--Allison-- 

As I start to wake up, I feel the cold stones pressed to my back, seeping through the piece of fabric I have on to cover my body, The concrete below is just as cold. This room, wherever it is, is kept low. Low enough to bring my body temperature down. I haven't been able to access my wolf since I had been drugged when they got me. 

I don't know who they are, some monsters that have kept me prisoner. I don't even know how long I've been here. I tried counting the days, but when there are no windows, barely any lights, and when you keep getting knocked out by drugs, it makes it impossible to guess. 

I feel the deep pit of despair coming back to swallow me whole. The mood swings I keep going through, they must be a side effect of whatever it is they're giving me. There's no way out of this, there's no way Alarik will find me, and there's no way I can break free. 

I give up pulling on the shackles that bind my wrists, the skin there rubbed raw and scabbing from all the times I've tried to pull them loose. Even if I had my wolf strength, they're made of silver. There's no way I'm getting out of them, not unless someone unlocks them with a key. 

I looked to my arm that had the stitches in it. It had healed. I had a scar running the length of my forearm from the silver knife that had done the damage, but the crossings from the stitches had gone away. The only marking left from what had been done by silver. 

I looked down where the bullets had gone into my legs. They'd long since heald, heald the first time after I woke from it actually. That meant I would have been out for at least a day or two after that. 

My hand moved down to it for probably the fifteenth time since waking up to find it, rubbing over the skin there. I could feel the bullet inside and I flinched a little as it moved causing a spurt of pain. It was nothing compared to what I'd felt when it went in there. 

I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. They kept me out so when they did their next experiment on me I was able to recall the pain like it was yesterday. Because to me, it was yesterday. It was still fresh in my mind. It wasn't a surprise when I felt it again. Then again, that just meant to me that each day I was enduring more and more pain. Was it a method to break me? As if they even needed to do that. I was completely under their control, those drugs made it impossible for me to retaliate in any way. 

There had been other people that I'd seen. At first they'd seemed cautious around me, probably in case I did find a way to escape. Since then they'd started showing more. I saw more people, they let names slip. I couldn't quite tell, but it almost seemed as if the majority of the time they were calling each other by their last name. 

The door opened and I was brought out of my own thoughts. No matter how many times they opened that door, I still flinched from the burn of the light on my eyes. I felt the familiar prick of the needle and the haze that went over my mind. 

I didn't move. Just sat there. 

Yes, I had been broken. 

There weren't any thoughts of escape because there was no escape. My mind tried to tell me differently sometimes, but I knew my place. There was no escape because there was no wolf. Even if I managed to get my hands on my wolf, it would be too weak to do anything. I wasn't sure how long I'd been in here, but I knew even before I'd been taken, I needed to let my wolf run free. It had been too long in human form. 

She had been suppressed with everything going on, and now I can't even reach her to let her out if I wanted to. There was no way they'd let me do it. They knew if I could reach my wolf then I could contact someone. I wasn't sure how they knew all of this, but somehow they did. 

I felt a sharp pull on my chains and I stood up, following Sam out of my room and down the hall. 

He took me to the bathroom like usual before leading me down the same damned hallway. However this time we passed the small room. The room that I knew would smell like bleach again after cleaning my blood from the tortures they'd put me through. Silver, blades, guns, broken bones, I thought I'd felt it all. They chose to break my legs, and I don't even want to get into how they did that. After breaking them, they set one and left the other. I'm just glad that my bones set themselves as they healed. 

Same took me a few doors past that dreaded room, opening the door to what looked like a workout room. He pulled me forward and every time I stepped on my left, I could feel the bullet shifting inside. It wasn't comfortable in the least and I knew eventually it would get downright painful. 

"Up," Sam said when we reached a treadmill. 

I looked at him like he was crazy. No way was I going to get on that. 

"Get on the treadmill." I knew that voice by now. That voice that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. Freemont. 

"And if I don't?"

"Well then we will just have to put you on there ourselves."

I looked between the men. No doubt they would be able to force me on there. I hesitantly stepped up. 

"Now you're going to run. And we're going to monitor you." Freemont again, speaking in his clinical voice. 

"And if I don't run?"

Sam clasped a cuff around each wrist attaching me to the machine. 

"Well if you don't, then this is going to really hurt."

My eyes were level with his, all emotion kept out of them. Out of both of ours. 

Another prick went in my neck and a new wave of fogginess swept through. For some reason they've been dosing me up again right before I begin whatever it is. 

I hear a beep and feel the machine under my feet come to life. I have to start walking so I don't fall down. I know it would not be fun to fall while I'm still cuffed to the machine. Sam was right, if I didn't run, it would hurt. 

I started walking and Freemont started to talk to Sam about what it is he was doing. He pushed buttons on more cameras that recorded what was going on. Monitors were set up to register my heart rate as well as what level the treadmill was on. It was watching me. 

Freemont lowered his finger to the panel on the top of the treadmill and I heard a few more beeps and the belt under my feet went faster. I was at a fast walk by this point and with each step I could feel the bullet shifting. 

They wanted to see how fast a wolf could run while still in human form. Granted, we were pretty fast, but I didn't think it would be what they were looking for. They wanted extraordinary, I don't think they were prepared for the letdown that they were about to get. Even if we were super fast, I was weak from everything I'd gone through. I wasn't going to be able to do much. 

I heard the steady beep of my heart rate as I continued at the fast walk. Then there were a few more beeps before I had to start jogging. This was worse. The pace at which my feet had to slam down on the machine to keep moving was worse with that hunk of metal in me. 

