Chapter 8: Octavia - Pack of Mine

My head feels like it’s splitting open with every heartbeat, the lights are too bright, and I can hardly open my eyes. I start trying to feel around me and my body, and remember how I fell asleep. I hope that everything that happened was just a bad dream.

Attempting to move my arms, I realize I’m bound. My eyes are still struggling to open any wider due to the sheer amount of light around me right now. Am I outside?

God, what I would do for a fucking cigarette right now.

As I come to, I realize I’m sitting. My hands are tied with what feels like rope behind me. My shoulders are screaming at me from the position they’re stuck in. My chest is also restrained, hugging the back of what I imagine is a chair. I can’t move my legs either.

I’m completely stuck.

My eyes finally open enough and I get a better view of my surroundings.

Unfortunately, I’m not outside, but now I fucking wish I was.

The room has no windows, like a basement. The walls and floor are purely concrete, and I spot a drain in the middle of the room. Why? I have no idea.

In a single chair in front of me, I see a very patient-looking Skyler.

The light that I thought was the sun turned out to be a flashlight pointing directly into my face. I look up and see a small rusty lightbulb shining down onto my chair. Classic torture room vibes.

“Good morning sleeping beauty, it’s been quite a while.” His voice echoes off the walls in a haunting way.

I watch him slowly rise out of the chair, place the flashlight on the seat and adjust his pant legs. He creeps over, taking his time with each step and my heart races faster with each one. His black combat boots thump against the concrete and as he approaches me, the shame takes over.

I hide my face away from him, looking towards my shoulder. I can’t bear to look at anyone right now. I feel so helpless.

“It seems a spider has caught you in its web…” He leans forward and rests his hands on his kneecaps to look me in the face. “Did you need some help?”

A single tear falls down my cheek. I shoot a quick prayer up to God that this is all a dream. A really odd, twisted, fucked up dream.

“Please… let me go…” I mutter out the most pathetic cry for mercy you’ve ever heard.

I’m not usually like this, I’ve actually fought quite well for myself in the past, but I can’t carry the weight of everything happening right now. My ex-boyfriend is dead, I’m tied to a chair in what seems to be a torture basement and the killer is standing directly in front of me.

I shut my eyes and shed another tear as I grieve the girl I thought I would be in the face of horror: badass.

I’ve been through so much in my past, I always thought I would be able to stand up for myself and fight. But sitting here now, in a pair of shoes I never thought I’d be in… all I feel is shame.

I’ve never felt more powerless than I do right now.

Skyler takes a step back from me and begins to pace slowly around the chair. I try to track his movement with my ears, unable to turn my head around enough to follow him. His fingers click on the back of the chair, each tap spiking my anxiety just a little bit more.

“I’m sorry I killed your ex-boyfriend…” He finalizes his haunting dance around me and comes to a halt, “But I’m not sorry for eating him.”

I can hear him freakishly smile as he says it, and he lets the words hang in the air between us for a moment.

“Eat?”

My voice shakes as much as my chest and I tilt my head up in confusion.

He takes his time to make it back to the front of me, his energy swirling around me like a persistent ghost.

This fucking creep is gonna kill me, too.

He leans in inches away from my face and his tongue traces around the edges of his lips as he grins at me. His teeth are perfectly white and straight, but the canines are a bit sharper and longer than the rest.

“He tasted delicious.”

As if he couldn’t have timed it better, a heavy door creaks open behind me and I hear another pair of footsteps walk in.

“She’s awake?”

This voice sounds like the stranger at my door last night. The sound of boots approaches closer and closer until they reach around to face me.

“Does she know yet?” The stranger’s salt-and-pepper hair falls into his eyes slightly and he brushes it away as he looks down at me. His light grey eyes are as alluring as I remembered.

Skyler stands back up and faces the older man.

“No. Do the honors, Val?”

They both glance at each other for a few seconds and the older man (I’m assuming his name is Val now) looks over to the door behind me.

“Let’s wait for Tristan.”

He doesn’t make eye contact with me, like I’m some object and not a person tied to a fucking chair. His voice is monotone and lacks any emotion that would be appropriate for this situation, it makes my skin crawl.

Yeah, I’m definitely about to die.

After a few moments, the door behind me opens a third time. I listen as a lighter pair of footsteps walks closer, moving a bit faster than the others and finally he stands with the other two.

He’s the blonde and leaner guy from last night. He looks a little nervous, uncomfortable even, compared to Skyler and Val.

This must be Tristan.

“Hi, I’m Tristan. I’m really sorry about how last night went down.” He looks down as he fidgets with his hands.

“You’re really pretty, by the way. I haven’t seen you in the light until now.” He looks up to smile at me and it brings me a piece of hope that I didn’t know I needed.

“Get your flirting in now, it won’t last very long before she hates your guts.”

Skyler taps him on the back of the head and shoots him a glaring look. He looks embarrassed by this interaction, like there’s some kind of hierarchy here.

Standing all in front of me, they look like a highly dysfunctional family.

Skyler resembles a misbehaving older brother, always getting in trouble and teasing the siblings. Val, with his hair greying and emotional unavailability, would definitely be the father figure. And Tristan, looking up to the others and people-pleasing, reminds me of a little brother.

All three look down at me, almost like they’re lost on what to do.

While I think Skyler is enjoying himself, it doesn’t seem like they’ve been in this situation before. And for some reason, that gives me a little sliver of hope.

At least I’m not chained up with some professional woman-killers.

“Well, there’s no real script to do this, but I feel like we have no choice. Skyler is enjoying playing with his food too much and it’s beginning to get on my nerves.”

The older man, Val, steps forward and pops a squat in front of me.

