Rain pelted against the pavement, pellets splattering on the tops of car roofs, flower petals and the expensive umbrella that Malandra held over her head.
The sound was cathartic, a premonition of what was to come.
A liberating stream to finish the sequence of events- out from imprisonment and into the real world.
She hoped.
First, she had to get through this meeting though.
All through her class, she had been antsy, hardly able to concentrate since she knew what would be happening in the evening. She had already sent her roomie a text letting her know that she would be home late.
Staying at the library, she had said.
There was no room for stirring suspicion with the fellow Irongate employee. Being thought to be in the library was safe, leaving her location open to interpretation was not.
Jon had given her a messily scrawled address, some location so nondescript that even the app on her phone didn't know what to think of it.
Knowing how important the meeting could be, how detrimental it could turn out to the rest of her life if it went well, she made sure that she was there on time- seven o'clock on the dot.
She had thought that Tanya lived in a dodgy place but Jon's apartment block took the cake.
Mala was raised in painfully middle class neighbourhood, so crudely graphited houses, cracked asphalt littered with drug paraphernalia and tall, ugly buildings that blocked out the light of day were not in her comfort zone.
It was perfect.
Trashy, dingy and totally under the radar.
A mind your own business section of the city where all dirty deeds could be buried undercover.
Out of all the people stood around on the street, none but a group of human teenage boys paid her any attention, and even then it was only a look up and down and a whistle of appreciation.
Inappropriate, yes, but she would take their inappropriate stares over the attention of the law any day.
The door opened and Jon beckoned her in, grey sweatpants hanging low on his hips, a plain blue shirt half way over his head, "come in and close it behind you."
She did.
Mattheus was in the living room, looking the most relaxed she had ever seen him. He nodded when she entered, the wary angle to his gaze completely gone. Instead, he was looking at her like he was seeing the girl in a new light.
"You go first."
Mala was surprised and shook her head at the dark haired man, "it's only fair that you go first, you invited me after all."
He rolled his eyes and took a seat, shirt completely covering his chest now. "My theory is that you found out that Ovilio was your mate the first time you came to Irongate, somehow got a job here and now you're planning to break him out."
She sighed, not deeming the assumption as being worth her denial. "Fine. Yes, you're right."
He smiled smugly, happy at his deduction before the small gesture slipped off his face. "Blake is my mate."
"Yeah, that wasn't hard to guess either."
He looked out the window, the dim evening light filtering through, casting the room in a strangely depressing orange glow. It was like they were in a furnace, only a matter of time before the fire came ablaze and stripped them of the last of their hope.
"I was already working there when she was bought in." He began, motioning for Mala to take a seat too. "For five years, I've had to live with the fact that there was nothing I could do for her- it feels like just yesterday we crossed paths as she was taken in."
"So she knows that you're mates?"
His eyes started to glow, a low snarl coming from his throat. "Oh, she knows." In a freakish twist, suddenly Mala could hear the seams of his shirt start to rip as his chest expanded, coarse fur breaking out and up the length of his arms and sides of his neck. "I've been devising a way to get her out but it's harder than it looks."
It was when the first bone cracked that he winced and came back down to earth, the fur regressing until human skin was back in its place, irritated flesh bleeding from red to white.
"It's been happening to me too." She consoled him, quietly. "It's harder to control these days."
He grunted. "Don't worry, it only gets worse. Just wait until the dreams start."
Mattheus snorted from the other side of the sofa.
Jon continued, "I'm too involved," he said. "I need outside help, someone who isn't tied to Irongate's contract like I am."
She nodded, "I can understand that, but it's too chancy. The more people involved, the less likely you'll get away with it. Not everyone has the same motives as you." She was saying that to herself more than anything.
"That's why I'm trying to figure out a plan of exit first. I need to get out of the picture but it's too hard to leave her behind, even temporarily."
"Maybe quitting your job would help." It was just a suggestion based on what he had told her; she didn't really know if she believed it would actually help or not, but his reaction was almost violent, claws shooting from his fingers as he growled at her.
"Why don't you try quitting and see how long the rest of your sanity lasts for? Don't you get it? If being away from them made it any easier, there wouldn't be a problem."
