The Mating Rules

Hadley’s POV

A g***n of pain leaves my lips as I inch my eyelids open, scrunching up my eyes against the gritty feeling of my own eyeballs.

My whole body hurts, aches like I’ve been training for three days straight, which is something I did just after my parents died, a way to deal with the pain and insomnia of losing them. It is easier to deal with the physical pain of screaming muscles and ripped open knuckles than the slice through my heart at being alone.

I try to pull up in my mind, why do I feel so awful, did I go out drinking or something? Did I get into a state? Did Lee and Caden carry me home? Instinctively, I reach out a hand to the side, feeling for the warmth of my mate but finding nothing but cold flat flooring beneath my questing fingers. My eyes open fully, though it makes no difference, there isn’t a scrap of light around me, the darkness suffocating as it cloaks everything completely.

The memories slowly start to come back to me, the trial, being taken away, Jamie-Lee screaming for me, my last view of her being her tear streaked face. Going into the room with the man who kept injecting me with sh*t until I lost contact with my wolf and finally fell into unconsciousness.

I call out in my mind to Hunter, but he’s completely silent, it looks like that Goddamn wolfbane is still in effect.

I’m on my side and from the smell around me, it’s not the Ritz. I roll onto my stomach, using my jelly like arms to push myself off the floor, and fall back on my a*s, my back hitting a stone wall behind me, gritting my teeth through the pain of moving with my rib still broken.

I feel around on the floor on either side of my thighs and feel rough flagstones with cemented grooves holding them down. Strewn across the top is what I think might be mouse droppings mixed in with some straw, it’s hard to tell.

I shuffle to the right, running my hands along the wall until I hit a corner. I do the same along the next wall until my hands hit metal. Curling my fingers around the cold bars, I know I’ve found the front of what appears to be a cell.

I growl angrily, giving them a tug though with the weakness in my body, I hold no hope that I could so much as scratch the grime covering the metal.

‘Well hello, neighbour’ a voice calls out through the darkness and my head snaps to the left, trying to work out the direction of the bodiless voice.

‘Who’s there’ I snap defensively, preparing myself to fight, just in case it’s someone who has access to my new living arrangements.

The voice laughs hoarsely, giving me the impression that its owner rarely uses it.C0pyright © 2024 Nôv)(elDrama.Org.

‘A friend’ he replies, whoever he is.

I snort loudly, ‘I doubt that’ I retort, ‘you don’t even know me, so calling yourself my friend is a bit of a leap.’

‘Maybe’ the voice replies calmly, ‘but you don’t get much in the way of conversation around here, so I’ll take what I can get.’

‘Are you a prisoner?’ I ask suddenly, trying to ascertain something about the person talking to me.

The throaty laugh that echoes back at me is weak, ‘just like you’ he mutters, ‘I am a guest within this fine establishment, have been for a while.’

I turn around so my back is too the bars, pulling up my knees and resting my elbows against them. ‘How many people are in here?’ I query.

A sigh floats through the air, ‘it varies’ the voice admits, ‘sometimes there are a few of us, other times, I’m here by myself. The last guy brought in? Chester? Well, I can’t tell time down here, but I’d say it’s been six months since him. He stopped talking to me about a month ago. I don’t know if he just stopped answering or if he’s lying dead in his cell, rotting. No one that comes down here has taken him away so I hold out hope that he’s just run out of things to talk about.’

‘So people come down here?’ I push curiously.

The voice laughs harshly which turns into a coughing fit and the slam of a fist on a chest rings out before he continues to speak. ‘Yes my friend’ he agrees in amusement, ‘they come down here periodically. Feed those that need feeding, sometimes they like to play games other times they ignore us, do the walk through and leave.’

‘Games?’ I mutter uncertainly/

The bodiless voice huffs, ‘it’s different games for each of us’ he rumbles. ‘for poor Chester? Well they liked to come down here and play the final moments of his wife’s screams as she was killed. That was a nice lullaby to fall asleep to, the painful gut wrenching sounds of a woman being torn apart.’

I swallowed thickly, ‘and you?’ I whisper, ‘what do they do to you?’

