Capture My Heart

36 hours into life in hell, and the group I was in was sent out.

I had been here for a day, and things were tense. I had seen two wolves be taken out and not come back. I had been instructed all of the rules, and one older man was kind enough to give me…advice.

Basically, he instructed me not to do anything to attract attention to myself. Keep your head down, opinions to yourself, and listen to what you’re told no matter what.

He had been in the ‘good section’ since day one, like me, and he hadn’t been downsized yet, so I listened to him.

After all, what else could I do?

The group submerged, being led through hall after hall, each holding cells and made of metal or concrete. Some walls harbored silver weapons that could be grabbed for emergency use and that made several wolves sick just passing them.

From one of the vampires that I met when first arriving, the silver treatment I wasn’t conscious for almost killed Poppy, who I hadn’t seen in almost two days. I think.

I wondered when I was led, with the others, into a large field-like arena, whether or not I would ever see her again. Or Canto…or Sam or Violet

I hadn’t seen Violet in so long…

I shook those thoughts away, unable to remind myself of my last images of her; the ones of her giving up.

Instead my eyes took in every detail of the unnatural corral we were in, seeing several gates that more wolves were filing into, both female and male. Looking up, I saw that the walls stretched on forever before leading to what appeared at first glance to be a glass ceiling.

So we were underground.

Mumbled conversations went on around me and I watched as one man rushed over to a young female, with features similar to his and choppy cropped hair that matched the crowd. He began hugging her and mumbling so all I caught was that she was his daughter.

I turned away from their reunion.

Must’ve been in separate packs or something...I thought, but I let it slide, more worried about my own problems.

“Jacob,” the familiar sound of my voice wasn’t expected and it took a second, to see someone running towards me, and to acknowledge them.

“Poppy?” I said surprised, turning only to see a girl, about 5’4 in height with dark brown hair that had recently been cropped short, pale skin that hugged her every curve, and eyes almost as dark as mine.

She caught me off guard, and I had to smile when I recognized her, feeling relief at recognizing someone, although that smile turned into a frown just as quick as it came.

Looking closer, I saw the bruises layering her arms, revealed by her baggy short sleeved shirt that matched the rest of the wolves’ outfits.

There were more bruises along her neck, and her lip was puffy and split, but not bleeding. There were dark shadows under her eyes, and one was black and swollen shut, although her face wasn’t swelling as much as it’d probably been before.

Seeing the horror on my face, Poppy grimaced, her eyes down casting while I stared at her marks in silent shock.

What had they done to her?

“Poppy…” I started, feeling like I was choking when I spoke. She looked up at me, her expression sad while she tried to reassure me.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said softly, her voice a bit gentler than her thoughts. “I brought it on myself.” She finished, wincing at something.

I felt sick.

Poppy touched my arm lightly, “Hey, hey, relax Jacob, I’m alright,” she cooed, and I noticed that my arms were shaking.

Gritting my teeth I willed myself to calm down and it worked immediately.

Poppy smiled a cute crooked grin at me and dropped my arm. “See? I’m alright, like I said, I brought it on myself. I shouldn’t have been taking the vamps so lightly.”

Her eyes dulled a bit, and I could tell that she knew her rebellion days were over.

She’d learned the hard way.

“How did…” I started, but I stopped. I couldn’t bring myself to ask her how this, had happened. They beat her. They hurt her. Just for stepping out of line.

Who knows how much farther they were willing to go to enforce the ‘rules’.

Poppy played with a short strand of her hair and we strayed over past the crowd so we were now sitting, near wall. The floor was icy against my skin but I barely felt it.

I felt a drag.

It was as though an imaginary force yanking me into the crowd and making it so I was tempted to follow into the unknown concrete prison at its will, although I never moved from my spot.

I ignored it for a while and spoke to Poppy.

We talked quietly, running down on everything that had happened to each of us and comparing what different werewolves had told us. I had no idea how long we were going to be outside but Poppy revealed that she heard wolves were let out every two days, for four hours a day.

It didn’t seem like a lot of time since it’d already been nearly two hours, and I realized that it was still too early to decide about a plan of action.

The strain to keep my instinct under control was overwhelming, and I knew why the vampires had only taken the Alphas.

By separating us from the pack, we had no power, only a strict competitiveness that made us active time bombs; we were just waiting to go off. The drive to fight was crushing, and when werewolves were so surrounded like this, ou couldn’t help but be extremely twitching and paranoid.

I knew the pack wouldn’t be doing so well at home either; without a leader they were nothing. They couldn’t coordinate, there’d be no order, and everyone would be at each other’s throats.

Poppy was terrified of what that could mean for her own group, since according to her they were always close to breaking into a fight anyways.

It was nice to worry about someone else’s problems other than my own, and I felt for her when she described how short fused her friends were, although it was kind of hard to believe there was anyone with a worse temper than hers.

I’d read her thoughts, and this girl made guys like Paul look like children.

She was actually going around now while we were let out to see what else she could dig up at the moment.

It was a wasted effort, in my opinion but after a while I got up and started doing the same, browsing through wolves and speaking with those that were the least intimidating.

That pull I mentioned earlier, was starting to resurface, and I started conversations as I let my feet lead me in the direction it wanted me to go.

Information compiled in stacks in my head and I gathered that the wolves here were from nearly every continent, although I scarcely met any Americans or Asians, there were some.

Most here were European, or African. There were no citizens of South America either, and I was pretty sure that was because there aren’t any actual wolves on the continent.

Violet was from South America, but she was turned against her will; she was never meant for this life.

My head filled with longing when I thought of Violet, and I knew that she was most likely in a camp like I was. Would she struggle? I couldn’t think about it. Bruises like Poppy’s would not trespass on Violet’s body.

She had suffered enough.

She had been hurt too much already.

She didn’t deserve it.

The pull got stronger; I followed it mechanically and Poppy caught me before I could get to my unknown destination.

“Nothing,” Poppy reported, disgruntled, meeting up with me and snapping me out of my thought process. I frowned for a second while trying to ignore the marks on her and listen to what she was saying.

It was hard; I had Violet on my mind, and the dragging sensation was getting to the point of pain now.

I had to look; I couldn’t help it, to where the pull was enticing me to go to.

When I did, I froze, and my breath got caught in my throat while Poppy peered past me to see what had cast such a spell over me. She saw and confusion swept across her features.

“What? Jacob what’s wrong?” she asked rapidly, but I couldn’t answer. I was beyond being able to, and nothing was wrong at this moment. Nothing.

Violet was sitting there, her knees to her chest and pressed against a wall.

Her skin was unmarked, completely smooth and there were only faint shadows under her eyes from not sleeping, indicating that she’d recovered from her attack and was alright now; just tired.

It took everything in me not to run to her, and kiss her with everything I had, but my body seemed to cooperate at last as I was dragged towards her with my own feet.

She didn’t look up, but I saw her shoulders tense at my presence while Poppy stood behind me with her eyes wide.

“Violet,” I whispered, and was met by two terrified brown eyes snapping up to meet mine.