An Unwavering Promise--Completed

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Alexander’s POV

Hearing Mr. Smith’s grating voice over the intercom made my blood boil. I could also feel Hunter squirming around in irritation as well. Though I couldn’t speak with my wolf, due to whatever Mr. Smith had done; I could still barely feel him, which was comforting.

As Mr. Smith was rattling on, my mind was spinning with what I should do. It was obvious that my mate was drugged out of her mind and was being compelled to talk about the one thing we really shouldn’t talk about, so I couldn’t count on her help. If it hadn’t been for Eleanor’s quick thinking earlier, the fog clouding my mind would have never cleared, and I wouldn’t have seen the situation for what it was. I was kicking myself for not noticing it before I left her with the scumbag to begin with. Mr. Smith was a mere human who had been possessed by a demon. There was no possible way that he would be doing this to us otherwise. This agency’s sole purpose was to protect the endangered species, which included the dragons. I had worked with this man for almost 10 years, and he certainly wasn’t acting like the Mr. Smith I knew.

However, I needed to focus on the problem at hand: getting both myself and my mate out of here. It was still only the two of us in the room, which boded well for us. Mr. Smith said that he heard everything we said, but not necessarily that he saw everything we did. My mind raced further as I used one hand to keep Eleanor’s mouth shut and the other to search for the tunnel she had carved out behind the cloth covering the padded wall. If I didn’t get us out of here now, then everything we’d worked for over the course of the last year meant nothing.

Eleanor pushed my hand away, glaring at me.

“Thah was ruuude,” she said. “I waz trying to-to tok. I don’t wanna to forget my sentence!”

Pausing my search for the tunnel, I grabbed both her hands in mind and pulled her gently forward so that her forehead was resting against mine.

“I’m sorry I was rude, my love. I just really need you to keep quiet right now. You’re not yourself. They’ve drugged you in order to get you to talk about a subject I know you really don’t want to speak on. Trust me,” I pleaded.

She pursed her lips, thinking. “But I wanna tok about the Dragons. Why shouldn’ I? They’re so cool an big an fly-y. I mean–”

Sighing, I placed my hand against her mouth again. This was going nowhere. I needed to focus on getting ourselves out of this room before Mr. Smith’s men arrived to take Eleanor away and let her talk freely.

Turning back around, I stuck my hands into the hole Eleanor had made in the white cloth and searched to the left. I felt around until there was suddenly a large, gaping hole. I allowed myself a moment of celebration before tearing the cloth away.

“–an how dey just flew away togheter. It waz so beau–be-u-te-ful. Wha waz that?” Eleanor turned to me, her eyes going wide.

“What was what?” Mr. Smith said over the intercom. “Eleanor, I need you to continue telling me about the beautiful dragon you saw flying. Where was he going?”

Silence followed, and Mr. Smith waited another moment before asking, “Eleanor? Why did you stop talking? I’ll send someone to help jog your memory if you don’t continue.”

I started to climb into the hole and beckoned her to follow me. Thankfully, she had enough cognitive function to do just that. I then crawled through the too tight tunnel, trying my best to stay quiet, so as to not give away our plan before someone arrived to see the gaping hole in the wall. I heard Mr. Smith’s call out for Eleanor several more times. The clock had started on our daring escape. I climbed through until I hit a dead end. It was pitch black, so I used my wolf-given senses to feel along the wall, searching for another way out. There’s no way Eleanor would have sent this plan in motion with an unfinished escape plan, right? Right?

I searched more frantically before finally finding a cut seam. I used my fore finger to trace the cut, which made a square. I readied my fist and hit it against the wall several times. It resisted at first, but fell to the floor with a loud thud. Grimacing, I paused and listened for movement, while trying to figure out where we were in the building. Using my mental map of the place, I deduced that we were in the deep, underground floors. This didn’t bode well for us; however, it wasn’t the worst scenario. There was always a way to get out, it was part of the building’s security measures.

Pulling Eleanor out into the hallway with me, I sprinted down to almost the end. Looking up at the ceiling, I counted 21 tiles. Jumping up, I punched the ceiling tile, causing it to send dust raining down on us before toppling to the ground. Eleanor watched me with big eyes. The drugs were still in full force, but she wasn’t talking, which made me think that perhaps she was trying to fight it off.

“Listen,” I said to her. “Can you help me up?”

“Yeaah. I tink so.”

She stumbled over to where I pointed, and I helped her clasp her hands together to form a make-shift foot hold.

“Ready?” I asked.

