Chapter 1 – Waking Up
The Gladiator Wolf King
KING KELLEN
I opened my eyes and a nauseating feeling rose from my stomach right up to my throat.
My stomach was sloshing and my vision was blurry. I blinked twice, adjusting my eyes to the dark; the only light was from a low-hanging bulb, a dim light that was swaying to and fro, not helping the churning of my gut.
The smell of salty water and damp, rusty mold hit my nose. I gagged as the scents curdled my stomach even more. My whole body ached and I went to shift my position, only to be met with the clanking sound of chains and resistance at my wrists.
Holy hell. Either I had the worst hangover in history and Mike left me tied up somewhere dumb again, or …
I didn’t get to finish my thought as the bang of something metal, large and sliding, disturbed me. “Mike what the fuck…” My dry throat rasped out but was cut off by the sound of a deep, menacing chuckle.
“Ahh, you are awake. I was told to watch you. Darius, we got one awake, sort it out, ya?” I couldn’t focus on his face, but I could smell his stale and pungent scent of wine and bread and make out the shape of a man’s round gut and stained white shirt. His voice was hoarse and his accent was one I hadn’t heard before.
Out of nowhere the lash came, tearing through my skin. “Argghhh!” I yelled as I felt my back rip. I felt the deep cuts open immediately and the sting of wolfsbane seeped through the gashes.
“Argghh!” I cried out again. This time there were two quick whips, and the lashes they left were agonizing.
I wasn’t in silver, but I had no strength to break the chains, try as I might. I couldn’t stand on my own even before they lashed me.
I twisted in agony. What the fuck was this? I opened my mouth to ask what the hell was going on, who they were, or to command them to let me go, but the brutal lashing came again.
I reached out for Conri but I was met with silence. Whatever I had been drugged with had knocked my wolf out.
This could seriously not be happening to me.
The last thing I remember was… what? I closed my eyes, screwing them shut. What happened to me? Think, think, Kellen.
Another lash wracked through my body and I clamped my jaw tight, gritting my teeth together, trying to bear the pain and not cry out. I couldn’t give them the satisfaction, whoever ‘they’ were.
“Let me go and I will spare your lives.” I heavily breathed out. The whooshing in my stomach churned again and bile rose. I began spewing, my stomach contents splashing to the floor and hitting my bare feet where my toes barely touch the metal floor.
Where the fuck were my shoes? Where the fuck were my clothes? All I had on was a pair of black boxer briefs.
I remember we won the battle of Riocht. Mathias killed Orion. Lamia, her emerald-green eyes flashing in my mind, became queen. They became king and queen, they were crowned.
My head was becoming fuzzy again. My lips so dry and the smell of my puke made me want to vomit again.
Crack!
“Arggghh” I yelled out, the whip’s force taking me by surprise. Who were these idiots? Did they not know who I was? Didn’t they realize they were going to die for this?
“Easy Darius, this one’s worth a lot of money. We wouldn’t want to deliver him half dead now, would we? Jack wouldn’t like that. Got a lot of money riding on this one.” The stale-smelling man said, breathing his rotting stench of a mouth right by my ear. “Right little prince? You will make fine entertainment.” He laughed and then moved away, his footsteps clanging against the metal floor.
I remember leaving Riocht, hugging Lamia goodbye. I would see her soon. Mike left with me, we were in a car, and we stopped.
That’s where it got hazy again.
The whip came down again and again; I lost count of how many times I felt the bite on my back and the sting of the wolfsbane. Blood ran down my torn skin, the red liquid dripping onto the metal ground beneath me, its coppery smell mixing with my bile and the rusty mold.
Thoughts and images of Lamia flitted through my head, focusing on something other than the pain. I smiled at her image until my thoughts shifted.
Is this how she felt when she woke up in the dungeons of MacTire? Lost…confused…
The smell of the salty water, coupled with my empty stomach, made me queasy and dizzy. I tried to look around at my surroundings, but my sight was becoming a blur again.
