I tell Luka, "My therapist said that it's normal to repress some memories after a traumatic experience."
Luka's brows rise, and he glances at the chair. His gun lowers a little as he strides over to it, bends, and then lifts something up from the chairback with two fingers.
It's a leather strap, right at neck height, with a bunch of holes punched into the end. People were tied down to that chair.
My palm flies to my neck, and I can practically feel that strap cinching tighter around my windpipe.
Luka's at my side in under a second, leaning close, his breath ghosting over me as he asks, "Do you need to go outside?"
His arm moves to wrap around my shoulders, but I step back, aware that other men are in the room with us.
Teddie can’t have a panic attack.
I’d never be able to explain that away.
Vehemently, I shake my head, my furious sense of violation overcoming the quaking that's set in at my knees.
Clenching my jaw, I circle the chair and then glance around the empty lab room to see if anything else triggers me.
It doesn't.
But my earlier suspicion that this place held a sense of darkness is now justified.
When Luka and I reach a second door and start into the hall behind the others, he asks, "Mind telling me what happened?"
Exhaling, ensuring that none of my other alphas are within hearing distance, because I don't think any of them could react with composure or logic to my revelation, I intone, "I think the Noths did something to me the first time they took me. But I'm not sure what."
A lingeringsense of anxiety sticks to my ribs as we clear the remainder of the building. No people are found anywhere on the premises. But also…no medicine for my brother, according to Doctor Tamara. This place has been empty for too long.
We're trudging toward the front door when one of the members of Team Blue rushes toward us. Mole Man's face is frantic, eyes wide, and his energy immediately puts all of us on high alert, the room filling with the potent scent of alpha pheromones.
"We found a hidden stairwell. This way!" He jerks his head and spins on his boot, not waiting for anyone, certain we'll follow.
Head lights flick on, and Ridge orders, "Night vision active, guys. Who has the flash bangs?"
An alpha I don't know replies, and Ridge signals for him to proceed ahead.
When we reach the location of the stairwell, I realize that it leads underground. An entire bit of countertop has been lifted, thecabinet beneath the counter sliding to one side to reveal a secret passage. Horrified foreboding sloshes through my veins like tiny chips of ice.
Soldiers start descending, guns drawn. Alpha Team X and I wait at the top for the all-clear because they won't let the "prince" proceed without it. Doctor Tamara remains with us. She may be an alpha, but she isn’t trained in combat.
My breath becomes the loudest sound in the room, so I hold it.
Stale air wafts up from the staircase and brings another unbidden memory…this time a massive syringe filled with a neon-blue liquid. The needle glints as a drop of that blue poison bubbles up onto the tip?—
Gunfire erupts from the black abyss of the stairwell.
Colter shoves me into the closest wall, his massive bulk used to block me in so that all I can see is his back.
"I have a bulletproof vest," I protest, but the masked man pretends he can't hear.
"What is it?" Ridge calls out via our headsets.
But there's a yell from below instead of a response. The sounds of scrabbling and thumps of bodies smashing into walls join the gunfire.
"Booby trap," Kylian comments, his tone airy. "Only slightly less fun than boobies."
"Shut up," Luka retorts.
