Her Wild Hero

Minka closed her eyes and tried to find a calm place, tried to will the animal to go back to sleep. She had learned the technique from the female American soldiers when she worked as a translator. Yoga, they called it.

But then the metal door of her cell smacked against the wall. She opened her eyes just in time to see the two men burst into the room with their newest torture devices—long black sticks that crackled and sizzled on one end like the electric wires that fell to the ground during storms in her small hometown.

She remembered what those sticks felt like from the last time they’d tormented her with them, and so did the animal. It came out with a hiss and she sprang to her feet, long claws slashing at the sticks in an attempt to keep them away.

But the animal’s fast reflexes couldn’t overcome the advantage Minka had given the men when she’d closed her eyes and tried to shut out the monster. Even as she knocked one stick away, the other found its target, thumping into her stomach and sending her whole body into spasms on the ground. She yowled, trying to drag herself away from them. But there was nowhere to go. They backed her into a corner, jabbing her with the things until all she could do was lie there in a twitching, sobbing heap.

Even then the men didn’t stop. They only laughed and prodded her until her vision went black at the edges. She was right. They were going to kill her.

Minka didn’t know she was alive until she came to later. She was tied to the bars of her cell, thick rope around each wrist keeping her upright. The metal dug into her breasts, and she tried to pull free but couldn’t. Her legs, on the other hand, weren’t bound at all. She realized suddenly that her left ankle felt lighter than it had in a very long time. She looked down and saw that the men had removed the heavy metal manacle that had kept her chained to the floor every day and night since she’d been there. Why had they done that?

Dread crept into her, making her shiver. She cocked her head to the side, listening, and heard movement behind her. She twisted her head to look over her shoulder and saw her two captors staring at her with a look she hadn’t seen on their faces before. Her heart began to pound. She’d seen that look on other men before, men who hurt women and took what they wanted from them.

Her captors grinned at her and unbuckled their belts.

That was when Minka knew the evil men had something more horrible in mind for her. They had tied her to these bars so they could do anything to her that they wished without her getting her claws on them.

Tears sprang to her eyes and though she tried to blink them away, more took their place. She’d been ready to die, but while she was sure they would kill her when they were done with her, she wasn’t ready to let them take her this way. It was more shame than she could accept. She refused to submit to it, and the animal inside her refused as well.

Minka threw her bare feet up and onto the bars right below where her wrists were tied. She planted them firmly, then yanked with every fiber of her being. Either the ropes would break or her arms would come off, she didn’t care which.

She howled with all the rage inside her. The ropes snapped and then she fell free of the bars. She didn’t even know if she still had hands, much less arms until she twisted in the air and landed firmly on all fours. She jerked her head up, flinging her long hair over her shoulder. The man closest to her was staring at her in confusion, his mouth hanging open. He wasn’t laughing now.

The second guard swore and came at her with his crackling stick.

Without the metal manacle around her ankle, she was freer to move. She leaped sideways, avoiding the stick the man thrust at her, and slashed with her claws, finding flesh.

The man dropped the stick with a shout that made the animal inside her rejoice. She dropped onto all fours again to lash out and ripped out his hamstrings so he couldn’t get away. But there was still her other captor to contend with.

Minka turned around. The second man was already out the door and halfway down the hall. She caught up to him before he got more than ten feet and leaped on his back, crushing him to the ground. She dug her claws into his back and sank her teeth into the junction of muscle at his neck and shoulder.

The man cried out and struggled, but she pressed all her weight into her claws, digging them in even deeper. His pulse throbbed under her teeth. One savage jerk could finish this man forever.

But the animal hesitated, almost as if it was asking her for permission to continue.

Minka faltered. These men had tormented and tortured her for a very long time. They had wanted to do things to her that no man should ever do to a woman. They deserved to die. But for reasons she couldn’t explain, she couldn’t give the animal the approval it sought. With a growl, she retracted her claws and her fangs.