CATRINA

The first thing that registers in my mind when I am awake, is that I don't have any underwear on. The realisation leaves me panicking and I immediately rub my thighs together to assess if I am alright down there.

Not feeling any kind of pain, I let out a breath of relief because I was not assaulted and continue to assess myself. I have the dress on me but my underwear has been removed. I shiver in disgust at the thought of someone's hands on my body when I was unconscious.

The next thing I realise is that I am blindfolded! It's surprising that I feel the blindfold now and not before I realised about the lack of panties. I try to move my hand so that I can pull off this piece of cloth from my eyes but I can't.

That's when I realize that I've been tied down to a bed like a thing. My legs have been chained to the opposite poles of the footboard of the bed whereas my hands have been spread open and tied to the headboard. The chains of my hands are much tighter than the ones in my legs, granting me someplace to move my legs but I can't move my hands at all.

I can just twist them and move them up and down on the bed. The chains' short length doesn't allow me to lift my hands. I pull at the chains but they dig into my skin, making me gasp in pain.

Not knowing what else to do when my sight is hindered, I just wait. I focus on my hearing to gauge if there's someone in this room but I am not so sure. The room or whatever this place is it's quiet. Nothing but just a whirr is heard.

From the sound, I think it's a machine's sound, an indication that there's some machine around me but, I can't see.

A few minutes pass by when suddenly a beep like noise is heard and I startle.

The sound isn't heard again so I relax a little bit at the next instant, the sound of heavy footsteps is heard and then the voice of my half-brother reaches my ears.

"She's awake," he mutters and I assume that there's someone else with him whom he's talking to. Maybe Lance?

"Yes," whispers someone else and from the voice, I know that it's Lance.

"Tell me your plan for her," asks Xanthos and I wait with bated breath to hear the answer.

"Well. I am curious about her wolf. I want her wolf to come out but at the same time I want to check if she's really barren," answers Lance which leaves me both confused and shaken up.

"I think you should just finish her off. There's no point in wasting time to get useless information," Xanthos snaps the last word and for the first time, I find myself agreeing with him. At least the latter part of his words, I agree. I am not sure of dying, right now. Not when I don't know how Cayden is.

"She's useless to you but for me, she's the golden egg. I can get lots of information about her."

"You need to focus on inducing heat into the virgin unmated females as had been decided," Xanthos whisper-yells, I don't know why because I can hear him clearly.

"That work is in progress with the other females. It takes time for the serum to work on unmated and young females. We'll just have to wait," whispers Lance. Again, I can hear what he's saying.

"What about your mate?" asks Xanthos but his voice has an underlying hint of something else. Lance laughs at first but then it's silent. I can't hear anything but then a very faint reply.

"She escaped but she won't survive," says Lance, a bit defensively. This new information about Lance having a mate and not caring about her disgusts me and somehow relieves me. I can't imagine a woman living with Lance, knowing about his atrocities.

"She should be dead. We don't want her identity to be revealed to my orphan cousin," says Xanthos and from the tone, I can recognise his smug tone.

"He won't. She doesn't remember herself. She's my puppet, as you know. She won't survive for long," replies Lance. I am no longer able to focus on his words now because I feel his voice growing louder and the thought of him coming closer to me, where I am in such a vulnerable position, makes me hyperventilate.

"Did you see that?" chortles Lance when he taps on my knees. I jerk them slightly but the movement causes my dress to ride up and I can feel his eyes on my naked thigh.

"Don't rape her. It's disgusting to know that someone can be aroused by a dormant. She's weak," spits Xanthos and I feel a sliver of relief when he says that. I don't mind being called weak. At this moment not being abused is my utmost prayer.

"Fine, I won't," he replies, finally and a breath leaves me in a whoosh.

I haven't spoken a word since I woke up but it doesn't seem to bother them. I am speechless and scared because of which I can hardly whimper, speaking is like a task at this moment. However, I don't get to think about saying something because the next moment, the blindfold covering my eyes is lifted and I blink my eyes when the bright lights flood my vision.

The lights are so bright that I feel a piercing headache build behind my eyes for being exposed so harshly to the light. The men in the room chuckle but I don't pay any attention to them now.

After a few seconds when my eyes have adjusted to the bright lights, I blink them and look around myself. Xanthos is nowhere to be seen now and Lance is standing to my right but the sight of this place is what sets me off.

Am I in a cave?

The cavern from the looks of it has only one entrance and from what I think, it's just a groove like opening leading into this cavern. The walls of the cavern have small niches which hold a burning candle each, providing light inside the cavern. It's windy, extremely cold in here even when the cavern appears secluded. The inside is quite spacious where there are lots of electronic equipment kept.

Everywhere my gaze lands, I can see only equipment. Lots of medical instruments and generators, as if it's straight out of some hospital. From what I can recognise, there's a sonography machine, a huge electron microscope, and another machine which I don't recognise.

There are lots of small medical instruments some of which that I can see are a scalpel, syringes, a small microscope and something which resembles a catheter. The sight of this medical equipment kept with the clean precision of a doctor scares me and my presence here along with Lance's words about my anomaly scares me. It's like a rock has settled in my gut and I can't breathe.

Lance chuckles beside me as if watching a person have a panic attack is a pleasurable sight.

"So, I think you know where you are, no?" he asks but I can't answer. I am unable to even open my mouth as my mind starts picturing all sort of things, he can do to me in this room.

When I don't reply, he walks towards the counter on the left side of me and starts rummaging through the drawers and small cupboards. He hums while working as if this is a regular thing for him.

