Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Adam flies out of bed, practically knocking me off in the process. My body lags behind, pain catching up a second later.
I scramble to my feet, the sudden movement pulling at almost all my wounds as I spin toward the four soldiers storming into the room. My vision tunnels for a second, but I force it back.
This time, all four weapons are pointed at Adam.
“Against the wall.”
Adam backs up. He doesn’t look nearly as terrified as I feel, and I clasp my trembling hands together as they order him to spin around and face the wall.
A needle is plunged into his neck. It’s a sickening sight, and I clamp my lips together as Adam slumps forward, stumbles sideways a step, and eventually falls to the floor. His eyes meet mine as his temple smacks against the concrete.
It’s happening.
My palms are sweaty, and I wipe them on my pants as the soldiers carry Adam from the room. The heavy door slams shut behind them. I hope they’re bringing him to medical. Leadership will be angry when they learn I lied about the poison in his tooth, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
I stare at the door, my mind running rampant.
Even if Adam convinces Bells to help us, we still need a plan. A real one. Not this half-formed bullshit I’m clinging to.
Bells works on the same floor as us, so that’s helpful. She would need to sneak into this area and find the controls to the cell doors. She could probably seduce the soldier who operates them. Or manipulate him. Or break him. Whatever it takes.
Once she unlocks the doors, we can use her keycard to operate the elevators. It should be easy enough from there. There are emergency exits on the first and second floors, and I’m willing to bet that Bells has a car. We’ll head straight for the shifter lands.
This is an absolutely outlandish plan, and it’s likely to get us killed. Fuck. I drag a hand down my face.
What if Bells doesn’t agree to help us? I’d like to think Caleb has a plan to get us out of here, but I can’t rely on that. She’s our best hope. I doubt Adam will survive long under their torture. HPAW isn’t known for keeping their captured shifters alive.
Would Daniel help? The thought feels dangerous the second it forms.
I still don’t know what to make of him. He’s loyal to HPAW, but he practically raised me. That has to count for something. He left his pocketknife on my hospital bed for a reason. He cares. He doesn’t want to see me dead.
I suspect he loves me in his own fucked-up way. I just need to convince him to act on it.
My head pounds, and I rub my temples with a quiet groan. The pain makes it hard to think straight. I’d kill for some pain medication.
What if I injure myself? I could convince Adam to attack me. He could injure me so severely that HPAW has no choice but to place me in medical for an extended stay. I’d be closer to Bells.
Adam can attack the next time the soldiers come to retrieve him. I suspect he’s holding back his strength, pretending to be weak for HPAW. I also suspect he lied to me about his role in Caleb’s pack.
He knows an entire hidden language—something I’m confident Caleb doesn’t force every member of his pack to learn. For one reason or another, Adam was either placed in or expected to be placed in situations where he needed to communicate secretly with the pack.
Though they probably never expected it to be done by tonguing Caleb’s mate. I assume this communication is done while in their animal forms. They probably make tapping sounds against rocks and trees while within earshot.
Adam is something to Caleb. I’m going to assume that means he knows how to fight.
Shifters are fast, especially those with dominant wolves.
Adam could attack the moment the door is unlocked, killing those soldiers and escaping into the corridor before they have a chance to shoot.
He could use one of their palms to unlock the second door, and their keycard to operate the elevator.
It would be messy, but it might work. I could escape medical amongst the chaos.
I curl my hands into tight fists, pissed with myself.
This plan is even worse than my original one.
It would take only one bullet between the eyes to kill Adam, and the HPAW soldiers are trained.
They won’t miss. If Adam escapes through violence, alarms will be sounded.
He would never make it out, and soldiers would be on me the second Adam kicked up a fuss. HPAW isn’t stupid.
It’s several hours later when the door unlocks, drawing my attention. I sit up, my back sweating as two soldiers drag in an unconscious Adam. He looks horrible, his face swollen and his skin a patchy blue. Every vein is pressed up against the surface of his skin, almost as if they’re distended.
What did they do to him?
The soldiers drop Adam in the center of the room before filing out, their eyes never once straying toward me.
I wait until the door is firmly shut before sliding out of bed and kneeling beside Adam. His head lolls in my direction, his eyes puffy as he blinks. Pain is etched over his features, and when I lightly touch one of the distended veins in his arm, he trembles and jerks away.
“Don’t.” His throat bobs. “Don’t touch me.”
“Okay.” I blink back tears. Useless. I’m fucking useless. “Are you—? What did—?”
The words die on my tongue as I look over the blue patches littering every inch of his exposed skin. They look like a mixture between bruises and scabs, and I can only imagine how painful they are. I’ve never seen anything like it…and I’ve seen a lot.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. It doesn’t fix anything.
Adam shuts his eyes, and I place myself between him and the door in a sad attempt to protect him. I’m a decent fighter. I’ll do my best.
I count.
Almost an hour passes before Adam drags himself up off the floor. He stumbles to the toilet, and the thick scent of his pee fills the room. He hasn’t been given food or water in days. It shows.
Humans can only go three days without water. I doubt shifters can go much longer.
Adam lies back down on the ground after flushing the toilet, a pained groan pouring from his throat.
“What happened?” I finally work up the courage to ask.
Adam snorts, the sound ending in a light cough. “They took me to medical and ripped out all my fucking teeth.”
Well, shit. I thought they would scan his mouth first. Then they’d see that I was lying and would decide to leave his teeth alone. That was wishful thinking.
