Beasts of The North

Chapter Two

I was pulled from my thoughts as the beautiful man growled loudly at me.

"How dare you show such disrespect? What rank are you that you consider yourself worthy of such a challenging gaze?"

His voice barely audible between the snarls that were coming out of him. I shrank back in fear and instinct told me to cower behind Oliver. My instinct proved to be correct, as he returned the sounds with some of his own. This stopped the angry Alpha in his tracks.

"Kai, stop. Connor lied to us. This girl is human, or at least mostly human, go ahead and smell her."

Excuse me, but smell me? I keep forgetting these men are much more than just men. I looked back at the Alpha as he stepped forward and with a twitch of his nose stepped back. He was still angry, but it didn't feel as though it was directed at me any longer.

"Why would Connor tell us that this girl is apart of Lowell's pack? She smells of wolf, but it's so faint that it only takes a moment to realize that something is off. She should have been brought to me immediately for evaluation."

He turned around and walked over to sit at his desk in the back corner of the room then gestured for us to sit in the chairs that sat in front of him. It took only a moment of contemplation before I complied, while I was reluctant to move closer to the previously snarling man I quickly recalled his anger at being disrespected and did not want to risk accidentally doing so again.

"I agree and that's the exact question I've been asking myself since I collected her from the dungeons. This poor female has been in our isolation tanks for over 5 months. Those cells were not built with the fragility of humans in mind. Why would Connor make the call to send her there knowing that she is human?"

Well, at least I knew that there weren't other humans suffering in those cells. That place would stay in memories for a long time.

"Is she human, though? You can smell her, Oliver. While she smells of mostly human there is an undeniable scent of wolf there."

I began to grow irritated at being spoke of as if I wasn't there. They could certainly ask me what I was and I would be more than happy to tell them. I watched as Oliver nodded, contemplative, before Kai spoke again.

"There's definitely something of wolf in there-"

I had heard enough, and certainly wasn't going to sit there and be referred to as an object. I interrupted him at the risk of pissing him off again, but my self respect and anger weren't allowing me to sit in silence any longer.

"I am right here, you know. You could always ask me. I believe I would have a pretty good idea of whether or not I am a human."

The Alpha Kai snarled at me, but I did not cower this time. The sat here discussing my past and present as if I were an object and I won't be a bystander in the decision of my future. I stood up and looked him in the eye before continuing.

"Don't just sit there and growl at me like a dog. I know you're all some sort of beast men, but you're also men. You clearly have the capability to speak, so talk to me like a person. This is a conversation about me, so include me."

Kai's expression of rage morphed into an irritated scowl but was interrupted as Oliver exploded into fits of laughter. My face grew hot from embarrassment, but he touched my arm lightly as a well meaning gesture.

"I'm sorry, little one, I don't mean to laugh. It just honestly amazes me how little you know of us, yet here you are. I do believe your imprisonment was truly a mistake."

Suddenly, it was my time to growl. I wasn't even sure how I was doing it and where the noise came from, but the feeling of rage I was experiencing seemed to fit the noise perfectly. I had remained calm and strong up until this point, but I could only exercise so much control in front of the very beings who ripped my life away from me. The men in front of me quickly donned expressions of curiosity at the sounds I was making, but I was too enraged to care.