I felt the sweat bead on my forehead and felt the crack of another lash opening my bare back even more. The pain was heightened by the wolfsbane and the fact that my wolf was AWOL right now.
I needed to remember what happened to me.
I called to my wolf again. Nothing. I opened my mind to Lamia and the other three knights. Nothing. I tried to feel her, sense her, but I was met with nothing.
I had no energy to cry out again, so I hung there as lash after lash tore me open. They didn’t stop until I passed out.
At least when I passed out, I didn’t feel it anymore. So much for going easy on me.
“Lamia,” I whispered her name on my parched lips, praying she heard me as my eyes fluttered and closed, casting me back into darkness.
The next time I woke, it was with a bucket of saltwater being thrown over me, the salt stinging the lacerations on my back that had not healed yet.
“Wakey, wakey, little prince.” That gravelly voice pierced my eardrums. His attempt at singing the words just made the throbbing in my head and wounds feel much more intense.
I felt the chains tighten, the cuffs pulling taut on my wrists. They then loosened and my body crashed to the floor, crumpling in a pile of aching limbs. The sickly stench of the man surrounding me and my head still swaying with dizziness wasn’t helping.
And again I emptied my stomach, what little was left in it.
At least now I wasn’t hanging, but the sloshing of my stomach became worse. I blinked my eyes a few times trying to rid them of the saltwater. Slowly, my vision became clearer and I took in my surroundings. I was in a metal box with cages, the walls were painted in a dim blue, and the paint was peeling to show the dank metal beneath.
I was on a boat, caged in the hull of what I assumed was a large ship of some kind.
What the fuck has happened to me? And more importantly, where the fuck was I going?
I opened my mind yet again, envisioning Lamia, then Mike, Hunji, and Rhett.
‘Goddess damn Conri!’ I yelled in my mind at him when I couldn’t even create a link. What the fuck did they do to my wolf?
I was starting to realize I was not in a good situation, as if the whipping wasn’t enough of an indication to begin with.
I was more worried that my wolf might not come back.
I had no idea how to get out of this situation either, and who the fuck was Jack? The name wasn’t ringing a bell. What the hell did this guy mean ‘worth money’?
At this point, I was confused, tired, hurting, and frustrated. I needed to figure this shit out and a way to get out of my current situation, fast!
For three days they bought me food, if you could call it that. Although I didn’t expect them to bring me anything and I really shouldn’t complain considering the situation I was in.
I had yet to feel Conri stir in even the slightest way, but that didn’t stop me from trying to reach out to Lamia or the other guys whenever I found the strength to try. And even though I knew my efforts were in vain, I still held out hope.
They had to be looking for me. I knew they would. I just couldn’t understand how I got here, my memories were still blurry. I could remember leaving Lonely City with Mike and I remember we stopped at some rundown diner… and that’s where everything went blank.
They gave me porridge. I knew the disgusting, watery substance that tasted like bland glue was laced with something that was keeping my wolf at bay. I just didn’t know what.
I ate the gluey food only because if I had any chance of getting out of this mess, I needed food to keep up what little strength I had.
At least now I was coherent and could think straight. Despite Conri’s absence, I could at least form a thought.
I knew I was in a large cargo boat of sorts. The smell of the saltwater that surrounded me and the dizzy swaying I would feel now and then from the lurch of the boat told me I was in open water.
Where though?
It would be frivolous to try and escape while in this metal box. Who’s to say if I did manage to get out of this cage that I wouldn’t be stuck, my efforts wasted just to find out I was in the middle of the ocean?
If I jumped into the ocean, my chances of survival were slim. No one could last in the wide-open waters, not for any extended amount of time. I would either drown or get eaten by some creature.
I let out a low growl of frustration, the growl sounding weak without my counterpart to fuel my anger at being in this goddess-forsaken situation.
I would have to wait until we pulled into a port somewhere, wherever my final destination was.
By the fourth day of being held in this 10x8 cell, I had refused the porridge. I would rather go hungry if there was any chance of getting my wolf to come back. I would need him, more than the food, if I planned to escape anytime soon.
