Liberty POV
Maybe I was still asleep after all.
“What are you doing?” Reuben asks, his voice slightly humorous.
“Pinching myself.” Ow that actually hurt. I have to be dreaming right? I think I would know if I was a werewolf. I mean I have to shave my legs every day…but it’s hair definitely not fur.
“Trust me you’re awake. Liberty, I need you to focus…who helped you. Who was the one that helped you to escape?” Reuben’s voice is trying to sound patient but it’s not, I can sense the urgency behind it.
I’ve got it! This is a cult, that must grow and smoke their own drugs. I’m slightly disappointed that it’s not a yoga retreat.
“Liberty!” He growls at me, which earns a return growl from Pierce and even Evelyn.
“What!” I shout back at him, he was annoying me. I thought I was meant to be annoying him.
“Who helped you….”
“I don’t know….he wouldn’t give a name.” I haven’t lied, because that was the truth. I can’t betray them, clearly I still need them. If I lose them, I’ve got no help to start again.
“Reuben, that’s not important right now. Liberty, do you understand what we’ve just told you…that you are a werewolf.” Evelyn places a calming hand on Reuben’s arm. It’s like magic, his body immediately relaxes.
Werewolf? Not this again.
“I don’t know what you all smoke out here but I think you need to give it a rest.”
“Have you had a voice in your head? Maybe since not taking the daily shots. A little voice growing stronger and stronger….” Pierce places his hand on top of mine, leaning in closely to me.
I feel like laughing, it’s not April 1st is it? I take a moment to look in each and every pair of eyes. All watching me intently. How would he have known that.
“Lib, Lib I’m here. I’m really here…” That voice enters my head, like a second entity. As I concentrate on the voice, I start to completely freak out.
I jump up from the breakfast table, my breathing becoming too fast, my heart thudding against my chest. I need fresh air. They must have put something whacky in the eggs.
“Libby Breathe…” Pierce is in front of me in less than a second, his voice concerned as he tries to give me a direct order. An order to breathe. But I can’t, something is stopping me. I must be having a panic attack.
“Libby…” His voice is like a songbird’s call but I can barely hear it over the voice talking in my head and the blood bumping in my ears. I back away, holding my hand out for him to not come any closer.
“Breathe, you’re going to pass out!” Reuben commands but it does nothing to help. Why was he being a prick to me.
“Libby Breathe..” This time Pierce gives the command and it has some kind of power behind it. An unseeable energy, something that I hadn’t felt before. Unlike Reuben’s command… Pierce’s I want to follow. My entire body wants to cave into his order.
I take a deep intake of air, my back hitting against a wall as I run out of room to back away into. Pierce is in front of me instantly, his hands cupping my face as I regain my breathing.
“Just relax. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. You are mine to protect kitty cat.”
He whispers into my ear, his warm breath tingling against my skin. His hands move to my waist which has slightly exposed itself as his fingers grazing my skin. Skin that seems to like his touch, it feels like butterfly wings fluttering against my waist. It tickles and leaves a warmth.
His lips are almost touching my neck neck now and I find myself leaning into him.
“Pierce!” Reuben roars, practically launching himself at the deliciously s3xy man in front of me. Pierce is yanked back away from me, his eyes pitch black…like the deepest of nights. His teeth poised, fangs slightly showing. Was he about to bite me?
It’s Reuben that seems to snap him out of his strange behaviour, leaving me reaching for my untouched neck with, and I can’t explain it, a level of sadness.
Things were spiralling out of control. I need to leave…as soon as possible. My presence here is only causing conflict for them.
I was currently having a tour of the main site and it’s facilities. I don’t know why I said yes when asked, I didn’t want to stay. I wasn’t planning to be here this evening.
I’d been shown the hospital and the training grounds, the school but only from a distance and now some kind of security centre. I think. It didn’t have the iron bars keeping each cell separate like in the movies. But it gave off jail vibes.
I was really conversing, I was feeling very overwhelmed and needed time to myself to think.
“If rogues attempt to enter our land they will remain here until we can verify their identity. Then depending on their reason for entering our land…”
“Rogues?” My head was spinning. Reuben had been talking alien to me, using terminology that I haven’t got the faintest clue about.
I think I was in a state of shock to be honest. My legs moving but I’m not sure what kept them moving because they felt wobbly to me.
My senses explode, my mouth watering when I smell that coffee and cinnamon scent again. Where was that coming from?
“I’ve got you.” Pierce’s voice whispers into my ear, his hands wrapping around my waist. Keeping me up.
“Reuben, she’s struggling. We’re done.”
“Wait, one more section…” Reuben demands as he types a code into a keypad and a door slides open.
“Reuben.” Evelyn warns him, her voice low and almost like a growl.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m testing out a theory.” He responds to her as I walk past him, Pierce’s hand resting on my lower back. This section I didnt like. It was cold, damp and smelled of old blood. What exactly was this place.
“Trust me.” He whispers to Pierce as he comes back to the front having secured the door.
Now these were more like the cells from movies, they also added chains to the decor. Further and further we walk and Pierce is practically walking for me. He might as well be carrying me in his arms.
I hear a groan of pain in front of us, as we stop in front of a cell, guarded with four men. Four men with swords. Who uses swords nowadays? It’s not medieval times.
The groans continue from the occupier as one of the guard’s opens the cell. Who is he? Why is he being held under such disgusting conditions.
That’s when it clicks…I know him.
“Malcolm?” I gasp, running into the cell, to his side. I crouch before him as he is sat, chained to a chair, his head flopped forward covered in bruises and open wounds.
“Liberty?” He just about lifts his head
and opens his eyes. I place my hand to his head, checking his wound only to be growled at by all three people I shared a breakfast with.
“What have you done to him?” I shout back at them. This was a mistake, I can see now why Father kept me in the apartment. This is what my brother was capable of? No wonder he wanted to keep me safe.
“This man threatened my family, kidnapped my children. He chained me up, shot me with a poisoned bullet to the chest. You know him…which means you know Vicky?” Evelyn wasn’t as warm as she was before. Her voice is cold and I can tell her heart has become frosty towards me.
“Yes I know Vicky. How do you?” I stand up, straightening my back and turning back to them.
“She’s from this pack. She isn’t welcome here Liberty neither is any ally of hers.”
“He’s hurting. You need to do something.” I try to plea to her softer side, to the side I saw only this morning.
“You think because I am a female alpha I’ll go easy on him? If anything I’d be harder than Reuben. He knows what he was doing, and he knows the punishment.” There’s a coldness behind her eyes as she turns and leaves, Reuben following her.
I watch them leave, expecting Pierce to follow them but he doesn’t. He remains but by the door, leaning against the wall, his eyes watching me intently.
“You have to help me Liberty, help me get out… your father wouldn’t want you here.” Malcolm groans through his pain, trying to grab my attention but my eyes are stuck on Pierce’s.
“Libby I want you to leave.” He’s calm but just as cold as Evelyn now. His arms crossed at his chest, a thick and heavy emotion emitting from him.
“What about you?” I gasp, the sensation took my breath away.
“I’ll follow you shortly.”
