* * * *
“How is Patrick?” Marek Glinski asked his beta and best friend Robert. The man shook his head in exasperation.
“No change there,” Robert answered running a hand through his hair. Marek certainly understood where the man was coming from. The whole situation was beyond frustrating.
After Marek defeated the previous alpha and became the leader of his pride-slash-pack, he decided to set it up as a sanctuary for shifters in need. Even though it was the twenty first century there was still so much prejudice and abuse among shifters and humans alike. There were kids being kicked out of their packs, prides, or whatever a certain group of shifters chose to call themselves. Some were being persecuted for their sexual orientation, some for the colour of their skin, others still for simply being different and not fitting in. Marek knew it all too well. He left his country in the hopes that England was going to be more accepting of whom he chose to love. To a point it was true. People were definitely much more open-minded here than they have been in Poland. Still you could find bigots and assholes everywhere and he had the bad luck to come to live in one’s territory. The previous alpha gave him permission to join the pack easily enough. Marek had not broadcasted his sexual preferences. He thought it was only his business whom he fucked. The previous alpha disagreed. Once he learned Marek was gay the Alpha decided to throw him out of the pack, not even giving him time to gather his belongings or finding a new place to live. Easy to say Marek disagreed with that decision. It ended in a challenge for leadership which Marek won.
That happened four years ago, and ever since he created a sanctuary for shifters escaping bad situations. He cooperated with police and some charities and over the years he’s dealt with numerous abused shifters. Patrick Peters’ situation was possibly the worst of them all.
Patrick had been rescued from being kept slave in a mansion of a very prominent politician lobbying for reducing shifter rights. From what Marek’s been told the police strike force found Patrick in a locked basement. The poor shifter had been so badly abused that he fought his rescuers when they came to take him away. They had to sedate him in order to get him out of that basement. Marek grimaced thinking about the poor kid and the life he led. It couldn’t have been easy even before he had been taken by that twisted fuck of a politician. The kid had been born with a very rare genetic condition that prevented him from shifting fully into either of his forms. To put it in easy terms Patrick was struck mid-shift. It was so rare in generally healthy shifters, that Marek haven’t even heard about it before.
Marek sighed as he walked to Patrick’s room. He needed to try and talk some sense into the kid. It seemed that Patrick had been brainwashed by the man he called Master. Marek had no idea what exactly had happened to the kid because Patrick wasn’t really talking to them. He refused after their initial conversation. Marek had no idea what had gone wrong but after that first day the kid avoided any kind of interaction with anyone in the alpha house where he was housed. Marek shook of his thoughts as he reached the kid’s bedroom door and knocked. Not waiting for invitation – he knew it wasn’t coming – he entered.
Patrick sat in a chair near the window and looked out of it – a pose he could be found in whenever someone visited. He didn’t turn when he heard Marek come in. Marek held back a sigh and spoke.
“Hello, Patrick, how are you today?” He asked in his heavily accented voice. He knew his accent must have sounded rough to Patrick because the kid couldn’t stop a little frown. Marek smiled at this little victory.
“Robert told me you never left your room, Patrick. Why is that? You know you need to learn and adjust to the outside world. You can’t spend your entire life in this room. Don’t you want to live a full life? Be a true member of this pride?” Surprisingly that got a reaction from the young shifter. Marek truly did not expect that. Patrick turned on his chair and glared at Marek.
“I will not be a member of your pride! My Master will come for me, you’ll see! And then we’ll leave and make a life for ourselves somewhere. We will have a pride of our own, just the two of us!” Patrick’s voice was full of conviction and Marek felt his heart squeeze a little. What had they done to the boy that he wanted to be with this Master so badly? It was the worst case of Stockholm syndrome one could imagine.
“Now, Patrick, you know that is not true. What this Master did to you, keeping you prisoner like that, it was wrong. He had no right keeping you in that basement. We explained it to you.” Marek tried for a calm tone. Obviously it had no effect as the young man’s feline features contorted in anger.
“Don’t you dare insult my Master!” Patrick shouted and jumped to his feet reminding Marek just how tall and muscular he was. It was easy to forget and treat him more like an abused kid when he was seating looking out the window all day. Right now there was no denying that this shifter was a grown man. A big, strong, grown man with deadly claws extending from his fingers. “You know nothing about my Master! He did all he could to protect me, but you people had to come and take me from him, you had no right! Now he has no one to protect him from his bastard father! I should be there with him!” Now we’re getting somewhere!
“What do you mean protect him from his father? Just who is the man you call your master?” Marek asked hoping Patrick would answer. And he wasn’t disappointed.
“My Master is Lowell Hayes, son of the politician Sir Iain Hayes.” Patrick said with proud in his voice and Marek couldn’t help but blurt out.
“Shit!” This was so not good. Marek knew the politician tried to wiggle out of the charges he was facing by claiming that whatever happened in that mansion had been the fault of his son, Lowell. Sir Iain claimed that he sent his son to live there in solitude because the man was unbalanced. Now it seemed like he might have been telling truth. Only a sick fucker would keep a shifter slave in his basement. The problem was, Lowell was nowhere to be found and with the fire damage to the house there was a suspicion he might be dead, killed in the fire. Marek’s thoughts were racing but it seemed Patrick picked up on his unease.
“What is it?” The younger shifter growled and his eyes shone dangerously. It was obvious his more feral nature was coming to the fore. “You know something about my Master! Tell me!” The rumble of a growl grew deeper, more dangerous. Even being a strong alpha type Marek couldn’t hold back his apprehension.
“I told you Patrick, this man is not your Master, he had no right...” Marek started straining for this calming tone but failed as a loud roar of a sound escaped Patrick.
“Tell me!”
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Marek heard from the door and turned to see Robert. His best friend was a good beta and a good man but patience wasn’t his forte. Marek tried to prevent the train wreck he could see happening, tried to stop the man from talking but he was to late.
“The fucker who held you is dead.” Robert snapped from the doorway his face set in a scowl. “Good riddance if you ask me! That was one sick fucker to keep you in his basement like that! World will be a better place without him!” Robert finished his diatribe and Marek fought a groan. Yep, the man did it. To be honest he only repeated aloud what Marek was thinking, but still, Marek knew not to just blurt out anything that was on his mind. Especially when dealing with an abused shifter in a delicate situation like now. That’s why he was the alpha not Robert.