Experiments on humans! Werewolves! And now Dormant Werewolves too. Maybe this level of psychopathic behaviour is his normal that's why he's so calm.

In my position, I feel so vulnerable that I start fidgeting, trying to sit up hoping that it'll give me a sense of security where I can fold my legs and cover an opening to my body. But the chains holding my hands don't let me get up.

"Stay still and watch, will you?" I startle at Lance's words and stop my struggling to look at him. He motions with his hands to something in front of me and that's when I notice that the black screen in front of me is actually working. Something like a CCTV film is playing on the screen and I have to squint my eyes a bit to have a clear look at the screen. I stare and stare again to confirm if the person I am seeing on the screen is really who I think he is.

It's my brother and from the looks of it, he's being injected with an IV on his arm.

"That's Cayden. What have you done to him?" I ask, barely restraining from screaming in panic; watching Lance's face as he smirks at me evilly. Shivering in fear is not an option so I just stare at him.

"As you can see, that's a lethal injection in his arm." I stare in shock at him, not believing what he's saying.

"You son of the devil!" I scream this time, trying to get out of these chains, shit scared for my brother now. If that injection is emptied into his veins, he could die within an hour. The possibility of something like that happening is making me crazy with panic.

Lance only laughs at my curse and waves his fingers in a negative at me.

"Uh-uh. Don't even think of struggling. We have sedated Cayden but if you struggle, I'll press this button over here and the next second, my guard will empty that syringe in your twin's vein."

I look at the red button that he's pointing at and feel this overwhelming urge to strangle him. All the air leaves me in a whoosh and I sag down on the cot, disparity hitting me in waves.

"Now be a good girl and take this drink," he says, bringing over a glass filled with a green coloured liquid. He pushes a button on the side of my cot and I startle when the upper side of my body moves with the cot's movement and I am now sitting. The chains bound to my hands are tied to the headboard because of which the chains now dig into my skin, making me wince.

Lance notices that and presses a button on the side of the bed which causes the chains to loosen around my hands. I quickly hold onto my hands and rub my wrists which are tender and red.

Lance pushes the glass in front of me, right under my nose urging me to drink it.

"What's that?" I ask, knowing that I have no other option than to swallow it. He knew that I could've spat it out like last time. That's why he's threatening Cayden like this.

"Do you really want to know?" he asks and I find myself nodding at him. The fear of knowing the reason for your death and still going near it is nothing compared to the unknown.

"It's a solution. It'll trigger your wolf," he says and then points to the TV screen. I turn my head to look at it and watch as a man hovers above Cayden's sedated form with a hand near the lethal injection.

"No, please. I'll drink it," I whisper and quickly take the glass from Lance's hand.

I take it to my lips but out of instinct, sniff it.

"Drink, now!"

Startling at Lance's shout and scared for Cayden's life, I quickly swallow the liquid in 2 huge sips, coughing out some when the too sweet taste makes me retch.

"Sweet, isn't it," chuckles Lance. I am still breathing hard as the liquid leaves a sweet flavour on my tongue which is somehow not pleasant. Too much sweet can also taste bad.

I watch as he wipes at my mouth as if I am a child and then takes the glass from my hands. The next minute, he lowers my cot and now I am back to laying down with my hands now bound again to those chains.

"Rest now, little Princess. You won't be getting much sleep for the next few hours," he says before leaving the room in darkness.

~~~~~

Earlier when Lance said that I won't be getting much sleep, I thought he was just scaring me but now all I want to do is curl up in a ball and forget about this. I want all this to be a nightmare and I want to go back home; I wish as tears flow from my eyes at the pain that's rolling in waves through my body.

I don't know how much time has passed but it feels like an eternity now as I am lying here, writhing and praying for the burning slithers to go away. It feels as if my whole body's on fire.

As if someone has lit a torch inside my stomach, I feel the splintering heat travel from my stomach all the way to the root of my hair and to the tip of my toes.

I am sweating from my fingers too and the bed is wet with all the sweat even when there's cool air floating around me. My body's chilled on the outside and from the inside, I feel like someone's kept me in boiling water. The feeling is so horrible that I've started feeling something crawling up inside my body as if my soul wants to get out of this burning body.

One particular wave of white-hot fire rages from my abdomen directly to my head and I feel my vision blur for a moment. It's for a second only but the intensity with which it hits me leaves me breathless and heaving. Not able to control anymore, I lift my shoulders as much as possible to my side and throw up.

The smell of my own vomit hits me so hard that I quickly scoot back, turning my face to the other side not wanting to puke again. I bury my head in the mattress but the smell of my sweat now triggers me and again, I retch but somehow control the urge to throw up.

I don't know what's happening now but suddenly my chest feels tight, even my lungs burning up and every breath that I take is like a struggle.

As a few minutes pass by, the pain becomes unbearable and I hear myself whimpering. The sound is very minute but I can hear it clearly. The sound of the machine now feels like a hammer on my head making me feel more nauseous than ever. I just heave since there's nothing left now to throw up.

Underneath the burning sensation, I feel something new rolling under my skin. The feel of something, feather-like moving under my skin is so weird, that it scares me. Finally, I let go and scream when the fur-like sensation runs everywhere along my skin.

I scream and yell for someone to get me out of this place. I don't want to be alive! I just want peace, I think to myself when my lungs start closing in and I feel darkness creep up in front of me, pulling me into the sweet abyss of the unknown.

~~~~~

Thank you for reading! 

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