Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Ijolt awake, a shadow looming over me. The person is too close, and I raise a defensive arm before my brain catches up.
It’s only Adam.
I lower my arm.
“Move,” he orders.
The bed groans as I scoot to the side. The space is too small for both of us, but that doesn’t stop him.
Adam lies down, taking up all of the bed, then smacks his chest. “Come on.”
“Excuse me?”
I know exactly what he means. I just don’t like it.
Adam smacks his chest again, like this is obvious and I should’ve already figured it out.
“You need rest, Evelyn.” He gives a slow blink. “You look like shit, and if you don’t give your body time to heal, you’ll get an infection and die. I don’t need that happening under my watch.”
I lick my lips, unmoving.
Adam continues. “I’m not sleeping on the floor, and there isn’t enough room for us both on this bed. Just lay on me.”
Adam is the bane of my existence. Still, I’m not in a position to turn down the offer.
Caleb would lose his mind if he saw this, but I have no other choice, not unless I plan to sleep on the ground. Which I don’t.
I sink into the crevice of Adam’s arm, angled so there’s no pressure on my chest and shoulder. My face presses against his shirt, the buttons digging into my cheek.
Adam is annoyingly comfortable, breathing slowly and steadily beneath me.
I inhale, nearly choking on the scent of sweat and blood.
“You smell,” I mumble. It’s an unfiltered thought, one I don’t try very hard to stop.
“Fuck off.” Adam places a hand over my eyes, blocking out the room’s blinding fluorescent lighting. It never dims. There’s no concept of time in here. “Sleep. I’ll wake you up if anything interesting happens.”
We lie in silence. I doze off but almost always immediately jolt back awake. My body doesn’t trust this. HPAW isn’t done with us. They’re coming back. It’s just a matter of when.
Adam never sleeps.
Only a few hours pass before I’m pushing up off his chest and sitting up.
Adam remains silent, watching as I stand on wobbly legs and take a lap of the room. I can walk the entire perimeter in eleven steps. I estimate Adam can do it in six.
“Alpha Knox won’t let us rot in here,” I say. I need to believe that.
I also need to keep trying to extract information from Adam. The old Evelyn wouldn’t give up until she had the information she needed.
Adam hums, the noise pouring from deep in his throat before he throws an arm over his eyes and lies back down. It seems he’s decided not to talk to me, a fact I’m quite pleased with.
“Do you think he’s dead?” I continue. The words are bitter in my mouth.
I clear my throat. HPAW expects me to be upset about Caleb’s death, but I can’t be tearing up whenever the possibility is mentioned.
Is it possible?
The more I think about it, the more I fear it might be. Caleb would never let HPAW take Adam and me. He would do whatever possible to save us, and he wouldn’t wait. I’m certain of that.
But it’s been two days. That’s too long. Something has gone very wrong.
I ignore the stiffness of my limbs as I pace the room, running through scenarios. What happened during the attack? How did HPAW get away? Who the fuck is HPAW’s informant? Are they still in the pack, continuing to share vital information?
I drag a hand through my hair, then spin toward Adam. His eyes are shut and his chest rises and falls in a slow, even rhythm, but I know he’s awake. I take this opportunity to inspect his marked hand.
The skin has healed, but his marking is gone. The very edges of it remain, little specks of white still visible, but the bulk of his hand is scar tissue. I can’t believe he bit it off. The desperation that must’ve taken…
At least he has the edges to admire. It’s better than nothing.
Sweat drips down my inner arms as I peel back the bandage on my hand.
The skin pulls tight. There’s nothing left of my marking, not one little edge. It’s like it never existed. I didn’t have the luxury of preserving a piece of it. Unlike Adam, it’s not the design that I’m trying to hide. It’s the color.
It’s a miracle I didn’t fuck up any tendons or mobility.
I re-secure the bandage.
Without care, it’ll likely get infected. I’m interested to see how HPAW deals with that. Will leadership approve me to continue receiving medical care? Or will they let it fester?
I don’t heal like the shifters. They can’t ignore me if they want to keep me alive.
“Are you scared?” I ask. I don’t know why I ask. I don’t want the answer.
Adam cracks open an eye. “And I thought sharing a wall with you was bad…” He sighs and turns away, avoiding answering. “I’m beginning to feel sorry for Alpha Knox.”
Rude. Caleb loves me. Right?
I tap my foot against the ground, debating whether or not I should continue speaking. I suspect Adam knows I’m trying to pry information out of him, and I can only hope he understands it’s all an act. I think he does.
A low buzz fills the room.
My entire body locks up.
The door.
Adam is in front of me within a heartbeat, standing between me and the door. He’s shielding me. Instinctively. The corner of my lip quirks upward.