I gritted my teeth but I knew I wouldn't be able to do this much longer. It felt like the bullet was working it's way deeper into my leg, that with each pulsing smack of my foot on the belt it was digging it's way further in, tearing into flesh all over again. 

More beeps and I was going faster. Running now. I felt tears trying to spring from my eyes but I bit my cheek to keep them back. Tears wouldn't do me any good here. It would make me appear more human, any emotion would, and they didn't like that. They didn't like the thought of their kind being compared to me. 

I didn't like the thought either. I didn't want to be compared to these people. These people who held people, werewolves and tortured them. 

More beeps, a faster pace. I think I just bit through my cheek now. Yup, I can taste the blood. It's all I can do to keep from focusing on the pain in my leg. My heart rate doesn't betray what I'm feeling though. It's a bit faster, showing that I'm working. This is a pace I run all the time though, I used to be able to keep it up for miles. Probably not so much now. 

More beeps and I can tell that I'm getting their attention now. Maybe I misjudged the speed at which humans run. They keep me here for minutes, seeing my heart rate rise slightly but still not working over time. My breaths are still even and I'm about to cry. 

I can't do it anymore. The bullet inside is too much. I feel like it's working it's way through my entire leg, but it won't come out. I jump, placing my feet on the sides where it's stationary. 

I feel a pain shoot through my body, entering from the bottoms of my bare feet and I let out a scream. The pain stops and I slouch over panting. I hear my heart returning back down after the shock. That's what it had been, an electric shock through my body. 

"Back on unless you want another." Freemont and his cold detached voice again. 

I glare at him. I don't want to do this anymore, but I also don't need another shock like that. 

I debate over my options, and apparently take too long for Freemont. Another shock courses through my body and I bite down my scream and jump onto the racing treadmill, starting off on the run. He takes it up a few more and keeps going with the process. 

I feel the fog in my head clearing with each bit of pain that I get. The shocks, the metal in my leg, all of it clears out the fog just a bit. I've felt it with each trial they've given me, but it's never cleared as much as it is now. I'm not sure what's causing it, if it's the pain or possibly adrenaline that rushes through me because of it. Whatever it is, it's working to clear the haze out of my mind. 

I start to feel something that presses down on me. Anger, despair, uselessness. It's like this weight that starts to come over me saying that I can't do it, I'm useless and pathetic. I'm not sure what it is, because I'm not sure what I can't do. I can't keep running? I can't keep putting up with this?

All I know is I feel that same thing coming down on me. I'm useless and pathetic and I just can't do it. 

I feel a growl spreading inside my chest and my legs go faster. Whatever this feeling is, I'm going to prove it wrong. 

More beeps and I'm sure I've passed their expectations now. 

I can barely think through the pain in my leg, but at least it's clearing out the haze. 

I don't want to give these monsters what they want, but I'm determined to prove this feeling in me wrong. I'm only as weak as I let myself be and I'm not going to let me be useless. 

Determination. 

That's what I'm trying to replace this feeling with. 

I don't know what to do, I don't know how to do this, it's been so long. 

The words echo in my head like a whisper. My breathing is more labored now, and my heart has speed up, but they take it as something different. They take it as me being tired. It's true, I am tired this is more than I've ever done, even as my wolf. But that's not what has me like this. It's because I don't know this voice in my head. But it's words are true. I don't know what to do, it's been so long since I've been in here. Although it only seems like days with my schedule, I know it's been more. 

There's an electronic voice, someone speaking over an intercom? 

"Mrs. Durin and Mrs. Klarke are on their way sir. They want to see what you've gotten so far."

"Thank you Cinthia."

"You're welcome Mr. Freemont."

There's one long beep and the belt under my feet starts to slow. 

"I think we've gotten enough from you for now."

It seems odd, one of their experiments that doesn't end in me passing out from blood loss or pain?

Then I crumple to the ground, a pain shooting through my wrists. I can't stand on my left leg anymore. I put all my weight on the right side and stand back up. 

Were these people really human? I couldn't imagine how someone could do what they do and still be considered human. The spark in this man's eyes when he sees my pain, the smile I can see in there that he fights to keep from his mouth. He enjoys every minute of it. 

--Allison. 

I hear my name faintly but I recognize the voice now. The same voice I'd heard when I was on the treadmill saying it didn't know what to do. It wasn't my own thoughts at all. It had been him. 

Alarik. 

I try to say it back to him. I think he heard it, I really hope he did. I feel the poke in my neck once more and the haze and dizziness starts to sweep over. 

Alarik I love you!

I'm not sure if it went through at all. Trying to slip through the whisps of fog. I again hope it did. To let him know that I'm alive, that I love him and that I know he must be doing whatever he can to find me. 

He has to be doing what he can to find me.

******************

So there's another day in the life of Allison. These assholes need to just... Grr. 

Remember, there's still that contest type thing going on. I'm looking at all my wonderful readers and their creativity. You can do a cover or any fan art for any of my stories,
I CAN'T BE THE ALPHA'S MATE
HE'S MY MATE
TIME WILL TELL or 
THE HUNTRESS' MATE

There is also my sequel to I CAN'T BE THE ALPHA'S MATE. You can make one for that as well. I have now decided on a title and it's going to be FINDING MY LUNA. I hope to be starting it soon. So if you'd like to make a cover for that, and have it possibly be the cover I use, go ahead and make one. 

I would love to see what you all come up with. Message me if you'd like to send something to me.