Stray Echo

Escape

POV: Echo

The room erupts into the snarling, roaring, and shouting of multiple wolves as they rush into the room. Brady’s wolf slams him back into complete control, and Brady’s fingertips extend into razor-sharp claws. He digs them into my arms, dragging me upwards as he stands up. Extracting them to flip me around so that I face them, he then pulls me tightly against his chest.

He grips my throat, prepared to rip it out should the need arise, while his other hand pulls up and buttons his jeans. Then he wraps his arms around me and digs his claws into me, holding me tightly. I stifled the cries of pain from his claws, tears falling silently, as I watched the men in front of me fan out.

Beta John and his father, Beta Seth, stood to one side, faces pale and eyes exploding with rage as they saw my living space for the first time, and took in the scene before them. Beta Travis and Delta Blaze stood on the other side, their furious wolves just beneath the surface.

The major contributor of the furious snarls was Zev, standing in the middle, teeth bared and saliva dripping. His aura is deadly, rolling out in suffocating waves of pure malice directed at the man behind me.

Disoriented and weak, Tala and I couldn’t help but whimper, taking gasping breaths as our knees buckled, bowing our head to the side and exposing our neck to all the powerful men and their auras in the room.

We can feel their auras pull back immediately and are able to breathe normally again. Brady jerks me sharply, and we weakly try to support our own weight. Zev growls lowly, and a protective aura washes over me, calming me slightly. I stared at him, desperate to be back in the safety of his arms. Beta Travis speaks first.

“Alpha Brady, we demand that you take your hands off of our Luna, Echo, and allow her to return to our pack to take her rightful place.” Alpha Brady rests his chin on my shoulder, enjoying the reaction it pulls from the other wolves.

“And if I don’t want to give you my Little Doll?” He drawls, tightening his hold around my throat, the tips of his claws drawing pinpricks of blood. Zev’s furious snarl rips through the room, and Delta Blaze speaks next.

“Then you will not leave this room alive.” He states, his voice lethally calm. Brady barks out a laugh.

“I will rip her throat out before any of you can even make it near me.” He laughs even harder, and the wolves across from us tense as they share a look, trying to think of how to get me out of here safely.

“However, if you all move aside and allow us to pass without interfering, I will allow her to live.” He states, and I catch the fact that he didn’t say he would allow me to go with them. I am not the only one to notice, as the men’s wolves push to the surface.

As they fight for control, Alpha Brady becomes impatient.

“Move or she dies!” he snarls. He tightens his grip on my throat, choking me, and I claw at his hand uselessly, desperate for air. The wolves spring into action and scramble across the room.

He loosens his hold just enough for me to breathe. Zev’s hackles are raised, and the only thing keeping him from attacking is his concern for my safety. His eyes follow us across the room as Brady drags me along, keeping me angled between him and the angry men in the room.

We make it to the stairs, and he drags me up them backwards. Every time he lifts me up a step, it slams the splint on my broken ankle into the step below. By the time we reached the top of the stairs, my whimpers turned into cries of pain with each step.

Zev stands on the bottom landing, not daring to follow up the stairs in case it sets Brady off. We stop at the top of the landing, and he seems to debate what to do next. Suddenly, with no warning, he picks me up and tosses me down the stairs.

A scream rips through me and I squeeze my eyes shut as I unexpectedly fly through the air, dropping to what I’m certain is a world of pain. Instead, the air whooshes out of my lungs as I collide with two brawny arms and a broad chest.

The tingling sensation of the mate bond tells me that Atlas was able to shift in time to catch me before I slammed into the cement floor below. I whimper as my broken wrist and ankle are jarred, shooting pain up my leg and arm.

I sobbed in relief as I breathed in the calming scent of damp forest and fresh coffee, felt him gently touch his lips to my cheek, whispering gentle words to calm me.

“I’ve got you, Little Warrior. You’re safe now!” He tells me as he retreated a few steps back. I opened my eyes and looked around, realizing we had stepped back into the basement, and he was completely naked.

“No! No, no, please, no! Please, please, not here, no!” I screamed, completely panicked, sobbing uncontrollably before wrenching myself free from his arms.

Staggering, I managed a few panicked steps toward the door before collapsing on the floor. I can’t be trapped down here with another Alpha who wants to force himself upon me. I push down the pain of my broken limbs and feebly try to drag myself across the floor.

“Get that door open!” The Alpha shouts, and I can hear an odd banging noise coming from the top of the stairs. I saw him move next to me, keeping himself covered and moving slowly as though approaching a wounded animal.

“Echo, I am not going to hurt you, and I am not keeping you down here. We are leaving this room just as soon as my men get the upper door open. It is blocked, and we have men coming to open it from the other side as we speak.” He says gently, slowly moving into position to pick me up bridal style from the floor. I tremble, my whole body telling me this naked Alpha is safe, my mind refusing to trust another naked man in this basement. He stops, sensing my inner turmoil, and sits back, looking around before calling out,

“John! Seth! We need clothes!” I hadn’t even seen them still in the room, and they rushed forward. They grab each of us fresh clothes from the basket of spares kept on the treeline. The Alpha quickly gets dressed and kneels before me with clothes for me. When I see he is no longer naked, my panic subsides.

“Can I take your ripped shirt off, Little Warrior?” He asks, and I look down in shock. My chest is fully exposed. I covered myself with my good hand and looked up at his brilliant green eyes. Suddenly, I am slammed with the realization that it’s Atlas, and I am safe. I nodded quickly, embarrassed that everyone in the room had seen me like that.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice hoarse from screaming and crying. He gives me a small smile and wipes my tears, letting me know I have nothing to apologize for. He tenderly helps me out of his ripped shirt, and ever so carefully dresses me. Getting my broken wrist into the fresh shirt pulls a series of whimpers and cries from me. By the time I was dressed, Travis called down the stairs.

“The door is open! He’s gone, took off like the coward he is!”. Atlas holds his arms out toward me, showing he would like to carry me. I hold my good arm up, indicating for him to pick me up, and he scoops me off the floor, careful of my injuries.

“Let’s get Cordelia to check you over quickly and get the hell out of this place.” He growls, dashing up the stairs.