The Lycan—the Alpha—didn't spare Joseph a second glance after his body hit the floor. His cold, intense gaze was pinned on me.
"There you are."
Lethal power radiated off him, the air practically crackled with its electrical charge. It was overwhelming—suffocating. I wondered how Joseph and I hadn't noticed his arrival.
With predatory gracefulness, the Alpha stepped over Joseph's legs as if his body was nothing more than a piece of trash. I was paralyzed. Every fiber of my body was taut with fear as he prowled forward before stopping in front of me. He crouched down.
For a long moment, the Lycan quietly studied me with unsettling intensity. His eyes moved across my face with a penetrating focus.
Assessing for damage it seemed. Perhaps examining where to inflict the most pain to punish me for running from him.
The overwhelming weight of terror made it impossible to move, to speak, to even look away.
He cocked his head to the side. "I've been looking for you."
His tone was casual, almost friendly. I was shaking with fear but he sounded like he was greeting a friend. As if he wasn't a monster. As if the body of the man he just killed wasn't feet away. As if my life, my future hadn't just crumbled down in front of me.
"Funny," I bite out "because I've been hiding from you."
The gall of my own response shocked me. The brief flash of indignation that had cut through me was quickly replaced with dread when I realized what I had done.
My entire body vibrated to the thump of my heart as I waited for pain. But none came. Instead, his eyes danced and an amused smile sprang to his mouth.
Instinctually, my grip on the mirror shard tightened. A fresh wave of blood bubbled to the surface of the open wounds but the sharp, throbbing pain barely even registered.
The Lycan's nostrils flared animalistically. His eyes darted to the bloody mirror shard.
He lifted a hand and I flinched expecting pain. Instead, his hand wrapped around my wrist and the sensation of sparks coursing through my veins ignited at the contact, a subtle yet powerful reaction that sent shivers down my spine.
He silently lifted my hand and held it between us. I gripped the glass tighter.
"Let it go," he commanded.
When I didn't loosen my hold, his features darkened into a formidable look that instantly had my fingers unfurling.
"Good girl," he purred after deftly extracting the shard from my hand.
The knots in my stomach tightened. The shard couldn't do much against an Alpha even if by some miracle I was able to stab him with it but it was still the only semblance of protection I had. Now it was gone.
The blood-coated mirror glimmered in the dim light before being tossed just out of reach. The man pulled my hand closer and examined my wounds with concentrated focus. I held my breath.
He reached over and grabbed the bed sheet, only briefly releasing me to tear off a long, thin piece of the gauzy fabric. Pain shot up my arm as he wrapped my injured hand with the makeshift bandage and after he secured the tie, his fingers moved to grasp my chin. He tilted my face toward the light with controlled precision.
His eyes quickly fell on the mildly throbbing cheekbone that had hit the floor when I'd been knocked to the ground earlier. His jaw tightened. Something terrible flashed in his eyes.
"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.