CAGED
1340 Words
I don’t know how many hours had passed.
The world around me was blurry. I was still in my wolf form. The drug they injected into me had made my body too weak to shift back. My limbs were heavy, my fur dirty, my mind cloudy.
And I was pregnant.
I could feel my pup still holding on inside me. Still alive. Still fighting. But for how long?
Andrew had taken me.
He brought me to his mansion, deep in the forest, far from anyone who could hear me scream. He didn’t even bother to speak to me. He just dragged my limp body into a cold, empty room and locked me inside a cage made of silver bars.
Silver burned my skin.
Every time I moved too close to the edges, the pain returned. A stinging, sharp burn that reminded me I was trapped. That I was not a person anymore—just something to look at. Something to mock.
Andrew came back later.
But he wasn’t alone.
He brought friends.
Three of them. Men I had never seen before. All of them laughing loudly, drinking, eating. The air was filled with the smell of meat, of roasted food, of something warm. My stomach twisted. I hadn’t eaten properly in days.
They walked around my cage like I was an exhibit. A strange creature in a zoo.
One of them leaned close and squinted.
“Is it a dog?” he asked.
The others laughed.
“No, it’s a wolf,” another replied. “But it looks half-dead.”
The third one stepped closer, chuckling. “She’s ugly. I bet she’s even worse in her human form.”
Andrew just watched.
He didn’t stop them.
He stood there, arms folded, smirking slightly as they mocked me. As they threw words at me like knives. None of them knew I could understand every single thing they said. And it hurt. Each word felt like a wound. Each laugh echoed inside my soul.
I stayed quiet. Curled in the corner of the cage. My tail wrapped around my belly.
I wanted to hide.
I wanted to disappear.
Then came the worst part.
One of them pretended to be kind. He looked at me and said, “Poor thing. She looks hungry.”
My ears perked up. Hope fluttered in my chest.
He picked up a piece of meat from the table. Warm. Juicy. My wolf whimpered. I was starving. My baby needed food.
He held it near the bars... then threw it across the floor, far from my reach. They all burst into laughter.
Tears filled my eyes. I wanted to scream, to bite, to run. But I was too weak.
“Look at her,” one said. “She’s pathetic.”
Later, the same man kicked the dirty piece of meat toward me. It slid across the filthy floor and landed near my paws. It was cold now. Covered in dirt. But I had no choice.
I needed to survive.
I needed my baby to survive.
So I lowered my head and ate it. Just like that. Like an animal.
They laughed again.
One of them even clapped. “Good girl!”
I wanted to die.
And then the door opened.
All of them turned.
A man walked in.
His scent hit me before anything else. Familiar. Strong. Calm. My blurry eyes focused as much as they could.
It was him.
The stranger in the mask.
The same man I had met in my moment of escape.
The reason I’m in this position today.
The father of my child. For some strange reason he always seemed to be everywhere and at the same time, nowhere.
This time, he wasn’t on a mask.
And just like I had guess, he was strikingly handsome. His face was sharp and serious. His hair dark. His eyes… unreadable. His whole presence eludes confidence. He was strong and he knows that.
Andrew and the others suddenly changed. They stood straighter. Their smiles faded. They greeted him with respect. Even fear.
This man had power.
Real power.
They talked. I didn’t understand what they were saying. It didn’t matter. All I could do was watch. My body wouldn’t move. My mouth couldn’t speak. I was stuck in this broken form, too weak to be human, too tired to be a wolf.
He didn’t look at me at first.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
I wanted to call out. I wanted to say, Please. Look at me. Help me.
But I had no voice.
And why would he recognize me?
He didn’t know me in my human form. So how could he know me now? I was just a filthy creature in a cage. Just another animal.
But then… our eyes met.
For a moment, he paused.
But then he turned back to Andrew and continued their conversation.
He didn’t know.
Still, I kept watching. I kept hoping. My heartbeat fast, my breath shallow. I could feel my baby moving. She was scared too.
Minutes passed. Maybe hours. They were still talking, and I was still staring.
He noticed.
Again and again, his eyes drifted back to me.
Something was pulling him.
When he was finally about to leave, he paused in front of the cage.
He looked down at me.
“Is that a wolf?” he asked.
Andrew gave a tight smile. “Yes. My beta. He’s a bit sick. He prefers staying in the cage when he’s like this.”
I wanted to scream Liar!
But no sound came out.
The stranger turned as if he was about to walk away.
But I slammed my paw against the bars.
The sound echoed through the room.
Everyone turned.
He came back.
He knelt in front of the cage.
Our eyes met again, this time closer. He reached in gently and brushed his fingers through the fur on my head. His touch was soft. Kind.
A tear slipped down my cheek.
He smiled. “Get well soon.”
His voice was calm. Warm. Human.
Then he reached into his coat and gave Andrew a card.
“Take her to my doctor,” he said. “He’s the best. I don’t like seeing wolfs suffer.”
Of course, why should I expect some sort of special treatment.
I was nothing more than a mere wolf to him.
But still, it was something. A small act of kindness in a world that had almost forgotten me.
He looked at me one last time, then turned to leave.
And in my mind, I whispered the words I couldn’t say aloud:
Please don’t leave me here.
But he didn’t hear.
He walked away.
And Andrew turned to me, face twisted in rage.
“You think he’s going to save you?” he sneered. “You’re mine. No one is coming for you.”
He kicked the bars hard, making the whole cage shake. I whimpered, curling up around my belly.
Night came. The room grew cold. The others left. Andrew didn’t take me to the doctor. Of course, he wouldn’t.
I was just his toy. His prisoner.
I was nothing to him.
My dreams were broken.
My body was bruised.
My soul felt like it was dying.
I missed my mother.
I missed the smell of fresh grass. The wind through my hair. I missed laughter. Sunlight. Safety.
Now all I had was pain.
Pain in my bones.
Pain in my heart.
Pain in my soul.
I thought of my child.
My little one.
Still growing inside me. Still fighting, even when I could barely hold on.
“I’ll protect you,” I whispered in my head. “Even if it kills me.”
The walls were closing in.
The cage felt smaller each day.
I didn’t know how much longer I could last.
But I had to. For her. For my baby.
Because even in this place… even in the cold, even in the dirt… there was still one reason to live.
One reason to hope.
- Writer
