Chapter 37

I begrudgingly followed him upstairs, suddenly not all that interested in finding out my ‘surprise’ anymore.

Once we reached the bedroom, he pressed the handle down and pushed the door into the room. At a sideways stance, he held it open for me to enter before him. I grew weary of his gentlemanly behaviour, especially with the smirk on his face as he watched me; he was enjoying this moment.

“Go on, after you.” He jerked his head towards the inside of the room, trying to get me to go in first.

“What’s in there?” I stammered, still at a complete standstill in the hallway, gazing at the smug look on his face and speculating a million different things that would happen to me if I did go in.

“Go on in and find out, I’m sure that you will love it.”

I rapidly turned around, looking up and down the hallway frantically as though my saviour would waltz around the corner at that second to rescue me. Of course that is not what happened. Instead, Reid clutched my wrist firmly, his giant hand wrapping around it with ease and used it to pull me against him.

“Get in the fucking room, now. Why do I have to keep repeating everything I say to you? I really lucked out on the mate front. Bitch of a Moon Goddess really got things screwed up pairing us together, didn’t she?”

It felt like I was punched in the stomach; hearing something like that come from your Goddess given mate was degrading and made you feel like you really were not worth it.

“Spasticated twat-face.” I pushed the boundaries and cursed at him before ripping my wrist free from his hold and forced my way past him in a rush.

I stopped dead as soon as I was able to see around the room, my ‘surprise’ was unmissable. I cannot believe he was serious when he had said the other day that he was having a cage done for me. But there it was, set up in my corner, all shiny and new metal; sufficient space for me to stand up straight at least, long enough to lay down and perhaps wide enough for me to open my arms comfortably. Overall, half-way decent really considering my other options.

But then I noticed something inside the cage which really tested my patience with the cocksucker.

“Fucking dog bowls? Are you kidding me?”

Reid erupted into a hysterical, booming laughter, his deep voice making his amusement rebound off the walls. When he eventually calmed down from his outburst, he had the most triumphant look on his face.

“What the hell are they for?” I shrieked like a goddessdamn banshee at him, raving at the slight possibility that they were for me.

“Well, sometimes you need to eat and drink, and I thought that you could have your own bowls.” He was still amused at his shitty thought for me, grinning away like the cheshire cat.

“Nope. Not happening, I will not do it. I will not use them things!” I pointed at the humiliation sitting in the bottom of the cage.

“Oh, but you will. And if you don’t eat your usual leftovers from them, then I will have the kitchen arrange for dogfood to be sent up at mealtimes, just for you.” The smile on his face was long gone as he threatened me. “Now, I have business to attend in the prison. But, I don’t know whether leave you here or take you with me.”

I could see the wheels turning as he contemplated what to do with me. I prayed that he would choose the former because I had already seen too much for today, for the rest of my life in fact. I know that if he took me with him then I would see others from my pack going through just as much as those women did today, if not worse. I felt the blood drain from my face at the thought of seeing more pain and blood, and I can only imagine the smell that will be down there.

“I think that your face gave me everything that I needed to make up my mind; you’re coming.” He had made his decision and spoke with unquestionable finality.

Reid spun on his heel and left the room, leaving me with my jaw on the floor, debating on just climbing into the damn cage with my bowls and locking myself in, staging a sit-in.

“Move it! And don’t even think about it!” Reid shouted from the hallway, startling the crap outta me, and confusing me as to how he knew what I had been thinking.

Five minutes later and we were standing outside of a door to a dilapidated building that looked like an old-fashioned outhouse around the side of the packhouse. Dane had since reappeared bringing up the rear and adding more gloom to the atmosphere than necessary.

My darling mate stomped up to the door and ripped it open, then disappeared down what looked like some grimy, moss-covered stone steps and in complete darkness. I paused before willingly following him, knowing that Dane would just shove me down them headfirst if I did not.

The very first thing that hit me down here was the overwhelming smell of the damp. The scent was too much; I staggered from the overbearing pressure of it, along with the pungent smell of fear and metal that rounded it off. The blood was so strong in the air that I could taste it, like it was a permanent marketing feature of the place. The smell of piss and shit coming from inside the cages was too much, making me heave. The overall feeling that I got from this little slice of hell put me on edge, amping up my terrified meter to a hundred.

There were very few fire torches on the walls lighting the way through a room with cages to one side, and a narrow hallway that we strolled along, water dripping from the ceiling and running down the walls, adding to the whole deterioration and desolation of the area.

I trudged past a row of dank, dirty cells packed full of male wolves. There were more than I thought was possible stuffed into such small spaces, and each wolf looked awful.  I did not recognise most of these men, there was just one or two here and there that I knew by face from Moonlight. The ones I did not know must have been here for a while as they were mostly skin and bone, likely from being starved; their skin pale from lack of sunlight and they cowered away from Reid and Dane as they saw us coming.

We passed on by the wolves in this room, through the stagnant puddles of water on the floor, coming to a crumbling brick archway at the end of the path, and leading to another room the same as the last. Then we came to two more hallways going in different directions but with the same purposes; this place was a maze overrun by tortured souls. With each new room we came to, the cages were filled with smaller numbers of people that looked like they had not been here as long as the first that we had seen.

We eventually traversed our way into an open room with a few single-man cages that were not empty. But these were filled with the faces of people that I knew well.

“Dad? Eli, Pete?”