I know you all are excited to read this. See AN at the bottom.
She knew it was coming. Though she had no window to the outside she knew dawn wasn't far away, and when the light of the day finally breached the horizon she would be moved back to the stables, back to where it all began and where it all would end. She would make sure of it. She hadn't slept much the night before and instead had lay on her back on the floor, hands on her stomach, just thinking. Thinking of Maura, and Johnathan. Thinking of the ranch that had quickly become home but was now charred remains. She would end this, and she would get it all back. Every last piece no matter what it took.
Her musings were interrupted when she heard the click of the lock on her cell door. She didn't move, proceeded to act oblivious to her surroundings until she saw someone enter the room, at which point she scuttled to her feet and tried to back away from the people coming for her.
The first person to enter was the man Dr. Weller had called 'Mr. Ellis'. She wanted to like him, sort of. Considering whom he worked for she despised him but he had a gentler look about him. He must be new. And then it was her, the doctor, in all her glory. The doctor quickly stepped into the room and headed straight for her. She cowered as was expected of her.
"Well at least you still know who rules here. I have yet to figure out how you managed to survive, without a collar no less, around other people. It baffles me. It honestly does, and you should take that as a compliment Alpha, not many people or things can say they have baffled me."
The doctor reached down and with a firm grip grabbed Jane by the upper arm and pulled her to her feed. Jane resisted only enough to keep up the act but quickly fell into line. Once in the hallway she glaced to her left and right and saw one other person outside her cell. A man. She paid him no mind. She wasn't cuffed or hooded as she was walked from her cell. Head down she stared at the shoes of the person in front of her, Mr. Ellis she guessed, glad to at least not have to look at the ugly brown walls of the medical building they were in.
Soon enough they came to a door and went through it. The light momentarily blinded her but her eyes quickly adjusted and she took a cautious deep breath in. She missed the outside air. That was one thing she had plenty of on the ranch.
She flinched when she felt the hit to her upper thigh, from a baton no doubt. Reigning in her anger was harder to control than she had expected, especially when she saw it was Dr. Weller who wielded the instrument.
"Are you sure this one is an Alpha Dr. Weller? She doesn't look like much of anything to me. I cannot understand how she could possibly be smart enough to kill a mouse let alone another of her kind."
Jane didn't recognize the voice of the man speaking, he must have been the other one in their little group. Probably just another high roller, they had always been in and out when she was here.
"I assure you Mr. Rockmand that you have nothing to worry about. Let's get her walked over to the stables and installed back in her old quarters and then we can go discuss some things." Dr. Weller's tone sounded courteous but Jane could tell she was unhappy to have this man here.
They continued walking for another ten minutes before they came across a three-story building that was completely whitewashed. Upon entry Jane immediately recognized the smell, your standard blood, sweat, and tears. She had not missed this smell one bit.
Still playing the beaten dog Jane followed through remembered hallways and turns, gates and locks. Eventually stopping at a small room built with a see thru door.
Her room.
It wasn't opulent by any means but it wasn't the cell she had spent last night in either. For one it was painted a light shade of green, had a full bed with bedside table as well as a reclining chair. A bookcase was full of her old books, ones she had earned over the years. As the only Alpha they had indulged her a little. The only thing out of place was the sink and toilet in the same room. No separate bathrooms here. She would miss the privacy.
She was quickly installed in her room and left alone where she immediately found a change of clothes. She would recognize them anywhere.
It took Maura a moment to recognize the sound. Honestly she hadn't been in the right frame of mind to even really pay attention to her surroundings let alone think cognitively. Eventually she came to recognize the sound as knocking, but where? The door to the apartment? That did not make sense. Frost had a key but even then he was currently sleeping in the bedroom, and no one else knew where they were. At least they weren't supposed to.
As the knock grew more frantic Maura quickly made her way to the bedroom and though she hated to wake him she did not know what else to do. Shaking Frost gently Maura frequently glanced towards the bedroom door.
"Unn….wha? What's wrong Maura?" Frost's voice was full of sleep, he hadn't been sleeping long and he was exhausted.
"I'm so sorry Barry, but there's someone knocking on the apartment door. They won't go away! No one's supposed to know where we are!"
