Chapter Five:Run
1686 Words
The hallway was empty.
Cora moved fast but quiet, bare feet silent on the cold marble. The shoes she'd grabbed were too big, slipping against her heels, so she'd kicked them off after the first corner. Better barefoot than clumsy.
The estate was massive. Hallway after hallway, doors she didn't dare open, staircases that led up when she needed down. She kept one hand on the wall, orienting herself, building a map in her head.
Find the ground floor. Find a door. Get outside. Figure out the rest later.
Voices floated from somewhere ahead. Low, male, laughing about something. She froze, pressing herself into an alcove, making her body small. Footsteps passed the adjacent corridor, two figures in dark clothing, not looking her way.
She waited until the sound faded. Then kept moving.
The staircase she found was narrow, tucked behind a door that looked like a closet. Servants' stairs. She took them two at a time, her hand gripping the railing, her heart loud in her ears.
Ground floor.
The hallway here was different. Less polished. Stone instead of marble. Functional. She smelled food, heard the distant clatter of pots. Kitchen. Which meant a back entrance. Deliveries. Garbage. A way out that wasn't the front door.
She followed the smell.
The kitchen was huge, industrial, stainless steel and bright lights. Empty now, or mostly empty. One woman stood at a sink with her back turned, washing something. Cora crept along the wall, staying low, moving toward the door on the far side. A small window at the top showing darkness beyond.
Outside. That's outside.
Ten feet. Five.
The woman at the sink didn't turn.
Cora's fingers closed around the handle.
It opened.
The night air hit her. Smelling of pine and wet earth. She didn't stop to breathe it in. Just ran.
The ground was rough under her feet. Gravel first, biting into her soles, then grass, then the soft give of forest floor. Trees rose around her, thick and dark, blocking out the moonlight. She couldn't see more than a few feet ahead.
It didn't matter. She kept running.
Branches whipped at her face, her arms. Something tore at her sleeve. Her lungs burned. Her legs screamed. She ignored all of it, pushing harder, faster, putting as much distance between herself and that house as possible.
Don't stop. Don't think. Just run.
She didn't know how long she ran. Minutes. Maybe longer. Time blurred into the rhythm of her feet, her breath, the pounding of her heart.
Then she saw it.
Lights. Faint, in the distance. Warm yellow glowing through the trees.
A road. A house. Something.
Hope sparked in her chest, hot and desperate. She pushed harder, ignoring the pain in her feet, the copper taste in her mouth.
The trees thinned. The lights grew brighter. She could see the shape of a structure now, low and long, maybe a gas station or a—
"Well, well."
The voice came from her right.
Cora skidded to a stop. Spun.
A man emerged from the shadows between the trees. Tall. Broad. A lazy smile on a face she didn't recognize. He wore jeans and a leather jacket, hands in his pockets like he was out for a casual stroll.
"Where do you think you're going, little human?"
She backed up. Her heel caught on a root. She stumbled but didn't fall.
"I'm not—" Her voice came out breathless, ragged. She forced it steady. "I'm just hiking. I got lost."
"Hiking." He laughed. "Barefoot. In the middle of the night. Three miles from the Volkov estate."
Another figure emerged from the trees. Then another. Three men total, forming a loose circle around her.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She kept her voice calm. Kept backing up. "I'm from the town. I was just—"
"You smell like him."
The first man stepped closer. His nostrils flared. That lazy smile sharpened into something hungrier.
"You reek of the Alpha. It's all over you." He tilted his head, studying her like she was something interesting he'd found under a rock. "You're the human everyone's been whispering about. The one he's keeping in the west wing."
Cora's back hit a tree. Nowhere else to go.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Let me pass and I won't—"
"Won't what?" He was close now. Too close. She could smell cigarettes on his breath, see the way his eyes caught the moonlight and reflected it back. Not human. None of them were human. "Tell someone? Scream?" He laughed again. "Go ahead. Scream. See who comes."
The other two moved closer. Flanking her. Cutting off any escape.
"The Alpha's gonna be pissed," one of them said. Shorter, stockier, with a scar running down his cheek. "We should take her back."
"We will." The first man reached out. His fingers brushed her jaw, tracing down to her throat. "Eventually."
Cora slapped his hand away.
The movement was instinct. she was so tired of being touched, being grabbed, being handled like she was property.
The man's expression flickered. Surprise. Then amusement.
