The Culling

The silence that was wrapped around me was soon shattered by an annoying beeping noise. Every time I felt my heart beat, the noise would sound. I soon realized that it was a heart monitor. Struggling to open my eyes, I find that I can’t. The sound of a door opening has my panicked heart calming down.

“What’s the matter Doctor?”

“I can’t say for sure my prince. Her heart rate sky rocketed, but she’s showing no signs of awakening as of yet.” A deep sigh came from my left; something told me that it was Darcy sitting there. The doctor left and the room was once again flooded with silence.

“I’m not sure if you can hearmePhoebe, the doctor said that you can’t hear anyone while you’re in the coma, but I’m going to pretend that you can hear every word that I’m saying. I’m sorry for not saying that I accept you as my mate the moment I found out you were mine. I’ve waited for you, my whole life Phoebe and I have no intention of letting you slip by me.” Something soft touched my forehead and then it was gone.

“I know you don’t need protection, but I’m sorry I wasn’t able to protect you from getting hurt. Please don’t leave me, my little mate. I need you so much.” When the door shut again, I knew that Darcy had left. He had a lot of work to do as the crown prince, and though I was his mate, he had to finish the work for the best of the pack.

Time passed slowly or it passed fast, I had no way of knowing. I kept trying to open my eyes, but it felt as if they were glued shut. Suddenly, my door opened and someone entered the room. Their scent was weak; not really pack and not really rogue. I fought harder to open my eyes, but they refused to cooperate with me.

The person walked quickly to one side of the room and I heard a window slide open. “Hurry, the prince will be back soon. Your window of opportunity to escape with her is very narrow.” A noise outside the room made the people freeze before leaping into action.

I felt their hands on me as the needles and IV were ripped from my skin. Searching for my wolf, my heart soared when I felt her. But I could tell she was weak. “Alaric injected the wolf's bane in her during the fight. Does the royal family know?”

“No. I made sure to hide the test results from the doctor. As far as they are concerned, she’s in a coma but might wake up soon.”

“The silver will wear off soon. Help me get her through the window.” The second voice was rougher and I could tell that whoever it belonged to was a full rogue. So help me, the moment I woke up and had full control of my wolf, these traitors would pay for betraying our king.

No matter what amount of poison that gets introduced into a werewolves’ body, it will always trap their wolf. The longer the wolf stays trapped, the more poison they have in them. I could feel my wolf starting to move around and I mentally smiled. The rogues didn’t inject enough silver in me to knock me out, and certainly not enough silver to keep my wolf trapped for long. It would be my best guess that they injected a level that I had already built my body up to withstand. Their time to pay was coming.

I felt my body being lifted by several hands and I made sure to commit as many clues as to who they were to memory. Once I was able to shift, they would have a tough time getting more silver into my system. I would make sure to give them a fight that this group of rogues had never seen in their lifetime.

Within seconds, my body was completely out of the window. I heard it softly slide shut and then they were running. It was almost five miles from where the hospital was to the pack borders. Their chances of getting me out unseen were slim. Several times, the rogues dropped me but I managed to block the pain out. I had to figure out a plan to escape and get back to Darcy.

Because I was out, I had no way of knowing just exactly where on territory we were, but as the smells of many different wolves growing stronger, I knew that we were closing in on the borders. When they were just inches from the invisible line that separated pack land from no man’s land, a loud howl tore the night air. It held anger, pain, and a promise to deal out horrendous punishment. The rogues that were kidnapping me instantly grew nervous and stepped up their pace. I was hoping that it finally dawned on them that they had messed with the wrong pack of wolves.

Not a word was spoken between them as they kept running, so I had no way of knowing what they were planning to do with me or why they had taken me in the first place. Several times I had blacked out, and the last time I mentally came to, I could hear the sound of running water and smell damp air. But it was the sound of their footsteps echoing that told me we were in a cave or cavern. After about fifteen thousand steps, and yes I did count, they slipped out of the cave.

Fresh air hit my nose as I felt the warm rays of the sun on my skin. New, louder voices could be heard and I knew that I was in their camp. “Sir, we have the Crown Prince’s mate. Where should we put her?”

“Why is she unconscious?”

“The wolf's bane that was injected into her still hasn’t worn off just yet. Our mole also informed us that she had been injured quite badly during the fight.” A deep sigh was heard before the man spoke again. “Place her in one of the large cells and have the doctor hook her up to an in. Make sure that she is alone in the cell.”

“Yes sir. It will be done.” As they carried me away, I focused on the sounds around me as hard as I could. I knew that I was surrounded by more rogues than I could handle alone, no matter how effective I was in fighting many opponents. Either I come up with a plan to slowly take them down one by one and result in me being killed, or delay their plans long enough for Darcy and the others to find me.

As the needle was slide under my skin, I couldn’t help but send a prayer up to the Moon Goddess, asking that she quicken my mate’s journey to me. The wolf's bane would soon wear off and I would be faced with decisions. But I knew that no matter what they did to me, I would never betray my pack, my mate, or my king. They would never break me and my wolf.