Endangered Species
Test of Wills

I woke to a knock on the door and Cole’s voice. “Angela? Time to wake up. Breakfast in twenty minutes.”

I opened my eyes to the darkness, broken only by a narrow band of light along the base of the door. “I’ll be out in a couple of minutes,” I said.

“I left fresh clothes for you by the door. I’ll be back to pick you up. I need to meet with my leadership for a few minutes.”

I heard him leave the room and lock the door behind him. The Academy trained me to wake up and get going. I brought in the clothes, shocked at their familiarity. Someone had collected my things from where the wolves had captured and stripped me. They’d also found my bag, which I’d left in the kayak, so they knew how I arrived.

I had my clothes back, Sharpie Alpha codes from the Academy, and all! The stack included clean underwear, a white T-shirt, and a clean blue poopy suit. Next to them on the floor were my tennis shoes and belt with the USS MAINE belt buckle. I quickly showered, brushed my teeth, and dressed before he returned.

My gear bag was on top of the bed. I looked through it quickly, noting that only clothes remained. I placed the borrowed shorts and shirt in Cole’s hamper, seeing the dirty clothes from my capture mixed in. I was putting them back in when the door opened. “You can put those in the dresser,” Cole told me.

“I’d rather not,” I said nervously.

“There’s plenty of room,” he said as he walked over. He went to open the bottom drawer, and I backed away to put the bed between us while he pulled it open. “See?”

Nothing happened.

“I put the drawers in the right way while you were sleeping. I could smell you’d messed with them, and it only took a few minutes to move things around for you.”

He was in a MUCH better mood than last night. I moved my things into the drawer, and he put my bag on the shelf in the closet. “This doesn’t mean I’ve agreed to mate you. I figure you won’t let me sleep anywhere else.”

“You’re right about that,” he said. “Since you don’t bear my mark and scent, my wolf is nervous about you. I need you close by or know you are under the protection of someone I can trust.”

“What if I don’t want a minder?”

“If not escorted, you’ll be locked in here. Which would you prefer? There are dangers you can’t imagine out there, Angela. I don’t want you hurt.”

Nothing would get better stuck in here, plus I needed to replace a way to escape. If I couldn’t do that, there had to be a radio somewhere I could use to contact my chain of command. I still had my orders, if not my freedom. I’d probably only have one shot at this. “I’ll stay with you or the one you tell me to. Staying here is boring, and you won’t like the results.”

“Trying to prank-proof this room is futile, isn’t it?” I nodded. “I’m glad I’m not OCD about things. I saw the desk." He held out a small bag with a drawstring. “Put the knife in here, Angela.” My eyes widened as I peeked in and saw the other three homemade glass knives inside. “You wouldn’t leave the room without one. Give it up, or I’ll strip you out of those clothes and take you to breakfast naked.”

I tossed the glass shard in with the others. “That’s the last one.” He pulled the drawstring closed. I looked over at the dresser, and the other photo didn’t have glass in it now.

There was a knock at the door. “Come on; it’s time to eat.”

I followed him to the door, where his sister and acting Luna stood waiting for us. She smiled as she reached for my collar, pulling it aside, then sighing in disappointment. “He didn’t convince you yet?”

“I’ve barely talked to him,” I replied.

“We better get going before they run out of gravy for the biscuits,” Cole said.

“The Pack doesn’t eat until YOU do,” Melanie said with a roll of her eyes. “Quit acting like a victim.”

We walked out of the living area and into the dining room. Now that I was the future Luna, I received a completely different reception from wolves and humans. The werewolves stopped their conversations as we approached. As we passed, the wolves lowered their gazes and bowed their heads to their leaders. The humans froze, some shaking, others looking at me like I was a female Benedict Arnold.

After all, the leader of their captors had chosen me, and now I was willingly consorting with the enemy. “Whore,” one of the ladies said out loud to me.

Cole stopped and glared at her, and the nearest werewolf moved towards her, hand raised for the slap. “NO,” I said before I could stop myself. The male froze, looking first at me, then at his Alpha for help.

“I cannot allow such disrespect to go unpunished,” Cole said evenly. “They need to learn their place, and quickly. Melanie?”

Melanie went to the woman, taking her by the chin. “This isn’t her first offense. Breeder eighty-four. Twenty lashes, then a day in the hole.” My eyes widened, shocked that they would punish the woman for calling me out. “Hold her,” Melanie ordered. Two males grabbed the woman, spinning her around and bending her over the nearest table. One of the females undid her scrub pants, pulling them down with her underwear to her ankles.