"She's got teeth." He glanced at the others. "I like that."
"Don't touch me."
"Or what?"
She didn't have an answer. Didn't have a weapon. Didn't have anything except the fear pounding through her veins and the anger burning underneath it.
His hand shot out. Grabbed her arm. Yanked her forward so hard her shoulder screamed.
"Let's see how much fight you've really got."
Something cracked inside her chest.
That same feeling from the room, Heat building behind her ribs, pressure with nowhere to go.
The lights in the distance flickered.
All of them. The warm yellow glow stuttered, dimmed, flared bright, dimmed again.
The man holding her frowned. Looked toward the lights. Then back at her.
"What the—"
The pressure released.
Every light in the distance exploded.
Glass shattered. Sparks rained down. The night plunged into absolute darkness, broken only by the faint glow of the moon through the trees.
The man released her arm. Stepped back.
"What the f**k was that?"
Cora didn't know. Didn't care. She ran.
Blind now, crashing through the underbrush, branches tearing at her skin. She could hear them behind her, cursing, pursuing, their footsteps heavy and fast.
Too fast.
Something slammed into her from behind.
She hit the ground hard. The air punched out of her lungs. Weight pressed down on her back, crushing her into the dirt and leaves.
"Nice try." The voice was hot against her ear. The first man. He flipped her over, pinned her wrists above her head with one hand. "But you're not going anywhere."
Cora thrashed. Kicked. Her knee connected with his groin and he grunted, but his grip didn't loosen.
"Hold still, or I'll—"
"You'll what?"
The voice came from the darkness.
Low. Quiet. Cold enough to freeze the air in her lungs.
The man on top of her went rigid.
Footsteps. The crunch of leaves under expensive shoes.
Damien emerged from the shadows like he'd been carved from them. His face was expressionless. His eyes caught the moonlight, pale and flat and utterly empty.
He looked at the man pinning her down.
"Get off her."
The man scrambled backward so fast he nearly tripped over his own feet. The other two had already retreated, heads bowed, shoulders hunched looking Submissive.
Damien didn't look at them.
He looked at her.
Cora lay in the dirt, chest heaving, arms still raised above her head where the man had pinned them. Leaves in her hair. Blood on her feet. Shaking so hard her teeth chattered.
He extended a hand.
She didn't take it.
He reached down, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to her feet.
"Three miles." His voice was conversational. Almost pleasant. "Impressive, for a human."
"Let me go."
"No."
He turned to the three men. They flinched like he'd raised a weapon.
"You touched her."
The first man, the one who'd pinned her, opened his mouth. "Alpha, I was just—"
"You. Touched. Her."
Silence.
Damien smiled. It was the most terrifying thing she'd ever seen.
"Report to Marcus in the morning. All three of you. He'll handle your punishment." He tilted his head. "If you run, I'll find you. And I won't be as merciful as Marcus."
They disappeared into the trees without another word.
Damien's grip on her arm tightened. He started walking, pulling her with him.
"I can walk myself."
"You can barely stand."
"I said—"
He stopped. Turned. Those pale eyes bored into hers.
"You ran." His voice was soft. He leaned closer. "Do you know what would have happened if I hadn't arrived?"
She didn't answer.
"They would have hurt you. Badly. And then they would have brought you back to me, and I would have had to kill three of my own wolves for damaging something that belongs to me."
"I don't belong to you."
"Yes. You do."
He started walking again. She had no choice but to follow.
The estate emerged from the trees after what felt like hours. Her feet were bleeding. Her body ached. Her mind was numb, too exhausted to process anything except the need to put one foot in front of the other.
He didn't take her back to the west wing.
He took her down.
Stairs she hadn't seen before. Narrow. Stone. Leading into the bowels of the house, where the air grew colder and the walls pressed closer.
A door. Heavy. Iron.
He opened it. Pushed her inside.
The room was small. Bare concrete. A single light hanging from the ceiling. No windows. No furniture except a thin mattress on the floor.
Cora spun to face him.
"You can't—"
"Three days." His voice was ice. "No food. No visitors. No light after midnight." He stepped back into the doorway. "Maybe hunger and darkness will teach you what running costs."
"You're a monster."
"Yes."
The door closed and the lock engaged.
Cora stood in the center of the concrete room, shaking, bleeding and alone.
Then the light went out.
- Writer
