Loving Luna - All Grown Up

Chapter Twenty - The Cell (7&8)

❤Zane

(Wild Dogs: Cell 7)

I glanced over at my best friend, Ekon, and sighed. Being here was a total disaster. We missed our home, back in Alika. I still couldn’t believe that they had caught us off the guard the way that they had. It was shameful and I tried not to think about it too much.

“How much longer are we going to be stuck here?” Ekon whispered and I sighed again.

“No idea, bro,” I whispered back. I could hear the other two wild dogs whispering but I didn’t care. Jafari and Daliah were also from Alika, but they were from another tribe. The Hounds of Namzi. However, I knew one thing for sure, we were an awfully long way from home.

“Hey!” Jafari called out to us and I looked up at him. I tried my best to avoid looking at Daliah, but it was hard. She was so outstandingly beautiful, in a way that would make anyone just stop and stare.

“What?” I snapped; I didn’t like him. Not even a little bit. The dog got on my nerves. A lot.

“Do you think they are going to make us fight?” he asked. My eyes widened at his question. Would they make us fight? Well, hot damn, would they?

“Do you think that’s why they kidnapped us all?” I threw back at him. I couldn’t help it, my eyes automatically wandered over to Daliah. Her milky chocolate skin looked smooth and soft. I wanted to run my fingers along her arm just to feel it. She was short, curvaceous, and downright gorgeous. Her big brown eyes met mine and I watched as the corners of her perfectly plump lips turned upwards in a smile. Her small button nose scrunched up and I swear my heart stopped. She pushed her long black curly hair off her shoulder, and I followed her every move. I suddenly felt Ekon nudge me in my side and my gaze ripped away from her to him. “What?” I hissed out, annoyed.

“Bro, pay attention,” he remarked as he nodded over at Jafari.

“Are you ok?” Jafari teased out and I groaned as I shook my head. Daliah was a true beauty but I couldn’t allow myself to feel anything for the female wild dog. I had a female back home, who was probably going crazy without me. I smiled to myself as I thought about Macy.

“Yeah,” I said as I returned to the moment.

“So, what do you think? Will they make us fight each other?” Jafari asked once again and this time I thought about his question.

“Well, why else would they take different shifters, if not to fight them off each other,” I said as I thought out loud. “Maybe they want to see who the strongest shifter is or maybe they just want to study us,”

“Well, wouldn’t they have done something by now?” Daliah asked. My gaze once again shifted over to her and I breathed in deeply. Even her voice had an effect on me.

“We wouldn’t know, now would we?” Ekon pointed out and I wanted to smack him for being rude.

“Look, all we can do is wait,” I said, trying to calm everyone down. “We don’t know anything and right now we are being well looked after,”

“True,” Jafari agreed. It was the truth. We had a roof over our heads, beds to sleep in, and three free meals a day. We got a ‘time out’ which allowed us a bit of freedom outside. Other than that, we had everything we needed. Sure, we got bored easily but we found ways to entertain ourselves.

“I just can’t deal with those wolves man,” Ekon said loudly. I chuckled as I thought about our first encounter with the wolf shifters. They are territorial shifters and wild dogs are more, obedient. To say that we felt threatened was an understatement. However, our interactions with them were limited and it was clear that the two species kept out of each other ways. I thought about the other types of shifters and sighed.

“Hopefully, this whole situation will be explained to us,” I remarked.

“When though? Those guards keep promising to explain but it never happens,” Jafari pointed out and I nodded. He had a point.

“Well, then I suggest that the next time we are out of our cells we approach the others,” I suggested as I stood up, a plan formulating in my mind. “If we all stand together and demand to know what the hell is going on, maybe then they won’t have a choice,”

“The question is, who are they and why haven’t they shown themselves yet?” Daliah asked.

“As I said, we don’t know that for sure, maybe the other shifters have been approached,” I said. “I’ve lost count on how long we’ve been here but maybe one of them has some answers,”

“I can’t wait for lunchtime,” Ekon said with a sneaky smile. I chuckled; I couldn’t wait either. It was time to get some answers, one way or another.

“Who are we going to approach first?” Jafari questioned and for some reason, I immediately thought about the two females. The two jungle cats. They always looked so relaxed.

“I say we talk to the jungle cat girls first, see what they know. They are the smallest group here,” I said as I explained my thoughts. “Since they are the smallest, maybe they have been approached first,”

“Alright, let’s do it,” Jafari agreed. Good, now that we had a plan, I felt a lot better about the day ahead. I made my way to the bathroom and did my best to avoid looking over at Daliah. I had to get that female out of my head. My growing obsession with her was not doing me any favors.

❤Krishna

(Jungle Cats: Cell 8)

“I’m so happy they allowed us to take food back with us to this awful cell,” Chantrea said excitedly as she sat down on the bottom bed. I nodded as I joined her. Breakfast had been good, but I always enjoyed something sweet.

