Taken by the Wolf King (Gladiator) by Marteeka Karland Page B

her, breathing a silent prayer of thanks that she had them back.
    And a silent vow never to be parted from them again, no matter the cost. She’d already sacrificed the one person in this wretched place who was likely to help her. How much worse could she do before her sins were irredeemable? For her children, though, she’d do whatever it took. She just had to trust Leif was strong enough to endure whatever the chancellor’s men dished out to him until she could figure out a way to save him.

Chapter Fourteen
     
      The scent of blood was heavy in the air. Always the coppery scent of blood. His blood. Leif tugged at the bands holding him to the metal table. For weeks he’d been cut, burned, and beaten. All so human scientists could study his rate of healing. Pick him apart. Most days, he was certain they tortured him to enjoy his suffering more than to learn anything from the vivisection. At least that was what he thought while he could still think past the next incision. After the endless days of pain, regenerating, and more pain, Leif wasn’t at all sure of anything anymore. In a way, the days he was left alone to heal were even more torturous than when they actually sliced him open. The anticipation of pain was sometimes worse than the pain itself. Always, he was kept bound and naked, allowed no modesty or dignity.
    As time passed, Leif’s existence became nothing but a mass of torture and horror. The humans seemed to be determined to find the secret of a shifter’s healing abilities, to find out if they could regenerate any injury if kept alive long enough. These scientists seemed to crave that knowledge above all things. To the point of performing the same experiments on shifter children, increasingly younger in age to see how old a shifter had to be before their regeneration abilities manifested themselves. Leif had seen more than one child rolled down the corridor on a gurney, shrieking in fear. Enough time went by that Leif began to wonder if his life before had been nothing more than a dream. They’d even cut off appendages, limbs, to see if he could grow another. He had, but the pain had been nothing short of maddening. The only thing that kept him focused on anything other than misery and grief was the thought of retribution. He would get free. When he did, he would unleash hell. Not a single human would live. Not one.
    Except maybe her . Elsa’s betrayal hurt nearly as bad as the vivisections. Leif would have taken her as his queen, had already proclaimed her his mate in front of his people. Now, when he escaped, he would make her pay in the worst possible ways he could devise.
    As he lay there, knowing his time would soon come again, he heard the shrill, frightened scream of a child as they dragged her down the corridor. With a roar, he thrashed against his bonds, desperate to get free. The bitter twang of fear from the child filled the air, making him retch. If he, a battle-hardened wolf king, knew fear, Leif could only imagine the terror the children lived through. Not bloody one… he thought again. Unable to do anything to help the young one, Leif roared his support, hoping he didn’t scare the child more, but needing to make sure they all knew they were not alone.
    Do not go near those portals without a full contingent of trusted guards. Brandwulfr, the Guardian of their people, had warned him. And do not trust any of them. Meaning the humans. Well, he’d found out some of his warriors couldn’t be trusted, and he feared he knew who. He also found out his judgment had been greatly compromised where Elsa was concerned. Unfortunately, every time he was lucid enough to replay that night in his mind, to try to make sense of everything that had happened during the fight that had taken him captive, the humans came for him again.
    A sound caught his ears. Dread seized his heart. They were coming again. Each time was worse than that last. Tied to a gurney deep in the bowels of this place away from the