This story has nothing to do with Kendall and Snowflake, but you may see them. This story is Cayne's.

Chapter One

The static noise that surrounded me was blissfully white, contrasting with the black slate I'd willed in front of me. The nearby heat protected me from harm, yet I'd never felt so cold in my life.

The smell itself was worse than the swift jabs of cold rushing towards me. It was the worst smell I'd ever experienced and sure to be the worst in my lifespan. I knew I would never be able to claw or scratch it from my mind, no matter how hard I dug.

The air was thick with the smell of smoldering smoke that escaped from the mixture of relentless fires and burning buildings, sinking itself into my pores. But it was the putrid smell of seared, burnt flesh that ate away at my senses, no matter how hard I buried my nose against the nearby arm or how little I breathed. It was consistent, sneaking through like a silent thief and invading my body.

It was truly cruel how fast the village could go from protecting its laughing, joyful people to burning up in flames that had been produced by crazed eyes and sick grins.

They repeatedly told my kind we were disgusting for our betrayal, that we were where the root of evil lay. Yet, this village had lived in peace, harming none, only to deserve a darkened fate delivered personally by humans themselves.

The tortured, raw screams had stopped some time ago, but they still tauntingly echoed around and through me. Each one haunted me, envious of the blood that still ran through me and of the heart that still pumped. But at this point, I wanted to join the bodies on the ground, free from what was likely to happen to me.

"What about these two?"

The voice was closer than I liked, much too close. It shattered the white noise abruptly and I flinched, wishing I could sink into an endless sleep. No one ever prepared you for this, for losing everything that you'd ever known. But they shouldn't have to.

The body that protected me vibrated with a thick growl in response to the voice. The sound was familiar and reminded me that I wasn't alone, that there was someone experiencing the same pain and fear I was.

"The male's probably too much ta' handle. We should go 'head and kill the cat. He can join the rest of his kind in whatever hell they have."

The venom put into his words made a chill run along my spine and I shivered, willing to give whatever it took for this to be over already. Things as cruel as this weren't meant to happen.

"Look at her. She'd be tortured within the first day by someone who hates her type more than we do. We'll keep him so she, at least, has some sort of chance and it looks like we tried."

They both stopped their talking, which I was grateful for. It made the whole thing seem less real without someone openly acknowledging it. I could pretend I would wake up and everything would be fine, in fact, more than fine.

I felt the arms around me tighten lightly in a comforting manner, as the distant roar of a polluting engine barreled towards the area we sat in, whining to a stop when it neared us and the surrounding humans.

The car's roar descended into a soft growl as the metallic door clicked open. A pair of loud shoes hit the dirt, shoving against it as they moved closer to me, but stopped at the sound of an authentic growl.

"Put 'em in the electric crates. Drug him if ya' have to, then see if the girl cooperates. If not, do the same," a gruff voice ordered, the car clicking once again as the back flew up, whistling in the air.

I could hear one of the men clearing his throat, making an animalistic sound as he reached the back of his throat to collect his tainted saliva before he spat it on the ground, the noise louder than anything.

I finally peered at the men in front of me, feeling as if it were okay to do so while the barrier of arms still surrounded me. Matching their smells with a physical body, visibly seeing who had caused all of this, was almost as frightening as not knowing.

Their rugged clothes were stained, damp with the blood of those I loved, who'd been alive not just a moment ago. Their faces had sadistic smiles that looked upon us so cruelly that I cringed further.

They advanced towards us, and it made me wonder if this was the last thing my village had seen before succumbing to their gruesome deaths. Who told them that they were the ones to deliver our deaths, I didn't know, but it was what they planned to do.

A feral growl erupted from behind me, vibrating against my back and causing the savage men to stop. I shivered, burying closer to him, feeling his heated arms tighten around me.

"I can promise you I won't have the slightest problem using this on you if you don't shut the hell up," one crooned, a foreign gun in his hand, the smile on his face suggesting that he hoped the shifter surrounding me did just the opposite.

The growl didn't subside, but instead grew in volume as they leaned closer to us. The arms around me began hurting, constricting me as if I were prey, but I didn't complain. The tighter they were, the safer I felt.

"We don't have time for this. Shoot him now."

And just like that, the gun was fired, the growls turned into silence, and the arms around me loosened as he hit the ground. All at once, my barrier was gone and I was exposed to them—to the killers.

Panic bubbled inside me, merging together with fear to create a great, anxious environment for my nerves to reside in. I could distinctly hear a low sound, one a terrified animal might make, as I attempted to turn around and go closer to the unconscious shifter in an attempt to avoid reality.

I never made it though. Abruptly, large arms snaked around my waist, yanking me harshly against a chest. I instinctually hissed at him but knew it would do nothing. However, my nails anchoring and embedding themselves into his skin had him creating a variety of vulgar words.

My nails weren't enough for him to let go. Just when I thought it was a possibility, my body was being thrown and slammed against the relentless, biting steel that would leave a visible mark.

Before I could get up, the cage door was slammed shut. I went to the back of it, bringing my knees up to my chest and shivering despite the thick humid air pulsing throughout the back of the truck.

