My cheek pressed awkwardly against the ground, arms pulled tightly around my back, legs limply splayed over the floor. My left eye peeked open to find a small metal room around me like a jail cell. I coughed again, the burst of air causing a pile of dust to explode in the air.
It took me some time to get myself in a sitting position against the wall. Three of the walls were solid steel bolted together. Across from me were seven metal bars coated in silver. I leaned my head weakly back against the wall and swallowed the sediment on my tongue.
I sat for hours before I heard someone’s footsteps. I pulled my legs closer to my chest as the steps got closer.
Harrison’s nephew stood on the other side of the bars, smirking deeply with his hands grabbing the bars.
“Comfortable?” he seethed.
“Go to fucking hell,” I growled with a weak and raspy voice.
“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you, princess?” I remained silent, only enraging him more. “Out of all the other bitches here, I’m happiest about you.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because you just looked so smug. All the others looked scared. It’ll be fun to see that smile break.” His thin lip hitched upward, showing a sliver of his buck-teeth.
“I won’t break you son-ova-bitch,” I spat, trying to tear my hands from the metal bindings.
He only smirked, turning his head at the sound of another’s feet approaching. Another man came to the bars of my cell, tall and thin, and threw a piece of bread on the ground in front of me. He shoved a water bottle through the bars as I kicked the bread into the corner of my cell.
“Eat,” the skinny one grunted, turning and leaving.
Harrison’s nephew stayed and watched me, licking his lips as he peered through the metal bars.
“I can’t wait to tear through your throat,” I murmured.
He laughed and walked away, leaving me alone.
I sat for a while, glaring at the piece of bread before finally crawling over to it. The bread was on the ground, forcing me to practically lay next to it to tear off a small bite. I saved most of it in case they didn’t feed me regularly.
In the room with silver bars, it was impossible to use my mind-link to contact anyone. I sighed and leaned my head back, hitting it lightly three times before it settled against the wall.
“Try to keep your strength up,” a woman’s voice called from the other side of my cell.
“Hello?” I called out.
“We’re here,” the voice responded. “We’re all here.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Danica,” she shouted. “Who are you?”
“Sloane,” I said, breathing out slowly.
“Sloane?” another voice screeched. “It’s Cherry!”
“Cherry!” I shouted happily, and then my heart sunk. “Where are we?”
“Some neutral territory,” Danica moaned.
The cells settled into silence again. It was another series of hours before anyone came down to the cells again. When the humans came down again, they dragged one of the other Lunas out of her cell and took her to another area. She screamed as they grabbed her.
“Sloane?” Cherry’s whimpering voice invaded the quiet.
“Yeah,” I said softly, knowing she could hear me.
“Will you tell Francis I love him, and I’m sorry?”
“Stop that!” I growled. “We’re getting out of here. Nothing is going to happen to us.”
“You don’t know that,” another soft voice added.
“Yes, I do,” I fought. I glared at a spot on the wall.
“Will you please just tell him?” Cherry begged. Her voice wavered like she was crying, and I kicked the wall angrily.
“Tell him yourself,” I spat, angry that I was the only one prepared to fight my way out.
Cherry didn’t respond. She continued crying in her cell, which made two of the other women start crying as well. Our captors didn’t feed us for the rest of the night, nor did they come back into the cells until morning. A man came and made sure the cell doors were secured before leaving.
Soft footsteps echoed off the metal, and I scooted to the bars to see if the Luna they had taken was returning. A woman bent down and set food into the cells, her face blocked by her hair. As she got closer, I realized it was Hazel.
Before she got to my cell, I scrambled to the corner in embarrassment. I heard her bend down near my cell, but I stayed huddled in the corner, eyes glued to the rough-edged corner.
“Hello,” Hazel called wistfully. “You must be new.” I made no noise or movements. “You’re safe here, you know. No one will hurt you.”
“I doubt that,” I spat automatically, then cursed myself for speaking.
“I’m serious,” her frail voice argued. I heard the muted sound of bread being thrown into my cell. “We just have to keep you here until we get a more secure room for you, one the Alphas can’t break into. They can’t hurt you anymore.”
“The Alphas?” My voice was nothing more than a hiss that skimmed off the walls.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “They can’t get you in here.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I heard her lightly jump from the iciness of my voice.
“That’s why you’re here,” she said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than me. “To keep you safe from those wolves.”
“That’s why you think we’re here?” My arms shook against the chains roughly, a shrill clattering emitting around me.
She stayed quiet, and I could feel her sadness behind me. It didn’t bother me anymore. Her softness, her innocence, her human-ness didn’t bother me.
“We’re here because your family and those other humans are going to torture us and send the pieces of our bodies back to our families.”
She hissed in a breath. “No,” she muttered softly.
“They drugged us, shoved us in these cages, and they’re going to kill us, Hazel.”
“You know my name,” she said, my growls were too
