Zane - Confessions of a lycan

Chapter 4

Lily

1 week earlier

I was jolted awake by the sound of a heavy door opening.

"Sit back against the wall with your hands behind your back if you want any food, you dirty who*es, and stay there!" A deep male voice shouted. In stepped a large, broad-shouldered man, with a cold glint in his eyes.

In front of each cage, he put a bowl and a glass. When he was done, he stood by the door, looking back.

"Eat your food if you know what's good for you. You don't know when the next meal will be offered".

When he closed the door behind him, I saw several dark figures crawling forward from different directions, in different cages.

Holy goddess, there are a lot more women in here than just me and the blonde girl. What the hell is this evil place?

I tried to crawl forward to grab the puny bowl. The silver collar made everything in my body hurt, but I'm not going to give up. I'm going to survive this.

The iron cage was so small that the bowl and glass couldn´t go through the bars. There was no spoon or anything else to use so I had to pick up the slimy porridge with my fingers. After a few mouthfuls of the tasteless porridge, I noticed that the girl next to me, who I had been talking to earlier, had not yet moved from her place against the wall.

"Sweetie, aren't you going to try and eat? You have to keep your strength if you're going to get through this". I looked at her with concern as I heared another female voice somewhere in the darkness say, "She gave up a few days ago, just let her die in peace"

To hell with die in peace! I wasn´t going to sit back and watch as a fellow she-wolf perishes from starvation and despair.

I took what porridge I could gather in my hand, and crawled back towards the wall.

I pushed my arm through the tight bars to get as close to the girl's mouth as I could. “Please eat, you must gather your strength.”

As we stared into each other's eyes, I thought for a second she was going to refuse, but at that very moment she opened her mouth so that I could help her swallow the porridge I had managed to collect. I crawled back and repeated the process.

When the disgusting porridge and water were finished, I collapsed exhausted on the hard floor.

All of a sudden, I felt a hand on mine. I looked up and the blonde girl was looking down at me while holding my hand.

"Thank you.". Was all she said while staring at me with that broken look in her eyes.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"Rose".

"You must fight Rose. Fight for survival, for freedom" I said with conviction in my voice. The only reaction to her having heard what I said was a squeeze of my hand. But for te time being, it would have to do...

***

A couple of days later...

I no longer knew how long I had been down here. days? Weeks? I had no idea.

It felt like ages since Cassie and I snuck out in the moonlight and swam naked in the swimming hole out in the woods, laughing all night. Or when we let a bunch of frogs into my halfbrother's bed and blamed the Beta's son who always used to bully me at school.

It was Cassie's idea, after they stole all my clothes and towel from the girls' locker room while I was in the shower.

I still cried when the boy we framed got his punishment. Which was just a bit of public humiliation and a week of scrubbing the toilets. But I cried anyway. I couldn't help it, I had a sensitive soul.

Most of my life has been hard and sometimes painful. Nevertheless, I had still managed to collect nice memories together with genuinely kind people. However, the flame of hope that I would have another chance at happiness was slowly burning out.

The only person who came down here was that man, who by the smell of him was a werewolf, who distributed food and called us dirty names.

The only positive aspect was that Rose had started to crawl to her own bowl when the awful man brought them in.

But the darkness and the cold together with insufficient food and the silver collar wore us down so much that I didn't know how long any of us would survive this.

All of a sudden, I heard the door open, but it wasn´t the same man as usual.

A tall man stepped in. He didn't say anything. It almost looked like he was floating through the room as he entered.

I studied him as he stopped right in front of where I sat. He had long black hair in a low ponytail. His face looked aristocratic, with high cheekbones and a straight nose with flawless pale skin.

When he turned to look at me, I could see his cold eyes glow red in the dark.

Holy crap! A vampire! I could feel my heart almost beating out of my chest in pure fear of this man.

He tilted his head to the side and gave me a wicked smirk as if he felt every emotion going through me at that moment and enjoyed every single one of them.

If he didn't look so mean and cold, he would be beautiful and tempting, but all he made me feel was pure horror.

“But hallo there, little one”, he said with a smooth voice as he took a step closer to my cage.

On pure instinct, I threw myself back against the wall to put as much distance as possible between us.

He tsked at my behavior, came even closer and crouched down in front of me.

"Now don't be afraid, little one, I won't hurt you." Yeah right, I believe that, like never.

I growled at him as fiercely as I could muster, but the bastard only laughed at me.

“A wild one, and maybe not as innocent as you look. I'm almost jealous of the man who gets to tame you. You smell delicious, like a rare flower in a forest, maybe I'll buy you myself.” Cold dread consumed me at that statement.

As if he could read my every expression, he continued, “no no, little one, don't be like that. If I open the cage, will you come along like a good girl or do I need to sedate you to make you manageable?" His tone went from playful to serious in less than a second. The thought of fighting for all I was worth hit me, but I knew I had to save my strength for the right time to present itself and, as long as I was wearing the damn collar, I had nothing against, what I was sure was, an old vampire.

I looked up when I heard several other men begin to pour through the door.

I could smell both vampires and werewolves through the stench of this place. Which was strange because the different species rarely coexisted with each other. To us, vampires smelled like rotting corpses. According to them, we smell like wet dogs.

So, when he said I smelled like a flower, I honestly didn´t understand what he meant by that.

"Last chance, make up your mind little one."

I nodded, "Okay, I'll behave". The last thing I wanted was to lose more hours of my life and wake up with nausea and a headache.

He looked like he was pleased with my answer, "good girl". He took out a key and opened the cage.

He held out his hand for me to take, and when I put my dirty hand in his, a shiver went through me, and not the good kind.

When he pulled me out to stand, my legs gave way. I expected him to get angry. To leave me on the ground or kick me.

Instead he caught me in the fall before I could touch the floor and lifted me up into his arms.

I was too exhausted and in too much pain to resist, so instead I leaned my head against his shoulder.

Looking over his shoulder as he started walking towards the exit, I saw the other men violently pulling the she-wolves out of their cages while they were sedated with a syringe.

The last thing I saw before we walked out the door was a savage-looking man picking up an unconscious Rose from the floor.

All I could do was pray that she would make it out allright and that we would meet again someday.

Hopefully, under better circumstances.

In the meantime, my curiosity got the better of me. The question slipped from my lips before I could contain it.

"Who are you?" He looked down at me while he carried me through a dark, empty hallway. "My name is Nolan..."