I could feel the shift in the air. Alpha left me. He left. I could feel my breathing become erratic as realization sunk in. Now he would hurt me, my punishment would be horrendous.
My eyes drifted from the empty doorway back to the Beta. His face held a sinister smirk as he raised the hand I had bit. It was a superficial wound, barely a mark was there. Even my wolf knew better than to draw blood with someone we had no chance of winning against.
My wolf urged me to find a way out. We had no scent marking to keep the Betas wolf from dealing a lethal bite if he chose to shift.
"Oh Toby, Toby. Little Toby." His voice sang out his little chant. My body quaked with fear. I was a caged animal, I was the prey, an easy target and one this wolf would enjoy hunting.
The Beta wasn't a wolf of mercy, he fought because he was capable, he fought because he enjoyed winning. I could feel his sadistic pleasure every time he whipped me, or when he would beat me.
I backed up more until I felt myself come into contact with the back wall of the cell. I was in a corner, nowhere to run. The beta positioned himself in front of me. Even if I darted to the side, his hand could easily reach out and stop me in my tracks.
My wolf was frantic. The need to protect ourselves was intense, but the realization that even if we tried we knew we would fail. My wolf didn't like that. I could feel him rippling at the surface. My tail twitched in anticipation. My body wound up tight. Fight.
'We will fail, Beta will punish us even more.' My distressed thoughts didn't help my wolf.
A chuckled grabbed my attention as my eyes focused back on the Beta. "Nowhere to run little wolf. Now let's get you obedient again, shall we?" With his words I watched as he shifted, it was a fluid change, one that came with years of experience.
Where the Beta once was now stood him in his wolf form. He was huge, I came up to his shoulder and his overbearing body easily dwarfed my own. His eyes glowed a deep amber and his fur was a rusty brown with patches missing from healed battle scars. He bore his teeth and I felt my wolf mentally shove me to the back of my mind.
I was no longer in control of my body, I was merely a bystander. The Beta started to advance on us, slow and steady, stalking me. Drawing out the inevitable. My heart stuttered in fear with every movement he made toward us and in a desperate action, my wolf lunged for him keeping low to the ground, aiming for his throat. He didn't move, didn't even flinch when our teeth came down harshly onto his jugular. I could taste the blood as my wolf started yanking the flesh from side to side, growling with every movement.
In my gut, I knew it wouldn't be this easy, but my wolf didn't understand the life we lived, the role we played. We were submissive to our pack, to the laws, to the rules.
My wolf growled mentally at me, almost as if scoffing at my choice of word, pack. 'We may not be pack by scent, however by name we are pack!'
A snarl was our only warning before a paw plowed into our side, his body maneuvering around swiftly until his throat was free and his body stood over us knocking us to the ground on our side.
My wolf scrambled to get out of the now, compromising position. His other leg stood in our way and my wolf grabbed for it with his teeth. I felt them scrape against bone, and I could feel a slight swell of pride knowing we were doing something, but the feelings were short-lived.
In moments teeth connected with the scruff of my neck, yanking is backward. I felt the Betas teeth pierce my flesh. I let out a howl of pain and my wolf struggled. The Beta whipped his head to the side sending us back into the corner we had originated from.
Looking up, the Beta stood strong, intimidating, the very essence of what a killer Werewolf should look like. His lips pulled back almost into a cruel carnivorous bloodthirsty smile. His canines were stained with my blood, the rusty fur around his black lips now a deep red. The blood seeping out of the wounds we had managed to inflict, didn't even deter him from making slow, purposeful steps towards us. The Betas skin rippled with each step, but it wasn't fear I smelt, he was excited. He and his wolf were enjoying the fight. His ears perked up at attention on his head, not hearing anything me. I knew then that all of his attention was directed at my quivering figure. This was the first time I've ever challenged anyone in the pack.
