The Wild Hunt (Downworlder Series, #1)

Chapter Two: Judge and Jury

I hadn't been allowed much time to suffer in my isolation before I had been ordered to touch the wall and was put in heavy metal shackles, the weight of which made it difficult to lift my hands. I had felt like a criminal in that moment, like I had been a serious danger to those around me. The shackles represented so much but left me with very little. They took away my humanity and had reduced me to a creature in need of chains. Every single one of us had been given a set.

We had been shoved into a group and forced to walk through a maze of corridors so winding and twisting that I felt almost dizzy and sick to my stomach as we traversed them. The guards kept their guns ready with their batons out, something the beast inside of me disliked immensely. It wanted their blood, their submission and I shuddered under its thoughts but as I looked around it made me feel a bit better to know that I wasn't the only one affected. The others were either shaking their heads with dazed looks or had pained expressions on their face. The violent man who had been beaten by the peacekeepers had a rather dark expression on his.

We had been led to what I recognized as the courtroom. My heart dropped with horror. This was all too real and I slowed down, I didn't want to go inside of the room. No one had gone into the courtroom and had ever came back out with their freedom. There was a burning sense of irony when I remembered Claudia and I had judged those that had entered the room. We had believed ourselves above them as we laughed at their audacity to allow themselves to get caught breaking the rules.

I knew that there was little to no chance of me coming out of that room alive or with my freedom. I didn't know what they did with people that turned into beasts on Haven. I had never heard of it before. The entire concept was both confusing and alarming to me. We were supposed to be safe, supposed to be free from the beasts but as the one under my skin paced and sent thoughts racing through my head let me know that there was no place safe for me now. I was the beast. The end of my current life lay behind the doors and when I tried to slow down more I was shoved roughly from behind.

"Keep moving, howler." The words were spat out with heavy disgust and the beast inside of me snarled, the sound erupting from my mouth before I could stop it. I felt like I had no control over my own body when the beast made its sounds. I received another shove for the sound that sent me sprawling into the aggressive man. He snarled at me, his elongated teeth snapping together inches from my face. My heart beat rapidly as I recoiled and the beast inside of me wanted his blood for the disrespect but I forced it back in shock.

Laughter erupted from the guards as they shoved the guy towards me. I held my hands out, holding him at a distance as he snarled, the sound vibrating my hands and arms. His anger was at the guards as he whirled around. One held a shock baton and the electricity at the end of it snapped and crackled menacingly. I could practically see his anger hanging off his form and the beast shoved an image in my head of raised hackles down his back. He was angry and aggressive, the body language my wolf understood. The stiff posture and the invisible hackles.

"You want to tangle, you mangy beast? Let's go!" The guard tossed the baton between his hands, swinging it in a wide arc. The guy crouched, growls erupting from his throat.

"Don't rile them up, Anders!" The guard was yanked back by a man in an officer's uniform. His disgust was clear as he looked over us. "Get them into the courtroom!" We were once again bustled forward towards the door that opened quickly. The sounds of a loud crowd assaulted my ears and I flinched under the cacophony of noise, the anger and disgust that came from the crowd. The beast snarled and paced inside of me, my limbs ached and my muscles clenched.

"Get back!" Guards went from keeping us corralled to shoving back the crowd, shouting at them to stay away and to keep back. Insults were hurled around so fast and so loud that it hurt my now sensitive ears. I wasn't the only one affected as the two girls from quarantine covered their ears and the less aggressive guy winced openly. The other one simply snarled, baring his teeth for the crowd and filling the air with growls until one of the guards gave him a quick jolt with a baton. He hit his knees hard and I gasped in indignation as the guard went to do it again. I jumped forward and grabbed the baton with a snarl, my chains rattled with the movement and the guard sneered at me. The beast felt a kinship to those that were like us, it didn't like their mistreatment.