Caged

Chapter 6

This was fun to write. Enjoy. hehe

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**| Sang's POV |**

The next few days went by quickly and while Silas stayed with me for the most part and Sean stopped by to check on me, they gave me the space I needed. Desperately. Just the fact that each time Sean came over to check on me, I grew angry and aggressive was proof enough that I wasn't ready to meet anyone or be around anyone else.

Silas became my rock, a steady presence reminding me that I wasn't alone. That despite my family and the last two years, someone did care.

I kept forgetting that.

But Silas stayed patient, never losing to his emotions. I could see he suffered too. Four months was a long time to be captured and used like he was. Four months was a long time to be subjected to humiliation, pain, and death. The guilt gnawed at me because he should be at the pack house with the rest of his pack. The Blackbourne Pack. His family. He needed them just as much as they needed him. Being around them helped. I noticed. When he went to visit them and came back, he was better, healing. And I was the one slowing down his recovery.

But he was stuck playing babysitter with me—even when I told him to move back into the pack house. He would just shake his head and walk out of the room, telling me I wasn't getting rid of him that easily.

I was being selfish. I knew it. And I hated myself for it. But I couldn't force him to leave, I didn't want to. I wouldn't admit it out loud, but I needed him, and he knew that. I also suspected he needed me a little bit too because I understood all too well.

We were both survivors.

The nights were long, both of us plagued with nightmares. The days were okay, the light making everything dreamlike, as if what we were put through could never have happened. But then I looked at my body, or at the wariness in Silas, and I knew we were only fooling ourselves.

We were both a mess.

We did grow stronger, our bodies healing. Sean did well flushing the silver out of our system, making us stronger. But we were still too weak, the wounds still taking their time healing while our wolves spiritually healed themselves too.

Currently, I stood in the kitchen, staring into the back yard. I heard Silas moving around. Despite it being late at night, neither of us slept. We didn't sleep as much as we should. Sleeping meant being vulnerable. And when we did cave in, all we got were nightmares.

"What are you thinking?" Silas asked, his Greek accent sending tendrils of comfort through my body. I was beginning to rely on his voice to draw me back to reality.

Silas moved to stand next to me, a dark shadow in the dark of the night. The lights in the cabin were all off, giving us a nice view of the backyard lit up by the stars and the moon. After two years in captivity, I couldn't get enough of the stars.

"What's it like?" I asked him, still not looking at him.

I felt his gaze on me. "What do you mean?"

"To have pack, what's it like?"

He went silent for a few long moments before clearing his throat. "Safe," he said. "You've never met a pack before? I know you mentioned growing up with humans."

"My dad's a shifter, my biological mother too. But she died in childbirth," I whispered. "Then my dad married another woman, one he already had a kid with. We were the only two shifters in that family. The only reason I'm aware of who I am is because he told me the first time I shifted. I did meet other shifters, living in Charleston, it's hard not too, but they never introduced me to a pack if they were in one."