“This is humiliating,” I objected, getting in front of Cole. “I can handle myself. Let her go.”

“No.”

One of the large males from the front table approached, removing the leather belt from his jeans. He let the loose end drag along the floor as everyone watched the train wreck coming.

I gulped. “I’ll take the punishment instead.” I didn’t know the woman, but she was defiant and angry, and I was her focus.

His wolf didn’t like that a bit. “I cannot allow that. She said it, and she will pay the price. It is our law.”

I walked closer to her, daring them to stop me. I saw the woman’s left hand as she struggled against the two strong wolves. There was a white band from her missing wedding ring. “Did they kill your husband when they took you,” I asked.

“The bastards shot Tom and my boys in front of me,” she yelled to the room. “FUCK you all. You’re a bunch of child killers and rapists, and I pray to God you meet a horrible end.”

“Forty lashes and three days,” Melanie responded.

The big man with the belt brought it back, then sent the leather down with a CRACK that echoed through the room. She screamed, her body straining against her captors and the pain. A few seconds later, the belt snapped forward again, striking her on the back of her thighs. The man drew his hand back for a third blow, but I grabbed the belt this time. He was strong, and I was pulled off my feet and slid into the table under her. “STOP THIS.”

Cole ran forward, pushing the shocked man out of the way. He picked me up and held me to his chest, sniffing me to ensure I wasn’t injured or bleeding. His wolf was forward, ready to attack, so all the others stayed clear and averted their eyes. The only sounds were from the sobbing woman, still face-down on the table.

Finally, I was able to push away from Cole. “I don’t want this.”

“Then accept the mating pull and rule at my side. The women are the Luna’s responsibility.”

I looked over at Melanie, who wasn’t bothered at all by the beating she had ordered. “Why?”

“Physical punishments stick with the human and the wolf alike,” she said. “It is our way.”

“Your Law prescribes this for someone saying things like that?”

Melanie nodded. “She got the minimum punishment for disrespect to the Alpha.”

“She’s a HUMAN. She doesn’t heal as fast as you wolves, and she’s not a Pack member! She never asked for this! YOU KIDNAPPED AND ENSLAVED HER! What do you expect her to do? Thank you for killing her family?”

Cole was shaking as he fought his wolf. “Calm down, woman!”

How many times in human history has THAT line worked?

It didn’t work this time, either. “FUCK you, Alpha. FUCK YOU too, Luna. She called you a bunch of child killers and rapists because YOU ARE CHILD KILLERS AND RAPISTS. You liking my smell doesn’t change what you have done to us.”

“Angela!”

“I know. That’s forty for me,” I said. I undid my belt and slid my poopy suit to my ankles, taking my underwear with it. I laid my upper body on the table, taking the right hand of the crying woman in mine. I looked back at the man dealing out the punishment. “Give me two in a row, you fucking bastard, and then you can alternate strokes between us!”

The poor guy was afraid to look at me, my naked butt, or his furious Alpha. I could see his hand shaking as he waited for direction. Melanie was standing there like a fish, unwilling to order the flogging. She looked between her brother and me, trying to replace a way out of this. “I can’t,” she told her brother. If I accepted the bond, I’d be in charge of her soon. She didn’t want to ruin our relationship before it could get going.

I thought I had Cole trapped. I knew his wolf wouldn’t allow me to be hurt.

If Cole couldn’t give the order to punish me with the Pack Law minimum, he would have to end her punishment. He loved me, right? Wolves would do anything for their mates, or so Melanie said.

Everyone was looking at the Alpha as he chose between Mate and Pack.

“Forty lashes and three days in the hole for both of them,” he ordered. He turned away immediately, running out of the room before the first lash crashed over my exposed ass.

I didn’t scream. The big man had done this before. His belt left parallel welt lines from our knees to our lower backs before he walked away. There were a few cuts from where a strike overlapped slightly with a welt from a previous hit. A woman cleaned and bandaged these while we remained in place, our swollen and bruised posteriors on display to the entire Pack and all the humans.

The woman removed the rest of our clothing as the males held us upright. Neither of us could stand on our own. The males dragged me to a small closet janitor closet. It was only a few feet wide and deep, with a floor drain and a small sink. I ended up curled on my side on the cold floor. I couldn’t move without my butt and legs exploding in agony.

The door closed and locked, leaving me in complete darkness.