Reese (Pack of Misfits #2) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,22
of—and the few times that some of us did try to leave, he killed them.”
My throat clogs at the memory. Three of my mischief, dead and hanging from his animal’s mouth. “He was vicious in his mongoose form. He liked to toy with us.”
“So what happened?” Addie asks.
I meet her eyes. “I saw something I shouldn’t have.”
8
Reese
It doesn’t take long to tell them about the day my humanity was stolen from me.
It’s almost funny. The story that I’ve kept locked inside of me, it’s always felt too big for my mind. Like it was always spilling over like an overfilled cup.
It took over my entire life. It made me lose my sleep, my appetite, my life. And yet, it only takes a few scattered sentences to explain what happened. A minute’s worth of words, and it’s out. It seems so inconsequential. So small compared to the enormous impact it made on me.
I clear my throat and stare at the lug nut, turning it over in my fingers. “I came home early from my shift at the gas station where I worked—it was slow, so the owner let me leave. No one was around in the complex when I got there though, because everyone in the pack was still working. Except Sid.”
Later, I realized he planned that. He knew all of us would be working during that time. He used that window to his advantage.
I turn the lug nut around and around. I synchronize the turning with my breathing. It keeps me focused. Grounded. Reminds me that I’m here, not there. That I’m human, not a rat.
“I saw Sid meeting with a male shifter that I didn’t recognize. They were in the parking lot, and he had…” My eyes burn at the memory. “Sid had Karina, a young female mongoose who’d just come of age.”
“Fifteen years old?” Addie asks, and I note the angry flash in her blue eyes and the way her jaw tenses.
“Yeah. Except, there was something wrong with her. She wasn’t coherent, and her head was lolling around like she’d been drugged.”
Lug Nut curses under his breath.
“Sid sold her to that male. Like she was a piece of furniture at a yard sale. I saw the money exchange,” I recall angrily, my heart hurting for Karina, hating that I couldn’t stop it from happening. “I heard Sid say that he planned on telling the pack that she ran away with her human boyfriend. Sid hated that she’d been caught hanging out with a human. In the end, I guess he figured he’d punish her by selling her off. And I...”
The alpha continues to watch me, taking in every word. “You got caught.” Not a question, but I nod anyway.
“Yeah.” I blow out a breath. “When I saw her being put into the back of the car, I lost it. I ran forward, yelling, but Sid grabbed me and dragged me inside. Karina was taken away, and I was a mess. I threatened to tell the entire pack what he’d done. Even his loyal mongooses wouldn’t have stood for that. And it made me realize that others in the pack who’d gone missing had probably been sold off too. If the rest of the pack found out...there would’ve been a challenge. Sid needed to shut me up. He didn’t want me to rat him out,” I explain, echoing his previous words to me.
“He forced me to shift and stuffed me in an old paint bucket with a hole drilled through the lid. He said if I was going to act like a rat, I might as well be shifted into one.” Hate and regret burns my throat almost as much as the years of disuse. “I tried all night, but I couldn’t shift back. Sid gave me to Rick the next day. I’d never seen him before, but he had an agreement with Sid. I’ve been with him ever since, trapped in my rat form. I knew that one day, Sid would come back for me and kill me. Once he thought I’d been punished long enough, he’d end me. Sid believes in long-term suffering.”
“And Rick? Was he the man who brought you into the pet shop?” Addie inquires.
I shake my head. “I’ve never scented that man before, and he was human. Rick was a shifter—a bat. He would go on binges a lot where he wouldn’t come home for days at a time, but this...this was the longest he’s ever been gone.”