She nodded, and I placed my foot into her hands. I then lunged into the air, just barely grabbing onto the iron bar that served as the first rung in the ladder up into the maze of tunnels that would hopefully lead to our escape. I climbed up a few rungs to steady myself, but left my foot dangling for her to grab onto.

Looking down, I watched as Eleanor picked herself up from the floor. She was still very unsteady on her feet.

“Can you get the ceiling tile and bring it with you as you climb onto me?” I whispered.

Without answering, I saw her take a few steps towards the tile and pick it up. A loud banging noise startled both of us, and she dropped the tile. The lock next to her started twisting, and someone was yelling behind the door. Eleanor froze.

“My love, please. Grab the tile and then my leg. I’ll pull you up,” I said, my anxiety rising with every word.

She stared up at me. Another bang sounded behind a different door. She jumped, and then grabbed the tile and held onto my leg. I pulled us both up, and she dropped the tile into place as we heard a concinnity of voices flood the hallway below us.

Both of us let out sighs of relief as we began climbing up the ladder. That had been way too close for comfort. Shaking my head and doing my best to slow my overactive heart, I headed up to the top of the ladder, where the tunnel turned into metal ducting. Catching Eleanor’s eye, I mimed being quiet, by placing one finger over my lips and then continued down the duct. We spent several minutes picking our way through the tunnel as quietly as possible. It was slow, and after a few minutes, an alarm sounded throughout the entire building. It was then that I knew that the whole building would be looking for us.

Looking through each vent we passed by, I was able to piece together where we were. The tunnel made us climb up and then back down, so having a view into the rooms below us helped me figure out which way to go when faced with an intersection. After a few turns, I leaned down near the vent in order to get a better look of the room below to determine whether we should go left or right. Two guards in a security room caught my eye. They were talking.

“Dude! The whole place is getting turned upside because of him. I knew Alexander was a badass, but I didn’t realize he could evade Azezul. He’s gotta be so pissed right now,” one guard laughed.

“Yeah, but this is crap. I thought we’d be able to get out of these meat suits by next week! When Azezul took that human form, he promised we’d be in and out as soon as we grabbed the she-wolf. Not only were we supposed to learn of the location of the key, but we were supposed to get intel on how to defeat the dragons. Azezul isn’t going to be the only one pissed. When Nathan finds out–”

The first guard gave the second a silencing glare. “Shut the f**k up,” he hissed. “The walls have ears. You can’t just say things like that.”

The second guard shrugged. “You can’t seriously believe that. We have the stupid orcs totally fooled. And soon, we’ll have the werewolves running too. We already got that vampire lord on our side. And as soon as the second platoon overruns the silly Alpha Summit, it’ll be game over, and Azelun will rule over all. The dragons will go into hiding once more, but this time, we’ll be the victors. The humans will be served on gold platters. The age of the demons will come forth!”

“We don’t have everything in place just yet. That’s the future we dream of, but until it’s here, I’m not going to celebrate just yet. Losing these two werewolves wasn’t part of the plan.”

“Yeah, whatever. It’s only a matter of time. I just wish I could be there to see the faces of those stupid mutts when the platoon attacks and kills their leaders. So much blood. So much fun. Instead, we’re stuck here monitoring these useless cameras.”

The first guard turned his attention back to the television screens in front of them. “Just think about the reward we’ll get if we see them sneaking out. Azezul already posted a reward for whoever catches them. So, keep your eyes peeled.”

They went quiet, and I motioned for us to continue forward. We were almost out, and now, we had a lot of useful information on our hands. We made our way through the maze until reaching a metal grate that blocked our path. I saw a grey sky and moving traffic. Choosing to risk it all for our freedom, I switched myself around and used my feet to kick against it. Pushing against the metal frame once more, I heard the screws give up and punch out, taking the frame with it. I quickly crawled out and helped Eleanor down onto the street. It was noisy and cold, but the wind hit my face, and I couldn’t help but break into a smile. We had made it out. I knew the chase wasn’t over yet, but we had a head start. Eleanor looked over at me with a matching grin.

“My head feels so much better,” she said. “Rae is back. In an instant, I feel normal again.”

“That’s good. Now, we just need to get to the Alpha Summit as quickly as possible,” I replied as she nodded.

Time is of the essence. The summit is about to begin without you both.

Nice to hear from you too, Hunter. No warm, fuzzy greeting for me?

Hunter ‘humph-ed’ at me, and I grabbed Eleanor’s hand in mine.

“Let’s go.”