Broken

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Her eyelids felt like lead, heavy and stuck together with exhaustion. She was floating in a sea made of night, of a darkness without a surface, drowning in heartache that she couldn't quite focus on. Something was making her mind spin crazily, so disorienting that it made her feel nauseous and she had to concentrate to keep the bile from coming up.

She slowly became aware of an acute ringing in her ears, followed by a deep voice, the words blurring together. Seren finally was able to force her eyelids apart as she fell forward, outstretching her hands to catch herself and meeting cold glass. The sound of her palms on it made less of a panging sound and more of a thud. It must be plexiglass or clear plastic. Her breathing seemed shallow, sucking in warm air that had already been in her lungs once, the claustrophobia worse than any other time she had felt confined before. 

She looked down at herself and blinked in confusion at the black bra and underwear that were on her. She hadn't put them there, nor had she ever seen them before. Her skin was scraped and scratched, covered in brown flaking blood from the fight, her hair hanging limply on either side of her face down over her chest in a tangled mess, now clumped together and stained.

The voice continued on, murmuring through the walls of the box she was in as Seren pulled her head up and looked around at the world on the other side that was moving in only a few frames per second, darting, sickening.

A vision of her dad at the top of the stairs, yelling as he shot down wolves, flashed white hot in her brain. Her heart clenched in pain as she realized that he was gone, that she had seen him die with Gloria. It hurt so much she had to press the heel of her hand against it to keep it from exploding out of her chest like a grenade full of shrapnel. It was crippling.

Dad, Gloria, Liam, Mayline, Max, Dad, Gloria, Liam, Mayline, Max...It kept repeating in her head over and over and the fear that there could be more. There probably were more...

Movement made her realize that she was not alone and she squinted against the harsh white lights blaring at her face. Someone was standing next to her on the other side of the box's walls, a tall and dark shape that made her spine tingle with alarm. She knew who it was immediately and wanted to shift and tear his throat out. Arthur.

Fighting the drugs, she listened hard to comprehend his words.

"-of all. For tonight's festivities, we have an open bar and this area," he motioned to the right of Seren, "is for a one on one combat tournament. The winner gets this lovely she wolf for the night. To up the stakes, it might interest you to know that I found her at the Wind Runner pack house earlier this evening- and yes, I know she smells like a rogue- but, she is the mate of the fallen Wind Runner alpha."

There was a roar of whistles and howls from a crowd Seren hadn't noticed, a sea of bodies and faces that had all blurred together in the shadows beyond her spotlight. She swayed slightly again and battled the piercing tone just behind her forehead, leaning heavily against the glass. If only she could focus enough to shift, she could break out of the box, but it was like her mind was clouded withe some sort of drug. She felt drunk, delusional. In fact, she was sure she really was drugged. 

Arthur was looking out over the group for volunteers, choosing amongst the waving hands. It smelled of male, strong and sharp, and of blood, that pungent coppery scent that sent one's mind into alert. There were more men in this room than Seren could have ever feared meeting in a lifetime and none of them had her best interests at heart. In fact, they wanted nothing more than to use her like a toy until they were sweating and spent, and then shove her back into Arthur's claws to throw away. 

She had to shift right away and run until her legs snapped beneath her, if only she could. She tried, but the rush of liquid light that rippled through her flesh in the instant before a shift refused to be summoned. Her body and mind were not in sync, no, there was some toxic substance flowing through her veins that disconnected them, removed her from the world of the conscious. The more she focused on locating that current within herself, the more she felt that she would vomit all over herself and the nausea would distract her from her goal once again. 

Vicious snapping and clicking of teeth, accompanied by throaty growls, drew her attention to the crowd and she had to squint to see what was happening. Two men had stepped into the designated area and had shifted into a grey wolf and a black and white one and were now circling each other, sizing the other up. When they went at it, wrestling for dominance and bristling at each break, Seren had to look away because it reminded her painfully of Gloria's wolf being overwhelmed by the enemy and she sucked in air to choke back a sob.

