Chapter4

When the heat lamp clicked off, I thought Madison had finally decided to call it quits. But a second later, the cage door swung open. A hand reached in, seized me by the scruff of my neck, and dragged me out.

"Twenty-three hours." Madison looked down at me, her voice trembling with excitement. "You're actually still alive."

She tossed me onto the concrete floor and crouched down, using a single finger to tip my chin up and peel back my eyelids. A glint of silver caught the light between her fingers.

A silver needle.

The second the silver neared the corner of my eye, my body twitched on pure instinct. A muffled whimper tore from my throat. My muscles spasmed out of control, and my hind leg kicked sharply against the floor.

Madison froze. Then, she smiled.

"David," she said, dropping her voice to a whisper. "Come look at this."

David walked over. He glanced down at my body, still contorting away from the silver, and frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Silver." Madison held up the needle, waving it right in front of my nose. "Her muscles spasm whenever pure silver gets close. That’s not how a dog reacts. Normal animals don't have any reaction to silver. Only..."

Only werewolves.

"Fuck." David took a step back. "What do we do, then? We can't keep this thing."

"Can't keep her?" Madison stood up and dusted off her hands. "David, do you have any idea how much a live, underage werewolf pup goes for on the black market?"

David didn't say a word.

"I've got over a million followers on my account. This whole dehydration gimmick might pull in another few grand in tips, tops." Madison turned around, staring at the strays cowering in the cages behind her. "But a live werewolf? Sold to one of those genetic research labs? It’s worth at least this much."

She held up three fingers. David sucked in a sharp breath.

"So, we don't kill her." Madison stepped back to my cage and stared me down. "We keep her, and we keep her in good shape. The buyer wants a live specimen. Intact. Preferably still breathing."

She paused. "But she needs to behave. These things are too wild. We have to use silver to break her spirit."

She turned an eye to David. "Go rip off a piece of that silver-coated shielding from the basement doorframe. Doesn't need to be huge—about the size of your palm. We'll leave it in there with her for a few hours a day and slowly break her down. We wear her out until she doesn't have the strength to bite, until she shakes just looking at silver."

David hesitated. "What about the sensor breaker down here..."

"Leave it alone. That’s for keeping the big guys outside at bay," Madison let out a cold laugh. "But for this little one, she needs to learn what fear is first."

David pried off a palm-sized piece of the silver-coated shielding and set it right next to my cage.

The harsh scent of silver scraped against my nerves. My limbs began to tremble violently, completely out of my control, and vile acid churned in my stomach. I pressed myself as far into the opposite corner of the cage as I could, but it was too small. There was nowhere to retreat.

From then on, Madison only gave me a tiny bowl of water and a few scraps of raw meat each day. Whenever I couldn't stomach it, she shoved a syringe into my mouth and force-fed me.

"Don't you die on me," she said, crouching in front of the cage. She stuffed a slice of pizza into her mouth as she watched me. "You’re my little cash cow."

The greasy smell of the pizza turned my churning stomach inside out.

The next day, Madison took a phone call. She kept her voice low, but I still caught a few stray words: "buyer," "live specimen," and "picking it up tomorrow."

She hung up the phone, walked back over to the cage, and smiled down at me.

"Good news, my little cash cow. Someone’s coming to pick you up tomorrow." She patted the top of the metal cage. "You're getting an extra meal tonight."

She tossed a bloody chunk of raw meat inside. But I couldn't even bring myself to smell it.

Then, she nudged the piece of silver an inch closer. The second my paw brushed its edge, a searing, burning agony shot straight up my spine. My whole body seized with involuntary shivers.

The floor drain lay just a few steps away. Through the grates, I could catch the faintest scent of damp earth. It was my only way out.

But I didn't even have the strength left to drag myself toward it.

Madison watched me suffer and nodded in deep satisfaction. "That's more like it. Be a good girl, and it makes you so much easier to sell."

She hit the lights and headed upstairs.

The basement plunged into total darkness, leaving only me and a handful of dying stray dogs. I was so tired.

Muffled through the floorboards above, I could hear Madison and David's heavy footsteps. Then came the laughter, followed by the crisp clink of champagne flutes.

Down in the dark, my consciousness began to slip away, piece by piece.

Mother. I'm sorry. I don't think I'm making it back.

But right at that moment—

BOOM!!

A massive crash violently shook the floorboards overhead.

"What the hell was that?! David!" Madison's terrified shriek pierced right through the ceiling.

My nose twitched sharply. I caught a scent—one I knew deep in my bones.