She thought of her pack, bite, chew, swallow. Her Alpha, Soter, Hysminai bite, chew, swallow. Being that man’s kept and broken brood mother, bite, bite, bite, chew, swallow. Being stuck here and never knowing freedom again, bite, chew, swallow.

  Hours passed, hours of fighting everything she had ever thought of fish. Hours of trying not to think about what it was she was eating. Finally, she reached into the jar and found nothing left.

  Exhausted physically, and mentally, she smiled and shoved what she could find of the remains of her meal that she left on the ground back into the jar and mercifully closed the lid on the disgusting liquid. She pushed the jar back against the shelf with her bare foot.

  Her stomach was full, she needed water but thirst was something that would have to be taken care of later. The natural liquids of the fish had helped a little. Her migraine and sinuses pressed up against her eyeballs. She wanted to sleep so badly, but she knew that she couldn’t go to sleep. If she went to sleep now, with her stomach full for the first time in a long time, there was no way she could predict how long she would be out.

  She knew that even though she had just eaten it would be a while before her body was able to digest it. She sat up with her legs crossed and closed her eyes. She let her feelings spread out as she attempted to meditate. She took in all the sensations of her body, tired though it was. The fish, as vile as every last bite had been, had restored some of her strength. She let her mind drift as she let her body relax and she thought of nothing.

  Floating in that perfect space, the void of unfeeling as she had come to call it, was liberating. Efraim had taught her and her pack this form of meditation to clear the mind and heal the body. It wasn’t magic, it was simply allowing her mind control over her physical form, mind over matter, as the old saying went.

  She floated there for a long time. She wasn’t aware of time. She could feel the pain of her body, but even that started to ebb and the pressure on the back of her eyes lessoned as her body absorbed the protein and sustenance from the food now in her gut. She had a vague notion that her breath was horrendous, but right then it was an infinitesimally small concern.

  She opened her eyes sometime later. Inhaling deeply, she unfolded her legs out from under her. She put back on her dirty socks and slipped her boots back on her feet. She felt really dirty, and really gross, and her fingers were coated with dried disgusting fish juice. She got up on her knees and taking a deep breath she shifted.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Power and energy flooded into her body. The metal that clasped around her wrists bit painfully into her skin. She pinched it with her claws and twisted the metal clasp, snapping it off, freeing her hands from the chain. Finally free, she stood up. Stretching her body and flexing her muscles she reached down and grabbed the heavy chain that had held her, heaving the metal plate up with it. The plate came up easily with her werewolf augmented strength. Now she had a weapon, or a tool.

  She made her way over to the door and opened it. The storm still raged and there were several feet of snow pilling up on the doorway itself. She turned back around and looked around the room, now that she had a little light to see by. She walked back over to the shelf and saw what it was she had actually eaten. She immediately wished she hadn’t.

  The shelf had four or five jars of whole fish that were pressed against each other, there whole bodies including their eyes, stared lifelessly up at her. She had to turn away and cover her mouth, it took every ounce of her will to not throw up immediately. Without looking back, she grabbed three of the jars and went back to the doorway.

  She left the door open and pushed through the snow towards where she felt Hysminai to be. She had a feeling her other pack mates might be injured, she would need Hysminai’s strength and healing abilities as the packs healer to ensure that as she rescued the others, he could help them regain their strength faster as they ate. She wasn’t sure where their captor’s dwelling was, but she had obviously been held in a root cellar of some kind, so he couldn’t be far. Which means, her pack mates may not have the time to sit and digest their meals naturally, the way she had been forced to.

  She plunged through the deep snow. Her powerful werewolf form let her almost cut through the drifts. She couldn’t help but feel even more liberated than maybe some of her pack mates did. Even as a werewolf she was only a little taller than six feet, short for a werewolf, but it was a lot taller than her less than five-foot-tall human frame.

  She pushed through the snow to a bit of a drift, a soft mound of snow that had built up into a hill next to a small copse of trees. Hysminai was close, and if where she had been held was any indication, she knew that he was probably underground.

  She trudged around the mound of snow, pushing up against the small hill trying to get some idea of where the door was. Then she came to an opening in between two trees. The wide separation between the trees revealed the top half of a door made of wood and earth. Smiling she pushed on the door. It held fast. She looked down at the handle and saw a large lock around the slide mechanism. She gripped it and broke it off, then she lifted the latch and pushed the door inward.

  The inside of the cellar was dark, as the one she just escaped was dark. She stepped into the room but kept the door open. She saw Hysminai stir uncomfortably.

  “Hysminai! Am I glad to see you!” She exclaimed as she rushed forward.

  The brown with black stripes, wolf looked up at her painfully as he tried to move. His forepaws pushed up against the ground, but his hind legs wobbled and dragged behind him in a grotesque flimsy way.