Chapter 2

Freya

Day 7 of captivity

One week into my stay at the cabin of hell and I had formulated a very rough plan with help from the other two girls. Thankfully a few minor beatings were all we suffered over the last few days. Our energy levels were low from the lack of food, which would mean our stamina and muscle mass would be deteriorating by the day. If we didn’t get out of here soon, I wasn’t sure we would be able to. So, on day seven I sat against the wall, trying to ignore the ache in my body from being crouched all the while and played with the thin nail I had hidden behind my back that Chloe had pulled from the wall.

It would be a tight fit, but I expected I should be able to pick the locks on our cuffs without too much trouble, it would just take a while.

So, I sat working out the timing to figure out the best time to make a break for it, when the lock on the door groaned and the door creaked open.

Two more girls were brought into the room. Crying hysterically, the same way Amy and Chloe had been when I first got here and I sighed in annoyance, wondering if I could calm them down enough for us to make a break for it tonight. I needed them angry not scared, but unfortunately, fear was a dominant emotion and would overrule all else.

“Shut up bitch!” the scruffy man growled, throwing one of the girls against the wall that had been occupied by the girl that left and the other to the middle of the unoccupied wall to my left and I winced as I heard a crack followed by a scream. “I said, shut the fuck up.” The man growled before kicking the young woman that was screaming and I gritted my teeth as I took a moment to memorise the man’s face, vowing that I would find him. One day I would find him, and I would make sure he knew what it felt like to be kicked when you were down.

The man chained the two girls up to the wall ad tugged on the restraints before leaving the room with a growl and a slam of the door. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and bit my tongue to try and control my wolf. Shay was a temperamental wolf at the best of times, but after being cooped up for a week straight it was getting harder to hold her back. What I wouldn’t give to shift and bolt from this hell hole, but the restraints were thick steel, if I shifted, all it would achieve would be to break my own bones and I was losing enough strength as it was without having to expend more on fixing my own bones.

“Hey?” I whispered into the room, keeping my voice low and soothing as I tried to get the attention of either of the two girls in her with me, but they both seemed to curl further into themselves. So much for escaping tonight.

Day 18 after captivity

Things had been quiet for a few days, the girls all seemed pleased that we were being left alone, no new girls arrived, no one left and no beatings to break up the day, just the regular three visits for food water and bathroom breaks. But it was making me antsy, like a calm before a storm and I found myself, more often than not, tuning out the sounds of the girls to listen in to the men that seemed to be running some form of slave trafficking ring.

There had been more men in and out over the last few days, I counted at least eight different voices and I waited each time for something to happen, but the door never opened.

“Tonight.” I whispered into the silent room and turned my attention to the girls. Beth was the brunette whose ribs had been broken, thankfully she had healed nicely and was ft enough now to run if needed, when needed. Leah was the brunette against the back wall who seemed to become more and more depressed with each day that passed. The crying had stopped but she still didn’t speak much, only answering direct questions and even then, it was usually with one-word answers.

We were all weak, tired, dirty, and desperate, just desperate enough for them all to agree to the ridiculous escape plan we had concocted bit by bit each night. But there was nothing more that we could plan out and it was going to be now or never. The cabin was quiet today, only three voices sounded through the walls and I was worried that something was about to happen. We couldn’t wait any longer.

I watched Amy sit up from the game she was playing by drawing noughts and crosses into the dust on the floor with Chloe and stare at me with wide eyes. Each of the girls took a moment to look at each other before we all nodded, all agreed. We wanted out.

The day seemed to go by slower than ever as we waited for nightfall and silence to fall within the cabin. After the final visit with our water, I started working on my own restraints, unlocking the cuffs before rubbing blood back into my hands.

One by one I made my way around the room and unlocked each of the cuffs while the other girls keep an ear out for footsteps or voices, but none came. We sat back in our seats, optimist smiles on each face in the room as we waited until silence finally fell, but still we waited, not wanting to risk moving too soon, but the girls shifted in their seats, impatient to be free and I took a breath letting my head fall back against the wood of the walls.

“Time to go.” I uttered and one by one we stood on unsteady legs with weak muscles and slowly, painstakingly made our way to the door.

The lock was opened easily enough, but now came the hard bit. The door that creaked like a motherfucker anytime anyone touched it. The offending piece of wood taunted me as I stared at it, willing it to remain silent as I inched it open with slight squeaks, I winced each time a noise sounded and stilled, my hearing maxed out as I listened for movement before letting out a breath and moving the barrier another inch.

It must have taken twenty minutes for the door to open wide enough to squeeze through and I relaxed a little. That was the hardest part down. The floor didn’t creak, I would have heard it at some point over the last week that I had been listening. I shimmied through the gap in the door and stood lookout in the hallway while the girls each moved through into the narrow space, each one seeming a combination of excited and terrified as the shuffled out and waited for the next part. Finding the damn exit.

Ever one of us had been blindfolded on the way in and too distracted to pay attention to the directions we were dragged in, so it was going to be a guessing game.

As we planned the girls maintained their positions while I scouted down the corridor finding a kitchen and a storeroom and a bedroom with a sleeping arsehole, but none of the rooms had a way out. The entire cabin seemed to be windowless which I was finding increasingly frustrating with each step I took. Heading back past the girls I searched the other end of the cabin, almost sighing in relief when I found a sitting room with a single door with a window I turned with a smile and almost shit myself at the sight of the man lying on a sofa against the back wall.

Snoring.

Fuck. I closed my eyes before breathing deep to slow my heart rate and tiptoeing back to the girls. We had to go that way, there was no other exit at all, anywhere in the cabin. I ushered the girls with a hand gesture and indicated they needed to be extra quiet then pointed out the sleeping man before leading us all to the door.

I stood surrounded as I flicked the mechanism with the nail I kept in hand until the lock clicked open then shuffled back slightly, my eyes constantly flicking back to the still sleeping man to check we were still safe before I turned the handle and pulled the door open an inch.

None of us saw it coming, we were so focused on the sleeping man. So fucking stupid, I pulled open the door and came face to face with another man stood with a knife in hand and a raised brow.

“And where the fuck do you think your going?” He asked loudly, waking the sleeping man who yelled into the cabin and two other men came running with expressions of rage

Trapped, encircled and no way out.