Chris and Matt had both seen Colin in serious pain before. They had both been the cause of it before. But this was too much, even for them. He laid in a pool of his blood as high-pitched whines escaped his throat. "Watch and make sure he doesn't die!" Matt ordered as he ran up the steps to find the doctor.
Doctor Cillian, an older wolf, came and looked down on the young man, horrified. "What did you do to him?" he snapped.
"Watch your tone, Doc," Chris growled, straightening his spine to tower over the old man, who nodded in deference. "He's trying to shift, but he obviously can't in there."
"Colin has been shifting for over a dozen years; he can control it. Why is he trying to?" Cillian pressed. At the brothers' silence, he sighed, "I need to know so that I can give him the correct medicine. Why is he trying to shift?"
Matt shot Cillian a sharp look and hissed, "If you say a word of this to anyone, the Alpha will hear about it, okay?"
Cillian nodded, even more concerned; he had been treating Colin from such "secretive" wounds since he was a child. They had never been pleasant, but certainly never this bad.
"He found his mate, but she is currently shacking up with a vampire. And for that reason, he's not allowed to go after her. The Alpha put him in here until things could be sorted out."
Cillian stared at the bloodied mess. If he knew that his mate was in danger, he would not stop trying to shift. No treatment, magic or medical could stop the mate bond from doing its job in protecting the bloodlines of the pack. But that was not the answer that his brothers wanted.
They knew that he cared for Colin. He was the one who convinced him to go into medicine and become his nurse. He invited him to family gatherings and parties.
Swallowing anxiously, he looked at Matt, the slightly-more-reasonable of the pair. "He will not stop trying to shift. The most I could do is sedate him in his wolf form."
"That's all?" Chris pressed, his brown eyes flashing with anger.
"This is a matter controlled by the mate bond. Nothing in medicine, ancient or modern, can get between the Goddess and her will. I do know that if this continues, he will either go mad or die of blood loss. Whichever happens first, that I cannot say," Cillian replied calmly.
With a heavy sigh, Matt put on the leather gloves and opened the cell door. He dragged his unconscious brother out of the silver-infused cage and into a different one. This one only had the silver bars to keep the wolves in.
Carelessly dropping Colin on the ground, he turned to the doctor and growled in warning before threatening, "You make sure that he isn't going to die. That's it. No healing. No sedation. And if you're lying, we will find out. We always find out."
Cillian nodded. They had always found out. Every time he had slipped the boy something for the pain, something to help him sleep, even just something to soothe his nerves, the Alpha found out. And it was never the old doctor who took the punishment; it was Colin. Colin took a lashing. Colin was sent out for labor. Colin was always to blame.
So, Cillian rubbed his bald head and examined Colin after his body finally finished the shift. Once he was able to complete the transformation, his body had already begun to heal itself. A bit slower, on account of being near exposed silver, but not enough that he would die. He would wake up in pain, certainly. But he was beginning to wake up, alive and sane.
'Good luck, my boy,' Cillian mind-linked the barely conscious young man.
Colin began to open his eyes and watched Matt and Chris escort Dr. Cillian out. It was not until the stench of blood assaulted his powerful nose did he even realize that he was in wolf form. Shakily, he sat up and ate the flesh in front of him, trying to regain his strength. He looked around, trying to remember where he was. Suddenly, it all hit him like a brick.
His mate. She under the spell of a vampire. She was trapped. She needed his help. And he was imprisoned in the cellar, too weak to stand on all fours.
A high-pitch whine escaped his throat. It quickly turned into a pained howl. Colin wanted to curse the Goddess for this. For giving him such a brief taste of his mate before ripping her away.
'What can this Council even do?' Colin thought to himself. That bloodsucker can simply mesmerize her into saying whatever he wanted her to say. Chris was right; she might even be told to reject him.
That thought hurt him in a way he could not describe. A sharp, stabbing pain into his heart. No, no he would not let Elias Elhassan spend another moment with his mate.
Gathering every bit of strength he had, Colin backed into the corner of the cell and charged the door. The basement, which had before reeked of blood, now also smelt like burnt fur and skin. But Colin did not care; he simply charged the bars again. And again. And again. Colin did not stop until he could no longer stand. The bars had bents and two were loose. After an hour's rest, he continued pounding the door with his entire force.
It took the entire night, but Colin broke through the door, taking the cement the silver bars were attached to with him as they tumbled on the ground. Panting wildly, he padded up the steps.
Before he made it to the door, his father opened it, glaring down at him. A wave of anger radiated off the Alpha's body, forcing Colin to drop his head to the floor and flatten his ears. "Rise," he spat, and Colin obeyed. "You will stay outside until I come for you."
His father left him under an old tree, as if he were a misbehaving dog. But it was not enough to be free of the cell; he had to find her. "Alpha," he mind-linked. "Please. I can't leave her there."
"I will be visiting Elias Elhassan in the afternoon, along with the leader of the Yew Coven," he replied curtly.
Colin swallowed and began to pace around the tree. Circle after circle, he made a well-trotted trail around the massive oak tree. He walked until the pads of his paws felt raw. Until blood from his unhealed burns dripped down his shoulders. Until he collapsed from exhaustion.