Page 7 of Bait Wolf
Maple’s worried voice came at once, drawing nearer.
“Ember?”
Shit.
I grabbed the edge of the window frame, scrambling, pushing, kicking, doing everything he could to hoist myself up there.Finally,my ribs went through the narrow gap and then my waist.
I was outside!Half of me, anyway. The window led into an alley crowded with garbage bins and parked cars. The drop below would be hard asphalt, but this was the ground floor, and it wasn’t that far down.
A loud gasp behind me alerted me to Maple’s arrival. Too late. All I had to do was fall.
I threw myself with all the strength I had left.
For a few seconds, I was free. The wind whipping through the alley hit my body and combed through my damp hair. The smells of garbage and car exhaust and other familiar, unpleasant but welcome, things enveloped me. Then, something wrapped around my calves, and I lurched to a stop.
Maple gripped my legs with such strength that, for a moment, I could do nothing but hang half out the window and shout.
“No! Let me go! Please!”
I struggled. Oh, I fought! With every ounce of strength that I had in my poor, pathetic body, I fought.
It didn’t matter. Even as I was pulled back into the bathroom, even as I clung to the rotting frame, crying and begging, it made no difference.
“Please, just let me go,” I sobbed.
I fell into the washroom. Maple went down with me and us two omegas, both slaves, cried on the bathroom floor.
“I’m sorry,” Maple kept saying. “I’m so sorry.”
A loud bang and thundering footsteps drew our attention, and only then did Maple pull himself together enough to stand, just as one of the guards came barreling into the doorway.
He stopped dead, taking in the scene, gaze flying to the open window and the two of us with red eyes and wet cheeks.
“Everything’s okay,” Maple said. “I have it under control. You can go.”
The guard hesitated, then seemed to pull himself together.
“Get ready. I saw his escorts coming down the hall before I heard the commotion and ran in here. They’ll be here any second to take him.”
Maple nodded resolutely and waited for the guard to leave before turning back to face me.
“Come on,” he said softly and dragged me to my feet.
He steered me to the front door.
I thought about fighting. One solid punch to the face might knock Maple out. I had almost been free. All I needed was a minute—but the doors flew open and my escorts, two solid-looking betas, walked in.
My steps faltered.
Maple didn’t seem to want to push me forward. His hands shook on my back.
“I really am sorry,” he whispered. “It’s either you or me.”
With that small admission, the desire to fight Maple seeped out of me.
I stepped forward.
My escorts each took one of my arms and steered me away from him and his guard.
