Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
“Come on, Sophia. Let’s do this.”
I bounced out the side door of Chuck’s van the second it came to a stop—and not just because I was excited to get started.
Our ex-smuggler guide hadn’t been lying when he said he could deliver us to the spot where Hannah Carter had been taken. But what he had left out was just how rough a ride it would be to get there…and I don’t just mean the road.
For thirty long minutes, Sophia and I had to tuck ourselves between stacks of farm equipment and sacks of manure, hiding as Chuck paid military guards to look the other way.
Then we held on for dear life as he took us on an off-road adventure, slamming his rickety old van into every bump and divot along the way, all the while rattling off a list of rules and dangers he hadn’t mentioned before.
We’d only have the time between perimeter patrols to record—fifteen minutes tops. If they caught us, there’d be hell to pay. The kind that even Josh’s money couldn’t bail us out of.
But Sophia was worried about a different kind of threat.
“Does anybody know how the alpha who took Hannah escaped the Wilds?” she asked when Chuck started describing the brutal murder scene we were about to arrive at.
“Sure,” he answered. “The ferus have a network of tunnels running along the Wall. How did you think they moved the goods we brought in and out of here?”
Fascinating. That would be a great detail to put into the story.
“Can you show us one of these tunnels?” I asked Chuck, using my sweetest voice.
But it was no good. He wasn’t swayed.
“No way,” he said firmly. “That’s a trade secret. If the government finds and fills those tunnels, my friends would go out of business.”
That was understandable.
But even if Chuck wouldn’t show me one of these tunnels, I could still talk about them. After all, those were the kinds of little tidbits that captured people’s imaginations.
While I was mulling over how to fit a mention of the tunnels into the little time we had, Sophia fixated on more practical concerns.
“Are you saying those tunnels are still open?” She sounded horrified.
“Yep,” Chuck answered.
“So another alpha could come through and wipe all three of us out tonight?”
Chuck didn’t look too concerned.
“Nah,” he said. “Those other two must have done something real stupid to lure the ferus over to our side of the Wall. But you ladies aren’t planning anything stupid, are you?”
“Of course not,” I assured him…and myself.
We were just shooting a quick video. How much trouble could we possibly get into in just fifteen minutes?
I coaxed Sophia out of the van and handed over my phone. I already had all the apps fired up and ready. But Sophia’s brows pulled together as she looked down at the social media livestreams.
“You want this to go out live?”
I nodded.
If the show was going to go viral, then we needed to start building buzz right away. I couldn’t think of anything more attention-grabbing than a live (and no doubt illegal) broadcast from the spot where Hannah had been grabbed.
It was exciting stuff.
But Sophia didn’t look excited. She just looked scared. Terrified, really.
And I couldn’t blame her.
We were trespassing on military lands, standing next to the Wall, shooting a video where a woman had been kidnapped and a man killed. Fear was no doubt the more appropriate emotion. I was just too excited to feel it.
My dreams of success were finally coming true, and I wasn’t about to let nerves ruin the moment.
“You ready?” I asked Sophia one last time.
“Yeah,” she answered in a shaky voice. “In five…four…three…”
She counted me in, as I straightened my spine.
“Good evening,” I started. “My name is Felicity Waite, and tonight I’m here to give you a taste of a fascinating story. A story that’s filled with mystery and sorrow. Of beauty and bloodshed. A story that’s ending is still being written as I speak.”
Okay…
We were ten seconds in, and everything was going just fine. So far, I’d managed to remember the lines I’d thrown together in my head while driving. I hadn’t mangled a single one.
“A few days ago, I was lucky enough to attend the opening night gala for the Beyond the Wall of the Wilds photo exhibition at the Howard and Somerset Gallery in Los Angeles. I found the story behind the first publicly displayed photographs of the ferus and their territory was life-changing. In fact, I was so inspired that I jumped into my car and drove hundreds of miles to come here—to the place where these incredible events took place.”