He reaches into the leather harness on his leg and I know this is the time.

I’m about to die.

I just hope that he makes it quick and painless.

I look up at the rusty light hanging above me, close my eyes and shed a tear. This is not how I expected it to end. Unlived memories flash behind my eyes of all the things I never got to do – get arrested, crash a wedding, get matching tattoos with a stranger, get fucked in the ass.

As I attempt to recall a prayer I heard from visiting church with my childhood friends, I hear a deafening crack.

I flinch, unable to cover my ears, and slowly realize that I’m still alive. Why?

My fingers and toes wiggle around and my arms can still fight at the restraints.

I take a couple of breaths and open my eyes, staring at the light above me again. Instead of death, I hear a light panting and the sound of water dripping onto the floor.

Huh? Am I bleeding?

I look down to check if I’ve been shot, but I’m met with the biggest wolf I’ve ever seen in my life. My screech echoes off the walls, burning the inside of my ears and my chair falls backwards. Shooting pain bites up my arms as I land on them behind me on the concrete floor.

I’m definitely dreaming, and this is one of the weirdest dreams I’ve ever had. I blink multiple times, but I don’t wake up.

Skyler tilts his head over my point of view and laughs in a truly satanic way. I can clearly see that he enjoys this chaos, he’s like a demon feeding on the bad energy in here. But this time when he smiles, his canines are much longer, like a vampire’s.

Tristan walks behind me and picks up the shitty metal chair back to an upright position. He shoots Skyler a disapproving look and frowns, then looks at me with his eyebrows pulled up and together, like he’s saying “I’m sorry.”

I groan, roll my shoulders slightly and find myself face to face with the wolf again, and I notice it’s wearing the same leather bag around its thigh as Val was earlier.

Val… is a wolf?

I see a pile of ripped clothes and a pair of shoes that he was wearing earlier sitting on the floor next to him. His magnetic light grey eyes look the same and his fur is a soft grey with hints of black. It looks so fluffy and if I wasn’t so terrified right now, I’d probably try to pet him.

“Can someone tell me what the fuck is happening? Are you going to kill me?” My voice shakes as I speak.

I’m nervous, but I’m also intrigued.

Val’s drool drips onto my feet as he pants and licks his lips. He stands so tall that his snout is higher than my head is in a seated position.

Skyler takes one step towards me and wraps his hand tightly around my throat. He lifts me damn near into the air, my tiptoes barely dusting the floor and hangs his head over mine. I can barely breathe, my inhales are squeaky and gurgled.

“Kill you?”

His eyes are pure evil, his teeth are so sharp and haunting as he smiles down at me. I blink hard and feel tears run down my cheeks.

“No, Kitten.” He squeezes harder and I can’t inhale anymore.

“But I’d love to watch you bleed.”

His words cut me like a knife and he stares into my eyes as I choke, thrashing around in the chair, attempting to free myself from his grip. My face grows hotter and hotter and my vision turns darker around the edges.

Val barks loudly and growls. “Skyler, let her go.”

He releases his deathly force around my neck and my feet drop to the floor. I cough and gasp for air, keeping my head down and my hair falls in front of my face.

Being restrained sure isn’t making breathing any easier.

Wait a second, a wolf that fucking talks?

When I catch my breath, I pick my head up and look around the room. The three of them – well, two humans and a wolf – stand in front of me and just stare.

The energy is almost… awkward.

“So, you’re a werewolf or something?” I cough lightly, my vocal cords burning as I speak. “I thought those were only in fairy tales and weird smut.”

They all laugh lightly, which is off-putting because I’ve never seen a wolf fucking laugh before.

“Skyler here has put us in an awkward position, you see,” Val speaks to me and sits on his hind legs, like a dog. “We’ve never told anyone. We usually just kill them if they find out, but…” He glances around the room. “We’ve never killed a woman.”

Skyler stares at me with a chilling darkness swirling in his black eyes.

“But someone…” Val turns to him, “…couldn’t resist a little game with you. And while I told him it was a bad idea, at the end of the day, I don’t lead this pack.”

“Pack? You’re not the only one?” I look at the others, but they don’t say anything.

“They’re a bit newer to this than I am.” Val swallows deeply and suddenly another deafening crack fills the room. I wince at the sound and shut my eyes, but when I finally decide to open them, I sit inches away from a soft and very hairy penis.

“What the fuck?!” My poor eyelids are sore from clenching them shut.

“Yeah, sorry about that. The clothes don’t come with the transformation.”

He doesn’t make any effort to cover himself initially, but after a whisper from one of the others, I hear him pick up the pile of ripped clothes and walk towards the door behind me.

Daring to peek my eyes open, I now only see Skyler and Tristan in front of me.

“Um… I need to use the restroom, how do I do that?” I feel the shame creeping back up.

Skyler struts to the back of me and I hear him pull something sharp out of his pocket, then I feel the tension around my shoulders, legs and chest loosen. I pull my arms to my lap and sigh in relief, rolling my joints out and stretching my arms across my chest.

“You can go over there.”

He points to a bucket in the corner of the room behind where I was sitting and a half-used toilet paper roll next to it.

I look to him, then to the bucket, then back to him.

“Are you serious?”

He smiles and tilts his head to the side like a dog when you say its favorite word. Tristan still refuses to look at me.

My feet carry me reluctantly over to the bucket, and I make hesitant eye contact with the monster watching me from across the room.

“Can a girl have some privacy, please?”

It was worth asking.

Skyler laughs, cracks his knuckles and stares even harder.

“Privacy is a privilege, and you don’t have any of those right now.”

Today I may not be physically dead, but I feel that way inside.