Keva felt a soft warm substance press against her face. The darkness of blissful sleep was still calling to her but a force was disturbing her, dragging her back to the world of consciousness. She tried to fight it, she just wanted to stay here, where it was warm. But her mind and body drifted more and more rapidly up.

  She opened her eyes.

  Three werewolves stood in front of her and the cream colored form of Michelle was handing her a jar of some kind. Her face was sore, and her tongue tasted like copper. She spit out the blood that had pooled in her mouth while she slept. Her eyes were a little blurry but she took the jar.

  “Keva, what happened?”

  The sound felt like it was coming to her underwater. She had trouble focusing. The jar in her hands wouldn’t open and her weak fingers weren’t up to the task of opening it. She dropped the jar gently on the floor. She looked up at her pack mates, “How….did you get here?” Her mind refused to comprehend what she was seeing.

  The brown splotched, silver furred form of Soter leaned down and ripped open the jar in front of her. “You have to eat, Keva. Hysminai can’t heal you if you don’t eat.”

  She understood that. She had to eat, would die if she didn’t. But she was so tired, “Have…to sleep, jussst forr a bit.”

  Soter’s strong claws grabbed her and shook her sharply, “Keva, you are my Alpha and right now we need you to eat, so Hysminai can heal you. I don’t know what that… what do you call it when someone doesn’t know who his father is?” he asked suddenly looking around.

  Michelle shrugged her shoulders and asked, “bastard?”

  “Yes!” Soter replied energetically, “I don’t know what that bastard did to you, but you’ll feel better once you eat and Hysminai can heal you, now eat!” Soter unceremoniously shoved a pickled herring into Keva’s slack mouth.

  Keva’s eyes went wide as she suddenly couldn’t breathe. Michelle yanked the fish out of the woman’s mouth, glaring at the Scout. “Are you trying to kill her?!” She knelt down next to the injured red haired woman, “Please Keva, you have to eat.” She held out the fish in her claws.

  Keva focused on the fish. Her tongue licked her lips as she reached out and grasped the dead animal and brought it to her lips. She ate the thing ravenously. The more she ate, the more alert she seemed, and the cloud of discombobulation and uncertainty left her eyes.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “May I have another, Michelle?” Keva asked politely. The cream colored werewolf smiled and said, “yes, of course, here.” She picked up the jar and handed it to Keva. “You must eat all of it. Even if you think you don’t want to. You need the sustenance so Hysminai can heal you.”

  “Yes, thank you,” Keva said taking the jar. “I got the gist of that after the first five times Soter said it.” If it wasn’t for her cream fur and werewolf form, Keva was sure that Michelle would be blushing right now. Keva lifted her arms that were free of the short chain and the metal plate and focused on eating the fish that had been given to her.

  Michelle watched her Alpha eat in silence. Taking a good look at Keva’s face, she was shocked to find the entire right side was taken up by an ugly bulbus black and blue bruise that forced Keva’s eye to squint on that side. Her Alpha’s face was more purple and blue then the pale white of its usual color. The bruises were still puffy and looked very painful. Michelle let her anger rise in her throat.

  “He did that to you too didn’t he?” She asked quietly.

  Keva nodded with a mouth full of fish. “He said something about me staying here with him. After he told me he killed Erato I just wanted him dead. It was all I could think about. I ripped against that damn chain trying to get to him,” she swallowed and smiled sadly.

  “So, he beat you for it,” Soter finished. Keva nodded and ate another fish.

  Michelle shook her head, “You’ve always had a way with people, Keva.”

  Before the wounded Alpha could respond the door to the root cellar was kicked opened violently. All four of them whipped their heads around to see their captor howl in rage at seeing the monsters arrayed in front of his prize.

  “GET AWAY FROM HER!”

  He charged at surprising speed in such a small space. He lowered a shoulder charge into Soter, catching him off guard and throwing the silver werewolf against a far wall. Even though they were in their werewolf form and could take a certain amount of punishment, he was still weak and the impact between the charging Norseman and slamming against the wall knocked all the breath out of his lungs as he staggered to his knees, just trying to force his lungs to remember how to breathe.

  Hysminai flowed behind the charging human and swiped at him with his claws. The claws ripped at the thick furs that the large blonde man hadn’t taken off from outside. His jaw was struck from underneath as a very powerful uppercut caught him unawares and sent him flying off his feet. Hysminai rolled over onto his stomach, trying to get to feet before he felt legs press on his sides and powerful hands gripped his jaws, forcing them to open. Hysminai struggled and tried to close his jaws, but the super human strength of the blonde man pried the werewolf’s jaws open farther and farther. Hysminai was in a full panic, his eyes bulged, knowing his body couldn’t take much more. Tears streamed down his face as he tried to fight, tried to unpin his arms which were now locked by his sides. He cried out in a guttural inhuman scream at the ever-increasing pain.

  The hands wrenched free of his jaw and he could move once again. Hysminai closed his jaw and rubbed his chin and snout breathing deeply, free of the vise that had gripped him. He looked up to see Michelle had tackled the huge blonde man to the ground and was now just trying to fend off the huge human. Hysminai had never known fear, but staring at this human, knowing the strength that he held, knowing how close he had come to just dying. He was terrified.