I tried to sneak a glance at Sophia’s expression, just to gauge how I was doing, but the light mounted on top of the phone camera was blinding. I couldn’t see a damn thing.
It looked like I was going to have to trust my gut.
“So tonight, we are broadcasting from the Wall. From the exact spot where the photographer Hannah Carter and her friend were attacked by a ferus—a gigantic alpha who had escaped the wilderness behind this towering wall of concrete.”
I turned to the side so Sophia could pan the camera along the seemingly endless ribbon of grey.
“The details of what happened that night are fuzzy. But there are a few things we know for certain. One is that Hannah Carter was kidnapped by a ferus. Another is that her friend, a member of the military police from the nearby camp, was murdered. But the biggest mystery about that night remains—what was behind those attacks.”
I paused. Drew in a deep breath. Gave the audience a moment to ponder the question for themselves.
“There are those who say it was simple blood lust, a savage alpha simply following his violent nature. Others believe the ferus must have been provoked. Some even theorize that it was insatiable lust that drove the creature to abduct Hannah that night. But no matter the reason, the effects of that horrible night can still be felt here. Not just here by the Wall, but in the little town of Goldwood, where the scars of loss are still fresh.”
For the next few minutes, I talked about the strange contrast between the horrors of that bloody night and the beauty in Hannah’s photographs. The words flowed through me with surprising ease. My nerves and excitement had retreated into the background. I was in the zone.
I felt alive.
I’d been stuck in survival mode for so long that I’d forgotten what it was like. How effortless each breath could feel. How locked in and quiet my head could be. It was amazing.
Even if the podcast never took off, I knew I wanted to keep going. I wanted to tell stories like this. Real stories that mattered. This feeling of pride and accomplishment had been the missing piece in my life, the prize I’d always been reaching for but never able to grasp.
And now that my dreams were finally in my hands, I would never let anyone rip them away from me.
“Our guide has said we can only risk being out in the open like this for a few minutes, but if you liked what you’ve seen tonight, and you want to know more, make sure you subscribe to this channel so we can alert you when the first episodes of our podcast go live.”
Sophia mumbled something I couldn’t quite make out. Probably signaling to me that it was time to wrap it up.
So, that’s what I started to do.
“And if you want to discover more about this project, head over to our website at?—”
“Felicity!”
Sophia’s panicked scream ripped through the night. The phone slipped down just far enough for me to catch her expression behind the blinding spotlight. Her mouth hung open in shock, her eyes wide with abject horror, her gaze fixed on a point just over my shoulder.
Throat closing with fear, I spun around to see what she was staring at.
Whatever it was moved fast. My eyes could barely process the hulking form rushing out of the shadowy night and into the light. All I caught was a blur of dark hair and thick muscle before instinct took over.
I turned to run, to jump out of the way of the giant barreling down on me, but it was no good. Shock and panic had short-circuited my nervous system. My knees refused to bend. My feet could only stumble. Clouds of russet dust kicked up around me as my limbs flailed.
What the hell was happening?
I felt a hand clasp around my arm. A vise-like grip held me tight as my feet continued to kick wildly.
Was it the feds? The MPs? Had we been shut down before we’d had a real chance to get going? I wasn’t sure.
Not until I felt several sharp pains piercing my upper arm.
Five sharp pricks.
Like the tips of claws just barely breaking through the surface of my skin.
But people didn’t have claws.
At least regular people didn’t.
But I knew what did.
“Oh, God.” I breathed more than said the words, the air racing from my lungs in one big rush.
Behind me, I could hear Sophia screaming, begging for my release.
But I had a terrible feeling that wasn’t going to happen.
I was almost afraid to raise my head and look up into the eyes of the creature that held me fast. I didn’t want to admit the truth—that Sophia was right.
That I’d made a terrible mistake coming here.
That I’d underestimated the risks. That I’d been too focused on opportunity and not enough on the danger.
But it looked like I’d thumbed my nose at Fate for the last time.
Because when I looked up, it was straight into the black eyes of a raging alpha.