At Dawn, in the Forest

Chapter 30

As Aiden rubbed his face with his hands out of frustration and exhaustion for the umpteenth time that evening, Max stormed into his office. "Aiden! I know where she is!," He exclaimed.

"Look, they spotted Draven at one of the two locations, it's the one in the west! Look at the photos."

Max put multiple pictures in front of Aiden. Two of them were from Draven taken for a human company he was leading, that was actually connected to AlphaGenesis. The other two pictures were of him stepping in and out of a car near one of the buildings they were watching of one of the locations.

"That's good," Aiden mumbled still rather somber.

Max playfully punched him. "Hey, why the long face? This is great news!"

"We still don't know for sure if she is kept there. This is all circumstantial evidence Dawn might be there."

Max sighed. "I know, but if we don't act now, Draven might go making a move that disadvantages us. I propose to take the risk and prepare for a raid."

Aiden, whose judgment had been tampered with by his exhaustion and emotions, didn't know what to do. He was tired. All he wanted was Dawn to be back in his arms. So not knowing any better he agreed. "Fine, let's go to Mateo and present this idea."

***

Until a sudden howl was heard in the middle of the night.

Dawn woke up immediately, her wolf sensing something or someone. At first, she thought she didn't hear it right and it was from her dream, but when she heard it a second time she was sure it was a howl. It was not any howl, however. Deep down she knew it was from Aiden. Slowly she walked up to the wall on her right and held her hand against it, pretending there to be a window. She pretended to see the forest and in the treeline, there would be Aiden waiting to rescue her.

Dawn knew they were going to come for her. She knew her days in this horrible place were counted for. She knew tomorrow would be a brand new day, full of new opportunities bringing hope. Dawn knew.

The next morning, she could feel something strange in the air. Dawn was getting jitters and was full of anticipation. The fight in her had awakened again and she was ready to make things easier for her rescuers to make havoc inside of here as well.

Luck was on her side as she was taken to the room today. While three guards were escorting her she pretended to be weak, and in all honesty, she was not strong at all, but she laid it on thick to be able to execute her plan.

Over the past four weeks, there was only one thing she had learned that differentiated the corridors and hallways from each other. Two of them she passed over the weeks had a fire alarm button. Just before they reached the first one Dawn pretended to be faint and let her body stumble, by doing so she casually pulled the lever of the fire alarm.

Then, as the three men were figuring out what was going on, Dawn carefully stole a taser from the guards and immediately tased two of them until they fainted. The third one was ready to take action. Not wasting any time, Dawn turned around and ran away, keeping a firm grip on the taser.

Her heartbeat was the only thing she could hear. With every last ounce of energy, she tried to make her way out of the labyrinth of white hallways and corridors.

For a second, Dawn thought it was a lost cause, but then she suddenly saw a stairway going down. "Fucking thank you," She muttered. Quickly she descended the stairs and with every four steps she took she looked up to see if she was still being followed. Only to be met with no one.

Dawn was out of breath when she couldn't go down any further and decided to hide. Behind some wall that led to nothing she sat down and caught her breath. As she tried to steady her heartbeat, Dawn suddenly heard a group of people passing by. They were guards.

Dawn laid herself flat against the wall and tried to overhear their conversations. "Do you think we are under attack?" One said.

"No, I think somebody from inside must have pulled the fire alarm."

"But, what if the attackers caused the fire somewhere?" Another one questioned.

"Do you two see any attackers here?"

"Well, I heard there was some unusual activity on the cameras this morning."

"We get that often, nothing to worry about," And with that, their voices faded away.

Doubt was creeping its way into Dawn's body after hearing those guards, but just as she thought her escape attempt had failed a loud explosion was heard from within the building. In seconds she was on her feet again running through the hallways. She noticed here that there were more doors and windows. She saw she was on the first floor of the building and knew she was close to an exit.

Dawn ran towards the loud noises of people fighting, running away, and panicking. She knew she was close and as she went through some double doors she entered a lobby area where guards and werewolves were fighting against each other. Dawn saw how one of the guards held out a silver blade and dragged that through the side of one of the wolves. This set out a rage inside of her, she couldn't contain. Her anger was overpowering and before she knew it she shifted into her black wolf form.

Dawn went full charge at the guard, grabbed him by his leg with her teeth, and threw him away. She was seething.

After the guards were taken out, she ran down the stairs attached to the lobby area and entered the main foyer of the building where a couple of guards tried to fight back the wolves but were defenseless. She was about to find Aiden when Dawn could smell Draven. She saw how he was guarded by six men and escorted away behind everybody's back.

In a split second, she sprinted forward and followed the men outside. They entered a parking lot and it took a while for the guards to realize they were followed. It was already too late as Dawn ripped the men away from Draven, causing the CEO to fall down on the ground. Dawn hovered over him and growled loudly.

"Please, please don't kill me," Draven begged pathetically. "Please!"

Dawn's only response was another loud growl. Her anger blinding. She wanted only one thing and that was to kill. Another growl erupted from her throat, readying herself to take this man's life when a calm voice broke through the thick layer of anger.

"Dawn? Please don't do this. I know you want to and you have every right, but killing him now won't give you or any other victims justice. Not in the long run."

It was Aiden.