped my clothing and twisted my own body to make way for hers. She let out a guttural howl and bolted around the edges of the large room. It wasn't the streets but she would take what she could get.

"Easy with him!" The voice rang out and there was a loud and vicious snarl that had her fur bristling and her heart pounding in her chest as she ran for the far end of the room. "Watch yourselves!" There was the sound of grunting and a ropes snapping as the snarling grew louder. "And release!" There was one room rattling growl and the sound of a door slamming before my beast gained the courage to look at the beast that was brought in.

She whimpered and cowered in the corner as the large shaggy wolf stalked towards her. She lowered herself to the ground, whimpering in submission as his dark eyes pinned her and he growled darkly. He loomed over her, opening his jaws and holding them over her neck as if in warning. I had never seen her like that. She was always a prideful creature but she simply tucked her tail and held herself in a small ball, quivering like a scared child.

His teeth clamped over her neck a bit tighter, growls rumbling out of his chest as the sharp point of his fangs pressed into her skin almost to the point of breaking skin. She gave another whimper and hunkered down further. It was like a silent battle between the two beasts. They had no mouths to speak, no minds to comprehend the strange ballet of human interactions. They were using the world's rawest form of communication, the body language of dominance and submission.