Chapter One

Lyrie

 

 

I n my dreams, I could transform myself into a lioness with long, sharp teeth, and a gorgeous pair of russet wings.

Muscles tight, tawny fur pressed sleek against my body, I ran, my broad paws drumming the desert sand. Vipers fled deeper underground at the sound of my passage. Armor spiders coiled tight in their nests. And, overhead, a broad-winged scree soared higher, as if it feared I’d reach up and snatch it with my claws.

I was queen of everything around me.

Yet, even in my griffin form, soldiers hunted me. In relentless pursuit, they remained on my trail until they wore me down. Trapped me.

At the sight of them stalking toward me, my heart shuddered. If I was in human form, I would tuck my head under my arms. Draw my knees up to my chin. Curl into a ball and hide.

Instead, I stiffened in front of the rock wall and glared at them, my lips pinched tight to hold back my pleas.

Laser pistols drawn, crude taunts erupted from their throats.

I tipped my head back to let loose a roar of fury and pain.

The desert stilled. Eyes wide, the solders halted.

In the prison, men like these had controlled my days and nights and everything in between. But in the wild…they would soon learn that a griffin ruled.

The sweet, luscious smell of their terror hit my sinuses like turgurken sizzling on a branch extended over a fire. Prime meat to be sliced into and enjoyed.

Knowing they were afraid of me sent my soul flying up into the sky. These men who’d imprisoned me, experimented on me, now trembled in my presence.

Did they actually think they could contain me?

As their cocky grins fell, I prowled forward.

Limbs quaking, they backed away, prayers bursting from their bellies. Piss streamed down their legs.

While I couldn’t laugh, I could snarl.

And rip them apart.

Something clanged deep within the prison, and a gut-searing cry of agony echoed from down the hall, jarring me awake.

Pulse thrumming in my throat like an armatote caught in a trap, I sat up too fast, hitting my head on the low sirdar slab extending above the area I sought refuge in when they’d finished with me for the day and returned me to my cell.

Blinking back tears, I peered around the dark, dank room they’d thrown me into what felt like a lifetime ago.

There was nothing here with me. I was safe. For now.

My breath whooshed out, and I fell back onto the stone floor and pulled my scratchy blanket up to my chin. I rubbed my concave belly, which had long since stopped rumbling. Unwelcome tears leaked from my eyes, and I sniffed and shoved them away.

Cold air ghosted beneath the door, snaking across the room to wrap itself around me in a damp caress.

My teeth rattled. My body quivered.

Please. Mama.

Help me.

Footsteps stomped closer, and my door swung wide, banging into the scratched sirdar wall.

“Come on, girl,” the guard said in a guttural voice.

Before I could shrink closer to the wall, a boot struck out, hitting me hard enough to draw out my groan. Another bruise I could add to all the others. I had so many, my flesh bloomed with every imaginable color in a garden. Not that I’d seen a garden for months.

“Get up,” he said. “It’s time.”

Time for what?

I knew better than to ask. The last time I’d questioned him, he’d backhanded me, and I’d slammed to the floor, hitting my head and blacking out. I’d woken pinned to the slab, men with lab coats standing around me. Their needles…

“Grab her,” a woman said, entering the room and approaching as I rose to my bare feet. My legs shook, barely able to support my weight, but I struggled to stand tall.

Show. No. Fear.

“Don’t let her get away,” the woman said, her voice one big shiver.

As the guard latched onto my arm, I winced but held in my cackle. Did they really think I’d run?

Only in my dreams.

With the light from the hall behind her, I couldn’t make out the woman’s face. But I could smell her terror. Hear the worry she couldn’t hide.

I shook my head, because, somehow—for some darkly sadistic reason—I also knew her taste. But that was impossible. I hadn’t had the chance to hurt her, had I?

“Don’t let her touch me,” she said, high-pitched. More scared than me, which was silly, because they were the ones in control. All the time. “Hold her still, dammit.”

The guard’s grip tightened.

A poke of a needle in my arm, and my awareness faded. My griffin gnashed her teeth, but slunk away to cower in the shadows.

“Come,” the woman said, hurrying from the room and out into the hall. Her silky top rustled, and her heels clattered on the stone floor.

The guard grunted and prodded me to follow.

They led me down the hall, around the corner, and deeper into the recesses of this hell-hole I would never escape. The air reeked of urine, pain. Death.

Stopping outside another cell, the guard keyed the code into a pad beside the door. With a grating screech, the panel recessed into the wall, leaving a yawning black hole behind.

My heart skipped a beat. What now?

“Go.” Stepping away from the opening, as if she feared I’d slash out as I passed, the woman flicked her manicured hand toward the room. “Go inside.”

“Why? Where…” I croaked out, my voice hoarse from screaming.

“Just do it,” the guard said, striking his fist into my back.

My kidney spasmed, and I gasped, my breath sucked away from the blow. I stumbled forward, tripping on the lip of the doorframe, and fell to my knees on the unforgiving floor, though I kept my left arm pressed tight against my stomach.

The door swept closed behind me as I lifted my head and squinted around in the murky, gray light.

A large man lay on a rough bunk built into the wall on the other side of the room, his back toward me.

I must’ve squeaked or made some tiny sound to give myself away, because he rolled over. His amber eyes slitted open and sharpened in on where I cowered on the floor. Short, messy hair slipped across his face and brushed his shoulders.

He sat up on the side of the bed, his hands forming fists. A low growl rumbled through his broad chest. Thunder on a cold, dark winter’s day.

I knew that sound.

My griffin heard it in her dreams.

Cheetahkin.