Page 1 of Captive Wilderness
1
BROOKE
The world around me vibrated,a low, never-ending hum—more than just another hangover. I struggled to open my eyes. A cold, hard surface pressed against my palms, face, and the side of my bare thigh. All around me, it smelled of metal and…manure?
Where the hell am I?
Opening my eyes was a task and a half, like someone had super-glued them together. The constant droning sound made my head throb, like the steady thwack of an ax in my skull. I didn’t think I’d drunk that much. Bright, artificial light stabbed at me. Thin metal bars, that’s all I could see. They took up my whole line of sight.A cage.I was in a cage.
My heart sped up, fear squeezing my ribs. Memories slammed through my brain, making my exhales short and fast. I’d been at the club, my best friend Corey and I dancing the night away. There’d been this guy with tattoos and a nose ring, someone who looked like he knew how to go down on a girl. Someone I could have fun with for a few days and who wouldn’t care when I ghosted. I’d been grinding on him without a care in the world. Was he the reason I was in a cage?
No. My sister had been there, too. Sabrina had barged into the club and pulled me away from the tattooed guy. I didn’t remember seeing him again.
Pain shot through my forehead and I groaned. The heels of my hands against my temples did little to ease the ache. When I bent my neck, my throat strained against something hard and cold. My eyes widened. I grabbed it with both hands. I was wearing a fucking collar.
I yanked at it. The skin at my nape stretched and twinged like it was connected. Panic swept through me, making me hot and cold all at once. I sat up, my whole body protesting the movement. The world spun around me. I squeezed my head between my hands, trying to make it all stop.Worst hangover ever. The spinning kept going and going. My stomach rolled. Bile rose in my throat, acidic and relentless, until I couldn’t avoid the need to retch.
Gripping the bars in front of me, I braced myself as my stomach heaved. Last night’s supper, an evening of alcohol, the corrosive taste of bile—everything passed my lips in a violent burst. It didn’t quit until I was wrung out, my insides all twisted up like a strangled, sopping wet towel. The scent of vomit mixed with the manure smell coming from everywhere.What the hell is happening?
My head spinning, I grabbed at the collar again, trying to find a clasp, searching for a way to rip it off.
“Don’t touch it.”
My sister’s harsh voice slapped at me through the mechanical droning noise echoing around me. Swiveling my body, I found Sabrina in a cage exactly like mine—a grid of thin bars thicker than chain link fence enclosing a space about three feet square.
Since she lived five hours away, I hadn’t seen my sister in months. I remembered getting a text from her, surprised to hear she was in Detroit. I told her to join me at the club. What the fuck happened?
Gray, curved metal surrounded us in a wide tube shape. We were in an airplane. Cages and crates lined the compact space. Each cage had an animal inside them—a wolf, a fox, a badger. On the other side of me, a monkey gripped the bars of his little prison, his head bobbing up and down. He chittered at me when I made eye contact.
These were all regular animals, I could tell by their scents. My sister and I were the only shifters, bobcats. A different shifter scent also lingered, a feline one, but I wasn’t sure what kind. We were the only cats around that I could see.
I shook the front of the cage with both hands. The padlock rattled. Scanning for a way out, my gaze landed on a matching pile of vomit near my sister’s cage.
“The drugs they gave us did that.”
They.Who the fuck werethey?
“What’s going on?” It hurt to speak, like someone had taken a weed whacker to my throat, my words garbled. I still wore the clothes I’d chosen for a night out at the club. My jean miniskirt rode up around my hips, the G-string underneath doing nothing to protect my ass from the cold metal of the cage. The sequins from my black halter top dug into the undersides of my arms, and my ballet flats pinched my pinkie toes. Strands of my blonde hair hung limp and tangled past my shoulders.
Music thumping, flashing lights, skin against skin—more memories raced through me. Sabrina had dragged me out of the club, a frantic, desperate expression on her face. Snatches of the things she’d said made me flinch and curl into myself.
Hunters are after us.
They’ve promised to hurt you and Mom.
You need to come with me, somewhere safe.
I can’t get a hold of Mom. They might already have her.
With the memories, panic took hold. Hunters? What was that supposed to mean? My body shook, instincts telling me to shift and fight. The thought hadn’t fully formed in my head when a spike of pain went right through my brain and into my belly. I screamed. The drone of the airplane drowned out the sound. My stomach rolled again. I couldn’t stop it. This time when I retched, nothing came out but a horrid noise.
“We can’t shift with the collars on.” Sabrina’s voice stabbed at me.
No shit.“Could have told me sooner.”
Trying to get rid of the taste of bile, I spat the acidic moisture out of my mouth. The noise of the airplane pressed in on me, making me clutch my head. I just wanted the pain to stop. I hurt all over.
“We need to get out of here,” Sabrina said over the engine. “If we don’t escape, they’ll kill us.”
