Declan - Heart of a Tiger (Royal Taiga Streak #1) - J.R. Loveless

1

Sean

The sound of the basement door opening caused Sean to stiffen and his breath to catch at the sound of a small voice crying out to be, "Let go!"

"Shut up!" His father's harsh voice snapped and then the wooden stairs shook with his heavy boots as he clamored down, carrying a boy of about six over his shoulders who struggled and beat his fists at his broad back.

The boy landed in a heap in front of Sean, but he didn't stay there long. He jumped to his feet and attempted to rush to the stairs, desperate to escape. Sean's father backhanded him, sending him flying into Sean, who caught him with thin arms and a rattle of chains. Sean winced at the hard impact of fist against flesh and hoped nothing had been broken, but knew it wouldn't take long for any injuries to heal at least. The boy whimpered, but remained there in Sean's arms this time instead of attempting to get up again.

When Sean saw his father looking around the basement and heard the sound of Tara's and Samantha's sobs, Sean wanted to cry along with them, knowing his father would be relentless in his passions that night. He always was after a successful kidnapping. Dark brown eyes settled on Sam, the least pregnant of the two girls at five months along, and the hulking figure of a man unsnapped the keys from his belt, opened her cage, and grabbed hold of her arm, wrenching her out and dragging her, screaming, up the stairs. Sean flinched as the door slammed shut and was locked from the outside. The only thing any of them downstairs could do was listen to Sam's screams as Sean’s father brutalized her, a sound Sean had heard more than once over the years, one which would haunt him for the rest of his life, however long that may be.

The younger children whimpered in their cages while Tara sobbed in relief and yet agony for her best friend and companion. They all knew it would be at least an hour or more of pain for Sam before their father would drag her unconscious body back to the basement. Sean couldn't help but wonder if this time would be when she lost the baby. It wouldn't be the first time. This was Sam's third pregnancy, having miscarried the previous two in their first trimester. Though it was a blessing in the disguise of death for the babies, as terrible as the thought may sound, because an innocent didn't deserve to be born in the hell they called life. Sean worried about Sam's mental health after the second one, but even more so now that she was pregnant with the third one and so far along this time.

Sean brushed the hair out of the face of the young boy he held and gave him a tremulous, but hopefully encouraging smile. "Are you all right?"

The boy glared, a bruise growing on his cheek. "Where am I? Who are you?"

Sean could see the spirit in the young shifter he held, eyes glowing bright in the dull lighting. Yes, every single one of the seven occupants of the dingy, dark basement were shapeshifters of some kind or another. Tara, a white wolf, sixteen, had been taken from her family at the age of eight. Samantha, shortened to Sam, a beautiful lynx, now fifteen had joined both Sean and Tara in their nightmare when she was seven. They'd been there the longest. The twins, Fredrick and Tomas, both liger shifters, were nine. The other female, Vicky, another lynx, was eight. His father had blessedly left her alone so far, but he knew it wouldn't be for long. He'd started eyeing Vicky already. Sean hoped to find some way to get her out before it could happen, although how, he didn't know. She never spoke a word to anyone, too frightened since the day his father beat her so badly for shifting when expressly forbidden.

Sean... he was the oldest at twenty-one. He had no idea what kind of shifter he was. His father had never allowed him to shift and never told him what he was. Since he could remember, he'd worn a collar, something enchanted by some form of magic. It was locked in place by a spell which grew with age and size as Sean did, preventing him from shifting. The thing wouldn’t budge, no matter what he tried to remove it with. A few times Carl had placed a similar