I watched quietly as they carelessly dragged his body across the heated ground before dumping him into the neighboring cage like he was a package, nothing more. He didn't even stir as they treated him like that.

His cage door was also slammed shut before one of them climbed in the back, the gun in his hand. I found myself inching closer to the other cage, desiring his comfort as I warily watched the man.

"Turn the cages on so we can get out of here," someone said and the back of the car closed, noise escaping us.

The man grumbled as he got up and shuffled to the bottom of the two cages, pressing something, which caused the cages to glow for a moment and create a soft buzz. The next few seconds seemed like hours as I realized the cages were alive with electricity.

The currents from the cage glided to my back, sure to leave yet another mark. The pain was excruciating, causing me to bite my tongue, blood slipping from under my teeth and slowly filling my mouth. I felt my whole body being seared, the heat unbearable.

I had to force myself away, falling quickly to the ground. My breaths were ragged and tore at my throat, but the man didn't care. He only laughed, his cackle sure to be the star of nightmares.

He was sick, callous, and cowardly. He could sit there and smile at the pain of someone he'd only met today. He could laugh at the sufferings of someone who'd caused him not an ounce of trouble.

His kind was surely the reason for hate. It was a greedy disease that fed off the smallest thing. It would then gain enough fuel to grow, mate, and reproduce. That small thing was then torn at and twisted, becoming a fragment of its original state. It was this, created by his kind, that nearly destroyed the existence of mine.

There was the typical, meaningless drama in the village, but there wasn't a taste of hate. There had been a barrier around it, flicking and disintegrating the disease so effectively that I had never experienced it until now from the humans.

As much damage as they had caused me, I knew I couldn't hate them for the simple fact that I didn't know how to. I didn't know what it was like to be filled to the top of your head with so much of it that it controlled you the way it controlled them.

"Hey!" the man called, and I jumped slightly, sitting up and as far away as I could without feeling the burn of the cage. When I looked at him, I realized he wasn't talking to me, but to someone else.

"What do you think Cayne is going to do to these two?" He asked, loud enough so that they could hear despite the wall of metal between them.

There was a pause after his question before he received an answer from the driver. "Don't know. Ya' know, I heard he stayed with that brother of his and that they got in a piss fight. So he's gonna' be in a storm of a mood when ya' take 'em."

I felt a chill start at the base of my spine before it quickly danced to the top, gliding along. If this was an attempt to scare me, it was working.

"He's probably going to strip their meat from them and clean his teeth with the bones," he replied, gaining a laugh from the driver. He joined in and the two together sounded like an instrument out of tune shrieking in my ears.

The only thing I could do to stop my heart from running at the speed of a hummingbird's wings was to close my eyes and pretend I was elsewhere. So that was exactly what I did.

I could pretend the cold steel beneath me was the old wooden boards at home, covered by a stiff rug. I could pretend the hum of the cage was the sound of the whirring fan that never did its job. I could pretend the burns surely there were caused by the steaming showers I always took, painting my back red afterward.

But that was the thing about pretending. No matter how absorbed you became by it, you found yourself yanked back by reality within the span of seconds. Your imaginative world was shattered and all you were left with was the brutal face of the one you tried so desperately to leave.

That was exactly what happened to me when the truck slowed down, jerking to a stop hours later. The movement startled me into opening my eyes, and I was met with the disappointment of reality.

The man got up once again with another grunt, and I felt my body tensing against itself as he moved closer to turn off the currents on my cage, which hummed itself into a silent slumber. He paused when he moved to turn off the other cage and the unconscious shifter began to stir.

"Just in time," he murmured, switching the cage off just as the truck door flew open, the moon's shine catching my eyes before anything else.

It was beautiful, basking in its own luminous glory. Its round shape was entirely shining, enchanting me. It was accompanied by the twinkling stars that laughed softly by its side. I would give anything to be up there with them, covered in their cool embrace.

"Hook 'em up," someone drawled, and I looked to see several people standing with the man who rode with us. But they were different.

They were all covered in black as if they'd bathed in dull tar. A strip of each one was visible, revealing several sets of eyes. They were dressed oddly but based on the numerous weapons they readily held, they were enforcers of some kind.

Two moved closer, a pair of chains with each. One reached for the cage I was in, yanking it forward and to the edge of the truck. I fell to the back at the sudden movement, flinching in expectation of the resting currents that never came.

Looking closer at the chains, I realized there were thick clips on one end. Someone was attaching them to the bars of my cage, while the other two went on the neighboring one.

Once they were securely attached, the men moved back, dragging the excess chains with them. They briefly talked with the driver and the other man before they dragged us out of the truck.

The landing was painful and enough to make the other shapeshifter moan and begin to wake. I went from falling to colliding harshly with the bottom of the cage as it hit the ground.

They didn't hesitate and continued dragging us. It was then that I noticed where they were taking us to. It was a palace, sure to be the largest and most elaborate building structure I ever laid eyes on.

They dragged us, and I sent a silent prayer to the calling stars before we were brought inside.