Shifters’ Fae Captive by Lacey Carter Andersen
Chapter 2
Ann
The shadow beasts light a fire.I watch them beneath my lashes, sitting near enough to the flames that I hope they think I’m behaving, but I’m secretly trying to figure them out. As they move around, gathering wood, talking in their strange language, gesturing, and glancing at me, I try hard not to look like a threat, or like prey. They definitely look wild, like men raised by wolves rather than humans, but they’re not quite as mysterious as I thought they were in the beginning.
I also decided to name them. The one who seems to be in charge is Daddy. He has the longest, darkest hair of the three, and green eyes. Not a pale green either. A green so deep that it’s eerie, the gems peering out beneath the strands of his hair like a painting, or a wild animal, rather than a human. Fluffy is the smallest of the three, both in height and width. His hair is long, and perhaps just a touch paler than Daddy’s, but his eyes are an ice blue rather than green. Tiny is the one with long, blonde hair. He is the largest of the three, both in height and general size. While Daddy is built like a warrior, Tiny is built like a warrior’s protector. So thickly corded that it actually seems impossible that he’s real.
But even though Fluffy is the smallest, they’re all big. I feel like a fairy near giants. It’s no wonder Daddy wasn’t affected by my fist against his back. I probably couldn’t have bothered him with a hammer.
Yeah, I’m in trouble.
“So, can you guys speak English?”
They look toward me, then focus back on their tasks. Okay, no English. But also no anger directed at me. Not the worst-case scenario.
“And are you guys going to tell me what you want from me?”
This time they just seem to completely ignore me.
“Okay, that’s fine. I don’t need to be understood. I don’t need to be talked to. But I do want you to know that I think you’re a bunch of assholes to steal a woman. No matter what you plan to do with me, that’s a dick move. Right from the start. I don’t know how you’ll come back from that without just being forever the dick trio.”
None of them react. For some reason, a little of the tension I’ve been carrying eases. If they don’t react to being called assholes and dicks, they probably won’t react to much. And if they don’t care about me talking to myself, then hopefully that means they aren’t just looking for a reason to hurt me.
All good signs.
“Also, I named all of you. What do you think of that? You, Mr. Green Eyes, are now officially Daddy, since you seem to be in charge of this bunch. The smallest of you giant weirdos is now officially Fluffy. And you, the biggest dude of them all, are Tiny.” I laugh to myself, and Daddy looks over at me through his hair, his expression unreadable.
Oh boy, maybe it’s time to shut up. If I find my own voice annoying, chances are I shouldn’t push it with these three.
I sigh, then lean back a little, even though it doesn’t make the ground any more comfortable. I’d been given no indication of how long this abduction of mine would last, so my best bet is probably to just learn as much as I can about these guys and where I am, so if the opportunity to run came, I might actually have a chance at getting back home.
So, I narrow my eyes and focus.
At first, I’m staring at them because I want information from them, even nonverbal information. But eventually, things change, and then I’m watching them because I can’t seem to stop watching, because even in their bulkiness, there’s a finesse that mesmerizes me, a grace that’s equally spine-chilling and elegant. Whatever they are, I could watch them move all day if not for the strange fear watching them brings. It’s like one part of my brain admires them, and the other part can’t stop thinking about what men this large and this graceful could do to me if I piss them off. I can’t even tell myself that I’m smaller and faster, because I’m pretty sure they’re as agile as they are powerful.
At last, the one I’ve named Daddy kneels down in front of me. He gestures to the river and then to me.
“Uh. No, thanks. Hard pass.” There’s no way I’m going into that river. Not a chance.
His brows draw together, and again he gestures between me and the water.
I shake my head, then mouth the word. “No!”
He looks back at the others.
I swear the biggest of the three rolls his eyes. He stomps across the clearing, and a scream catches in my throat before he picks me up, tossing me over his shoulder. Now, I do scream. And to my shock, he gives my ass a hard smack that silences me.
Then, I’m dumped into the cold river. I gasp in a breath that’s just water, then surface, spitting out water and coughing. It’s cold. Not just a little cold, but shockingly cold.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I scream at the huge man.
It looks like the other two are mad at him. But after a minute, they all reach for the small clothes covering their cocks and untie the sides.
My cheeks burn. Oh my god, are they really going to get naked and jump in this river with me?
I don’t have time to wonder further, because they sink into the water with me, and I wrap my arms around myself, chattering. At first, I just stare at the moon, but then I can’t help myself, I glance over at them. They’ve washed their loincloths, and now they’re bathing themselves.