Refusing to eat earned me another twenty lashes, they were painful, but I endured them. Not giving them the satisfaction of hearing my pain, I bit my cheek and remained silent. I gritted down each throbbing sting as the single tail whip doused in wolfsbane cracked against my open wounded back.
The lacerations from the first whipping hadn’t closed up completely, and the lashes I received this time opened them all up again.
The man, Darrius as I had heard him called, laughed after the last blow he administered. “You must be a strong ‘un, to take this kind of beating. Jack said you were exceptional and to not take any chances. Look at ya’ now though,” He came closer to me and bent to my level. His disgusting hot breath made me sick. I could taste the smell of his rotten teeth.
“My name is Kellen Moon, Alpha of the New Moon Pack and King of the Werewolves. There has been a mistake.” I had tried several times to get these men to listen to me. Each time I was met with laughter as they jeered at my title.
“I’m a king! Look at me! Not so high and mighty now, eh?” The fat, stale-smelling one mocked in a childlike taunt, his feet kicking my legs from under me.
“A weak wolf with no future. Not sure where you came from, but where you’re going… you will wish you ‘ad died on this boat. Wished we ‘ad fed ya to the sharks.” He cackled as he left my cage.
The click of the padlock and his retreating footsteps left me back in silence. Save for the odd call of a gull or the straining sound of the creaking hull as the waves lapped at the side of the boat.
Saliva mixed with blood strung from my mouth as he left me there hanging. My arms were held high by the metal chains and my knees bent, barely touching the cold metal floor. I didn’t have the strength to stand up. I let the chains take my weight, causing the cuffs to bite into my already raw and bleeding wrists.
On the fifth day, the loud and invading blow of the boat's horn woke me from another blackout. I blinked my eyes open, straining them towards the door of the hull. I could see a streak of light shining through from somewhere.
That one beam of yellow warmth lit up the dank hull and I wished I could reach out and touch it, feel the sun's warmth radiate on my skin. I closed my eyes and imagined I was by the lake, lying out on the mossy rocks with the sun beating down on me.
The horn blew again, startling me from my daydreaming. I heard a commotion from above and then the thump and clank of footsteps coming down metal stairs. In no time the bald, dirty fat shit of a man, with the same stained white shirt, came through the hull’s door that was opposite my cage. He was followed by Darrius and a large, burly-looking man.
I lifted my nose to scent the new guy. I could get no scent from him except for sweat and alcohol. If I had to take a guess by his size, I would say he was a bear shifter. He wore a bright and menacing smile on his face.
“Prince-ee!” He beamed like we were old friends. “So sorry you had to be locked up like some dangerous rogue or criminal, but ya know, we gotta do what we gotta do!” He smirked. “We don’t want you running away before we can get you to your new home now do we?”
I looked at him puzzled and without amusement. Who the fuck was this guy? Was he the one running the show here?
As if reading my mind, he clicked his tongue and narrowed his blue eyes at me. Folding his hands behind his back, he stepped closer to the cage and leaned in. “I’m insulted that you don’t recognize me, but not to worry. I’m sure your little queen would recognize me, all the times I fucked her while in the dungeons of MacTire. A nice piece of pussy that one. Wouldn’t you say so?” His mocking voice was berating and I let out a low growl.
The man laughed at me and clicked his tongue again when I pulled and shook the chains. Realization dawned on me, that this was one of the men that violated Lamia three years ago when she was kidnapped and held at MacTire.
If I had my wolf, we would have broken free from these chains, from this cage, and I would rip his heart out without mercy.
“Jack’s the name and trafficking is my game. And you, Prince-ee, are going to make me a lotta money.” He introduced himself and gave me a mock bow. That stupid, condescending smirk was still plastered on his face.
He turned away and began to walk out of the hull, but not before calling back to the man named Darrius. “Get him in the cuffs, we dock in thirty minutes. Oh, and just in case, give him a little extra of the Cartbanamol serum. Don’t want him wolfing out on us.”