What Has Become Of Me?

The air is musty and my body aches. As I attempt to open my eyes, I feel some sort of cloth covering them. Past events are fuzzy and I try to move my hands to uncover my eyes. I can’t move my hands! Metal rattles on either side of me as I tug at my hands. Suddenly everything rushes back and tears threaten to spill from my covered eyes. What the hell have the guy’s thrown me into? They were so careless.

“Oh, darling,” a gruff voice speaks and the scent of cigarettes invades my nose, “you're finally awake.”

“Who the hell are you?” I spit out.

A cold metal object sits just at the back of my neck and must run a fair length across the wall because my hands are cuffed to it.

“Honey, I’m your alpha” he says in an amused tone, “so you best be treating me nicely.”

“You aren’t my alpha” I say defiantly.

His footsteps approach me and I sink back.

“Next full moon I will be” he whispers and I feel his disgusting breath wash across my face, “And I ain’t ever releasing my hold over you, no matter how much you wish away my bounds.”

“My pack is going to rip you to pieces” I growl at him.

His response is to just laugh. Anger wells inside of me.

“You mean the drunks and girlish dancer?” he asks still thoroughly amused.

I falter, but he can’t know my doubts!

“Yes, those hulks of wolf!” I declare.

This sends him into a fit of laughter.

“Something the matter?” a voice questions from across the room.

“Not at all!” Mr. Smoker, the apparent alpha of this pack, announces, “My lady and I were just having a laugh!”

“Well she looks real fine” the other man says and I hear as his shoes thud closer.

“Doesn’t she just?” Mr Smoker asks.

The stench of cigarettes grows stronger and I feel a rough, calloused hand brush along my jaw line. I flinch away and suddenly the light brush on my skin becomes an iron tight grip. My skin will surely be bruised. I wince but refuse to make a noise.

“Time we take her to meet everyone else” Mr Smoker announces to the other man in the room.

My hands fall to my sides as they are released. Immediately I raise them up to claw at the alpha’s hand. My finger nails sink in and I feel a small amount of blood rise from the skin but a sudden kick to my side nearly shatters my ribs. An involuntary cry of pain echoes around the room and I clutch my side.

“Don’t you dare be doin’ that!” Mr Smoker growls.

Someone grabs my arm and drags me up onto my feet. I reach up and pull the blind fold off. I come face to face with Mr Smoker, pack leader. His teeth are heavily yellowed and crooked. Greasy black hair hangs around his face and blue piercing eyes glare at me.

“Hello there” he smiles, wafting his breath into my face.

I try to pull away but his hold is strong. One pup is nothing against a male full grown werewolf. I have the strength of a baby compared to these men. I grimace at him and he grins.

“Welcome to the pack house, me love” he says with the accent I can hardly care to place at this time.

His gaze turns to the other man in the room. The man appears younger and more hygienic. His red hair is ruffled up and appears to need a brush but not too badly. A light spray of freckles covers his cheeks and his nose. I notice his nose is more red than natural; perhaps a drinker?

“Get the dogs” the alpha grins at the younger man and power rolls off him in a single short wave.

The power is nothing to me but it sets the other man to work quickly. If the guys don’t get off their asses and save me soon that power will have me bowing to this disgusting lot.

“Time to meet the fellas” the alpha tells me before dragging me along.

I put up a fight but it’s just tiring and makes him more annoyed. Eventually I tell myself to just go along for now, wait for a better window to use my strength to escape.

“That’s better, darlin’.” The alpha smiles approvingly of my, temporary, obedience.

It is a rather short walk; I wish it could have lasted forever. An ordinary door is our final destination; the alpha raps on it once. As soon as the door is opened the alpha releases my arm and kicks me in. I resist the urge to cry out as I tumble forwards into the burly man who has opened the door. My neck hurts as it snaps back from the force. The man catches me but spins me around to throw me into the center of the room. Laughter erupts from the men seated around the room. A stray tear leaks from my eyes as I stay crouched on the floor. My arms hurt with the impact and my back is screaming at me to just give in so I can just lie down. I refuse to lie down, so I rise up. My hair falls away from my face as I start to get up. I catch a glimpse of my arm where the alpha had grasped to drag me here; an ugly purplish bruise has begun to rise in the shape of his fingers. My eyes dart around the room. It appears to be some sort of office because a desk sits to one end of the room. I’m kneeling on a rug in the center as men watch me with giant grins. Three are perched on the desk while another two sit on a couch. The alpha and the burly man stay at the door. Another man is on a singular just beside the couch chair that, judging from the scrapes along the ground, has been dragged from behind the desk. Most men seem to sit fairly close to each other showing smaller groups within the massive pack but the last werewolf in the room stands alone behind the desk leaning into the corner a bookshelf creates with the wall. As I gaze at these men I realise that none of their appearances are any different from the array of people humans see on the streets each day, it is my wolf that whispers to me these people aren't human. To a normal person, any of these guys would be just the same as that helpful librarian or bored check-out operator.