My jaw drops open, and I know damn well that I’m staring. But I can’t help it. The thick layers of filth on their bodies are coming off in the water, and hard muscles glisten beneath the moon and the stars. It feels like I’m caught in some strange world that’s somewhere between a nightmare and a really hot porn video.
Not that I find these guys sexy. Not at all. They’re my captors after all.
Oh, fuck, am I getting that weird condition? Stockholm Syndrome? In a few days will I think these shadow beasts are my best friends?
I swallow hard as Daddy goes under the water, then resurfaces, scrubbing his long, tangled hair. The one I call Fluffy goes to the river edge, climbing out of the water just enough that I can see the top of his well-defined ass. My mouth goes dry, and I don’t realize what he’s doing until he turns around, holding a bunch of yellow flowers. He hands them to the other guys, keeping some for himself, then hands some to me.
“Uh, thanks,” I say.
They all begin to scrub the flowers in their hair and over their bodies. Okay, so, I guess, they’re using the flowers like soap? I crumble the flowers in my hand and breathe in their scent. I’m shocked that the flowers don’t smell… flowery. More like wood or something I can’t quite name.
Ah, damn. Are these guys saying I smell? Okay, I can’t exactly smell great after the battle at Royal Fae Academy. So, even though I’m freezing and not happy about it, I rub the flowers over my skin. I undo my braid, rub the flowers through my hair, and then rinse my hair out underwater.
When I come to the surface, the guys are all staring at me. “What?”
My word seems to snap them back to focusing on their own little baths, and I glare at them as I rebraid my hair. That’s right, jerks, I used the flowers and actually took a bath. Not for you though. Because I don’t like smelling.
Daddy climbs out of the river, and I suddenly forget what I was mad about. His ass is fine, not just nice, but fucking perfect. Even so, I find my neck straining to spot his cock. If he turned around, just a little, I could see it, but he’s got his little loincloth retied within seconds, and I try not to feel disappointed.
The smallest of the shadow beasts makes a sound, and I turn to him. He gestures that it’s time to get out, and the big guy comes toward me with narrowed eyes. I almost shriek again. There’s no way I want Tiny carrying me back out of the river. Naked.
My cheeks heat and I scramble out. Unfortunately, the night is even colder out of the water, and I rush to the fire edge, kind of wishing that I’d taken off my clothes, so at least they’d be dry. I put my hands to the fire, and my teeth chatter.
A second later, I sense motion, and I remember that Tiny and Fluffy are probably getting out of the water, and every inch of them should be on full display.
Even though these guys kidnapped me, and I find them irritating, I turn a little and glance at them. Unfortunately, they already have their loincloths on. I know my lips are pouting, but when I glance up at their faces, Fluffy is looking at me, and I think there might be a little smile behind his dark hair.
Oh, man. I did not want to get caught checking out these guys.
From that point forward, I try to remind myself that these guys are my enemies, and that my goal is to stay warm and stay safe, not ogle them. But as they move closer to the fire, letting the beads of water dry from their almost naked bodies, I feel like I’ve developed a permanent blush.
It’s going to be a long night.
The fire burns through the late hours of the night, tended by one beast or another. I know because I don’t sleep. I can’t. As tired as I am, as desperately as I need sleep, I’m too scared about what could happen if I let my guard down. I still have no idea what these men want from me, but I keep hoping to see something in their actions or words that explains why they took me. Yet, even though I stare at them until my eyes hurt, I still don’t have any answers.
They continue to communicate with words and gestures, though I can’t understand. But my urge to kill them has decreased. Thinking back to everything that’s happened so far, and even watching them, they seem strong, but they don’t seem… cruel. Yeah, I could be wrong. They could be like sharks that suddenly turn around and bite, but some small voice inside of me says that whatever they brought me here for, they’ve had many opportunities to hurt me already and haven’t.
Despite all my apprehension, I feel... safe. Maybe not safe exactly, but not in imminent danger. They protected me from that weird creature after all, and I get the sense that maybe they would do it again, even though I hope we don’t have to find out.
Or maybe they just killed it for fun, and haven’t killed me yet because they’re busy, and I’m just coming up with reasons not to pee my pants and run screaming through the woods. Because, yeah, that instinct is definitely there, behind all the attempts at applying logic to this illogical situation.
Before the sun is up, we’re on the move again through the woods. There’s no trail marked, but I’m sandwiched between Daddy and Fluffy while Tiny walks beside me. I can’t stop wondering about them--whether they have names, what they are, why they want me.
Can they even talk? Are they like those kids who were raised by wolves that could never acclimate back to the human world?
I didn’t have a clue.
“So, when you guys make those sounds to each other, are you talking?”
