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It happened again and I started to grow uneasy. Here I was, several floors underground, and the ground was quaking above and below my feet. Was this building reinforced against an earthquake? Did Montana even get those? Was the ceiling going to fall down and bury me alive?
I groaned. I wanted to go back to sleep, but my mind was racing too fast to even contemplate it.
I didn’t want to die for the sake of whatever research I’d been forced into. Feeling suddenly way more awake than I did before, I hopped out of bed and hurried to turn on the light. I rushed to get dressed, finding a pair of jeans, a tank top, and a long-sleeved button-up flannel shirt in forest green. Everything was a perfect fit. The government had my sizes apparently and had filled up a closet with clothes for me to my exact specifications. I didn’t know whether to be creeped out or impressed.
The entire building rattled again, and a hairline fracture raced across the ceiling above me. I gritted my teeth and stared up at it.
Oh, fuck this! I wasn’t going to be buried alive in a secret government coffin. I needed to get above ground right now.
I pulled on a pair of socks and a pair of hiking boots and quickly packed a backpack of essentials, like a few water bottles, snack bars, and some spare clothes that I found in the room. In no time at all, I was running out that door and back into the freight elevator that had taken me down here in the first place. Once I got to the highest floor that the elevator went, I burst out of it and straight into what I could only describe as hell on Earth.
The sound of gunfire popping indoors was deafening and I instinctually ducked for cover, unsure exactly where it was coming from. Men in black-ops combat gear ran forward in units of two and three and even larger groups, sprinting out from more elevators and what I could only imagine were stairwells, but that wasn’t even remotely the worst of it.
At least thirty massive wolves were sprinting across the enormous room. These wolves were larger than Rebecca had been, some standing at more than five feet tall. If one of them stood eye to eye with me, I’d be able to stare right back at them without having to look up or down. They were that big.
The combat officers aimed their weapons at the wolves and pulled the triggers, but the bullets just bounced off their flesh. Not a single one passed through the beasts’ thick fur, allowing them to carry on in their attack without even a scratch. It was terrifying and mesmerizing all the same. The more I watched them move and fight, the more I realized that humans were certainly no longer at the top of the food chain.
These wolf shifters were. Together, as a pack, they were formidable, maybe even invincible. I was witnessing the beginnings of a battle and I very much thought the humans were not going to win this day.
At first, the gunfire scared me. Then I saw a giant black wolf tear the head right off of a man with his teeth. The crunching sound of his spine breaking and ripping apart was sickeningly loud and wet. Blood sprayed across the floor, staining the pristine white tile with red.
That’s when I recognized that the floor was already slick with it. A number of bodies lay motionless on the floor, in pools of blood that were growing larger and larger by the second. For several moments, I just stared at the blood until I forced myself to look away from both the bodies and the carnage.
The wolves had come here, and I was the only human who knew why. The alpha had risen and had come for his betas, but that’s not the only thing he was coming for. I had to move. Rebecca had said that the alpha would come looking for me and I didn’t want to be found. So far, no one had noticed my presence because they were too caught up in battle to be paying attention to a lone woman slinking along the wall and I was extraordinarily grateful for that.
The stench of blood was metallic and strong, compounded with the smell of death. I doubted the wolves could sense me because of it. The operatives didn’t care because I was human too and I didn’t pose a threat to them.
Cautiously, I moved around the corner of a hallway and stepped carefully so that my boots were silent against the white tiles. I stuck close to the wall and kept out of sight. Once I was sure I was safe from prying eyes, I dashed down the hallway to find an open security office door and looked inside. There was no one there but I saw something that could prove useful in my journey back to the upper levels.
There was a Taser on the table. I had nothing to protect myself, so I took it.
There were a couple of computers that were powered on and I gazed over to them, seeing the active security footage of the compound. Every screen was lit up with humans and wolves engaging in battle. One of them was the holding room where Rebecca and the other betas were held. I narrowed my eyes and watched them pace back and forth in their cells, almost like they were waiting for a sign, and then all at once, they changed into their wolf forms. I watched as each one of them shifted in their cells and burst forward, all striking their cages at the exact same spot at the lower right of the entryway door. At first, it didn’t appear as though anything had happened at all, but after a few long seconds, the very first crack splintered across the glass. And then another.
Every single wolf dove at their door once again and the glass holding them captive shattered into pieces. It was a coordinated attack that destroyed the entrance to each cage, allowing the wolves to walk out unhindered. There wasn’t even a single guard in the room because they were all here on this floor fighting off the wolf attack from above.
The alpha had come, and he’d brought a war with him.
Amy was going to have a field day covering up this one, but I wasn’t going to stick around long enough to find out exactly how it ended. I stuffed the Taser in my back pocket and went back out into the hallway, following it down to the very end where I found an empty stairwell. It was locked, but when I swept my badge in front of the electric panel on the right side of it, I heard the locks disengage beneath its metal surface. When I grasped the doorknob this time, it opened with ease. I burst up the stairs two at a time, not keeping track of how many floors I climbed. Soon enough, I reached the top and emerged out of an even thicker metal door straight into the forest. There was no one out here, which told me that I must have found a back door of some kind. Up here, it was silent. There were no indications of the war happening down below. Just the songs of birds, the buzzing of bugs, and the rustling of the leaves in the breeze. It was peaceful.
I didn’t have a plan now that I was up here, so I’d have to come up with one. I looked around and noticed that there was a well-worn dirt trail that led away from the door, so I stepped down the few stairs and followed it into the trees. The best thing for me to do now was to hide out until the wolves left and then I could return to the black site and see who was left.
I hope Livingston hadn’t been hurt. I also hoped that Rebecca had gotten out.
That wasn’t all I hoped for though.
I hoped that the alpha would come and go without me.
I walked down the path, making as little noise as possible by avoiding any twigs, branches, or dried leaves on the ground. The scene I had just left had been quite horrifying, but up here, it felt like just a fading nightmare. The sky was just beginning to brighten from the rising sun, soft oranges and brilliant reds chasing away the dark of night. As the day lightened, the birds began to sing louder and the bugs quieted. I’d always loved walking through the woods and this time it felt even more serene because of the carnage I’d just run away from.
I’d find a place to hide and I’d come out when the wolves were gone. The alpha wasn’t going to find me out here.
Chapter Three
Kiba
When I had awakened for the first time, I could sense her. She’d been put on this earth for me and me alone and nothing was going to stop me from getting to her. Her scent and the connection to my pack were the only things I’d ever known. For me, it was instinct and there was nothing more powerful than that.
I was the alpha.
