Call of Shadows - Book 1

Chapter 23

Lauren

It was dark, I couldn't see anything. I could feel the jolting of a car or something underneath me and hear heavy breathing beside me. My hands were bound behind my back making it uncomfortable to move. Memories slowly returned.

Mom. We had been in our house. I was sleeping. There was a clash downstairs and I had run to see what had made the noise. There was a man. A distorted man with my mom in his hands. I screamed. My mind yelled to Phoenix but I got hit from behind and everything had gone black.

"I know you're awake." A rough raspy voice said next to me. Rough hands grabbed my arm.

"Don't move none you hear? Boss won't like it." His accent wasn't any I had ever heard before, and as soon as he finished speaking he took the blind fold off. "There. That's better ain't it?" My eyes began to adjust and the person who had been talking to me had cold, hard eyes. His lips were twisted in a grin only the devil could've possess.

Sitting next to him was a boy who could only have been around 18. He had jet black hair that matched his eyes, and he sat with his elbows leaning on his knees. He wore no shirt and there were scars up and down his chest. The hands that had grabbed me before, I could now see had rough calluses on them and there was another long scar, but this one was down his face striking out his left eye.

"Who - Who are you?" The boy shook his head.

"Can't tell you. M' Master wouldn't be pleased." This boy seemed different. He didn't have the same malice his partner did. "How'd you get here?"

"Don't keep asking questions." He looked away from me, and I knew the conversation was over for now. Mentally I tried reaching Phoenix, but the link remained closed.

Suddenly the van or car or whatever the fuck I was riding in jolted to a stop. Two doors beside me were thrown open and a gruff faced man appeared. He had a pot belly and he seemed slow to move. There was none of the lean muscle like all the other wolves presented. Maybe he's just human. Two seconds later he had grabbed me by my shirt and threw me to the ground. A long claw appeared next to my face. Yeah no, he's a wolf. Definitely a wolf.

"You will comply, or I will rip up that pretty little face of yours." His claw dug into my throat. "Soldier control yourself!" The wolf's claw retracted and he slowly straightened pulling me up with him. "OPEN UP!" He yelled, never taking his eyes off me. The gates slowly began to open revealing the biggest compound I had ever seen. Hundreds of people were milling around and massive wolves walked alongside them. Even Phoenix's battalion couldn't compare to the sheer amount of bodies there were in this one place. I could only assume that every person on two legs was also a wolf. Phoenix was outnumbered...but a fuck ton.

"We have the girl." Two men nodded and opened the door of a small hut type thing? It wasn't a tent but the structure wasn't the same as a house. I could hear a raspy voice from inside. A moment later the two men who had escorted the group stepped back outside.

"Only the girl goes in." The pot bellied man behind me began to protest. "I caught - " But the men stood firm. "Only the girl goes in." He repeated. I felt a strong hand on my back and suddenly my whole body tumbled forward into the hut. The door shut as soon as my body was in the bounds of the hut. The only light came from a small torch in the corner of the room.

"So you're Phoenix's mate." The sudden sound shot fear through my body and I couldn't move. "Tell me, are you afraid?" The sound came closer, but all I could do was shake my head 'no'.

"LIES." It screamed in my ear. "Would you like to see my face, human? Know who I am?" The most pail face I had ever seen materialized right in front of me. My first reaction was to jump backward, but my whole body was still paralized so all I could do was stare. The eyes were dark as midnight, and his teeth were in between wolf and human. A scar ran over his right eye and through his neck as if he had been killed before. What is with all these wolves and having scars through their eyes? I thought, but there was no humor.

"Are you afraid now?" I stood still not wanting to shake my head again. "Do you know who I am?" The figure slid away from me and went to stand by the chair in the middle of the room. I suppose he took my silence as a no.

"Hmm. Didn't think you would not even Phoenix would know who I am. You will have heard of my father though." I finally regained function of my voice. "Who is your father?" He grinned like the cheshire cat and chills ran down my back.

"Well, you may as well meet him!" He said gleefully. The room plummeted in temperature. A shadow moved through the wall next to me. The figure was formed in a giant wolf. As it came closer to me, it began to solidify shifting to a human like figure. The man had scars all over his body, a long, red scar bore from his left shoulder to his right hip.

Something about him looked familiar. Something looked really really familiar. Those eyes. I had seen them before. But before I could continue the thought process the man spoke.

"So this is her? The mate of Phoenix?" But it wasn't that part that got my attention. It was the next thing he said that made my blood run cold. "This is the mate of my daughter?" Those eyes were the same as those that I had stared at for the last few months. Those were the eyes of the woman I had fallen in love with. Which meant this was the father that had hurt my mate.