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Chapter One
Emmaleigh
“Please don’t,” I beg through the tears that stream across my cheeks.
I know it won’t work. It hasn’t worked in the past three years I’ve been held captive in this prison, but I always try. I always beg for them not to hurt me but they never listen. Pain always follows. I lick at the salty drops that cling to my lips as I watch the man who towers over me.
The man I call Number Four, because he is the fourth man I met in this evil place, stares at me with blank soulless eyes. I don’t remember a time before I ever stared into the darkness of my captor’s souls. This is all I have now, all I’ve had for years. This pain, this darkness, is all I will know and remember until the day I die in this godforsaken place. I can honestly say that I have gone from praying to be saved, to wishing I would die.
“Why do you continue to beg?” he asks, tilting his head to study me, like an insect in a jar. He seems to be genuinely interested in my reply. “You know it won’t change a damn thing but every day we have to listen to you plead,” he says, his words laced with irritation. “Why? I’m legitimately curious.”
“It’s all I have left,” I whisper brokenly. “The hope that one day I might be able to appeal to your better nature. That someday one of you will see how wrong everything you’re doing truly is.”
A dark chuckle escapes him before the needle pierces my flesh. The silver nitrate burns through me, twisting my insides, and making my wolf whimper in the back of my mind where she has long since retreated. I’m surprised I can still hear her, I thought she was gone for good. My back bows off the stainless-steel table I am strapped to and a wail rips from my lungs. The broken sound echoes through my cell, trapped in the cavernous room I am being held in, ricocheting off the stark white walls.
I can feel the poison coursing through my veins, tearing at me from the inside. If I’m lucky, today will be the day they pump too much of their shit into my veins and I will finally submit to my long-awaited death. It will be the only freedom I can claim because I won’t be getting out of here in this lifetime.
But I also know that won’t happen. There will be no reprieve for me.
These monsters, these Hunters, have been doing this for too long to start messing up now. They know exactly how much to give to keep us in a constant state of pain and still alive.
“I hate you.” The words leave me with a harsh breath. I know it won’t make a difference but I want him to know all the same.
“I don’t care,” Number Four says. “You’re an abomination and I can’t wait for the day the old man lets us finally fucking kill you all. We are going to rid the world of your kind and once we are done, the human race will be safe again.
“I’ve never hurt anyone,” I say with a sob.
“Yet. You haven’t hurt anyone yet,” he says as he watches me writhe in agony, a sadistic smile playing on his lips. “But you’re a monster and it’s only a matter of time before you do what all monsters do. We are the only thing standing between your kind and the human race and we will do whatever is necessary to stop your disease from spreading.”
“You’re insane,” I grit through my teeth, fighting off another excruciating wave of pain. They keep saying we are spreading, like shifting is some kind of infection we can pass along but it’s not. You’re either born with the shifter gene or you’re not.
“That, my dear, is a matter of opinion.” The words are thrown over his shoulder as he walks out of my cell, leaving me to suffer alone.
“Are you okay?” the female voice whispers from the other side of the wall.
Her name is Rose. She was brought in about a year ago. She is also the only reason I still have any sanity. I have never seen her, we are always separated by this damn wall, but we have become friends and the conversations we share have kept us both going.
And my poor Thomas. My heart hurts simply thinking about him and I quickly discard the thought. I can’t dwell on that now, it will send me into a mental spiral and my body is in enough pain without adding additional emotional turmoil.
I stare at the bare white walls of the cell I am locked in, the iron bars of the gate keeping me inside this constant hell. A prisoner, never to be free or breathe the fresh air again. I know deep down in my soul that I will never leave this place.
Am I okay? I haven’t been okay in a very, very long time.
“That’s a silly question,” I reply without thinking. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“I know. I just meant…” Her words taper off.
“I’m still alive.”
“I know it sounds stupid, but I really believe someone is coming for us.”
Her voice is hopeful and even though I have always been a pacifist, I swear I would slap her right now if I could. But she hasn’t been here as long as I have, she still has hope. That will change eventually.
“I hope you’re right,” I say back, instead of the snarky comment I want to throw her way.
The sound of approaching footsteps silence us both. I wait with bated breath for one of the men to return but no one comes. Instead, a loud alarm sounds throughout the building right before an explosion rocks the foundation, shaking everything around us.
I’m not sure what is happening but I know that nothing good can come of this. Huddling into the corner furthest from the door, I try and make myself as small as possible in the shadows. Shouting and gunfire reach my ears and my heart hammers inside my chest.