“What did she give you?” I asked as I looked at the bag of goodies she placed on her lap.

“Let’s see, crisps, chocolates, and candy,” she dumped everything on the bed between us and I scanned the goods. I spotted a soft candy and grabbed it. It had dark chocolate outside with a soft chewable toffee center. I loved them and although I was surprised, they had them out here, I didn’t put too much thought into it as I plopped the sweet treat into my mouth. Sucking all the chocolate off and then getting to that toffee center. Back home, The Wild Leaf Clan would often go into town to get such treats. “I spoke to Dennis, he is a panther, by the way,”

“Yeah, and,” I grabbed another sweet while I waited for her.

“We aren’t the only felines around here,” she finally pointed out.

“Oh, so aside from jungle cats and panthers, what else is there?” I asked curiously.

“Lions and Lynx,” she informed me, and I chewed on the sweet as I thought about that.

“I really wish they would let us shift and just run around for a bit,” I complained. “I hate being stuck in my human form,”

“I agree, I wonder when the leader behind this whole operation is going to show themselves,” Chantrea said as she too chewed on the sugary goodness.

“Maybe we should just ask?” I suggested. “No harm in asking, right?”

“Right, let’s do it,” she agreed, and I smiled as I reached out for another sweet. Surely someone could give us some answers.

❤❤❤

“Hey!” I heard someone call out and I glanced over my shoulder to see four shifters coming towards us. I took a moment to simply admire their darker skin and form.

“Hi,” I greeted when they sat down. Chantrea and I didn’t normally sit with other shifters during mealtimes, but I wasn’t against it. Especially when I wanted answers.

“I’m Zane and this is Ekon, we are from The Hounds of Zuka,” he introduced himself and pointed over at Ekon. “And this is Jafari and Daliah from The Hounds of Namzi,” he pointed over at the last male and only female.

“Nice to meet you guys, I’m Krishna from The Wild Leaf Clan and this is Chantrea from The River of Jordan,” I quickly introduced us, and they sat down with their trays.

“We are sorry for just interrupting your meal, but we’ve been talking. Have you heard anything about why we are here?” Zane asked and I shook my head.

“No, but we want answers,” Chantrea said between mouthfuls of buttery mash.

“Same here, do you think the others feel the same?” Jafari asked as he glanced around the busy room.

“I’m pretty sure everyone here wants answers,” I stated the obvious. “The question is, what are we going to do about it?” I asked curiously. One thing was clear, these wild dogs had a plan and whatever it was, I wanted in on it.

“I think that we should spread the word, get the other shifters on board and take a stand,” Zane explained.

“And demand answers?” I finished off and the four wild dogs nodded eagerly. I smiled as I looked over at Chantrea. “You’ve made a few friends; do you think you can see what you can organize?” I asked her. She nodded eagerly, shoved some more mash into her mouth and got up. I turned my attention back to the dogs. “Any idea who are the dominating shifters?” I asked them.

“No, I mean, I’d like to say the wolves, but I don’t know, the dragons are the bigger shifters,” Zane said.

“But they are chained,” Ekon pointed out. “So, I don’t think that puts them in the strong category,”

“Maybe, what about the bears?” Jafari asked and I shook my head.

“I think it is safe to say that we don’t know who the stronger shifters are,” I argued softly. It didn’t take long for Chantrea to get back to our section of the table and she didn’t come alone.

“Ok, this is Colin, wolf shifter, this is Jyrog, dragon shifter, this is Heath, bear shifter,” Chantrea introduced us as she went around at the group of shifters behind her. “This is Kou, lion shifter, this is Mochi, lynx shifter, this is Dennis, panther shifter,” she paused as she turned to me. “And this is Hylee, she is a witch and that is Dashiel, he is a warlock,” she finished off. I raised my eyebrows. I had no idea that non-shifters were here. A witch and a warlock. Impressive. I glanced over at Zane who did the introductions before he started explaining his case and plan.

“Do any of you know why we are here?” he started off by asking. They all shook their heads with a loud resounding no. “Are you at least curious about it?” this time they all nodded. “Well, there are a lot more of us than them. So, what do you say we take a stand and demand some answers?”

“I’m in,” Colin declared loudly. The others agreed and Zane smiled.

“And who of you is considered the strongest?” he dared to ask. I watched the group closely and it was clear to me that they all thought they were the strongest. I stood up and smiled.

“Maybe we shouldn’t be asking who is the strongest. I mean, we are all strong in our own way. What we should be doing is voting for one to speak. It won't help for all of us to shout out our questions,”

“I agree,” Zane hurried to say. “Let’s go back to our cells, discuss it with our kinds and when we get let out for a time out, we meet and announce our votes. Let’s try to keep in mind that we are not voting for the strongest but for a spokesman,”

“Alright, let’s do it!” Dennis said and we all nodded before they left. Well now, that had been a lot easier than I had thought. I couldn’t wait for time out.