The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

It briefly crossed her mind to try and make a run for it or even launch some kind of an attack on her own, but she threw that plan out immediately.  That plan was tantamount to suicide.  Her body was trembling and she was almost positive that these men could see it.  She wanted to appear strong, but she was failing and she knew it.  And even though she had asked what this man meant by “buyers,” she already knew the answer to that, too.  She just needed to hear it.  She needed to hear this man say it so that she knew it was real.

“Buyers.  That’s right.  You shouldn’t sound so surprised.  That’s what you’ve been around for all of these years, right?  You should be used to being bought by now.  We just gotta wait until we find the highest bidder, that’s all.  Simple, right?  All you gotta do is stay nice and pliable.  Don’t make us dole out any punishment, alright?  Because we don’t have any kind of problem doing it.  You need to know that right now.  Just so you have all of the information up front.”

Numb.  That was all she had felt since then.  They had drugged her, she remembered that.  They had shot her up with something and she had gone to sleep for a long, long time.  Or else it felt like a long time.  But she was awake now and all she could do was wait to see who she would be sold to next.  It felt like a death.  She had allowed herself to believe that she had really started to build a life with Tyler, and especially with Caleb. 

How stupid.  How pathetic.  She had woken up from the sweetest dream and now she knew that was all it had been.  She was back to the life she actually belonged in now, and god only knew who she would wind up with next.  At least she was back with her friend.  There was some kind of poetry in that, she supposed.  At least they would go through it together.

“Meena?”

“Sorry.  You know how my mind wanders.”

“I know.  You weren’t meant for a life like this.  That’s why I left you there.  I was hoping that you would be safer that way, that you could get an actual life.  I knew Victor wasn’t ever going to really let me go.  Not really.  I thought it would be better for you without me around.  I didn’t realize he could be this vengeful.  It seems that I misjudged him.”

Meena shook her head sadly.  If she’d only known what Kyra had been thinking, they could have tackled it together.  The worst part was that Caleb and Tyler could have really kept them safe.  Victor probably hadn’t been counting on selling them to shifter gangsters.  There weren’t any two men on the planet better equipped to protect them.  If Kyra had only been patient, if she hadn’t run away, they would have been alright.

“It’s OK.  We’re going to be OK.”

“Seriously?  Where the hell is this Pollyanna routine coming from?”

“The men who ordered us.  They aren’t just normal men, Kyra.  They’ll help us.  They’ll come for us.”

“Well, unless they have a ton of money, them coming here isn’t going to do us much good.  It’ll probably just get them killed.”

“No!  No, it won’t.”

“Jesus, you love them, don’t you?  I didn’t count on something like that happening.”

“One of them.  I do.  I care about both of them very much, but I’m in love with one of them.  His name is Caleb.  I never told him, either.  I never told him that I loved him.”

“I’m so sorry.  I fu*ked everything up for you.”

“No, you didn’t.  I told you.  They’ll come for us and when they do, Victor will wish he never fu*ked with either of us.”

Kyra looked at her with a thousand questions on her face but she kept her mouth shut.  She didn’t understand anything about what was going on, Meena could see that as plain as day on her face, but it didn’t matter.  Caleb and Tyler would come for her.  She knew that as well as she knew anything.  She would stake her life on it.  She wasn’t sure how, with how little she had left them to go on (and by little she meant nothing at all), but she knew they would find them in the end.  It was the only thing she had to hold onto.  It was the truth she felt in her bones.

“Meena!  Meena, wake up.  What the fu*k was that?”

“Jesus, Kyra,” Meena said groggily, “if I had a dollar for every time you woke me up I would be rich before any time at all.”

“I know, I’m sorry.  But I hear something.  I think-I think something’s happening.”

Suddenly, Meena was one hundred percent awake.  After her and Kyra had talked for what seemed like forever they had finally fallen asleep in that massive cold room that smelled faintly of rotten fish.  It wasn’t the worst place she had ever slept but it definitely wasn’t the best.  In the end it didn’t matter, though.  If a person was tired enough they could sleep just about anywhere, especially if she believed in her heart that someone was coming for her, coming to rescue her. 

So she had slept and then what felt like five minutes later she was being shaken awake by Kyra, who sounded genuinely afraid.  And she was right.  Something was happening.  Somewhere not far off from where they were being held she could hear screams.  Screams of fear, screams of pain.  She couldn’t be quite sure which, but something was most definitely happening.

“Kyra.  Try to stay calm, OK?  I think this is what I was talking about.  I think they found us.”

“They?”

“Caleb and Tyler.  I told you they would come for us.  I think that’s what this is.”

God, she hoped that’s what it was, because if it wasn’t they could be in a whole lot of trouble.  Whatever was coming was coming fast and furious.  If it wasn’t looking to help them, they might never make it out of here outside of body bags.

“Oh sh*t!  Oh god, what is that?  What the fu*k is that?”

“It’s them.”