The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 342

Chapter 342

Aurora

I don’t know how much time had passed.

Minutes. Hours. Maybe longer. Time didn’t exist where I was-only pain a drifting, broken awareness. Consciousness came back to me in fragments, dragged to the surface by rough hands shaking my shoulder had enough to make my head loll.

Pain exploded at the back of my skull.

I gasped, a sharp, involuntary sound tearing from my throat as I sucked in air too fast, too shallow. My head throbbed violently, like something inside it was splitting open. I groaned, trying to curl in on myself, but my body wouldn’t cooperate.

Someone grabbed me again.

This time, not to wake me-just to move me.

That’s when it clicked.

The sound.

A low, constant roar beneath everything else. Not the hum I’d heard before. This was louder. Deeper. Pressurized. My ears felt wrong, like they

needed to pop but couldn’t.

A plane.

The realization sent a fresh wave of panic through me. My breathing sped up, chest tightening as the truth settled in with sickening clarity. I wasn’t just being held somewhere anymore. I was being transported.

Taken.

Hands went to my wrists, fingers rough and impatient. Whatever had been holding me to the seat was undone quickly, without care. The moment the restraint was gone, my body pitched forward.

I barely managed to stay upright.

Someone yanked me up by the arm, dragging me to my feet. My legs protested immediately, weak and unsteady, pins and needles shooting through them as if they’d forgotten how to work. I stumbled, nearly falling only staying upright because the grip on me tightened painfully.

The floor beneath my feet shifted.

The plane was landing.

Everything became chaotic after that-noise, movement, the sudden chang in pressure making my head spin. I was hauled forward, half- walking, half-being dragged down a narrow aisle. My shoulder slammed into something hard. I cried out, the sound swallowed instantly by the

roar around us.

Then cold air hit my face.

1/3

The plane door had opened.

I was dragged down, my foot catching on something, and I nearly went down hard, only to be jerked upright again and shoved forward. My body lurched, disoriented, my stomach rolling as my feet touched solid ground.

Another plane.

I didn’t even have time to process it before it happened again.

Hands. Pulling. Shoving. The sickening lurch as we boarded. The restraints biting into my wrists once more. The engines roaring back to life.

Then darkness.

Then pain.

Then-

Again.

By the third time, my body barely reacted. I was numb, exhausted, my thoughts slow and sluggish, like my mind was drowning.

Each transfer blurred into the next, my sense of direction completely obliterated. I had no idea where I was going anymore-or how far I

already was from everything I knew.

By the fourth time they dragged me out, I was already bracing myself for i

Another plane. Another set of stairs.

Another engine roaring to life.

I’d learned the pattern by then-how to lock my knees before they pulled me up, how to swallow the nausea before it climbed too high, how to go still so it hurt less. My body moved on instinct now, detached from my mind, conserving what little strength I had left.

So when the air changed again, I barely reacted.

Cold rushed over my skin, sharper this time, biting through my clothes. I waited for the familiar shove forward, the narrow aisle, the

pressurized hum of another aircraft.

It didn’t come.

Instead, I was pushed hard from behind, stumbling down onto something lower. A seat-but not the stiff, upright kind I’d come to recognize. This one dipped under my weight. Cushioned. Too wide.

A car.

The realization hit a second too late.

I was shoved farther in, my body sliding across leather as the door slammed shut with a heavy, final thud. The sound echoed in my chest, sealing me inside. Hands grabbed mine immediately-one on each side-fingers locking around my wrists with bruising force.

2/3

Two people.

One to my left. One to my right.

Their presence boxed me in completely, leaving no space to move, no room to breathe without feeling them there. Their grips were firm, professional, like this wasn’t their first time doing something like this.

I stayed still.

There was no point fighting. Not now. Not like this.

The engine started, the vibration traveling up through the seat and into my spine as the car began to move. The sensation was different-lower, smoother-but just as terrifying in its own way.