Page 8 of Blood Pearl

While Aztec is resting I’m still listening for anything untoward. But I don’t think it’s too long before my eyes close and I sleep too.

“Aurora, wake up. Take your turn now. My eyes are tired and Asher needs a break,” Gerry murmurs, still keeping his voice low.

Waking easily, I shift to myself and give Gerry a head nod. “I’ll start watch and Aztec will take over a bit later, but she’ll lend me her senses, as you have with Asher.”

Shifting to Asher, he quickly settles and closes his eyes. Taking a step toward the opening of the cave, I sit cross-legged and let my senses open to the surrounding area. I have done this so many times that I can do it with my eyes closed and visualize what I am hearing.

Hearing Asher stirring, I know it’s nearly time to move again. We’ve rested throughout the day. Now evening has arrived we need to make a move. But we may need to find a rabbit or two because both mine and Gerry’s stomach growl. I grin at Gerry and mumble, “We’ll let the enemy know we’re coming if this keeps happening.”

“Come on, let’s find something on the way.” Gerry is grinning broadly as we both shift into our wolves and start the last leg of this journey.

Chapter 5

WYNONA

Standing in the doorway of this prison cell, watching everything going on around us is driving me crazy. We have been here for months and I’m sure Alpha Aurora is doing whatever she can to get us out, but it may be a case of sacrificing some of us to get others out of here and back to our pack.

We are being held in a brick building that is roughly put together, but strong enough to stop us from breaking it down. The door is made of metal with bars. There are probably six other cells like ours and we’ve seen shifters being brought here over the months. None I’ve seen before and at night when we’ve whispered to each other, we’ve learned that they are from the Northern Parklands.

Wren steps to the side of me and leans her shoulder against mine. “Anything new?” she asks.

“Not that I can see, but then I can’t see much at all.”

“I think we should cause some trouble tomorrow. We’ve been too quiet for too long. They took our males away from us and we’ve no idea what is happening to them,” Wren states.

“Okay, what do you suggest?”

“What about causing that bitch to fall on her ass? That would be a start and if we get her near the water table, we can make sure she ends up in the mud,” Wren smirks.

“Yeah, we can do that. You, of course, mean Fragina, the disgusting Luna of Alpha Arric.” I don’t cover the sneer. No-Man’s Pack, yeah it’s a heck of a pack name, I’m thinking to myself. But a rogue Alpha and Luna to all these idiots, just has you knowing they all need putting down.

Rue steps up to my other side, sighing loudly. “What we gonna do now?”

Giggling a little, I look at Rue. “Well, we are going to mess with the Luna. Make her have one of her famous tantrums. The one where she stamps her foot, throws her arms around and screeches until our eardrums nearly burst.”

“Okay, I’m in. Since they gave us the wolfsbane in either our food and water, and stopped our wolves from emerging, I’m up for anything. We better get our wolves back because if we don’t, I’m going to rip these rogues’ limb-from-limb. I hate I can’t feel Ashina.”

Shouting grabs our attention, and we push ourselves onto the bars, doing our best to see whatever is happening.

Down a few cells from ours, a female speaks. “I can see a group of five males being dragged to the males’ cells. It looks like they have an Alpha. That may not be a bad thing because a pack is not going to stand by while their Alpha is imprisoned here.”

Banging is heard and shouting from the males as the new hostages are dragged into the cell they are going to be kept in. Hearing a roar, we know that the Alpha male is doing his best to get away, but then all goes quiet. It means they’ve knocked him out and will inject him while he’s not a threat.

“He would have been handy if he’d gotten away or met face-to-face with Arric. I’m wishing I could rip Fragina’s face off,” Paige says quietly from behind us.

“If we protect each other, we may be able to do some damage to that bitch, and I don’t care if it’s me that has to pay the price. I want to see her suffer something,” Jinny snarls.

We all know she’s missing her wolf and has kept trying to speak to her. Not eating and drinking at times to make a slight connection. Her wolf is still drowsy, but she is alive and speaks when Jinny can last without food and water long enough. It has given us all hope that our wolves are just sleeping and not dead.

Three guards walk over to the first cell and open the door. Females walk out of the cell and through to the center of the camp. Because that’s all this is, a camp. It is not a packhouse with cells, it’s just a dirty, dingy, thrown together building to keep shifters in as hostages, and a cottage of sorts which the Alpha and Luna live in. But it’s more a hut than a cottage if you were particular how you described it.

One by one, the cells are opened, and the females are released to eat and drink. It’s that time of the day that we get our one meal. So, if it’s the same as all the other days, it’s morning.

Our turn comes and the three guards, which are male rogues with no significant training that I can tell, open the door and we are filed out to our position in the queue to eat. I scan the area and don’t see the new hostages, so they’ll not get anything until morning.

Turning, I whisper to Wren, who is in the queue behind me. “Try to pick up something we can pick the lock with. I’ve had enough of this place and I’m happy to go down fighting at this point.”

Wren grins, “I agree, Wyn. I’m with you.”

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