His words remind me of Sir and the pure rage reflected in his expression just before I passed out. I shiver at the memory of it.
“Did Sir hurt you at all?” I ask.
“No. They sent us all back to our rooms after you left,” Dean says.
Declan presses closer to the bars. “Celeste, do you think you can do what you did earlier?” he asks quietly. “Do you think you can unlock the doors again?”
“I don’t know. I can try.”
Placing my hands on the lock, I bite my lip, concentrating and trying to dredge up from the depths of my being the same feeling I had earlier when the strange silvery energy pulsed through me.
It takes several moments, and I’m nearly ready to give up when the lock suddenly clicks and the door swings open.
I sag in exhaustion against the cold metal bars.
“Good girl,” Declan says, his praise and the way he looks at me sending a shiver up my spine.
I push myself up and take a few unsteady steps across the narrow hall to unlock their cell. This time, it takes even longer, and my body is completely drained by the time the door clicks open.
The brothers rush towards me and pull me into a hug, sandwiching me between them. Their touch, their heat, it recharges me in a way nothing else could. The attraction I feel for them both is equal parts exciting and confusing, but for now, I take comfort in their caring.
“We’re glad you’re safe,” Dean murmurs against my hair, and just like before, my mind and body warm at their touch.
“We have to get out of here,” I say. “This place is crazy. Dangerous. After what happened today… we can’t stay. Maybe now, I can use this power to unlock the main doors.”
It didn’t work the first time, but I tell myself that’s because I hadn’t yet come into whatever power this is inside me. I have to try again.
But even as I say the words, my legs wobble, and Declan catches me in his strong arms, his muscles rippling as he supports my weight against his body.
“Easy there, little witch. You can’t even stand on your own. How do you imagine this going?”
My eyes burn with tears as the weight of this day drowns me. “We have to try. I can’t stay here another night.”
Declan scoops me into his arms, and my eyelids flutter closed against my will as he carries me to my cot. “Tomorrow. We can try tomorrow. Tonight you need sleep.”
It takes me a moment to realize we’re not actually going to my cell. Declan lays me on his cot, and I lift to my elbows and watch as Dean pushes his own cot over until it’s side by side with Declan’s. In the narrow space, the boys both climb in beside me, sandwiching me between them.
“What are you doing?” I ask, exhaustion blending my words.
“You need to sleep,” Dean says simply.
“And you need to be warm.” Declan presses in close against my left side, his breath tickling my ear. On my right, Dean’s nose brushes my chin.
Lust pools lazily in my belly, but it’s overshadowed by the drugs pulling me towards oblivion.
“You’re safe now, Celeste,” Dean whispers. “Rest. We’ll return you to your cell before anyone finds us.”
Declan murmurs his agreement, and my eyelids flutter as the exhaustion tugs at me. “We’ll keep your secrets, little witch.”
I wake some time later and find two heavy arms draped over me from either direction. On my left, Declan snores softly, and I roll to find Dean watching me in the darkness.
My stomach flutters at our nearness.
“How are you?” he whispers.
“Better,” I tell him, smiling. “Thank you. And you?”
“Glad you’re safe.”
“I was worried about you,” I admit. “When you wouldn’t wake up before… and then after—when I woke in the clinic alone. What they’re doing to us here, it isn’t right.”
He doesn’t respond right away, and his forehead creases.
Finally, he says, “You don’t know anything about what you are, do you?”
“I don’t even know if I believe I am what you say,” I admit. “Or if any of this is real. Maybe I’m imagining you.”
He brushes his fingers across my cheek, lips curving. “I’m real, Celeste. I promise.”
The reassurance of his touch bolsters me and for the first time, I’m not terrified by the thought that he might be right. Dean and Declan make all of these impossibilities more bearable.
“Did you know what you were before coming here?” I ask.
“I was raised with a pack. We both were. Taught how to control our wolf and use it to our benefit. All of that came naturally to Declan and me. Even among our own pack, we were considered gifted. Some said it was our twin bond, but Dec and I can do stuff other wolves can’t.”
“Like the heat Declan used on me,” I say.
“That’s part of it. We also control our shift better than most. Channel our wolf strength into our human forms, that sort of thing. Over time, word spread amongst our rellies. They said we were a new kind of wolf, more powerful than past generations. Unfortunately, we underestimated how many other mongrels heard about it too.”
“What happened when they found out?” I ask, completely caught up in the story. It’s easy to imagine Dean and Declan in the woods, running with a pack underneath a full moon.
“We fear what we don’t understand. Feel threatened by power greater than our own.”
“Did they try to hurt you?”
“Not directly.” He is silent and I can tell he’s remembering. “But they are the reason Declan and I ended up here.” He shakes his head as if shaking it off. “All those years, I should have listened to Dec. Should have left with him to open that damned bakery.”
“He wanted to leave your pack?”
“We both knew we weren’t meant for that life,” Dean says quietly. “Dec was just the one willing to do something about it.”
His words remind me of Estelle. She always believed there was more to our family’s legacy than just mental instability.
Magic.
She’d tried to tell me once. I’d blown her off. And now, here we were.
“The people who brought us here—what do they want?” I ask.
He snorts. “Depends on who you ask. When we first arrived, they said they wanted to cure us. Then they said they wanted to help us make peace with ourselves.”
I swallow hard, remembering how the doctor said those very words to me.
“Can they cure you? I mean, is that possible?”
“No.”
Declan’s voice in my ear is rough with sleep.
I sit up and turn to face them both.
“They don’t want to cure us even if they could. It was all a lie,” he adds, eyes flashing with fury.
“What do they want really?” I ask.
“To understand us,” Dean says.
Declan nods. “And ultimately, to duplicate us.”
“They want to make more of you?” I shake my head. “But weren’t you born this way? And if so, wouldn’t it be easier to . . . breed you?”
My face flushes at the mental images, and I’m grateful for the darkness.
Declan’s smile is crooked and knowing. “You would think, right?”