“I was born in the year 1645. I stopped being fertile in 1701.”
Holy shit. This was a scientific anomaly like nothing I had ever seen.
“The alpha is going to be coming for us and for you, once he realizes you’re here. He won’t tolerate the captivity of his betas and he will free us. It won’t be long. I can feel he isn’t far and that he will bring the power of the pack with him. He won’t come alone. They’ll destroy this facility in an effort to give the betas the freedom to follow their alpha, just like nature intended.”
“How have you survived this long?”
“We’re strong and we’re intelligent. The humans think they have us secure down here, but it is our nature to evaluate everything for a weakness. We have been biding our time until the alpha rises and that time is now. We only have to wait for him to arrive to help us take back our freedom.”
“How do you know the alpha is coming for you? And for me?”
“I can feel him coming for us. I can also feel his anger but most of all, I can feel his hunger to find his mate. You’d best prepare yourself, omega, because when he comes for you, he’s never going to let you go.”
* * *
When I returned to Livingston, I didn’t tell him what Rebecca had told me, just that she had explained what her kind were and that she had wanted to get to know me on a woman to woman level. He’d taken my word at face value and then, in his excitement to have me here, proceeded to show me the rest of the lab and the resources I had at my disposal. I found myself only partially listening, my mind too wrapped up in what Rebecca and I had discussed. Finally, when he sensed my detachment, he looked at his watch. It was nearly eight o’clock and I hadn’t eaten a thing since breakfast. My stomach chose that moment to voice its displeasure and growled loudly in protest. Livingston chuckled and his eyes sparkled with amusement at hearing it.
“Look at the time! I’m sure you’re exhausted and pretty hungry. I’ll show you to your room, and let me tell you, this place has the most fantastic room service. Pretty much whatever you want, whenever you want. It’s so incredibly good!” he exclaimed. “It’s not far, follow me.”
True to his word, he brought me to a small apartment that was only a few minutes’ walk away from the lab. There, he showed me the room service menu and pointed out his favorites, which happened to the berry-glazed French toast and the chefs specially made cinnamon pancakes. I grinned, remembering just how much of a sweet tooth my former mentor had. Apparently, some things never change.
“It’s good to see you again, Dawn. I’m looking forward to working with you, just like old times,” he exclaimed elatedly.
“As am I,” I answered, smiling in return.
He didn’t stay much longer, only to point out essential information like what floors I didn’t have access to and the fact that the lab was shut down after midnight unless explicit permission was obtained first.
After Livingston retired to his own quarters, I picked up the phone and ordered the French toast he’d liked so much, only I added eggs and sausage to my order. I didn’t care that it was dinnertime. I was going to have breakfast because I wanted to.
It had been a day and sometimes sugar made it all better. The only thing better would have been sex, but I hadn’t had that in years thanks to my work.
I didn’t know what I was going to do with the information I had learned just yet, but I would deal with it in the morning. Funny little thing about science, sometimes even the very best things in life got put on the backburner because the next grant was due, the next manuscript needed to be submitted, and more data was required for either one or even both at the exact same time. Science never slept, but I certainly was going to tonight.
* * *
I woke up early that morning exhausted. Blinking my weariness away, I stared at the digital clock on the nightstand. It read 5:00 a.m. It wasn’t time to get up yet. No way.
I closed my eyes and groaned as I wondered what had woken me up in the first place. I curled up into the soft mattress, pulling the covers up and over my shoulders as a shiver raced down my spine. Just as I began to drift back into dreamland, the bed shook beneath me, and my eyes shot open.
What the hell was that?
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.