Bite Marks (The Lycans 5)

With each passing second, I was coming back online. I lifted my head and shook it to clear my mind and spit out a mouthful of blood, finally peeling my eyes open and taking note of the scene before me.

I was in some kind of room barren of most things except an examination-style table in the center and a metal rolling tray off to the side. The flooring was white-tiled with a massive drain in the center.

The room smelled of antiseptic and something else. Pain. Death.

There was an entire wall made of glass directly across from me, but it was too dark to see what was on the other side. But I knew I was being watched, not just because I noticed a security camera mounted to the corner at the top of the ceiling, but because I felt eyes on me that were coming from the other side of that glass partition.

And as I grew stronger with each passing moment, I tested my bonds. But there was little give, the metal digging into the skin of my wrists and ankles, tearing the flesh. I knew it had to all be mystically enforced in order to keep a Lycan bound. And that pissed me off even more, that these bastards extorted us in the most gruesome way yet had no qualms about using that same magic to hold us prisoner.

I bared my teeth and snarled as I pulled as hard as I could, trying to rip the bonds out of the walls.

I felt this tightening of my skin, the hairs on my arms standing on end. Something big was coming, happening, the precipice of an epiphany. Was it my female? Was she here? It was this itch underneath my skin, claws gouging me from the inside out.

I strained even more until I froze at the sight of the lights flaring just behind the glass wall. I felt a feral sound leave me at the sight of all the sets of eyes locked on me.

There were sixteen chairs broken up into rows of four, each one slightly more elevated than the row before. They were humans, that much I could tell, and I snarled.

Aged males wearing pressed suits. Women doused in jewelry. Some had wide eyes, others showing excited expressions. And then there were the ones who grinned in malicious eagerness.

I’d learned enough about the Assembly while in the States and within Adryan’s territory to know what these sick fucks were into. Torturing species of the Otherworld, murdering, raping, and whatever other heinous, crafty things they could come up with to create demonstrations, exhibits for these fucking humans who had enough money to pay to watch.

Some of the viewers leaned forward in their chairs, their grins widening, and I realized why when I heard the heavy sound of multiple feet coming my way. Thump-thump, thump-thump, their steps were sure and heavy. Human males, big ones who could handle or take down one of my kind.

I grinned in anticipation of them trying.

The door was pushed open, and I was already snarling as one, then two big fucking males walked in. The first grinned, the second keeping a cold expression. They stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the door, eyeing me up.

I pulled at my cuffs again and growled, letting my wolf rise, allowing them to see how feral I was, how I had nothing else to lose in going after them.

Everything that I was, that meant the most to me, had been taken away, ripped from my heart and soul.

And then they stepped aside in unison, and my heart stopped, my wolf stilled, and for the first time in far too fucking long, the meaning of my life was in front of me once more.

And then that happiness, that elation vanished as I took in the fact that she was being dragged into the room, her slight body clearly unconscious, her long black hair hanging around her face so I couldn’t see her features well. But I didn’t have to see her face to know she was mine.

Larkin.

I snarled with more aggression as they laid her out on the table, strapped her legs and arms down, then pushed her hair out of her face.

Oh gods. I’ll kill them all ten times over.

She had a bruise on her cheek that snaked up to her ear. I felt even more primal that they’d dared touch my tiny nymph mate, her species so fragile and gentle, kind and naturally sweet. She’d never hurt anyone, never say a word that would harm another. But here were these soon-to-be corpses, touching what I held most dear.

I looked at the two males who’d come in first, promising retribution, a slow, painful death. One had the intelligence to take a step back, fear crossing his face. The other, a cocky motherfucker, just smirked.