I scoot closer, then hook my finger into Adam’s bottom lip. He lets me pull it down, his warm breath hitting my finger as I examine his mouth. Everything looks normal.
“You regenerate teeth?” I ask.
“Seems so.”
I lick my lips. “And they did this in medical?”
Does he understand what I’m truly asking?
Adam gives a jerky nod. “Yes.”
“Then what?”
Adam shakes his head, refusing to answer. He doesn’t want to talk about it. I understand.
His splotchy skin gradually settles, the blue patches fading and his veins retreating into his skin. He eventually sits up and lies on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
I stare at him, only looking away when somebody begins to enter the room. Haven’t they done enough for today?
Adam stands, his legs shaking as Daniel pushes open the door. He’s alone, and Adam quickly slips between us. I curl my fingers into the back of Adam’s shirt before nudging him aside, not wanting to start trouble.
Daniel doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t even move away from the door. He just stands there. Staring. His eyes are puffy, and the muscles of his jaw shift as he grinds his teeth.
Something’s wrong.
My gaze falls to his hands. They’re trembling.
Daniel’s not emotional—never like this.
I crack a smile, meeting his gaze. “I suppose leadership has decided to kill me, then.”
I make it sound like a joke, but we all know it isn’t.
Daniel draws in a breath, and Adam curls a hand around my wrist. I eye the door behind Daniel, waiting for soldiers to pour in. Are they going to do it now?
Leadership knows I’m compromised. I haven’t tricked them into believing anything, not that it would’ve mattered. They had one singular conversation with me, then stuck me in a cell with a shifter. I was always marked for death.
Daniel clears his throat. “They never intended to let you live.”
“Then why put me in this cell?” I ask. “Why wait?”
Daniel blinks, his gaze falling to my stomach. My stomach? Then he glances at the camera in the corner of the room. I force down a laugh. This is a joke, and Daniel is a fucking coward.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” I argue. Desperation laces my tone. We don’t have a plan yet. I need more time. “I’m a human…an American. I have rights!”
Daniel doesn’t meet my eye. “You’re Alpha Knox’s fated mate.”
“So? That’s not a crime. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Daniel steps forward. He’s within arm’s reach, and my heart races as I smell his cologne. It’s a musky, earthy scent. He’s worn it for as long as I’ve known him.
Adam bristles as Daniel enters our personal space.
I refuse to show fear. Daniel’s not going to hurt me. I’m standing beside an unrestrained, undrugged shifter, and Daniel doesn’t have a death wish.
“We chipped you.” Daniel’s words don’t immediately make sense.
Daniel glances at Adam, then extends his arm. He maintains eye contact with Adam as he touches me, poking a spot near my collarbone. “It’s minuscule, and we disguised it as a bone fragment. That’s why we chose to break your collarbone.”
Chipped?
What?
“I’m sorry, Evelyn,” Daniel continues. “We were always listening.”
His voice feels loud in the otherwise silent room. I’ve been chipped. They’ve been listening to me. The entire time.
Every conversation.
Every thought spoken out loud.
Every mistake.
Adam pulls me away, a low rumble pouring from his throat. It’s a threat. I’m sure we all recognize it.
Daniel backs up a step. There’s no mistaking the fear in his eye as he regards Adam. If he thinks Adam is scary, he’d shit himself if he ever came face to face with Caleb. My mate would rip him apart.
“I tried,” Daniel admits. “I really did.”
“This is murder.” My voice cracks despite myself.
“I know.”
Daniel leaves, the door slamming shut behind him. I stare at the ground, then slowly lower myself onto the bed. Adam joins me, his shoulder brushing against mine.
I never wanted this life. I didn’t ask for it.
My death will be silent, done with as little drama as possible. Word will spread, but leadership will twist the story to offset blame. They’ll say I succumbed to the injuries I sustained during my capture. Or that I attacked a soldier who had no choice but to defend himself.
They can, and will, get away with this. They always do.
Adam lies on the bed, pulling me on top of him. He’s acting like nothing has changed, but everything has.
“Sleep,” he orders.
I lay my head on his chest and stare at the wall on the other side of the room. Adam’s heart is steady beneath my ear, the beating comforting. He doesn’t seem panicked. Do he and Caleb have a plan? I sure fucking hope so.
What would my life be like if I’d never encountered HPAW? Would I have found the shifters? Would they have brought me to Caleb? He would’ve been about thirteen when I ran into the woods in search of him
I bet Caleb was an asshole of a teenager.
His parents were still alive. I don’t know how they died. I never asked.
I touch my collarbone. There’s a small bump underneath my skin, directly where Daniel pointed. I frown, dragging my fingers over it. My collarbone was swollen and painful for the first few weeks in the shifter lands, so I avoided touching it.
I trail my thumb around the fragment. The hard lump is small, almost the size of a grain of rice. It moves when I press into it. If I noticed it before, I would’ve assumed it was a bone fragment.
Adam brushes my hand aside, then feels for himself.
I bury my forehead against his chest, struggling to recall anything I may have ever overheard about chipping humans. It would make sense they’d chip me, doesn’t it? What information does this convey? My location? Audio? It’s under the skin, so definitely not visual.
I have no idea what technology HPAW is capable of.
Adam continues to prod at the spot, his chest unmoving. Is he breathing?
Has he come to the same painful conclusion that I have?
I’m HPAW’s informant. I always have been.