Keeping Him (Learning To Love Him book 2) (Boyxboy)

Chapter 21.

*****

*Jayden*

I winced as moving caused my neck to crack painfully when I tried to open my eyes. My first thought was wondering why the hell I had slept on the floor, before I realised it wasn't a floor. I was on rough, cold concrete. Even small movement caused my body to ache and my face was pounding. It was almost hard to open my eyes as the left one felt unusually heavy and very sore. When I finally managed to blink enough to open my eyes, it hit me.

I was in a dim little room only lit up by small rays of sunlight that managed to make it through the cracks of the boarded up window across the room. The light was barely enough to see in, but it was enough to make me certain that I definitely wasn't in my or any other house I had been in before.

There was also wire that surrounded me so I lifted my hand to trace it along the squared wire but winced and quickly pulled away as my finger burnt a little even though it had not even touched the steel yet. I looked around and realised that I was in a cage... Sitting up showed that my feet were bare though I did not know how that happened and did not take a second to think about it, instead squinting my eyes to study the cage as I traced along it until finding the lock. It was glistening in the light and I did not attempt to touch it as the stinging scent of wolfsbane filled my nose. It seemed to cover the entire cage and lock.

I was an Omega, it was impossible to teach me magic if I wasn't born with the ability to use it so there was no way of breaking the lock without touching it first, but wolfsbane was an incredibly harmful and poisonous plant to werewolves and with my healing ability touching it would surely lead to more harm than good.

I shut my eyes remembering what happened. Tamia had to be safe, she had to have gotten to the chamber... but Eli... Where was Eli? I felt helpless as I whispered my son's name before noting that I was alone in the dark room. There was another cage but it was empty. Where was he? They wouldn't have let him go...

My wolf growled softly inside my head. Where the hell was I? I felt overwhelming fear at the realisation that my son might be with my father... and Mike.

"E –" my voice came as a squeak, "Eli?!" I shouted hoping that if he was taken, he would be in a room nearby and able to hear my shouting. He couldn't be there, not with them.

I needed to find him but instinctively pressed myself against the wall, into the corner when the sound of a hinge moving came from the door. My eyes stung as light flooded into the room when the door was shoved open. A single room? There was no other rooms. But Eli...

"Oops." I felt myself get weak with fear as Mike chuckled. I knew that even as I tried to hide how much he scared me, he could see it. Heck, he could probably feel it. It was that much.

It was unbelievable how in the few hours I had known that Mike and my father were alive, they had managed to break nine years of built-up strength without even coming near me, without even saying or doing much. I a little kid again. That fragile, broken, terrified little child he had made me and I could not hide it.

"You hungry, Jayden?" I watched as he knelt down to my level as the cage wouldn't allow me to stand in it. He was holding a bowl of what smelled and looked like potatoes. "You're not talking to me, Jay? Come on, it's been nine years. Is that a little bit of muscle I see?" He gave a chuckle as his eyes ran over me and I pushed myself further against the corner that the wall provided me hoping to sink into it as my stomach twisted under his gaze, my hopes were crushed as my back just scraped against the wall.

"Where-where's Eli?" My voice was shaking but I didn't care, it made Mike smirk at me.

"Missed me?" He ignored my question.