He likes me more than he lets on.
Four HPAW soldiers in full tactical gear storm into the room, their weapons already raised. My gaze flickers from the red dot on Adam’s forehead to the two on his chest, then finally settles on the one on my chest.
Three on Adam. One on me. They’ve already decided who the real threat is.
The soldier aiming his weapon at me speaks. “Against the wall.” He jerks his head left, signaling for me to move.
I step aside, not wanting to argue with the man holding a weapon. It’s not the first time I’ve had a gun pointed at me. HPAW was insistent that I become comfortable in the face of danger, and they felt pointing weapons at me was an excellent way to train me for the shifters.
I was confident they wouldn’t shoot me, and I suspect the guns weren’t actually loaded. I’m willing to bet the gun currently aimed at me is very much loaded, though.
The red dot follows me as I press my back against the wall. The three other soldiers close in on Adam.
“Hands in the air,” one orders him.
Adam’s movements are slower than mine would be. He raises his hands, but he takes his sweet time. He’s playing with fire.
“Turn around.”
I lock eyes with Adam. He looks unnaturally calm as he turns, giving his back to the soldiers. His gaze lingers on the red dot on my chest, his upper lip curling.
He continues to stare at it as a soldier rushes forward with a needle. The man jabs it into Adam’s neck, pushing down the plunger with more force than necessary. He’s enjoying this.
It takes everything I have not to physically react. I frown, but nothing more.
Then the soldier unlocks the metal collar around Adam’s neck, letting it fall to the floor. It clangs, rattling at their feet as Adam stumbles forward. The soldiers shift, adjusting to each of his movements with practiced ease.
Adam’s gaze finally leaves me as he falls, his body going limp as he drops to his knees. They smack against the cement, and his upper body quickly follows. He tries to push himself back up, but he only manages to lift his torso about halfway before his arms give out.
My throat bobs.
Two soldiers grab him by the arms, lifting him off the ground. Adam’s shoulders shift as he struggles against the men, but he’s too weakened to push them off.
“Fight back, and we’ll kill her,” the soldier pointing the gun at me threatens.
I swallow.
Does he mean it?
I search his face for emotion, but his expression remains flat as Adam is taken from the room. The one pointing his weapon at me is the last to leave, the heavy, steel door slamming shut behind him.
And just like that, I’m alone again.
I slide down the wall. I can’t think about what they’re doing to Adam. If I do, I won’t be able to stop.
I hide my mounting panic as I bring my knees to my chest, staring at the door. I saw that video of what HPAW did to the diplomat Caleb once sent. They experimented on him. Tortured him. They’re going to do the same to Adam. I know it.
I shut my eyes, count to five, then force myself to stand.
I’m being watched. I can’t break down.
I take a moment to inspect the collar the soldiers left behind. It’s a thick slab of metal, and on the inside are several sensors. They’re ridged, probably scratchy against the skin. I’m sure that’s an intentional design flaw.
I see no easy way to deactivate the sensors, and I’m not going to investigate the lock while being watched. I drop it to the ground, secretly hoping it breaks. It bounces but remains intact, the damn thing near indestructible.
When it lands under the bed, I smile. I’m excited to watch an HPAW soldier crawl underneath to grab it. Small victories. I’ll take them where I can get them.
I take a seat on the bed, then lie back on the thin mattress. I pretend to rest, but internally, I count. There’s no way to tell time in here, so I rely on the skills Daniel taught me as I tally up the seconds. They turn into minutes, which eventually turn into hours.
Four hours pass before Adam is brought back.
He’s unconscious, and the same four soldiers as before roughly deposit him onto the ground. He’s been changed into HPAW-issued clothing, but the brown shirt hangs loosely off his torso while the pants are impossibly tight.
He’s not moving.
I watch his back, only relaxing once it rises with breath. He’s alive. Barely, but alive.
Thank the fucking heavens.
One of the soldiers faces me. I let my eyes trail over Adam one last time before giving the stranger my attention. It’s the one who drugged Adam earlier, and he licks his lips before jerking his head toward the door.
“Your turn,” he says.
“For what?”
Did Adam tell them something? Does leadership want to speak with me again?
The soldier frowns. “Now. Don’t make this hard for yourself.”
That’s easier said than done. Still, I follow the soldier out of the room, painfully aware of the other three trailing behind. Are their weapons pointed at me now? I don’t turn around to confirm as I shuffle into the reinforced corridor.
The soldier scans his hand, and it’s several seconds more before the second door unlocks and I’m stepping into a regular hallway. My stiff shoulders relax when I see the wheelchair waiting for me, and I don’t hesitate to sink into it.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
Nobody answers me. Great.