"Don't worry, my dear," Arthur said through the glass with a smirk. "My men are very experienced in all that they do. They will see to it that your last night will be one you will enjoy. You may even regret having wasted so much time with that sad excuse for an alpha. But you can tell him that when you rejoin him in the afterlife...unless one of my men want to keep you, that is."

You sick bastard, she thought. She hoped that he never ever found his mate.

Her vision wavered and warped as another wave of fatigue hit her and threatened to pull her under the surface. Now many fights had taken up, making the dark sea churn with bodies of wolves and men, all competing to mate with a rogue, to get off. It made her want to slam her head against the wall of the box until she died. 

Another form joined Arthur's beside her, stoic and silent, scratches running down his face and neck.

"Daniel," she breathed, pressing her palms against the side of her cage to see him better. 

Arthur grinned and turned toward her, looking at her smugly, but Daniel didn't blink, staring straight out over the fights. "I forgot that you didn't know," he smiled. 

Seren stared at the heinous alpha with disgust.

"After you...um...went to sleep, we found this rogue looking for you. We were going to kill him, but he asked to join my pack. Very interesting, I know. Do you care to tell her why, Daniel?"

"I told you that I was looking for a pack. I want to be with the strongest of them all," he said, still without looking down at her. Her chest compressed with pain. He had lied to her, on top of all that she had lost, he had never had their best interests at heart. 

At least he was alive, she thought. The world didn't need another death and neither did she, even if he wasn't actually her friend. 

"Why?" she managed weakly.

"You had connections with two packs, that's why. You convinced Donovan's pack to let me in, to show me their ins and outs. When you said that you were returning here, I knew I would be in close proximity to the Gray Paws and Red Toothed who were obviously going to overwhelm the Wind Runners without Liam. They were always going to win. I followed you here so that I could trade what I know about Donovan for a position in their pack. Donovan will be our next conquest and then we will be unstoppable," he said coldly, detached and void of any emotion. This was the real Daniel, the one Seren had been too blind and trusting to see, but it had been lurking underneath his facade all along. 

She hung her head in defeat, bowing to the weight of the world on her, to the pressure of grief and loss and the hatred that had descended upon her life. Surrounded now by so many wolves, she had never felt so alone, so lost and broken. 

"He's the one who made sure that your mate didn't stand a chance," Arthur said proudly, inhaling. He turned his head to look out and let the breath out as if he had never been more satisfied in his life. Seren looked in shock between him and Daniel, though with everything that had happened, she shouldn't be so surprised, and yet, it still stung. Arthur caught her confused and distraught expression and smirked again as if he couldn't get enough of her suffering. "He told me that when you had the clever little idea to use your own blood for the antidote, he switched it with another just in case it might have actually worked. So really, I have him to thank for giving us the upper hand."

Daniel nodded, affirming the act, breaking her apart into tiny pieces. She felt the tears rolling down her cheeks and heard her breath coming and going as her whole frame trembled. How could life have gotten so mixed up and twisted? These werewolves, what she was, it was all evil and cruel. She would welcome her death with open arms if it would be a relief from all of this, from the death and barbaric massacres and hate.

A huge explosion made the floor tremble and rocked the tank Seren was in, almost making everyone lose their footing. All heads turned to the double doors of the room which had been blown clean off their hinges...and the hinges had been blown away, too, with most of the wall around it. Wolves didn't wait to be recognized as they poured in and flowed over the Gray Paws before half of them could even shift, let alone realize they were being attacked. 

Seren found her feet beneath her and commanded her legs to straighten in the cramped container. Even though she couldn't get out, she couldn't just sit there and wait for something to happen either.

She stared, wide eyed, as this new force swept through the Gray Paw mass like a knife through butter, cutting down the men like saplings. Whoever these fighters were, they were not leaving survivors.

