I slowly drifted back to consciousness, and saw that I was back in Michael's house, except I was on the floor in the hangout room. My vision cleared, but my head hurt and my mouth felt dry. I swallowed, and then realized that I had something in my mouth. I glanced around, saw unfamiliar people standing around, staring at nothing.
I sat up, and my hands were restricted. I panicked for a moment, and then I was shoved back onto the floor. "Stay down!" Sarah snapped.
I looked up at her and smiled despite the fact that I had something in my mouth. I tried to say something, but even I couldn't understand what I was saying. She bent down and pulled the piece of cloth out of my mouth so I could speak.
"What'd you say?" she asked.
I gathered spit in my mouth, and then spat in her face as I brought my feet, that were also tied, up and kicked her in the stomach as hard as I could. She grunted in pain and fell back, slamming into the wall. Then a couple of the people standing around closed in on me and grabbed me by the elbows. The cloth was shoved back into my mouth and I struggled against them with no success.
Sarah stood up, wiping the spit from her face. She gave a harsh laugh as she walked over to me. "You really are a little bitch, aren't you?" she asked.
She bent down in front of me again and grabbed my face with one hand and turned my head to the left where my eyes landed on the crumpled figure of Michael laying with his back to us. His hands and feet were bound too, and I could see that he also had a piece of cloth tied around and shoved into his mouth. My heart ached at the sight of him.
"See what happens when he chooses to take you into the Dahlia Pack?" she asked. "And then falls in love with you?"
I growled as Sarah turned my face back to look at her. I wanted to kick her ass so badly my whole body ached. Maybe if I shifted I would be able to take these people down and get Michael out of here...
"Don't even think about it," Sarah said as she stood up. "These are Zane's wolves. Trained to kill. You wouldn't even make it an inch before you were torn to pieces."
I glared at her, thinking, Oh yeah? Just watch me, bitch.
She looked at the people restraining me and motioned for them to let me go. "Let her be with her shitty alpha," she said. "Zane wants you guys out of here. Two stay outside the door to make sure they don't escape."
With that, Sarah left with everyone else in the room following after her, leaving me and Michael in the room alone.
As soon as the door shut, I slipped my legs through my arms to get them to where my hands were in front of me. I untied my leg restraints and stood up, pulling the cloth from my mouth and hurrying to Michael's side. I turned him over slowly, and gasped in horror. His face was bruised badly, his left eye was swollen, his lip was split, and there was dried blood coming from his nostrils. I gently shook him. "Michael, wake up," I said, pulling the cloth out of his mouth.
Nothing.
I put my ear to his mouth and felt his warm breath brush against it just slightly. I shook him harder. "Michael," I said.
He groaned a little and I continued shaking him.
"Michael, please," I begged, glancing up the stairs toward the door.
Finally, his good eye fluttered open and he smiled a little when he saw me, and then it faded. "Ren..." he whispered. "I thought you'd managed to get far away."
I shook my head and untied his hands. "No. I heard them breaking in and I came back," I replied.
When his hands were free I helped him sit up. He rubbed his wrists as I untied his legs. "You shouldn't have, Ren," he said. "You have to find a way out."
"No, Michael," I snapped. "We have to find a way out."
"Ren," he said, grabbing my arm and turning me around to face him. "I'm serious. Your uncle is the one who killed my pack."
I stared at him. I was surprised, yet at the same time I wasn't. He had always bragged about dominating small packs, but I thought he was just lying to make himself seem stronger than my dad. Now I knew he had been telling the truth.
And so was Sarah about his wolves being killers. "I won't let him hurt you. You need to get out of here, get the pack, and get them out of here. Your uncle won't hesitate to kill them for your father's benefit," he siad.
I shook my head. "I'm not leaving you here to be killed either, Michael," I replied. I held my bound hands out to him. "Not untie me."
He gave me a long look through his one good eye, and then slowly untied me. When my hands were free, I gathered the shoelaces (yes, I know. They were too lazy to go out and buy rope to tie us up) and got ready to strangle anybody who tried to stop us from getting out.
I stood up and helped Michael up. He swayed a little and I grabbed his arm, only to see that his face wasn't the only thing that had been beaten. The only time I had seen somebody this injured was when I had gotten done with Rebecca before I had gotten expelled, but now on Michael, I felt rage at whoever had done this to him. "Now how do we get out?" I asked.
I looked around frantically. This was the damn basement, and the only way out was the door... which was guarded. I sighed, feeling trapped and helpless.
Michael was starting to sway again, so I grabbed his arm and let it rest on my shoulders as I wrapped my arm around his waist to help hold him up. Having the shit beat out of you was a horrible thing to go through, and it took a while to recover from. Especially if you were knocked unconscious.
Michael mumbled something that I couldn't understand and I shook him a little.
"What?" I asked.
"Behind the couch on the wall is a secret door... the previous alpha put it there in case of emergencies. Nobody knows about it except me. It's an alpha thing," he said tiredly.
I nodded and helped him over to the LazyBoy recliner chair gently had him sit down. I turned around and grabbed the arm of the said sofa and pulled as hard as I could. With the right amount of pull, it finally started to slide along the carpet until it was far enough away to reveal the door. There was a gap between the couch and the wall big enough for Michael to crawl through.
The door was a small, wooden one only just tall enough to not be seen behind the couch and wide enough for only one person to crawl through at a time. There was a lick on the door that could be locked from the side I was currently on, and I unlocked it and opened it.
I turned back to Michael, who was standing now and watching me. It looked like he was struggling and I stood up to help him. He held up his hands though and crouched down beside me. "No, you go through first, Ren," he said. "I'm pretty sure I can crawl without help."
I hesitated, watching him. I didn't want to go first. I wanted him to go first so that I could make sure he was okay. Michael nodded for me to go, and I hesitated again for a moment before finally crawling in through the door. The crawl space was musty and dry and dusty, and it was dark. I wondered where it led as I crawled farther in.
Just before I turned around to see if Michael had followed, I heard the door shut and lock. I turned around and crawled back to the door. "Michael!" I called.
"Ren, you have to go without me. at the end of the crawlsapce, it forks off. Go right, and run as fast as you can. When you reach the ladder, climb up it, go through the door, close it, and lock it so that nobody else can get out. Then I want you to run to James and Kimberly's house. It'll be just off to your right. Tell them that the whole pack has to leave right away to anywhere but here," he explained through the door.
"Michael, no!" I cried. "Come with me!"
"Go, Ren!" he snapped. "Now!"
I hesitated and tears started to fall out of my eyes. What would happen to him? I couldn't leave him, but if I stayed here, I would be trapped.
"Renae," Michael growled.
I put a hand to the door and trailed my fingers along its surface for a moment. "I love you, Michael," I said.
There was a pause, and then I heard Michael draw in a shuddering breath. "I love you too, Ren," he said.
With that, I turned and crawled down the crawl space as I heard him push the sofa back to its place in front of the door.
And I had no idea if I would ever see Michael again...