Freed by the Alphas

1. Cherry

Cherry

Idon’t know how much time passes. It seems like hours before I feel Blaze turn onto an unpaved road, the car bouncing around as he slows down. I’ve been sedated for the entire trip. Only in the past five minutes have I felt my fingers start to tingle with awareness.

Not enough that I will be able to fight back, run, or even stand yet. From experience, I think I have about ten minutes before I can start to move. Hopefully, wherever we’re going is at least ten minutes away.

That hope is crushed when, almost immediately after having that thought, Blaze pulls to a stop and parks the car, switching off the engine.

He turns, looking at me over his shoulder, then gives me that crazy smile of his as he tells me, “Honey, we’re home!”

This guy is nuts. How can he think I would want anything to do with him?

He climbs out of the car, opens my door, and lifts me out. Again, he throws me over his shoulder, which gives me a view of nothing but his back. But I do get a glimpse of a large chain-link fence and a small, one-story building.

The facility.

I never looked back at it when I ran, and it definitely didn’t have a fence, so either this is a different one, or they’ve upgraded the security.

Even though I don’t recognize it, I know wholeheartedly what this place is.

For one, Blaze already told me he was bringing me here, but I can also feel it.

The air here is charged with malice and ill intent.

I might be projecting my own feelings on what this place thinks they represent: science and innovation. Either way, I start to internally scream at my limbs to start working. I know that if he gets me inside, it’s going to be extremely hard to escape.

But before I know it, I hear a door open, and the cool touch of air conditioning hits me.

“Jackson, Monroe,” Blaze says in greeting, but he doesn’t stop walking, and I am still unable to see anything.

“You finally got her,” one of them says in surprise.

“Yep,” Blaze says happily. “Just had to wait for my mate to be ready for me.”

What does that mean?

“Is the doc in?” Blaze asks, redirecting my train of thought as my body starts to tremble. The sedative must be wearing off if I’m shaking.

“Yeah, he’s down there somewhere,” one of the new voices says as a beep sounds. A door opens, then we’re moving down a set of stairs.

Whether this facility is a new one, or my old one, it doesn’t matter. I know what awaits me at the bottom of those stairs. Dark hallways with cold cells. Guards with grabby hands and a lab with a deranged doctor.

“Almost there, Three,” Blaze says, patting my butt. I bare my teeth and growl, surprised when the sound comes out loud and angry.

He continues to move as I start turning my head back and forth, testing the movement that’s coming back. I clench both hands and start to wiggle my toes in Bain’s large socks.

“Doc, guess who’s here!” Blaze singsongs happily before a door smacks open loudly.

“Jesus, Blaze. What have I told you about—Oh.”

I could never forget that voice, the man who takes a front row seat in my nightmares, who tortured me for over a decade without any sort of remorse.

Blaze drops me, a little too hard, on a familiar metal table. Lying on my back, I’m able to turn my head.

There he is, Dr. J, looking exactly how I remember him, and yet, he somehow looks less imposing, less scary. I’m terrified, yes, but there’s a part of me that’s furious with him and refuses to cower.

“Is this her?” Dr. J asks, taking a small step closer as his eyes roam up and down my body. I’m still dressed in Maddox’s shirt and Gage’s boxers and wonder if it’s their scents that are helping me from completely breaking down. Even the twins' scents are still on me.

“Yep. This is zero zero three in her human form.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her,” he says, his eyes lingering on my face. “I almost forgot there was a person in there.”

“A person you tortured,” I grit out as I try to sit up. It takes me a few attempts, and he watches with interest. It bothers me that he doesn’t seem bothered by my ability to move. Does no one see me as a threat?

Is that because I’m an omega? Does he know?

“For science,” Dr. J says, his shoulders squaring as he quickly glances at Blaze.

“Okay, she’s here. Can you bond us now?” Blaze asks as he steps up beside me and grabs my hand in his. I try to pull my hand away, but his grip is tight and painful. Then I realize what he just said.

Bond?

I look at the doctor, unable to hide my fear as I wait to see what he says. He presses his lips together as he glances between us. “I really need to run a full panel of tests on her first. We don’t know what’s happened to her since she’s been gone.”

“But you promised we could be together. That you can bond us together forever,” Blaze says, pouting like a toddler.

Does Blaze seriously not know how mate bonds work? He’s a wolf shifter. I can smell that on him now that his scent blocker seems to be wearing off. His burnt vanilla scent is starting to stink up the room.

He can force a bond by knotting and biting me. He doesn’t need Dr. J. Not that I’m going to be the one to tell him that. I’d rather die.

A sudden surge of fear pools in my chest. But it’s not mine. It’s my mates. Why are they so scared? Did they just realize I’ve been taken?