There was a soft thud and then Arthur roared, making Seren's head whip to the side to see him crumpling to the ground, clutching his lower back where the handle of a switch blade was sticking out. Daniel watched him fall, obviously the one who put it there, before turning to defend himself against a different man.

She had to get out of there and she had to get out now. With all of her drunken strength, she threw her body against the wall of the box and felt the container rock with her slightly and then back the other way. Panting because the drugs were making her breathless, she repeated the action, this time slamming herself against a side and then the other as it rocked, encouraging it to teeter on its edges.

There was a moment, a literally tipping point, where she felt suspended in the air before it fell and she slid out the top, rolling along the floor. A shadow fell over her as someone stepped in front of the light and she blinked up in fear at the familiar face. 

"Derrick!" she gasped. 

The Wind Runners were the attackers! But how could that be when they had been destroyed just the night before?

Derrick glanced at her, his eyes full of a desire to explain, to speak with her, but they quickly turned back down on Arthur, who was trying to drag himself away, his legs completely paralyzed. Derrick's expression turned steely and he bore down on the broken alpha. Seren didn't stay to watch, scrambling across the floor to the darkness of a hallway. 

"Seren!" he called after her.

The room was spinning around her, the noises loud and confusing as she shot ungracefully for the hall, her feet slapping loudly on the wood. Just as she passed into the darkness, a big hand grabbed her arm and jerked her out of the way of two huge wolves that sprinted by that would have crushed her, pulling her through a door and out into the cold all before she could so much as gasp in surprise. 

When she saw that it was Daniel, she wanted to kill him, cry and scream all at the same time, and ripped her arm out of his hand. "What the hell do you think you are doing!?" she snarled. "What? You wanted to kill me personally?! You're a traitor!" She shoved him back a few steps. "You're a liar! And a...a bad friend!" The tears had never really stopped. 

He growled quietly and grabbed her arm again, dragging her away from the building with quick strides. With the world as unstable as it was with the ground rippling up and down like water as three of Daniel pulled her toward the trees, she couldn't fight the nausea enough to fight him back. He was hauling her away to kill her and there was nothing she could do to stop him. 

She pitched forward and he turned to catch her, but she promptly vomited onto the ground at his feet, all bile as there had been nothing inside her stomach for a few day at least. She coughed, on her hands and knees, as he stood there watching her fall apart. "Just kill me, Daniel," she moaned, miserable, freezing and sad. "If you are dragging me out here to kill me or give me to some pervert, then just kill me and be done with it."

"Seren," he said, sounding just like old Daniel, which hurt worse than if he had struck her. "I don't really have time to explain right now, but it is not what you think. We need to get out of here right now."

Exhausted, she sank into a sitting position on the grass with a pitiful cry. "I don't want to go anywhere with you," she mumbled, her voice cracking. There was too much heartache, too much sorrow, to care what happened either way, however. 

He sighed sadly and squatted next to her. "I know you don't believe me, but I was never on Arthur's side, okay?"

She barely heard him. Even if he wasn't, it didn't change the fact that everyone she loved was dead, that she was alone. She knew that he had been the one to literally stab Arthur in the back, but that didn't mean he was on her side. He could be on his own side for all she knew. 

"Come on," he said gently, lifting her by her shoulders and picking her up like a child so that they were chest to chest with her arms around his neck.

It was all she could do to keep herself from retching again and kept her face close to his shoulder. His whole body was warm against her chilled form and she held him tight only to steal it from him. A few minutes later, he had walked far enough from the warehouse they had been at for her to see the wolves pouring out of it as bright yellow and orange flames licked out of the window frames and dark smoke began to rise over it. 

There was much yipping and howling in victory, who won, though, was beyond her because they all looked like little bugs moving around on the ground, circling together before they would take off. Where was Daniel taking her now? What would he do with her, or, if he was telling the truth and he wasn't on Arthur's side and let her go, what would she do with herself? Who was she anymore? She didn't feel like herself, hell, she didn't feel like anything but a noodle with all the drugs in her body. 

