Chapter 8

Elena

I didn’t think. As soon as I heard the yelling it was as if my soul left my body. The pup whined and it pulled on an instinct inside me to protect it and I grabbed him out of the crib. As soon as I pulled him against my chest he hid in my neck and whined again.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” I promised him.

Except it isn’t okay. Someone is going to find us soon. I need to get us out of here. There are several footsteps down the hall, so I duck back down and hide behind the crib. One of them stops and looks through the window to see if anyone is in here but takes off soon after. They didn’t even bother to come inside which is stupid on their part but good for me. I make my way to the wall where the window is and look through it to see if the coast is clear. I can still hear screaming but it sounds further away now.

The chances of getting out of here unseen is impossible, I know this, but I have to try. My plan did not include kidnapping but I can’t leave this pup here. Everything inside me hates the idea of him being left here, so I hold him as tight to me as possible. When it seems clear enough I quietly open the door and slip out. I don’t walk or hide, no I run. I run as fast as I can toward the elevator and pull out the key card. My hope is that running without second-guessing or waiting will give me a few extra seconds to get ahead. If I stop and look and think too hard I'll waste time I do not have.

I hear the voices coming from the opposite hallway, but I keep going. There is a good distance between us so if they see me I think I can get into the elevator before they reach me. But then what? Before I came in here I didn’t think to try the keycard on the back door I found. What if it doesn’t work? I have to try.

When I finally reach the elevator I glance at the open lab area and see someone on the other side searching. Our eyes meet and I quickly turn to scan the card. The voices are getting closer so I turn my back to the elevator ready to try and fight. One of the lab people bursts from the hallway and sees me. Their eyes widen when they see what I’m holding and moves toward me but the elevator door opens and I stumble backward inside. The man rushes forward and makes it into the elevator with me just as the doors close.

“You shouldn’t have seen any of that.” He says looking a little panicked and a lot out of breath. “Don’t worry, you will join the others and help us find the answers.”

“The answers to what?” I yell at him.

“Everything. Now hand over the mutt.” He moves closer and in a flash, my body contorts and breaks before slamming back into place.

I just shifted and I’m lunging for him. My instincts scream for me to protect the pup and that means eliminating every threat. Omegas are meant to be docile and calm, but I’m anything but in this moment. I bite down on his arm and shake my head tasting blood. He cries out and hits my head but I barely feel it as I tear into the flesh and muscle with my teeth. I release him when he hits me hard on the side of my head, and he scrambles to one of the corners. He’s cradling his arm and crying like a baby. I move in front of the pup and let out a low threatening growl at the man.

“Please…” He begs but he is a threat.

There is a part of me that is screaming for me to kill him, but then the doors open and I grab the pup around the scruff of his neck and take off running. I can’t stop to get my bag or the keycard, but I still run toward the back door. My mind is fixed on it, so I keep moving in that direction. When I reach it there is no way out. Someone would have to open the door for me…

“Elena!” My eyes focus on a woman rushing toward me. “Oh my…Elena, you need to run. Okay? Run!”

Dr. Lee reaches out and slides her keycard over the panel and pushes the door open. I want to ask her why she’s helping me but her wide eyes and the way she keeps looking behind her tells me I can’t wait.

“Go! Now!” She yells and I do as she says.

I run as fast as I can into the dark night. Thanks to my being in wolf form seeing in the dark is no problem, the problem is that I've never been in this part of the school before. Everything is unfamiliar and I don’t know which way to go. There is no time to overthink so I let my senses take over and focus on any other scent than the Omega scents all over the school.

I’m running through a large field when something catches my attention. A smell that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. The pup in my mouth whimpers but with a small warning sound he quiets down. I slow my running and tract toward the smell. I come to a stop and if I had been in my human form I’m pretty sure I would have thrown up. The smell was a body buried in a hole right here behind the school. I look around the hole and see several mounds of dirt…a lot of them. All of them were set up in a straight line just like the women in that room had been.

Graves…

Oh goddess…

Shouting is coming from behind me. Once again I have to push away my fears and stick and keep going. In my wolf form, I am smaller and faster so when I come to a line of trees I’m able to hide. I set the pup down for a second and he immediately hides behind my legs. There are a lot more voices now and flashlights shining all around the field. I need to find a way out of here, but there is no way there isn’t a wall or something surrounding this place. It would be illogical to leave the school so exposed, but the only sophisticated type of security had been on the back door and elevator. So maybe…

I can’t stay here no matter what, so I step back and pick the pup up again. He’s so well-behaved with me even with me being a stranger, which is a huge help right now. I weave through the trees and low foliage searching for some sort of wall or road. The trees are in an unnatural line so it has to be set up as either a wall of its own or to hide a wall on the other side. I try to remember when I first arrived here, and I recall there being a metal gate that opened to let us in. It was connected to a line of a metal gate but some of it had been hidden, but that was eight years ago.

Could it still be the same gate? Let’s hope because if it is, my small form would make it easy to squeeze through one of the bars. I think. The voices sound scattered and further away now and gives me a false sense of relief. Maybe they’re far enough that I can come out from the trees and find the gate better, but as soon as I step out I hear someone shout.

“There she is! Don’t let her leave the premises!”

Shoot!

I quickly run back in the trees but they already know which direction I’m going in, even though I’m not sure where I’m going.

No…don’t panic…think…focus on my other senses. I need to get away from here which means I need to find a human scent. They won’t react to me and a human will mean I can make it closer to a city…possibly. I stop running and close my eyes focusing on one thing…scents. There are voices still calling out orders but I ignore them. I push out everything until I lock on something citrusy…that’s it! With a target set, I follow the scent and soon I reach the metal gate I remember from eight years ago. It looks too thin, but I’m slim under all my fur, I just might fit. First I push my head through it and set the pup down. He stares up at me as I push my head completely through, then twist slightly to push myself the rest of the way through just as a hand grabs for me.