Page 7 of Frenzy
I breathed deeply, and the scent made me still. Another Manix was here. An Alpha. My Omega whined at the scent of a savior, but I pushed it back down. It could be a savior, or just another captor. I’d learned long ago that there was no hope without consequence.
The alarms finally blared to life, waking the rest of my fellow inmates. There weren't many of us left anymore. We’d died off slowly, one after another, and as government administrations changed, the passion to see what made us tick, to breed us into soldiers, had waned. No one wanted to spend millions on an experiment that had failed consistently for nearly twenty years. The old-timers—the ones who’d been here when I arrived—had long since died out, their will to live failing before their bodies did.
I shifted to my other form, hovering in the back corner near the cribs. Baby One’s breathing sounded rattly, which was concerning, but there was nothing I could do for her. They’d been trying to crossbreed me with other supernaturals, but it always ended the same. If you crossed me with a full-blood shifter, the children inevitably died. Too many souls occupied their tiny bodies, and when their Beasts fully manifested inside them, one snuffed out the other. Half-bloods apparently had better success, especially with other half-breed supernaturals.
“Pryce, what’s happening?” Katya yelled from the room next to me. She was young, barely out of her teens. I didn’t know what kind of creature she was, but I had no doubt they’d try mixing our DNA together eventually and she would die too. Unless someone saved us tonight.
“I don’t know.”
Finally, the lights all flamed to life, filling every inch of the facility with light. The shadows disappeared, and a man outside my glass box was revealed. I couldn’t help the gasp that fell from my lips. A Manix stood in front of my cage, his body large and powerful, guns strapped across his chest. We stared at each other for what seemed like an indeterminable amount of hours, but was probably only seconds.
Another man, with shaggy brown hair and full lips appeared beside him. “Facility is clear.”
The Manix nodded, but never took his eyes off me. “Free them and call for the vans. No one gets left behind.”
I tensed, swallowing hard. “What do you intend to do with them?” My voice sounded stronger than I felt.
“Set them free.”
I blinked at him, because what the fuck even was freedom? I heard the metallic noise of the locks releasing and then my door slid open. The scent of the Alpha hit me like a wave, making me feel confused and needy, but also hard as a rock. Fuck. Now was not the time for some Omega bullshit.
The Manix stepped inside, his size a foot taller than mine, and his shoulders nearly twice as wide in this form. I took a step backwards toward the cribs, and he slowed his progress. Then, as I watched, he shifted back to a man.
I knew his face, even though I had only met him briefly when we were both way too young. “It’s you.”
He nodded, but the guilt that crept into his eyes kept me tense. I was silent as he walked closer, this time not shifting away. “I am sorry. I should have come sooner.”
I wanted to laugh. He didn’t have to come at all, but I was so glad he did. Any anger that I held inside me—and that anger filled a deep and bitter well—wasn’t directed at a near stranger who’d been a child when we met. Who had no obligation to rescue me, but here he was anyway.
I couldn’t say all this though, not with my heart pounding. So I just said, “It’s fine,” like he was late picking me up from work, and not like I’d spent sixteen years in a fucking prison.
“We have to go,” he murmured again, and now he was so close his scent was everywhere. I cast a look back over my shoulder at my progeny. They’d been created in a test tube, but they were mine. They might not survive, but they wouldn’t die alone.
“They have to come.” I shifted back to human too, and in this form, I was still several inches shorter. He nodded, holding out an arm.
“We’d never leave them behind, but we must hurry.”
I picked up Baby One, and handed it to him slowly. The irony wasn’t lost on me. “We should stop meeting like this,” I said softly, and he huffed out a laugh, before rearing back in surprise, like he wasn’t used to the sound.
One huge hand supported the baby’s tiny body with ease, and with the other hand, he pulled a gun. “Wait,” I hissed, and he stopped immediately. “I don’t know your name.”
You couldn’t run away with a man whose name you didn’t know. I was trusting him with my life, with all our lives, and I couldn’t hand that over to a stranger. Not again.
“I’m Courtland. You’re Pryce.”
I blinked again in shock. “You remembered?”
He gave me a look that was loaded with meaning. “Of course.”
That meant something, though I didn’t want to examine what while I was this close to freedom. I picked up the second baby and cradled it to my chest before Courtland swept from the room and I hurried to keep up.
The man who’d spoken to Courtland before flanked me, inhaling deeply. “Hello, Omega.”
I tensed, but while the look in his eye was wolfish, it wasn’t threatening. “I’m Pryce.”
“I know,” he said with a quick grin, his eyes darting around the room, never resting in one place. “Dominic.”
Courtland remembered. This guy knew my name. I had a feeling something else was going on here, but I didn’t know what. It didn’t matter right now because I was about to be free.
