Page 9 of Bound

“She’s so dirty,” I whisper. “Look at the color of her fur. It’s dark red, almost black. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

What the hell is a lone female wolf shifter doing all the way out here? Is she a rogue?

I move my hand to the back of her neck and give her a soft shake. “Hey, sweetheart? Wake up.” She doesn’t move. “Come on now, let me see those eyes,” I say, using some of my alpha power to force the command.

Nothing. Even though her face is hidden by her tail, I can see the top of her head, and a small piece of leather catches my eye.

“What’s this?” I ask as my finger trails along the leather strap that leads down the side of her face. I gently push her tail away and hear the sharp intake of air from the others as anger and revulsion fill me.

Hunter shifts to his human form as he grits out, “Is that a fucking muzzle?”

My stomach tightens with nausea. I know I don’t know thisfemale, but the thought of her being hurt, of someone doing this to her, makes me feel queasy. She’s clearly not an alpha, which makes her a beta, so my command should have forced her to obey. The fact that she hasn’t even moved tells me she must be seriously injured.

My lips press together in worry as I carefully undo the muzzle. It gets stuck in her fur, and Gage shifts. He and Hunter carefully help me untangle it from her matted fur. It makes me sick, seeing how stuck it is. She’s had this on for a while.

As soon as it’s free, Bain, now in his human form, snatches it from my grasp and immediately rips it to shreds, the metal snapping in his bare hands as if it’s a twig.

“Where is she hurt?” Hunter asks, looking down at her. “I can smell the blood.” I trail my hands over her, looking for the source of the blood in her fur.

It takes me a while, but I come across a large patch of mud on her side. “I think this is it.” I lean in to get a better look as I try to scrape some of the mud off ‌it. “It looks like something penetrated her skin here. Strange…” I trail off, tilting my head in confusion as I look at it.

“It looks old, maybe a couple of weeks,” I tell them in confusion.

Gage shakes his head. “That doesn’t make any sense. It would have healed by now.” He leans close to take a better look with me.

“What do you make of it?” I ask him.

Reading pretty much everything he can, especially anything on our kind, Gage normally has the answers we’re looking for.

“If she did get it a couple of weeks ago, which it looks like that’s plausible, her body must be too weak to heal itself.”

My stomach churns as I wonder how long she’s been in that muzzle, unable to eat. “It explains why she’s unresponsive. Herbody has basically shut down so she can try to heal,” I say in realization.

“Fuck,” Hunter whispers as Chase’s wolf whines, his nose resting on his paws as he stares at her. He’s normally the one cracking jokes and running around. It worries me a little that he hasn’t shifted yet. It tells me he’s feeling emotionally vulnerable right now and doesn’t want us to see how upset he is.

“She must be seriously injured for that not to have healed after so much time,” Gage says with a frown.

“How can we help her?” Bain asks.

“We need to get her food and water.”

I reach out and stroke her head and neck, hoping she can sense that we’re here to help.

“Don’t worry, little wolf. We’re here now.”

Chapter 5

Cherry

“Still hiding, arewe?” Dr. J asks as he squats down in front of where I lie strapped to the table, putting his eyes level with mine as a smirk covers his face.

“Not to worry. There are plenty of tests I can run on you in your wolf form.”

More tests? I’ve been stuck here for three excruciating weeks, and he’s already drawn multiple vials of my blood, made me run on a treadmill until I passed out, and carefully documented every part of my body in wolf and human form.

A week ago, I realized that if I stayed in my wolf form, I felt more protected, and have refused to shift back for him since.

I’m not sure what these tests are for, or why these people killed my family and left me alive. The mere thought of them has tears burning in my eyes. The doctor must mistake that for my fear of him because he shakes his head and stands up to his full height as he looks down at me with fake pity.