The Wolf Inside

Chapter 9

I open my eyes, groaning softly at the pain in my head. What's happening? I sit up and find myself in a cell. Oh great...

Terror fills me as I realize my situation. I was freeing Shane's pack from the dungeon cells when somebody knocked me unconscious. Damn it! They caught me. What was I gonna do now? I am so dead. It's too dangerous for Shane or his pack to try to rescue me. I'm not sure if they even will or want to though. I already made up for my mistake by helping to free his pack. We were even.

I sigh. I had a feeling Black Claw was going to catch me one day or another. I guess this is the day. Not knowing what to do.. I sit gathering up my courage to face his evilness... Jake.

I pull up my knees and wrap my arms around them, as I lay my head down, whispering softly a lullaby my mom used to sing to me when I couldn't sleep. Oh how I wish she was alive! Tears threaten to fill my eyes but I push them back. No. Like always I am gonna face whatever is ahead of me with courage and hope.

After a while, I hear footsteps. I brace myself for the worst. A gaurd appears at the door of the cell. He opens it and smirks at me. I look at him, warily. I know him, he is one of Jake's friends that used to bully me. "Come on. He's waiting for you" he says motioning for me to follow him. I can't fight him or do anything so I get up and walk towards the open door. The gaurd grabs my wrist and with a firm grip, drags me down the corridor. His grip is painfully tight and I'm sure it is gonna leave a bruise.

We walk up the dungeon stairs, to outside. He leads me to the clearing in the forest in their territory where we used to have campfires and celebrations. It is a place where all the wolves gather. And surely, all the wolves are gathered there, in their human forms. This must be quite the show for them. In the center of it all stands the wolf who haunts my dreams every single day. Jake.

His piercing eyes meet my gaze and he smirks. The guard pushes me forward and makes me stand in the center in front of Jake. He walks over to join him.

"Well, well. Look who we have here! My long time friend... Alice" he says, grinning. He says my name with a cold and menacing tone. I shake inwardly. Come on Alice! Be brave! Jake continues on as I don't say anything. "You have grown into quite the young lady". I roll my eyes mentally. He says it like he hasn't seen me in years. In fact I only ran away a month ago from this awful place.

"Come on. Speak up. I'm not gonna bite" Jake says, his eyes flashing. I pull myself together and reply. "What do you want with me?". He laughs. "Straight to the point, huh? You know what I want Alice. I want to be Alpha, without any threats to my position". "B-but you got what you wanted. You're Alpha and I have nothing to do with it! I ran away. I never said I wanted to be Alpha" I yell. Anger ripples through me. Of course I want to be Alpha but I won't question his position considering he is stronger than me.

"No Alice. As long as you're alive... you will ALWAYS be a threat. I want you dead" he whispers, dangerously. His tone changed to extremely serious. The anger gone, terror once again fills me. He starts to circle me, shifting to his wolf form as he did. "Shift" he orders. Being the idiot I am, I shift to wolf form. Now, I was easy prey for him. He wants to kill me and it would be more fun for him to kill me as a wolf.

He smirks and in a split second jumps, aiming for my throat. I growl and back away. My dodging techniques fail me as he clamps his jaws down on my shoulder. I feel blood seeping out as I scream in pain. The crowd surrounding us cheers. They definately are enjoying this.

I struggle to shake him off but he holds strong. I decide to do a back flip and he finally lets go. When he's down, I jump up and scratch his face with my claws. I see fury in his eyes but then he grins an evil grin, as I fall to my knees, gasping for breath as blood gushes from my shoulder.

"Don't worry Alice. I won't kill you just yet. I want to see you in pain, just like the pain that I went through my first time at Black Claw" he says, angrily.
"You didn't get tortured for nothing Jake! You killed several innocent wolves! Don't u dare lie!" I yell at him.
Jake's face changes from one of anger to hate. He lunges at me. I dodge to the side but not quick enough for him to scratch my side. Pain strikes through my body once again.

I jump up quickly, surprising him as I did so and bite down on his back. He manages to shake me off but I left a deep cut in his back, that should slow him down. Jake growls once and shifts back to human. All his wounds had healed. I shift too but sadly, the shoulder wound is too deep to heal.

I lift myself off the ground. Jake walks up to me and for a second I feel like he is going to walk past me but instead he punches me, hard, in the stomach. I double over, falling to the ground and gasping for breath. Once again the crowd cheers.
He kicks me once, then twice. After that I do not know how long the torture and pain continues. My body feels numb and my eyes close. I see darkness in front of my eyes, unaware of the continuing blows. It once again takes over me and I let it. As long as anything is away from this nightmare, I'll go to it.

The next day...

My eyes struggle against the light but I manage to open them. The aching pain in my body is unbearable. I feel like needles are  stabbing my body as I sit up. My whole body is shaking from the pain. I can't help but let out a ear- piercing scream. I look down at my shoulder to see dried blood and visible flesh. I feel weak and I figure its because of the blood loss.

I rip off the end of my bloodied and dirty shirt and struggle to wrap it around my shoulder, my hands shaking at the effort. I realize that I am still in the prison cell, held by Black Claw. I lean my head back against the wall as the reality of it all crashes over me, its suffocating.

Then, the door opens. I look up, expecting to see a guard but its Jenna, Jake's cousin and my old friend. She was holding a first aid kit in her hand and a plate in the other.

"Hi. I just came to get you fixed up". Her eyes avoid mine.
"What's the point. He's only going to keep torturing me".
She doesn't say anything and sits down next to me. She opened the first aid kit and set to work opening my make-shift bandage and cleaning the wound. The different chemicals stung but I barely feel it, after all the pain I have been through. After cleaning, Jenna tied a new, clean bandage and got up when she finished. The whole time she avoided my eye.

"Here's some food to get you your energy" she says about to walk away after cleaning everything up.
"Jenna wait" I say. She turns back to me, finally meeting my gaze.
"Thank you. You always came for me and did whatever you could to help and this is just another time" I tell her.
"Alice... I am really sorry he's doing this to you. He's going crazy about being Alpha. I wish I could do something more but unfortunately I can't" says Jenna.
I shake my head. "You are already doing enough. Don't risk yourself getting hurt for me".
She gives me a sad smile and walks away.

I eat my food quickly. After a while, a guard walks in and yesterday's events repeat. The same thing happens for the next couple of days too. I know that I have broken bones right now and probably broken ribs because of the constant torture. Everyday, Jenna comes to help me as much as she can but the pain gets worse and worse.

One day, it gets too much. The screams escaping my lips are uncontrollable and the pain is too much to handle. I sob and sob, my whole body shaking which just causes it to hurt even more.

My eyes close, fatigue taking over my body. I cry. "This is too much...".