Shadowed

82

Kaela

My body ached and I groaned softly as I eased myself up from off the floor. Eyes still closed I rolled my head and neck across my shoulders easing out the sore kinks. I felt like I'd slept for hours, yet my limbs still clung to a sluggish dead weight of exhaustion. The back of my throat dry and burning with thirst, and my lips split and sore. It had been too long since I had eaten and I felt my insides screaming for something- anything; to fill in the hollow feeling in the pit my stomach. As I slowly opened my eyes, I felt goosebumps creeping across my skin. I shifted my weight and groaned. The cold cement floor had an unforgiving coldness which gnawed through the thin cotton of my clothes setting a throbbing ache through my body.

The pain which had stabbed my chest before I had slept was still there, it sat with its daggers deep within my soul with a crushing weight that pulled away any bit of the protective shield I might have left. Besides the exhaustion and the pain, I felt nothing. I had cried myself empty, and what hope I'd had left was ripped from me the moment Trent stepped into the room last night.

I felt my heart quicken as my pulse jumped nervously in my chest, there was someone else in the room. Still blurring with sleep I struggled to focus on the space around me as I blinked into the dimly lit cell. Slowly my eyes settled on the large dark shadow crouched at the bars of the cell. My nostrils flared instinctively as I took in the scents around me filtering out the dust, damp and the metal till I could taste the scent of a male shifter. It burned the back of my throat and tiny sparks of adrenaline zipped through my nervous system. I inched my knees to my chest and shuffled backwards until the cold concrete pressed against my spine. Slowly I shrink down against the wall locking eyes with the guy who watched me with dark eyes and an unsettling smile. He didn't move, he just crouched there watching me the way a lion watches its prey.

My brows furrowed slightly as I registered that the guy on the other side of the bars was talking to me. I didn't know what he was saying. His mouth had slipped into an ugly smirk and he was now standing upright his large hands still gripping hold of the bars. He seemed to be waiting for something. Had he asked me a question? I just stared at him with slow blinking eyes and then he seemed to get annoyed with me and his lip curled his nostrils flaring as he then glared at me. I watched as his mouth opened and more noise belted from his lips. I couldn't get a grasp on the strand of words which flew from his mouth, and realising this he then progressively got angrier. The way his lips moved, the sharp movement of his tongue when he talked and how his eyes would flare at me; I could only guess it was now threats which he spat. He kept angrily yelling at me and cursing at me for ages until he eventually gave up shaking his head at me he rested quietly against the wall watching me incredulously. For a while longer I continued to watch him until exhaustion pulled my eyes closed and I drifted again into sleep.

I didn't dream.

I didn't even have nightmares. It was just a black void of empty sleep.

When I stirred again my eyes slowly peeling open I was quick to force myself awake. Men were huddled outside the cell, one of them with a set of keys, the sound of them crinkling together went straight through my head like warning bells and I painfully struggled to my feet. I recognised Elijah and Deon amongst the crowd but not the others, they were all new. Fear shook through me as my pulse jumped in my throat. They watched me hungrily and as the lock clunked open I watched as their eyes grew larger with excitement. The door slowly swung open and a slow breath escaped my lips as everyone in the room waited in anticipation for someone to make the first move. As the first guy stepped boldly into the cell I bit my lip trying to stop the sob which was building with a harsh lump in my throat. He strode towards me and I stood with my arms limp by my sides. Did he really think I was going to fight him? I'd already lost, and I had nothing left in me. Another guy stepped in and I let my chin tilt towards the ceiling as I closed my eyes. I relinquished everything, and let my mind sink back into darkness where I could only wait.