Innocent As Charged (Completed)

Chapter 5

I shake uncontrollably and when Isaac reaches out to comfort me, I back away. How could he do this? I'm his mate.

"Iz -"

"Don't you DARE call me that!"

Jack pushes for control and I give it to her willingly; I don't know what to do, how to react, she does. He notices the eye colour change, growling, and she snarls back.

"Jack, give her back control."

"No, she gave it to me willingly. Why would you allow that? Do you care for us at all?"

"What? Of course I care for you, you're my mate for goddess' sake."

"Then don't lock us up."

"I don't have a choice."

"You of all people have a choice. If you decide not to lock us up, who's to stop you?"

"You don't understand. As Alpha I'm expected to be the example; how can I do that if I'm disobeying the very laws I and my fore-bearers created?"

"You could let us go."

"No, we're mates. If we want to keep our sanities we have to be together. And that will only happen if you accept this and move on. Then we can be together and we both keep the respect of the pack."

"Correction: you do. What's in it for us? A mate who only cares about influence? A mate who cares more about laws than friendship? Good to know I can rely on you to remain loyal to me," she snaps.

Pain wipes over his face but it soon vanishes and he releases a low growl.

"Stop criticising laws you don't understand."

"Are you saying we're dumb? We heard the law the first time you said it. We understood it alright. Or did you think we'd forget?"

"Take her away."

Someone lays a hand on our shoulder and we spin around, turning to strike them. Isaac grabs both our wrists and holds them behind our back, severely restricting our ability to fight. "Calm down."

"No."

We continue to struggle as three guards enter the room, all robed in black, each marked with, I assume, the insignia of the pack, a blood red sun. One of the guards injects us with some sort of serum and our body collapses instantly, black spots beginning to overwhelm our vision until we fade into forced unconsciousness. Isaac's face swims before mine, then that too is lost to the dark.

I switch between consciousness and sleep continuously for the next few hours; sometimes Isaac is there when I wake, but he mostly isn't. The bastard's probably too busy attending meetings, I think bitterly.

When I escape to consciousness after wallowing in the darkness of my mind for so long, I discover I've been chained by the wrists attached to the wall on so short a set of chain links, my movement area is minimal, unable to do much more than lie down and stand.

Pulling against the silver is painful, causing multiple burns, and in some places, cuts, but I ignore the pain, constantly tugging at the ties which bind us to the cell wall. The wounds are not an issue, only leaving small blood clots over and shallow injuries that will form scars at some point later when they heal. Escape is more important than tiny scratches. I've been through worse.