Otherworldly Darkness [Book 5]

Gone Feral.

I could feel their pain. I could hear their cries. I could almost taste the bile as it bubbled up in my throat. It was hard. I couldn't handle this anymore. In the mornings I train with my Uncle and when I do something wrong he disappears for a couple of minutes and then I feel their pain starting all over again. My surroundings disappear as I lay on the ground panting and clawing at the ground trying to get away from the hands holding me.

They keep me in place when I need to get to my mates. They whisper words like pathetic and worthless and disgusting. Why won't they just stop? Why can't I just get away from them? They say if I was really a wolf I could escape and get to my mates. They say I'm defective. Am I defective? Have I always been defective?

My wolf isn't responsive. I know he's there but I can't interact with him like I could just days before. We had been so close I could feel his emotions. When we were around our mates he would howl in joy even when we were in the middle of a problem. But now he was silently lying down in the dark recesses of my mind.

"I see you're not ready to shift yet." My uncle sighed.

"I'm trying. I promise! Please leave them alone." I begged.

"You're not trying hard enough." He sighed as if this was a burden on him. Didn't he realize how much it hurt me? It was slowly killing me. Even when it wasn't happening anymore I could hear their howls of pain. But they were feeling it worse because it was their bodies enduring every punch, every kick, every attack, and every bite, everything...

"They're all I have! Stop it! You're killing me..." I began panting as one of the men holding me down pressed down hard on my back pushing my body further into the ground.

"They're the reason that you're so weak!" He growled at me. "They're keeping you from your true potential. Why can't you see that Declan?"

'Don't...Don't listen to him...' Owen's voice was like a calming balm in my mind.

"I'm trying." Was all I could say to answer them both. I wanted to placate my uncle but I really wanted Owen and Set to know I was trying but I knew that something wasn't right. I was slowly losing it and the fact that my wolf wasn't answering wasn't helping.

'We lo-love you and we kn-know that you'll figure this out Love.' Set panted.

'Stop! Please...You shouldn't love me still. I'm worthless. I'm pathetic. I'm nothing.'

The words kept echoing in my mind like it was on loop. A soft patronizing voice, every time the world around me turned silent it was there. At nights it melted into the painful wails of my mates and I would find myself in the corner of my room clawing at the walls trying to get it to stop.

It never stopped. No matter how many times I begged. I hadn't slept properly in the last four days and last night I began clawing at my own arms. My body wasn't even healing itself properly and the scars were still fading on my arms.

What was wrong with me? I was fine when we first got here yet every day I seemed to slip more and more into the darkness that was clouding my mind. My life seemed bleaker than before and for once I couldn't see a way out. I prayed that someone, anyone could help us out of this endless torture.

"Declan? Are you still with us boy?" My Uncle's voice echoed in my mind bringing me back to the present. "If you're not I'm sure I can find something to bring you back."

He began walking away but I found myself clawing at the ground right in front of me trying to catch his attention. He couldn't leave, he couldn't go back there. He would just hurt them again and I couldn't allow that to happen.