Page 87 of Alpha Reid

“Give me two seconds,” she answers, followed by more clicks of her keyboard. Florescent bulbs hum overhead, flickering on and lighting up the dingy space. There’s another door ahead, but Brooke’s already on it. After some more clicking, I hear the lock disengage and she tells us we can proceed through. I’m a little awestruck by Brooke’s ability to do all of this- I don’t understand the first thing about IT or how she’s able to remotely hack in, but I’m so glad we’ve got her on our team.

We make our way through the door, moving quietly through the next hallway. Large metal doors line either side, and each hallway seems to end with a door. This place is like a maze on the inside, and every corridor we turn down looks the same as the last. I’m unconvinced that we aren’t going around and around in circles. One thing I do know, though, is that this isn’t the area where I was held- the door to my cell was painted green. I spent a lot of time staring at the peeling paint of that door, waiting for it to open and my torment to continue.

“Any of this look familiar?” Reid grumbles, leaning in as we creep down another hallway, further into the belly of the building.

“Only in the sense that everything in here looks the same,” I murmur, flicking him an uneasy glance. It’s a little odd that we’ve made it this far inside without encountering any more resistance, given the unexpected spray of gunfire outside. I start to feel more tense with each step, my belly twisting itself into knots.

We step through another door into a large open area with a high ceiling and a skylight. It looks like it must be the center of the building- there are more doors and hallways stemming off from this space and given the layout, it just feels like it’s the center hub. I’m still nervously overthinking the fact that we’ve yet to run into anyone, and it’s almost as if my thoughts manifest our opposition, because at that moment the door we came from slams closed behind us, sealing off our exit. In front of us, several large, scraggly wolves slink into view, teeth bared and hackles raised.

Gray, being the pragmatic leader that he is, tries to reason with them.

“Your leader is dead,” he calls out, taking a confident step forward. “The shadow pack is finished. So I’ll give you the same option I gave to your comrades in our territory earlier today… you can surrender, or you can meet the same fate as Xavier. It’s your choice.”

The enemy wolves don’t even flinch. Either they have amazing poker faces, or they already knew of Xavier’s fate and have decided to put up a fight nonetheless. One of them growls, signaling to the others, and they continue forward, prowling toward us.

Gray yanks the phone out of the breast pocket of his jacket, tossing it at Reid. “You guys go and find the prisoners, we’ll hold them off,” he barks as Reid catches the phone midair, stuffing it into his own jacket pocket.

I turn to Reid, wide-eyed, and he takes my hand.

“C’mon, little wolf,” he urges, pulling me to follow him toward an open door across the room.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Serena

When Reid tugs my hand, I quickly snap out of my own hesitation and back into warrior mode, hustling to get to the doorway with him before the shadow pack wolves catch up to us. Right as we slip through, I hear snarls from behind us as they’re thwarted by our friends who’ve shifted to cover our backs as we advance.

“Brooke, any idea where this route leads us?” Reid pants as we continue sprinting down the corridor.

“There’s an access door at the end to another wing,” she replies, her voice coming through the speakerphone in Reid’s pocket. “I’ll have it open for you in three… two…”

I hear the latch to the door in front of me click right as I come upon it, yanking it open and stepping through. As soon as I do, a foul odor hits my nose- like mold and human excrement and death. I stop in my tracks, my blood running cold.

“What’s wrong?” Reid breathes as he skids to a halt beside me.

My jaw goes slack, but I don’t find the words right away- my head is spinning, heart racing. Bile crawls up my throat. All an unconscious reaction to the memories that the smell in the air dredges up.

“Serena…” Reid reaches out to cup my face in a hand, tilting it up toward his and staring into my eyes. His blue eyes ground me back in reality and I draw a slow breath, clenching my trembling hands into fists.

“We’re close,” I say, turning away to gaze down the hallway. A heavy metal door sits at the end, and I raise a hand to point to it. “Through there.”

I don’t know how I know. I just do. I don’t remember much from the night that I was let out of my cell, bound for the six-pack to act as a spy, but some part of my subconscious remembers.

“Hey Brooke…” Reid starts, but she cuts him off.

“Already on it,” she chirps, keyboard clicking furiously. The two of us make our way toward the door at the end of the hall, and by the time we reach it, the locking mechanism is disengaged. This door also has a large metal latch that we have to slide up in order to open it, and as soon as we step through and I see the dingy corridor with green doors on either side, I’m hit with a wave of nausea. I turn away from Reid, doubling over at the waist. There’s nothing in my stomach to come up, so I just start wretching, coughing and choking on my own spit.

I feel Reid’s soothing hand come to my back, rubbing up and down my spine until I’m able to regain my composure. Then I straighten, wiping my watery eyes with a sleeve. Reid gives me a moment to pull myself back together, standing close and silently supporting me before we press on and continue down the hallway.

“Olivia!” I call out, approaching the first of the green doors lining the hallway, sliding the latch, and yanking it open. The room behind the door is empty- just four windowless concrete walls, floor, and ceiling with a dingy mattress in one corner and a bucket in the other. Reid pulls open the door directly across the hall and it’s the same; an empty cell.

My heart beats faster, hammering against my ribs.

“Olivia?!” I call again, louder this time.

What if they moved her? Or worse, what if they decided they no longer had a use for her, and…

No, no, no. I can’t let myself think that way. I quickly move to the next door, pulling back the latch as Reid does the same on the other side. More empty cells.

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