Page 39 of Beginnings

The door clicked open. Grunts and the sounds of a scuffle ensued from behind me. A familiar scent hit my nostrils and my whole body stiffened. Rawson!

I gripped my thighs, my knuckles turning white, my wolf baying for freedom. My brother was bloodied and beaten, his previous injuries compounded by fresh marks. His face was so swollen he could barely see through the slit of his eyes. One eye socket had been crushed and his cheekbone was misshapen. His torso was naked, deep slash marks on his skin. His blood dripped to the floor and he swayed.

Lifting his nose, he caught my scent. “Connor…?”

The female at his back shoved him hard and he fell to his knees, revealing the bag she clutched in her hands. It was heavy plastic and waterproof, but the smell coming from it…

I gagged, fisting my fingers so hard my nails cut my palms. Oh god, no, no, no…! My wolf howled and tried to break free. I shoved up from my chair and, head down, charged the female. She snarled and snatched the bag away. She needn't have bothered. With a flick of his fingers, the man behind Doherty froze me in mid air.

Doherty took two steps, which brought him right in front of me. “I always detested you, Maxwell. You are just a crazy son of a bitch, who has somehow landed more power than any shifter I know. By all accounts, you should have been exterminated. Do you know I sent Rawson to kill you all those years ago? But instead of ending you as the unstable killer that you are, he took pity on you. He saved you. Well, now he’s paying for disobeying me, not just once but twice. He should have stayed out of your missing person’s file, but he didn’t. Now, neither of you will taste freedom ever again.”

I thrashed against the invisible bonds that held me immobile. The female watched me, a slight smirk on her mouth. Her eyes flashed yellow.

The tiger. I’d kill her.

“Ah, ah. No, you won’t,” said the dark eyed man. Could he read my mind? “You belong to me now. If you harm any of my guards, or do anything that displeases me...” He looked at Rawson; for a split second the man’s gaze was consumed with fire. Rawson began to choke, his face turning purple as if someone were strangling him. “He will suffer. Not die, unless I will it. But you must understand, there are worse things than death, and I am very adept at elongating someone's suffering—I can prolong it for an eternity if I wish.”

My eyes were the only thing I could move. I blinked rapidly, my heart squeezing like a vice. My wolf snarled and growled inside me, tearing at my insides, fighting to escape the confines of my body.

The power that held me hostage shoved me back into my chair. My chest was bound by invisible ropes so that I could only just breathe, but Rawson was released. He slumped over his knees, gasping for air, blood gurgling in his airway. I wanted to help him, but knew I couldn’t. My gaze went back to the bag. I knew what was inside. Pain cleaved my heart and I couldn’t bear to look at it. My wolf howled, echoing in my mind until all other sounds were drowned out. His grief only amplified my own.

The female tiger slammed the heavy bag on the table in front of me.

I refused to lift my attention from the floor. I couldn’t.

“Look at it, or your friend will suffer,” the man’s cold voice instructed.

I tried to distance myself, to pretend this wasn’t real. It was a nightmare that I would wake up from. It had to be.

I raised my gaze.

Doherty reached for the bag.

I’ll kill him! I’ll kill them all!

Doherty smirked, his eyes glacial. All I wanted right then, was to rip his head off. “That’s right, Maxwell. You have no reason to go back out into the world.” He undid the ties and reached into the bag. “This is your world now. Carry out your responsibilities as Prime and you get to see Rawson alive, but every time you defy us, he will suffer, and so will your pack…”

My wolf snapped, his claws ripping through my chest, the silver collar burning me. I couldn’t fight him, my attention was fixed on that bag, the scent of Ember’s wolf filling my nostrils. And all my fight left me.

Doherty lifted the head of Ember’s grey and white wolf from the bag. Her beautiful eyes, once full of fire, were dead and stared at me accusingly. Her mouth was agape and crusted in the blood of another. I didn’t recognise that scent, but I would never forget it. Ember’s killer.

My heart shattered, and I couldn’t force air in or out of my lungs. The room started to spin. I slumped, blood running from the injuries my wolf had inflicted. He’d clawed from the inside of my body and lacerated the skin on my stomach. I watched my dark red blood trickle down between my legs and pool on the chair.

Maybe, if I died, the pain in my heart and soul would go away but I doubted it. This sorrow would follow me to hell and beyond. The roaring in my head became so loud, I could no longer think. Maybe the bastards in this room spoke, I didn’t care, I was sucked into the empty void of my heart.

The female tiger yanked my head back and punched my jaw. I felt nothing. I just stared at the wolf’s head, hoping my beautiful mate hadn’t suffered. It didn’t matter what they did to me now. Ember was gone. My stomach spasmed. She had died alone and frightened. Vomit rushed up my throat and, unable to move my head in the tiger’s grasp, I spewed bile and saliva down my chin and chest, not bothered about spitting it away.

“Oh no, Connor, you do not get to give up on life, or I will take his soul and torture him. I will bring him back as an abomination...” said the man. Rawson was yanked up and slammed onto the table in front of me. “And all those you have just assumed responsibility for? They will suffer every hour of every day until you comply.”

“This…” Doherty said, replacing the tiger’s hand with his own and lifting my head to make me look at the wolf. “...is your doing. She could have been here with you. You could have had her, mated and fucked her as many times as you liked, but instead you chose to oppose me, and she died. Now we have both lost her…”

I frowned. Those words were wrong. He’d lost her…What the hell did that mean?

“You can save Rawson. He’s your only family, the one who saved you. Now’s the time to return the favour. Comply, and he and your pack will not pay for your weakness. You couldn’t protect her, but what are you willing to do to protect him?”

I swallowed, trying to control my need to vomit again. Forcing myself, I looked into the eyes of my dead mate, and my soul shriveled. I couldn’t imagine a world without Ember in it. My brain just couldn’t contemplate it. My wolf growled. I was shutting down, and he knew it. I willingly granted him control, knowing he would not allow his pack to die, but Doherty was wrong about Rawson. Rawson might be my only family, but I couldn’t bring myself to care that he was bleeding out in front of me, or that he might suffer—I couldn’t bring myself to care about anything. Ember had been my light, my purpose, my whole life; now she was gone and I embraced the darkness. There was no need to fight the shadows any longer. My wolf howled—and took control.