Page 1 of Feral Monsters
Prologue
Merit
Fuck my life.
I said that to myself quite a bit, honestly. It was practically my favorite saying at this point. But being stuck in the middle of the woods where it was pitch black, traps were set up everywhere, and there wasn’t even moonlight to guide me… Fuck my life seemed pretty adequate.
But this was my current tormentor’s favorite game. Since my parents had sold me when I was thirteen, no longer wanting to deal with me and needing money more than they wanted me, I’d been passed from one sick mother fucker to the next like I wasn’t even human. As if I was nothing more than a t-shirt someone couldn’t fit anymore and wanted to “hand-me-down” to the next person who could use me. But my latest owner took the damn cake.
Because not only did he rape me, sexually assault me, and force me to act as a slave, but he forced me to train in the home gym for hours on end to keep my body physically fit so he could do this. Force me to run through the woods with a camera around my neck so he could watch me. And he always did it when it was dark. He had snipers in the trees that liked to hit me with rubber bullets when I least expected it just to up the ante and the pain. I’d once stepped in a fucking bear trap that had snapped my fucking ankle and taken me months to heal from.
And here I was again for the seventh time—but the first time since my ankle fully healed. I’d been led here blindfolded, and now, I didn’t know my way back. Usually, I couldn’t go back until he came for me, which was usually when he pushed my face into the dirt and raped me. I’d long ago learned to stop fighting back. It didn’t hurt as badly if I just laid there and took it.
I spun in a slow circle, trying to figure out my way around and search for traps and snipers. It was so dark, I could barely make out the trees around me. Sighing, I slowly crept forward, my bare feet silent on the ground. My silent steps wouldn’t make a difference when it came to the snipers since they had night vision and scopes, but I could always hope they wouldn’t spot me. Or that my captor couldn’t find me once he was done watching me play his stupid fucking game.
Captor… that was all I knew to call him. That or owner. He would never tell me his name. He was just “sir” to me. It was all I was allowed to call him.
A branch breaking off to my left had me freezing, my left foot slightly off the ground. I cocked my head, listening and holding very still, waiting to see if it was an animal or something much more terrifying… like one of the snipers or my owner.
“Easy, little killer,” a rough voice murmured from right behind me. My heart slammed against my chest bone, and my fingers twitched with the urge to defend myself. I wanted to run, but I knew better. Running would only earn me a punishment. But this wasn’t my captor, and the snipers never spoke to me, which made this moment all the more alarming and frightening.
Warm fingers curled around my upper arms, and I trembled. “You’re safe,” the person murmured, his warm breath fanning over my ear. “Just breathe.”
A body dropped from the tree directly in front of me, and it made a sickening sound as it thudded on the ground, multiple bones breaking as it made impact. I swallowed thickly, my heart damn near beating right out of my chest.
“What the fuck,” I breathed, terrified now. Who the fuck was in the woods with me, touching me? They were suddenly much more terrifying than the man who’d been torturing me for damn near two years. How had someone killed the sniper without being spotted?
“Breathe,” the man behind me murmured, still not releasing me.
“Let me go,” I growled, trying to tug away, but he just held me tighter. My skin crawled, my lungs tightening. What the fuck was happening?
“If I let you go, one of those snipers three trees away is going to hit you with one of those rubber bullets.”
I froze because those fucking things hurt, and I wasn’t keen on being shot with one. Last time I had, I’d ended up with a broken rib. “How the fuck?—”
He spun me around then, and my eyes widened in alarm at the man standing right in front of me. With a curse, he grabbed the collar around my neck, snapped it off, and dropped it to the ground. A moment later, I heard it crunch under his shoe. “Ike, we gotta go. He had a camera around his fucking neck. We’re out of time.”
Another body dropped from the tree, no doubt the same sniper this man had mentioned was waiting to shoot me with a rubber bullet. I swallowed thickly. “What the hell—who the fuck—” I spluttered.
“We’ll answer all your questions,” the man assured me. “For now, I just need you to trust us, okay?”
Trust them? Was he out of his fucking mind? His partner had just killed two men without being spotted by some of the most trained snipers in the United States, and he expected me to just trust them?
Another man climbed down from the tree the second body fell from, and he jerked his chin in the direction behind me. “Let’s go then. Two of his men just dropped. Won’t be long before he sends someone to grab him.”
The man who’d been holding me spun me around to face the direction we needed to go. I tried digging my heels in, unsure if going with them would somehow be better than being stuck where I was. They’d just dropped two bodies without anyone else being aware. And they’d managed to traipse through these woods without coming across any of my captor’s traps.
Who the fuck could do that?
“Walk,” the one behind me urged. “We don’t have much time.”
Gritting my teeth, I stopped fighting him and let him lead me. If this was my fate…
I bit back a sigh.
If this was my fucking fate, then so be it. It’d been my fate for ten fucking years now.
One