"Can you shift yet?" Daniel's voice cut through the thick haze in her skull, carefully setting her down on her own two feet. 

Seren dipped within herself, searching for that current of feeling that would manipulate her form and sensed it. "Give me a little bit," she whispered. 

Daniel licked his lips and looked around nervously, but nodded for her to go ahead.

It was difficult to concentrate, like being drunk, on the sole idea of changing shape and the poison in her system was doing a good job of keeping her mind at bay. This was not something she needed to think about, but something that was simply done. She had shifted thousands of times and instead of trying to work it out logically, she needed to completely let go and become what she already was. It was a leap of faith, or in this case, a trust fall. 

Slowly, she tipped forward, like she was going to fall flat on her face and felt the rush of panic inside her body to need to correct the balance issue. Instead, it sparked the fight or flight mechanism, a deep instinct, that let that current of electricity beneath her skin catch fire and whip her form into something else so that her two hands became paws and caught her weight before she hit the ground. 

With a huge sigh of relief, she shook her coat out. Maybe a good run and then a dip in a creek would clear her mind and wash the blood off her fur. Daniel quickly shifted beside her and pointed his nose in the direction they were headed, making her drop her head in disappointment. She had forgotten for a moment that he was leading her off to kill her or something else. If he wasn't on Arthur's side, whose side was he on? The Wind Runners? Donovan's? The Red Toothed?

Donovan was the only one who didn't want her dead. She been banished from one, even if the reason seemed clouded now and the other pack was on a mission to kill anything that moved. There was a one in three chance that she wouldn't be killed, unless Daniel was just going to let her go, but then maybe not if there was a fourth party involved that had yet to reveal itself. 

Seren glanced out at the forest, hearing something far behind them- probably the pack that had won, but was weighing her chances at making a break for it as the drugs slowly left her system. Never one to put faith in another, she decided she would have to run. And why not? What did she have to lose?

Her heart started beating faster in anticipation and just as she was about to do it, the sound of so many feet came from behind them and they both whirled around as the wolves sprinted by them, brown, a black, a white one, two identical grays, a bunch of tans and browns, moving too quickly to be identified. Seren and Daniel had had to separate and leap out of the way to avoid being trampled, but not before she recognized the scent. 

They were the Wind Runners and she could not help but feel relieved that they had put the Gray Paws down for good. A few had taken notice of the two rogues and looked like they were circling back for them. 

Seren didn't hesitate this time. She bolted. This was extremely unfamiliar territory, with no recognizable scents or landmarks. It was Gray Paw land, steep and mountainous like the rest of the west coast and she struggled to leap over rocks and fallen trees without cutting herself. With the drugs still faintly working, she couldn't feel the pain of her muscles as she pushed them to their limits, running for the freedom and wildness. All the grief of losing everyone could be spent with each breath that left her heaving chest, every scrape and cut letting her feel what they had felt. 

I should have died. Not them. Not any of them. They mattered. They mattered to me, to everyone... Dad...Dadddd!!! She let out a strangled whine and pushed herself harder and faster.

There was no one out there to stop her, no one following her. Seren was finally free.

Her legs, numb with exertion, finally gave out and she tumbled to a stop in the leaf litter, panting in the clean air in jubilation. 

Free! Free! FREE!

The drugs were gone now and her senses were slowly returning to normal, including a ravenous hunger that she didn't feel like satiating so late at night. She could smell the sweet scent of wild blackberries rotting on the ground nearby and found the patch soon enough, eating just enough to tide her over until morning. Searching for a pine tree, she found one with a thick bed of needles beneath and curled up in a ball, covering her face with her tail and sighing. 

She hoped they wouldn't come looking for her, but they would. If there was one thing she had learned about packs, it was that they were relentless when they wanted something and would stop at nothing to get it. Liam had hunted her down like prey before he got her back to the pack house and Arthur had started a war to get what he wanted. Maybe it was just alphas that were

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