“Such a pretty face” one of the men says from the desk as he gets to his feet.

Immediately I recoil from him and turn myself around to face him fully. Mistakably this leaves my back turned to the men at the couch.

“Gorgeous body” growls a voice from right beside my ear.

I spin around as quickly as I can and attempt to punch him straight in the nose. He is quicker than me and grabs my fist in one of his hands. His hands are massive compared to mine. While I’m trapped facing him, the man quickly plants a kiss on my lips. Stuble from his chin scratches my skin and I use all my strength to swirl my legs around. My knee hits perfectly between his legs. He releases me with a low growl. My head snaps to the side from the sudden slap.

“Back off ye idiot!” the alpha calls and the man reaches clutching himself.

I touch my hand gently to my cheek and grimace as I can taste his mint gum on my lips.

“She’s mine first” the alpha declares.

“Boss why are we here? So you can show off the goods when we can’t touch ‘em yet?” A smaller man pipes up from the desk.

“Nay, here to tell you to watch your backs, we may have a tiny fight on our hands for the rights to her” the alpha tells them.

While their attention is diverted I scoot from the middle of the room to a wall. Having my back against the wall calms me slightly. I slowly check my pockets. Where’s my phone? Do I have some cash on me? The alpha stops mid sentence to grin at me.

“Looking for this?” he asks and holds up my deep blue, flip phone.

I glare at him, hoping somehow he bursts into flames.

My generic ring tone begins playing, making the alpha’s grin spread around the room on the faces of the other men.

“Shall we have some fun?” the alpha asks his pack.

Everyone nods and smirks at me. I could tell with a small glance southwards for each man, that they’re idea of fun isn’t something that involves a board game and some friends. The alpha flips my phone open then hits loud speaker.

“Anika?” I hear Dan’s voice question.

“Dan! The pack fro-” my warning is cut off by a hand slipping over my mouth.

“Anika!” Dan demands.

I snap my teeth at whoever’s holding me but they don’t seem to notice. Everyone in the room chuckles, eyes glued to me. I throw my elbow into the person behind me. They grunt and tighten their grip on my face, digging into the sensitive flesh the alpha had previously injured.

“Dan, is it?” the alpha asks politely.

“Who the fuck are you?” Dan demands into the phone causing the men to laugh again.

“The new keeper of your little wolf, thanks for keeping her warm” the alpha replies in the same madding, calm voice.

A snarl rips from my throat and a full body tremor throws my assailant into the wall extremely close behind us. He smashes nearly all the way through. Every inch of my body starts to burn with fire and every man in this room jumps to his feet.

“Anika!” Dan’s voice screams through the phone at me.

Nothing makes sense. My wolf claws at my insides, throwing herself against my skull. I fall forwards as my legs try to morph.

“We’re coming! Calm down!” Dan yells to me.

The panic in his voice throwing more fuel to my wolf, it’s a trigger for her to come forward. Danger equals morph.

A scream tears up my throat but turns into a howl halfway through.

“Anika” Dan’s voice says more calmly as the pack around me does nothing to aid me, “You need to calm down, just take some deep bre-”

My brother’s voice cuts off as the alpha snaps the phone shut. Tremors that had begun to calm while Dan was talking, go straight back to wracking through my body. I writhe on the rug, throwing my head back and striking the wall. Bones snap out of place then back in. The man from the corner decides to try and help, as he steps towards me I growl at him. My teeth jump from being sharp, powerful wolf jaws to human teeth. It appears to simply shimmer for them but for me I feel every displacement.

“Back off Ryder” the alpha barks.

“I love them feisty” the burly man says but I block out the talk between the pack quickly as it becomes hard to focus on control. I send a silent, mental plea; Help me Dan!