No answer.
“I think it is some kind of language, but I don’t understand what it could be or why you wouldn’t know English. Here, all supernaturals speak English in order to be able to blend in with the humans. But, I guess, you guys don’t really have that problem, do you? With the whole barely any clothes and the lack of showers, I bet you don’t exactly mingle with humanity much. Still, it’s strange you’re just hiding out here in these woods. I know this territory is protected, part of it owned by the Royal Fae Academy, and part of it a nature reserve, but even out here I imagine you have to come across the occasional supernatural or human.” I frown, that thought lingering. “Which means it’s probably safe to say we might run into someone else eventually. Humm, but I guess no one really knew you guys existed until the battle with the fae, so maybe you have been able to hide out here undisturbed by people of any kind.”
Is that even possible?Hell, that actually makes the most sense. Which, of course, gets me thinking for a little while before I focus back on what we’re doing.
The terrain was much less treacherous for me when I was being carried. I definitely stumble more than I’m proud of now, but the shadow beasts are always close, catching me and releasing me before I can fall on my ass. Even though I feel clumsy and awkward, I prefer being on my own two feet. While walking on my own, the scent of plants, of earth, and life comfort and soothe something deep in my soul. Something I never expected.
I breathe in deep, filling my lungs with the perfumed air. It’s almost as if I’m surrounded by a beautiful world untouched by mankind and supernaturals alike. I think I’d almost like it here.
If I wasn’t, you know, a prisoner and all.
We eventually stop. This area of the woods looks like any other, but Daddy cups his hands and makes a strange sound, like a bird I’m sure I’ve never heard before. Then, the guys nod to each other, and move forward slowly, while looking all around. Tiny kneels down and gestures forward. I stare at him in confusion, and he lifts a brow, before sliding through the moss beneath the huge tree.
They end up leading me to an underground cave I would’ve never seen if not for them. But now that I know it’s there and where it’s--camouflaged in that moss between a thousand-year-old oak and a lush hill--it’s something I won’t likely forget, if I’m ever allowed to leave it.
The cave is dark and dank until Tiny manages to light a torch that’s secured to the wall. The flames dance, spreading light to chase away the dark shadows. The walls are smooth, clay-like and the air chills me, cooler and damper than outside. It’s an underground kind of dampness and I shiver, but I don’t try to leave. I wait because I don’t know why they’ve brought me here, and I know damn well if I try to run for it now, I’ll be caught quickly, and any kind of trust we’ve built will be gone.
I’m not willing to risk that. I sure as hell plan to run away, but I can wait. If there’s one thing Ann is known for, it’s her patience. My fathers told me that over and over again every time they visited my mom when I was young. They’d hug me tightly, lavish me with gifts, and tell me I was the gentlest, most patient child they’d ever met.
Which always confused me. Every time my stepfather beat the shit out of me, he said it was because I was a bad kid. So, was I awesome or bad? I never really knew.
I still don’t.
A shiver rolls through me again, and I wrap my arms around myself. My teeth start chattering, and I try to push away the image of my stepfather’s face. I have enough going on right now. The last thing I need to do is think about the only monster I’ve ever been soul-deep terrified of.
Trying my best to ignore my dark thoughts, I take it all in. Looking left and right, but it just seems to be like any other cave. Until we see light above and the temperature of the cave gets noticeably warmer. Our group moves a little faster, weaving around the path until we come out into a huge room.
My jaw drops open. There are at least a dozen shadow beasts prowling throughout the cave. In the center of the mountainous cavern, a waterfall tumbles down into a big pool where two shadow beasts are bathing naked. Steam rises up from the water and seems to hover in the room, warming an otherwise cold place.
I feel my cheeks heat and look away. My gaze catches with Tiny’s dark eyes, and I avoid his gaze. Did he see me staring at the naked men? Another shadow beast is weaving a basket near a huge fire. Two others are sharpening their blades, speaking to each other in low voices.
Suddenly, two shadow beasts separate from the walls beside us. Daddy speaks to them in a low voice, using the same strange language I don’t understand. The two new shadow beasts keep staring at me, and they don’t look happy, but they eventually hug Daddy, Fluffy, and Tiny.
Within minutes, at least two dozen shadow beasts have surrounded the three I know. There’s a lot of talking in their strange language, and a lot of gesturing with hands. My guys are hugged a bunch, and there's a general sense of celebration. But every time anyone looks in my direction, they don’t seem as welcoming. I can’t tell if they’re curious about me, annoyed, or angry. Either way, it isn’t a good response.
Do they think I want to be here?
“Nice to meet you too,” I grumble.