Another sigh, ‘me?’ he murmurs, ‘well they like to come down here with dripping meat and place it just out of my reach. Find it highly entertaining as I try to reach it, the b***d l**t is always a show stopper.’

I stiffen, my head turning toward the voice in the darkness, ‘you are a vampire’ I state.

‘Indeed I am’ the voice replies, ‘Zenith is the name, been turned for many a century.’

I gulp inching away instinctively, ‘I don’t want any trouble’ I growl.

Zenith laughs again dryly, ‘my friend, I haven’t eaten in most likely a decade now. I couldn’t bend these bars to get to you even if I wanted too.’

My head snaps up in shock, ‘they don’t feed you?’ I demand, what kind of hell am I in?

The vampire chuckles, ‘a werewolf? Feeling sorry for a Vampire? Really?’

‘I don’t feel sorry for you man’ I retort, ‘it just sounds inhumane, not to feed you, how the hell are you still alive.’

Zenith chuckled again, ‘I’m not, I died centuries ago.’

‘You know what I mean’ I huff angrily.

‘The upside of being what I am? I never look my age’ Zenith mused, ‘the downside, you can starve me for eternity and I will never perish. The l**t grows worse each day that passes, but my strength also lessens each day. One day I will not be able to lift myself from the floor, but I’ll still survive, stuck in an eternal state of paralysis until someone feeds me just a few drops of b***d.’ The vampire sighs, ‘it’s why they like to bring a fresh kill down here, watch my l**t take over as my body fights for what it craves. My instincts are dangerous, my people have a base desire to survive, I can’t stop myself from playing along with their game even though I know I’ll never win.’

‘Just a few drops would put you back to your strength?’ I question slowly.

Zenith’s voice is amused, ‘that is right werewolf, why are you offering me some of your b***d?’

‘No!’ I snap back harshly, moving further away from the voice making the Vampire laugh again.

‘Don’t worry wolf’ he consoles me, ‘they always make sure that other visitors are placed far enough away from me so that no one can ever put that plan into action. You are safe from me, even the floor outside of my cell has a slope to make sure that b***d can’t accidentally flow toward me.’

‘How do you know that?’ I ask in surprise, staring at the blackness in front of me.’

‘When the guards come, they have flashlights’ Zenith explains, ‘they can’t check us if they can’t see us, and they certainly don’t want to trip over near one of our cells.’

I nod to myself, smart people, if they fell near me, I’d not hesitate to grab them and do what I needed too just to get out and back to Jamie-Lee and Caden.

‘How long have I been here roughly?’ I shift around, the floor is damn hard and my a*s is starting to go numb.

Zenith doesn’t answer for a minute, silence stretching between us as I wait, ‘well we’ve had two checks on us, so I would guess at least forty eight hours’ he replies slowly.

I stiffen, I was out for forty eight hours? How much of that stuff did they give me. ‘I can’t wait to get my damn wolf back,’ I grumble, ‘Hunter and I will have a surprise for these assholes.’

The Vampire lets out a breath, ‘you won’t be seeing you wolf any time soon my friend’ he mutters sadly, ‘they injected you at least twice in the time you’ve been here. They will keep dosing you to keep you submissive, just like they don’t feed me to keep control of me. I could see it when they went in your cell with their flashlights, stuck you right in the neck whilst you were unconscious, you didn’t even flinch man.’

I scowl angrily, slamming my head back against the cold metal of the cell door, that’s most likely why I couldn’t smell what the Vampire was, all of Hunter’s instincts have been cut off, I’m no more useful than a damn human.

Zenith starts to hum softly to himself, a slow sad tune that makes me think of Jamie-Lee and how she might be doing out there without me.

‘Hadley’ I suddenly blurt out, the Vampire stopping his song as silence stretches once again. Clearing my throat I continue, ‘my name is Hadley.’

The Vampire’s intake of breath reaches me before I hear shuffling across the room and finally locate the other man as diagonally across from me.

‘It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance werewolf Hadley’ the man replies softly.

‘You too Zenith’ I respond quietly, ‘it’s nice to speak to you too.’