'Submit to him! It won't hurt as bad if we do. Please don't do this to us.' I wasn't above begging, especially to my wolf. This fight was futile, but my wolf snapped his jaws, and as he raised back on his hunches and poised himself to strike, the Beta suddenly was nose to nose with us. I let out a yelp and then felt the ripping of flesh. I cried out in pain. The Beta grabbed onto our muzzle, forcing our mouth closed. I felt his bottom teeth pierce deeply into the soft underside of my jaw. The crunch that followed his bite was accompanied by blinding pain making me aware that my jaw was broken. Crushed beneath his powerful bite.
Letting go, I felt myself scramble back, mouth hung open unable to close. My blood poisoned the air. Still unwilling to give in, my body lunged once more hoping to plow through the Betas strong form towards the open cell door.
Useless.
Stupid.
Before my wolf had time to react, the Beta turned and charged into my side, claws gouging into the soft skin of my underbelly. His jaws came down once again to my flesh, ripping, tearing not just skin but the muscle and bone as well. My hind leg came up in an attempt to push his head away only to be grasped by those teeth. Teeth that closed around my leg and bit down hard enough for the bone to crack and splinter.
I let a howl of the pain out.
'Enough!' With as much mental force as I could, I shoved myself forward and stilled my resisting body. I thrust my neck up and urinated myself. Forcing my wolf to submit would forever be a feeling I would regret. Death would have been better at the utter feeling of betrayal I felt.
Unfortunately, my attempt to appease the wolf towering over me didn't do much good. His snarling increased and he looked disgusted with my submission display. I felt him start to pace. Contemplating.
I was in pain, both physically and mentally. I closed my eyes and willed myself to stay awake. The adrenaline that had been fueling my body was now gone and I could feel myself getting dizzy from blood loss and exhaustion.
When the sounds of bones cracking caught my attention I looked back at the Beta, avoiding eye contact. He'd started his shift back and unwilling to risk meeting his gaze I turned my eyes back to the wall.
"Shift." The one command I was hoping he wouldn't force on me. My shift to wolf was painful and I knew until I perfected it, my shift back to a human would also be combined with pain, especially with my tattered body and a broken jaw.
I heard my cell door open as I closed my eyes and willed myself to shift, using instinct to guide me.
My wolf was silent now, still there but definitely no longer an active participant in the happenings of the moment. He could help me shift, but he was also punishing me for my actions now.
The pain was instantaneous. My shift was slow as broken bones attempted to rework themselves.
"Faster!" I barely heard the Betas voice over the blood rushing in my ears as I focused on shifting.
I must have been mid-shift when I felt the first lash of a whip.
"Faster you worthless piece of shit!"
I tried to concentrate, but with each second that past another strike of the whip hit me.
Finally, I was back to my original form, and although I was back I curled into myself as the lashes from the whip continued to rain down all across my body.
'18, 19, 20...' I counted each strike, each moment the rigged whip made contact with my flesh, I counted. Sometimes I was made to write the number of strikes I received after punishment and if I wrote the wrong number, the punishment would start over.
I could hear his breathing become erratic, his scent grew stronger with each strike. His scent was laced with a smell I could only identify with that of a male in rut, maybe not as strong but enough to know that he was enjoying this in ways my mind couldn't fathom.
Suddenly it all stopped. The only sounds were his breathing and my pained gasps for air.
"Put your ass in the air." His words were low, deadly and commanding.
I felt my wolf surge back to the front. He didn't want this, I didn't know what this even was but my wolf could sense what was coming. 'We'll just be punished more if we keep disobeying. We will be fine, Alpha won't let him kill us.' I recalled what Alpha had said, I had a purpose and I, we, needed to remember that to get through this moment.
Shakily, I attempted to raise up onto my hands and knees but found the task difficult. My back leg was broken, the bone exposed, my sides were drenched in blood effectively camouflaging the opened wounds.
"I said get your ass up!"
"Beta that's enough!" The roar of the guard bounced off the walls, and if I had been more coherent I would have smiled and nodded my thanks. Instead, I felt my arms give out and I landed back on the ground laying in my blood and urine.
"Alpha needs you now! The border has been compromised." The words sounded like they were being spoken from underwater. I didn't let myself succumb to the darkness until I heard the cell door close and their smells get feint.
Finally, I sighed. 'Alpha always saves me.' And with that last reassuring thought, I fell into darkness.
.....................................
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