None of them react. They just continue staring at me with those gazes filled with unhappy emotions. In fact, if I try, I can feel the unhappy emotions coming off of them. I close my eyes and sense resentment, exhaustion, and anger. Then, I open my eyes and glare right back at them.
“I hope one day you get that stick out of your asses,” I grumble.
And then it hits me, the three who had taken me were prisoners of the light fae. Do these shadow beasts think I was involved with keeping their friends prisoner? That would be… bad. Really bad. We can’t even understand each other well enough to explain that I had nothing to do with what happened to them.
Is that why they took me? The thought makes my stomach turn, so I push it away.
Most light fae are good at seeming happy and relaxed all the time. From a young age, we practice keeping smiles on our faces and meditating. It’s looked down upon for us to get angry, jealous, or any of the darker emotions connected with the dark fae.
I practiced more than most other light fae, to cover up my mom’s secret and seem normal, but it was never a natural thing to me. Sarcasm and anger came more easily. It wasn’t until Rayne that I realized that maybe I had to show one face to the world, but it was okay if I wasn’t that person deep down.
Now though, it feels like there’s no reason to pretend to be anything except myself, and it’s… oddly nice.
Daddy weaves through the crowd and grabs my arm, hauling me through the huge cavern. Little crystals glow on all the walls, illuminating a light that has the same softness as moonlight. It’s almost delicate, but somehow gives almost as much light as the huge fire in the center of the room.
As we go deeper into the cavern, I realize that along the walls steps have been carved into the stone. As I glance up, I see that nestled into the walls of glowing crystals are little caves. It almost looks like seeing the side of a beehive… well, for bees that can’t fly. There has to be twenty or thirty little caves, and based on the light radiating from them, and the curtains covering most of the entrances, I get a sense this is where the beasts live.
“Cool,” I whisper under my breath.
Fluffy lightly touches my arm and gestures with his head to keep going. Where he touches me, it feels strangely warm. I look down, blinking at his fingers so lightly pressed against me.
He draws his hand back in a rush, as if I was bothered by his touch.
The truth is, I’m not sure if I was. But I am confused. His touch was almost… nice.
I push the thought away with anger. Rayne was my mate. My only mate. And he’s dead. No other man will ever make me feel the way he did. I will die alone, clinging to the love I feel for him, just like most fae who lose their mates.
My shadow beasts move forward in the direction Fluffy had indicated. We walk around the shadow beasts near the fire, all gazes drifting to me as their strange language goes silent. My beasts take me to a tunnel lined with more of the crystals on the walls, this time they’re hurrying a bit ahead of me.
They probably know this is the last place I’m going to try to escape from. And they’re not wrong. I try to keep up with them until they lead us past a cave, and then I pause near the entrance and stare inside. There’s a man lying on the ground under a blanket woven from vines. He’s a warrior, big with long hair the color of honey and a body like the oak outside. Tall. Big. Broad. Unconscious. Not simply sleeping, but I don’t know why I’m so sure. His breaths come slow, not fatigued or labored, but not natural either. Maybe like he’s in a trance.
“Magic? A spell?” I whisper the questions to myself.
Tiny comes back to me and lifts a brow.
“Follow you, got it, got it,” I sigh.
He leads me to a seat near, but not quite beside, the man’s head. I can look at him, am close enough to touch him, but I keep my hands curled at my side. My gaze moves over the room. This looks almost like an archaic hospital room. There are shelves all over the room with little glass bottles filled with different herbs and liquids. And the scent in the room is definitely herbal too.
Daddy goes to one of the shelves and pulls several bottles down. He pours little bits from different bottles, then takes a stick and smashes them all together in a shell, before adding a small amount of liquid to the mixture. He carries the shell over to the fire, and sets in on a rock in the center. Within seconds, the liquid starts to smoke. The others move, and they form the points of a triangle around the large seashell before Daddy picks it back up.
Isn’t it hot? And why the hell is it smoking?
I can’t see the inside of the shell, but their heads bow over it, and they appear to be in deep thought or prayer to whatever deity they pray to.
It’s strange. At that moment, I’m absolutely fascinated by them, this place, and the unconscious man. This all feels like a puzzle I can’t quite figure out, but I’m determined to solve. So even if they weren’t between me and the door, I still wouldn’t have run. I’m invested now. Have to see, at least, this part through.
A flash of super dark smoke rises from the shell, and a gasp slips past my lips as I lean forward, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The beasts have joined hands, and they chant a strange humming sound punctuated by a grunt. More smoke rises and I can’t look away, not even when the smallest of the really big beasts hands me the shell. There’s a liquid of some sort inside of it and he motions to my mouth and lifts the shell toward me.
