"Sami!" Seth said as he gently shook the shoulder of the thin man on the floor. "Wake up, Sami." Seth was worried. Sami was so thin and cold. He'd left the pack 6 months ago, had he been here all this time?
Sami slowly blinked his eyes open and it looked like it was a struggle to do that. "Seth?" A small voice whispered. "Are you really here?"
"Yes, I'm here. What's happened to you?" Seth asked as he tried to gently help Sami sit up. He could see more now and it was painfully clear that Sami had been beaten and starved for quite some time. He was also wearing silver shackles but it was likely that he would be too weak to shift anyway.
"After Kevin and I had our last fight, I decided to go clear my head and go camping for a week. Some guys found me one night and slapped these shackles on me and started beating me, I woke up in this room and I haven't left since." Sami said and tears started falling down his cheeks. "I don't even know how long I've been here."
Seth held his hand. "It's been 6 months."
Sami took in a shaky breath. "Kevin must think I left him."
"I'm sorry, but yes he does." Seth answered.
"He must hate me." Sami said putting his head in his hands.
"Of course he doesn't." Seth said putting his arm around Sami. "He loves you so much and he's been miserable since you've been gone. He's going to be so happy to have you back."
"He won't be getting me back." Sami said glumly. "We'll never get out of here alive."
"Yes we will." Seth said determinedly. "My father will come for us and so will my mate. Whoever did this grabbed the wrong person this time. I promise that we'll be home soon."
A few terrible days later, Seth was wishing that he hadn't made that promise to Sami. Everyday he would get a beating from his father's long time friend Dave and a large brute of a man named Brock. They were fed only once a day, just enough to keep them alive and they were kept in the small, cold dungeon room. Seth didn't give up hope that he would be rescued but he could tell that Sami had. The Sami he had known had been a sweet, happy, outgoing Red Fox shifter that always had a smile on his face, but this Sami was quiet, withdrawn and frightened and when they held each other for warmth at night, Sami would cry himself to sleep and whimper Kevin's name.
Seth prayed that they would be saved soon because he feared for Sami. He tried to distract himself from his pain and fear by thinking about Roman. He didn't care that they weren't a true mating anymore, when he got out of this, he would tell Roman that he loved him and properly mate with him. He would make sure that Roman never felt unloved ever again, because it was true Seth loved Roman with all his heart and he always would.
Sami started struggling in his sleep and Seth tried to calm him down but he jolted awake as if from a bad dream.
"Seth?" Sami whispered.
"I'm here." Seth replied.
"Could you talk to me for a while?"
"Sure, what do you want me to talk about?" Seth asked.
"You said that you have a mate now, who is it?" Sami asked quietly.
Seth smiled, he was always willing to talk about Roman. "His name is Roman and he is so beautiful and kind and smart and funny and sweet…" He trailed off when he was Sami grinning, yeah he was kind of rambling. "He's from a really cruel pack that treated him badly but he saved my life and I asked him to join the pack. He's perfect but he can be really self-conscious because he's half alpha and half omega but… I love him so much and even though we're not true mates, I will love him until the day I die."
"Did you know that Kevin tried to deny the fact that we were mates for years?" Sami asked, hugging his knees. "He said that it didn't count because we were shifted when we felt the mating pull. We were play wrestling and of course he was letting me win and I pinned him down and our noses touched and I felt this… shock go through me. I looked at him and I could tell he felt it too but he got mad and stormed off and refused to talk to me. It took a while but I finally managed to convince him that we were meant to be."
"I've never heard of anyone feeling the pull in their animal forms." Seth said, thinking out loud. "The first time I actually saw Roman, he was in his wolf form and I was in my human form, he licked my cheek and I felt a shock go through me and the next thing I knew, I was in my wolf form."
"You see," Sami said excitedly. "You and Roman really are true mates, you're meant to be."
Seth started feeling excited. Was it really true? Were he and Roman fated to be together? Roman said that he had felt the mating pull but Seth hadn't even thought to ask when he had felt it. If Roman believed that they were mates then nothing in the world would stop him from finding them, they just had to hang on a little longer.
It took them 3 days to reach the McMahon pack lands. They were three of the longest days of Roman's life and he just wanted to run in there and get his Seth back but he knew that they needed to be cautious and follow the plan. They waited until the night of the third day before approaching the houses. It seemed that mother nature was on their side because it had rained so everyone rubbed mud and leaves on themselves to help mask their scents. Roman and Hunter crept to the house that was full of people that Roman knew he could trust-his family.
Roman took a deep breath as they passed a window and the smell of his mother's cooking brought a tear to his eye. He chanced looking in the window and saw his parents, along with his twin cousins, Jimmy and Jey and he smiled to himself, knowing that his family would help.
He gestured for Hunter to stay back and he boldly knocked on the door.
Seth was awoken by a sharp kick to his side. He sat up quickly and grabbed his side, biting his lip to keep from crying out in pain. Dave smirked down at him evilly and Seth wanted nothing more than to tear his head off. Dave laughed as if he knew exactly what Seth was thinking and grabbed him by the arm and dragged him toward the door.
Seth tried to get to his feet as he was dragged down the hall, but the starvation was making him dizzy and his body hurt so bad from all the beatings. Finally Dave stopped at the end of the hall, opened the door and threw Seth to the floor. Seth groaned and tried to rise to his feet. If this was how it ended, he wanted to die on his feet fighting like an alpha.