A Fate So Cruel

Chapter 7 - Monster

"I shouldn't have killed him so quickly. He deserved a longer, much more painful end." His gaze was as hard and cutting as his words. Blood drained from my face at the measured venom.

The air shifted as a Lycan appeared in the door. His figure–outlined by the hallway light behind him–was smaller than the Alpha and didn't possess the same frightening aura of power. A Beta, then.

"Alpha Supreme, we've secured the property," the Beta reported with a bow of his head.

"Good. Prepare the car."

The words shocked me back into reality.

I couldn't let them take me! No, I had to run. It was my only chance!

I scrambled to my feet, adrenaline fueling my desperate attempt to get away. I only made it a step and a half when sturdy arms wrapped around my midsection.

"No! Let me go!" I screeched with pure panic.

"There's not a chance in hell of that ever happening, darling girl," the Alpha rumbled.

Muscles screamed as I fought with every ounce of strength I possessed, hurling out curses and screams in the process. No matter how hard I fought, the Alpha's grip was an unyielding iron chain. He was an immovable force, rooted firmly in place.

"Get the sedative," he ordered. There wasn't an ounce of strain evident in his voice.

"Yessir."

With a sudden, forceful motion, the Alpha tossed me onto the bed. There was barely time to register the impact of my back on the mattress before he was pinning me down.

My struggles intensified as panic surged through me.

"Get off of me!"

The Beta appeared at the foot of the bed holding a syringe. My vision blurred with tears. My voice was raw from screaming.

"No! Stop! NOOOO!"

I didn't feel the pinch. Only a cold rush followed by unsettling numbness that started in my thigh and spread.

My struggling died out as my limbs grew heavy and unresponsive under the weight of the drug, each movement a struggle.

"That's it, sweetheart. Don't fight it. Just relax. Let it take you," the Alpha purred.

His voice gave me one final surge of adrenaline, but all I could do was clumsily reach trying to find something to ground me as dizziness set in.

My fingers grasped the only thing they could find–the Alpha's shirt. Blotches of deep crimson bloomed on the fabric before my arms gave out, falling helplessly onto my torso. My sight blurred and cotton filled my head. Guilt panged in my chest and I tried to focus my gaze on the bloody stains I'd made.

I ruined his shirt. In my delirious state, I opened my mouth to apologize before being hit with a wave of overwhelming numbness, and what little strength I had was zapped from me. My eyelids were unbearably heavy but I focussed whatever little remaining energy I had on keeping them open to stay on the brink of consciousness.

I was vaguely aware of the Alpha's arms slipping underneath me and lifting me off the bed. His massive body dwarfed mine and even in my drugged state, I was acutely conscious of the dominant force he exuded.

My head bounced gently against his massive chest as he carried me out of the Red Room and down the hallway.

I briefly blacked out as he started up the stairs and when I regained awareness, I think hours have passed. A time-lapse and change of location was the only explanation for the horrors of our surroundings.

It was only once I saw the overturned couch that I realized that only moments had passed. The metallic scent of blood mingled with an acrid tang of burnt material. The Alpha's feet crunched on broken glass as he moved across the ground floor of the safe house.

Two Lycan adorned in black military tactical vests and boots quickly flank our sides. Throughout the room several more Lycan are scattered, each one looking more lethal and cruel than the next.

Also scattered throughout the room were the bodies of the Resistance.

The first, I see is the long-haired man, sprawled across the ground with a large bloodstain on his chest. He still had a gun in his hand, as if he'd been fighting until the bitter end. Not far away, near the bottom of the staircase leading upstairs, is Cohen. Not that he was easily recognized. With the damage to his face, he was only truly identifiable from his clothes. Then there was the red-haired woman, slumped over against the wall with blood still dripping from her mouth.

There were more. A Resistance member I hadn't yet met. The man with the buzzcut. Isaac.

Death had settled over their faces, freezing expressions of fear, pain, anger, and disbelief.

I squeezed my eyes shut—partly to ease my growing drowsiness, partly to will away the scene around me.

Beside us, a Lycan soldier spewed his report to the monster holding me.

"We are totaling fatalities now and–"

There was some sort of commotion, the scuffling of someone fighting against another.

"Noa!? NOA!" The familiar voice was frantic but distant.

In another world...I was in another world.

Where was I again? And who was calling me?

That voice was so familiar. It was–

"Boston..." I moaned, trying desperately to open my eyes and failing.

There was an awful, deep guttural noise. Even as disconnected from my body as I was I could feel the vibrations of the growl shake me to my core.

"Clean that mess up," the Alpha spat.

"How would you like us to proceed with the building, Alpha Supreme?" Someone asked.

Boston, I need to find him.

But I couldn't. I couldn't even open my mouth to call out to him.

"Burn it all," he sneered.

I even barely registered the blast of cold as we stepped outside. Behind us, the sound of my name became more and more distant. Then, as darkness engulfed me, it went silent altogether.