Someone mumbled something he couldn’t quite understand, and he rolled to his side, another fresh wave of pain slamming into him. He’d been trained not to react to torture, not to let the pain take control, but nothing had prepared him for this. He twisted and turned in the sheets as if he couldn’t control any part of his body. He screamed until his throat became raw, and when someone helped him drink water to soothe it, he screamed again.
This wasn’t the Shane he’d grown into, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever be that person again.
The last thing he remembered before the fiery pain was saving a shifter named Ryder from the clutches of a man Shane had worked for. A person he had sacrificed everything for. He’d signed up to protect his people and his country, and when word of shifters came out into the public, he’d found himself on the wrong side of history.
Not all humans hated shifters. Not all soldiers were required to fight them.
He’d been one of the soldiers to protect them at first and hadn’t been in the know when it came to whatever Montag had planned for his secret experiments. As soon as he’d found out, he’d tried to stop it, but it had been too late for most of the wolves in captivity, and too late for him as well it seemed.
Montag had injected something into his system, and Shane had no idea what it was.
It burned. It ached. It was killing him.
He’d gone to the only place he thought could save him. Ryder’s Pack. And somehow, he’d been able to get there and find the place without dying. He’d begged for help, and they’d given it to him. He’d honestly thought he’d only have a small chance at survival as soon as he stepped foot on wolf land. He’d unknowingly been the enemy, and even still, knew his life wasn’t completely in his hands.
He was at the mercy of the wolves that surrounded him now, he was sure of that. They wanted to know what he knew, but they hadn’t hurt him to get the information. That was more than could be said of those under Montag’s care. The wolves were trying to help Shane now, and he would accept their assistance. Even if it meant giving up part of himself in the process.
It was the least he could do after what his unit had done to their Pack and the other wolves around the country.
People shuffled around him, and Shane mentally leaned toward the voice that had calmed him, even if it had only been for a moment. This Bram could help him, and Shane didn’t know why. The only other time he’d reacted like that was when he’d smelled a sweet and floral scent in the room with him earlier. Whoever had owned that scent hadn’t spoken, however, so he didn’t know who it was. He only knew that that person wasn’t in the room with them now.
He didn’t want to think about how he could suddenly discern scents so easily now.
“Wake up,” Bram whispered in his ear. Shane shivered at the feeling of the other man’s breath on his neck. “You need to get up. Lying in bed will only prolong the pain. We’ll help you, damn it. But you need to help yourself first.”
“Nice bedside manner there,” the first voice said wryly.
“Shut up, Brandon,” Bram growled. “Not all of us are Omegas and good with things like this.”
“If we brought in Charlotte, she might be better at it,” the second voice, the one that held all that power, said slowly. There was a hint of something Shane couldn’t understand in the other man’s voice but whatever it was seemed to raise Bram’s hackles. Shane could feel it.
“You aren’t our Alpha, Gideon,” Bram snarled. “She doesn’t need to be part of this. You saw her before.”
Her. Charlotte. Could she be the bearer of the sweet and floral scent? Shane didn’t know, but listening to them fight like this was giving him a headache. Though, really, he already had one so it was just making it worse.
Shane cracked one eye open and forced himself not to close it again when bright light practically blinded him.
“There you go,” Walker said from his side.
Shane couldn’t see the other man, or anything other than blinding light for that matter, but each of the men in the room had a distinct voice so Shane could tell them apart. And now he even knew their names. That had to count for something since everything else was out of his control.
It took him a few more minutes, but soon he was able to keep both eyes open. He started to take in all he was seeing. Two men stood at the end of his bed, and from their facial features, blue eyes, and light brown hair, he figured that they were brothers. Gideon and Brandon. His gaze tracked to the left, and he knew this Walker had to be their brother, as well. The three looked so much alike it was a bit scary.