Frost was instantly alert at that. His life as a police officer and then a detective made the transition from sleep to awake and alert quickly. The fear and uncertainty in Maura's voice left little doubt to him that she was truly frightened.
"Stay here Maura," Frost said as he swung his legs off the bed and reached for the drawer of the bedside table. Once opened he pulled his gun out and checked the clip to make sure the gun was as it should be.
Maura quickly stood straight and backed away. "Barry what are you doing?"
"Making sure we stay safe."
"By shooting someone?" Maura had never been easy around guns. Cameron had them and was the one to use them if needed on the ranch but even that was a rare occurrence.
"I won't shoot unless I have to Maura," he stood up from the bed and made his way to the bedroom door. "Stay here or better yet go into the bathroom and lock the door. I'll yell when it's okay to come out. Do you have your phone on you?"
Maura nodded her head and started towards the bathroom. Her heart was in her throat and her hands were shaking.
"Go on Maura. I'll take care of it," Frost said before leaving the bedroom, gun drawn and at the ready.
She quickly closed the bathroom door once inside and it took a moment to twist the lock due to her shaking. She pulled her phone from her pocket and held it at the ready. She waited with bated breath trying to listen for every sound coming from the rest of the apartment. She heard nothing. Was that a good thing? Or a bad thing?
She wanted Jane.
After several tense minutes she heard Frost faintly calling for her to come out. Untwisting the lock took just as much effort of twisting it in the first place but she succeeded and slowly opened the door. Her mind quickly tried playing with her, thinking up scenarios of Frost held at gunpoint himself and being made to call for Maura to come out. At the same time she knew that he would never betray her like that. She worried nonetheless.
Stepping up to the bedroom doorway she heard Frost clearer, "Maura? Come out, there is someone out here who claims to know you."
Her curiosity was piqued.
It did not take long for her to recognize the person in the living room of the apartment. Even with Frost's gun trained on the man, and the aged appearance of him she knew him quickly.
"Vince? Oh goodness you're alive? You-" Her sentence cut short and the phone fell from her had as the stress of the last few moments finally crashed, as she herself unceremoniously crashed to the floor.
They wanted a test. She knew it as soon as she had seen those clothes on the bed and then it was confirmed as soon as she entered the ring, she exactly what they wanted. They wanted to see her perform. They wanted to see her act the Alpha they had created.
They pitted her against a Beta, the highest ranking fighter besides her own, and though it would cost them to lose a high status fighter, to them it was more worth it to make sure their Alpha still had it in her to do what she was trained to do. The man she stood against was larger than her by half, taller and heavily muscled.
She had a slight moment of unease when she wondered if she was still as deadly as they made her to be. Her thoughts were quickly back to the moment when she felt her collar and saw his collar break away.
She did as she was expected. And she hated herself for it.
Maura would surely hate her too.
Hi friends! How are you all doing? I am doing alright at the moment. I want to take a second to let you know that I am NOT abandoning this story, I think about it almost every day but lately I have not had the motivation to write. Not long after I posted the chapter before this latest one I discovered I had bedbugs in my apartment. I know! Gross! I am pretty positive I picked them up at Disney World while I was there for a work conference. You all remember the itching I talked about in the past? Welp that was the bed bugs. I was reacting to their bites and not some other allergen. Needless to say I immediately sprang into action and quickly decided I no longer wanted to live in the apartment complex I was in, as they would not treat the whole building. Meaning I could get the suckers again if they went to another apartment in my immediate vicinity, which they would. It's how they work. The process of moving took 2 months, because I had to wash everything and go through everything to make sure I would not take them with me to my new place. Good news is the new place is cheaper as I moved in with a friend looking for a roommate. After that entire event I was exhausted and wanted to do nothing but work, watch netflix and sleep. And then my parents visited, where I came out as Pansexual to my mom who took it AMAZING! I feel so much better about myself that she knows, though no one else in the family does including my dad. And then I went and visited my parents on a last minute vacation to use up the last of my work PTO. And then here we are in July. Anyway, I can't say when another chapter will be posted, but be aware I am not giving up; I am always thinking about it and you all. You guys have been amazing. Cheers!