Slowly, I place my free hand on my chest and feel my ring hanging beneath my shirt. A spark of excitement stirs within me. I’m still wearing my tracker.

They’re coming for me.

“And I will,” Dr. J says, and I get the feeling he’s just placating Blaze. Does he even know how to force a bond? “I just need to make sure she can handle it first.”

“Of course she can,” Blaze scoffs before clutching my hand tighter, making me wince. “We’re fated mates. I was created for her, specifically.”

I need to avoid mating with Blaze at all costs. I have no idea what permanent effects that would have on me or my other bonds. Does he even know I’m bonded to them? He’s delusional enough that he might not have noticed my mate marks yet.

Deciding to try to delay anything they have planned, I turn to Dr. J as I ask, “What are you going to do to me?”

A slow smile spreads across his cruel face as he pushes his glasses up his nose. “I haven’t heard your voice in so long. It’s changed a lot. As have you,” he says, his eyes roaming over me once more.

I realize this might be my chance to get some answers. And there is one that’s been burning a hole in my mind for ten long years.

“What did you do to me?” I ask, my voice coming out shaky despite my anger.

His brows pinch ever so slightly as he asks, “Do to you?”

“To make me keep coming back? To stop me from dying,” I spit out.

His eyebrows slowly raise in surprise before he starts laughing. “My dear, I didn’t do anything to you.”

“Of course you did!” I yell angrily, hating that he can’t admit it to me now that I finally have the voice to ask.

He gives me a smile filled with pity and shakes his head. “Didn’t you ever wonder why we kept you and not your family?” I suck in a sharp breath at the mention of them. Because, of course I had. I wondered that every day I was imprisoned by him.

He just stares at me with that look of pity as I try to figure out what he’s trying to tell me. “I don’t understand,” I finally grit out.

“I did not make you immortal,” he says gently. “You were born that way.”

My mind flashes back to that dreaded day in the forest with my family ten years ago. Everything happened so fast. I remember the gunshots ringing out, the silence, a burning pain behind my ear…

My free hand reaches up to where the first of my heart marks must be. How had I forgotten about that? Is it true? Did I die that day along with my family? Except I came back to life. They didn’t.

Why?

“What is that?” Dr. J asks angrily, his eyes narrowing in on my hand that’s touching my neck. Stepping toward me, he yanks my hand toward him and stares down at my wrist where my mate mark is clearly visible.

“You idiot!” he hisses at Blaze.

“What?”

“She bonded with another wolf!”

Blaze’s eyes go wide and he shakes his head. “No, she couldn’t have! You told me she’s my mate, that I was made for her.”

“Foolish boy,” the doctor says angrily, throwing my hand back at me as he turns toward the bench behind him.

He spins toward me, holding a large dagger, and I quickly try to move backward to climb off the other side of the bench, but Blaze grabs me and pulls me against his chest as he asks, “What are you doing, doc?”

“Her mate can sense her. He may even be able to track her through the bond. We don’t know what sort of powers she has.”

I don’t have any time to process what he says as he steps closer and tells Blaze, “Hold her still. Let’s make this quick.”

“Blaze, no! Don’t do this, please!” I beg. If he really thinks we’re fated mates, he’ll protect me.

He holds me tighter, securing my arms to my sides and making sure my chest is unobscured by the doctor.

“Three,” Blaze says with a sigh, as if I’m the one who doesn’t understand. “If you have a mate bond with someone else, we need to sever it.”

“No!” I cry, tears streaming down my cheeks as I struggle to break free.

Wolves can’t reform bonds. Once they’re gone, that’s it.

“Blaze, if you care about me at all, you won’t let him do this!” I tell him as I use my free foot to try to kick the doctor away.

“It’s because I care that I’m doing this,” he says as he moves one arm around my neck, the other around my stomach.

He starts to squeeze so tightly that I’m unable to breathe.

I try to turn my head, but he squeezes harder, his mouth right by my ear as he whispers, “That’s it, just go to sleep. It will all be over soon.”

I realize he’s planning to strangle me to death. Does he think this is a mercy over stabbing me? Before I can contemplate that any further, my vision darkens as I grasp at consciousness. Hoping I’ll be able to slip from his arms, I shift into my wolf form, but Blaze only holds me tighter.

Unable to move, to get out of his grasp, I resign myself to what comes next. Images of my mates fill my mind. Maddox’s sweetness, Hunter’s empathy, Gage’s intelligence, Chase’s playfulness, and Bain’s protectiveness.

I pray that no matter what happens to me, Maddox, Bain, and Gage survive this. They’ll survive the loss of a mate bond.

Hoping that somehow, wherever they are, they’ll be able to hear me, I yell through the bond, “I love you!” Right before Dr. J lifts the knife and stabs it straight into my heart.

So much for a merciful death.