She held her hands up in front of her, "point taken. Sorry." She placed them back down on her lap, pensively crossing and uncrossing her legs as she thought of what to say next. "Who else is involved in this?"
Mattheus spoke up for the first time, "me and Noel."
"Noel?"
"Security."
Jon cleared his throat. "This is where is gets serious."
As if it hadn't been serious before that point.
"Mattheus and Noel are part of a group called SRLP, they are a secret organisation that masquerades in plain light, dedicated to freeing shifters from human government."
Mala frowned, "what does SRLP stand for?"
"SRLP is a stage name of sorts, it wouldn't be smart to have the real name out in the open," Mattheus started, "it stands for Shifter Rights and Lupine Politics."
"That sounds familiar." She took out her phone and went straight to her gallery, pulling up the picture she had taken on her first day of university. "Does this look familiar?"
Mattheus leaned forward and smiled, "so you've heard of them. Did you go?"
"I did. It looked too relevant to pass up." She told him, thinking about the one and only time she had made it to the club meeting. "They're just university students though."
"That's what you're supposed to think. And besides, there's way more of us." And that was all Mattheus said on that particular matter, turning back to Jon for him to speak.
"Anyway," Jon said. "They don't tell us this but there's a separate camera room in the penitentiary- one that's fully human operated. We're not allowed in. Technically, we're not even meant to know about it."
"How did you find out then?"
Mattheus explained, "one of the human ladies who works in there is part of a SHL group-"
"-Sorry. Another abbreviation you'll have to explain to me."
Mattheus sighed, "it means shifter-human-love. It's one of those weird fetish sects, humans who are obsessed with having bloody sex with shifters, being bitten and scratched with our claws while we're in that space between human and half-form."
She shuddered. "Nice to know."
If one of those crazies came near her mate, she would give them a scratch they'd never forget- right across their femoral artery.
"So, one of our guys managed to track this lady down, you know it's hard to find who works at Irongate because of the contract, and is playing the role of doting boyfriend. She's too enamoured by his shifter abilities to keep a grip on her mouth and has unknowingly become our inside informant."
"What if she realises he's using her?"
"She's already said too much to turn back. She's tied in for as long as he needs her."
Sometimes, all you need is a little bit of dirt on the right person to get the upper hand.
"Genius."
Mattheus smiled at that, voicing his agreement.
"Do I want to know what you guys have found?" She looked over at Jon, the haunted expression on his face sending tendrils of ice through her blood. "I know it's not good."
"I'll give you the synopsis."
She nodded, preparing herself for the worst.
"Our mates are being drugged and tested on using rouge medical practices. For years, they've been undergoing sleep therapy and neurological testing in an attempt to draw something out of their minds. We don't know what and we also don't know how deep it goes, how badly they've been affected."
Her eyes began to burn, "God."
She placed her head in her hands, rubbing at her face while the truth of what he said set in.
A second later, a hand was placed on her shoulder, squeezing it in sympathy.
Jon requested one last answer from her, finally sounding like he saw her as an equal, worthy of his consideration. "You've got to decide if you're in or not. Either you join us, or it's going to have to go back to the way it was. Nobody is allowed to stand on the edge. Not after tonight."
It was more danger and investment than she had ever expected.
No longer was she solely dealing with her own problems. There were other people's futures to consider now.
The rabbit trail went deeper than an escape from metal prison doors and she didn't know if she was strong enough to stomach it.
Auden was worth it.
"I'm in."
There was no explosion. The rain outside didn't stop pouring from heaven. She wasn't encased with internal warmth at her decision.
Peace had fled her.
All that was left was cold, uneasy quiet.
His hand dropped.
The ticking of the clock was like a countdown to an impending doom that none of them would be able to escape from.
"I was there when he was bought in." His voice was strangely hollow, no louder than an echo in her ears.
She felt like she was swimming underwater when she looked up.
Jon's eyes were sunken into his head, buttery light reflecting sickly pale. He looked haunted by his memories.
"He kept saying he was innocent as he was dragged to his cell. Over and over again, screaming it until they plunged a needle into his side.
I'm innocent, I'm innocent, I'm innocent.
He was innocent. Then he wasn't sure. And then all of a sudden-"
She stopped his words with one of her own.
"Guilty."