“You want me to drink it?” I give a glance at the dark brew, then give it a sniff. The drink neither looks, nor smells like something I want to drink. “No.”
But he holds it out again, arms extended, nods, pushes it toward me.
“No thanks,” I say slowly, narrowing my eyes.
In response, Tiny and Daddy come up behind Fluffy and cross their arms, all leveling me with a look I easily recognize. This is the same look one of my dads would give me if they were one hundred percent certain I needed to do something and weren’t going to bend. Like if I refused to go to school, or if I climbed up too high, and they wanted me to come down.
For some reason, the look makes something inside of me calm. My stepdad never gave me this sort of look. One minute he’d be sitting on the couch flipping through TV channels, and the next he was breaking my ribs. People who gave looks like this wanted to give you a chance to do the right thing on your own.
But if I ignored this look? I have no idea what would happen next, because I always obeyed my dads when they were the only ones who pulled out this look. So, do I really want to find out what the consequences are for disobeying? Here? With these three huge men?
Nah.
“Fine.” Not because I want to, but because I have to.
I stare down at the smoking liquid and swallow hard, willing myself to just get it over with. Reaching out, I take the shell. Instantly, a vibration moves through my hands, and I almost drop the shell. Somehow, I manage to cling to it, then lower my head and really stare at the liquid. My thoughts feel strange. My mind has locked onto the liquid, and it’s like nothing outside of it exists.
A force, not part of myself, compels me to bring the shell to my lips. A force I’m powerless to say no to. And before I know what I’m doing, I’m drinking it.
It tastes acrid, like smoke smells, but I consume every drop of it and swallow even when I only want to spit it back out. My stomach rolls, my head swims. Damn it, I’m probably going to die. I need air, to breathe deep and fill my lungs with as much oxygen as I can manage to pull. But the walls of the cave waver, like a flag in a breeze. They snap and distort and fear and anguish burn through me.
My chest heaves as I stagger, then fall into the wall.
One of the beasts grabs my hand and pulls me through the cave to a tunnel that leads deep into the darkness. I try to pull away. The last thing I need to do is to get stuck in the dark with this big guy, but the blond leads and the other two each grasp one of my arms in their cold hands. Or maybe they feel so cold because my skin is on fire. I can’t tell because I’m no longer in my body but watching from above it.
“She’s weak,” a gruff voice says. The one beside me on the left tightens his grip, and it feels like my body tries to pull away. I’m rooting for it to be free, but I can’t help myself from where I float above.
My body is no longer my own. I should be terrified, but I’m not.
“She’s fine. Keep moving,” says a deep voice that rolls against my skin like velvet.
Wait. I can understand them! Except that their voices are far away, further down the tunnel than I am, and I want to catch up to where they’re tugging my body along.
Are they even really talking, or am I imagining it?
Probably, I’m hallucinating. My conscious mind knows that. Like it knows that none of this is real. It can’t be. But the pain in my head, the throb of my pulse inside my brain says otherwise. Panic burns in my veins and my body begins to struggle, but they continue to move me forward, unhindered through the tunnel that smells like earth and my own fear.
“It’s okay.” I don’t know which one is speaking, but the slow cadence, the gentle tone, comforts me. A moment later, or a year, I can’t tell, we emerge into the forest and the light of morning hurts me, so I shield my eyes with my hand.
We’ve gone only a few steps, maybe more, I don’t know, when I see a black cloud, ominous, just a few yards ahead. It moves like black smoke, only it’s made out of something thicker than smoke. Oil maybe. It spreads out as far as I can see in that direction, and even up so high that I can’t tell where it ends.
I don’t want to go near it, but it summons me much the same as these beasts draw me toward them. The slow moving, twisting, black cloud holds answers. It holds something dark and dangerous that wants to consume me, I’m sure of it.
But if the beasts see it, they don’t react. They continue forward on a path I can’t see.
I want to ask them about it because it feels significant, but my mouth doesn’t seem to work. We move away from it until it’s hidden by the trees. And for some reason, I can no longer see it in the sky. Not at all.
Which is impossible.
I’m definitely hallucinating.
The forest moves around me like I’m speeding through a cave, and the early morning sun is rising and climbing across the sky in the blink of an eye. The second cave they bring me to is much smaller, almost too small for the four of us, or even just for the three of them. The walls are closer, the ceiling shorter and even though they don’t duck, the sheer size of one of them overpowers the space.
The green-eyed beast looks at me, and I must be hallucinating because I think he smiles, almost as if to say, “welcome home.”
