Sorry about the length of the chapter! ;o; I'm taking some anti-inflammatory things for the back now.
We lay side by side. It was dark. I only opened my eyes a fraction, feeling Clayton somewhere near my back, arms aching like hell from the things still around my wrists. I thought they were handcuffs. Maybe they weren't. They were tough.
I felt Clayton shift over, shift against my back, and the side of his face brush against the side of my face as he snuggled in. For a moment it felt like he thought I was Elena, the way he cuddled up close and intimate like this, but I caught sight of the little camera in the dark room, as I peeked out from under my lashes, and didn't shove him backwards.
Funny. It was always us. Wasn't it? Something about provoking this poor guy, people just had to come along and prod him, like they had a stick and had found a beehive. Prod, prod, prod...
It was lucky I didn't shove him back. A soft voice, very soft, murmured, "Pretend you're Elena."
I thought I must have misheard him.
"Stay still, roll over, and face me. Pretend you're Elena. Pretend to sleep." Clayton's voice was barely reaching my ear. I did what he said, rolling over, pretending to be in a blissful drugged sleep as I did, ignoring the screaming of my arms as they continued to be held backwards.
I kept my eyes shut lightly, feeling him shift closer, forehead against mine, legs threading through mine so we could 'cuddle' without our arms actually able to do much. This wasn't good. Cops? Had he shoplifted? I seriously doubted it. Something about it all seemed bizarre. I didn't like the idea of pretending to be Elena either. It felt wrong to even think about pretending to be the Alpha. Like pretending to be God. A bad comparison, maybe, but everything in my nature went against this idea. You did NOT just pretend to be the Alpha. My eyes opened slightly to see what was going on with him. He looked like he was sleeping but the tenseness in his shoulders, in his face, things I knew him well enough now to know meant 'I'm just about ready to hit something'...
There wasn't time to argue. The lights flashed on, I flinched a little, and feet came into the room. Smell of humans. Perfume. Some kind of hair product that smelt like berries, chemicals and plastic. Dry cleaned fabric. Heels on the tiles.
"You sure that's Elena?" A woman asked, a clipped voice, business like.
"No wedding ring. No ID. The guy's Clayton Denvers all right. The other one was following the Sorrentino man around. Plus, she's pregnant from the looks of the cancelled appointment she made at the abortion clinic and look." Another woman. Something, probably a foot, rolled me onto my back, onto my arms, and shoved my shirt up above my stomach.
"She's pregnant."
Ow. That hurt. I was not pregnant. I just had a little more curves to me.
"So we got the right werewolves? Alpha and Protector. Good. Drug them again and we'll tell the boss to go get the Pack."
"Yea-"
I felt Clayton move suddenly, the metal snapping around his wrists, and my eyes snapped open to see him grab the woman by the throat. I yanked at my own wrists. No luck. But there wasn't time to moan about it, I slid up, easing up, backing up behind Clayton as he lifted the panicking human woman up.
"You wanna tell us what we're doing here?"
She just gurgled at him. The other woman, backing up, slammed her fist on something on the outside of the door. Alarms rang. Gas. The door shut behind her, locking the three of us in the room, as the room started to fill with the gas. A snap from the woman and she went limp. No time to be horrified by that.
Clayton gazed up and bared his teeth somewhat, dropping the floppy woman and slamming his shoulder against the door.
The gas worked pretty fast though. He slumped down and it was seconds before whatever it was they were pumping into the room made me do the same. We woke some time later, head aching like we had the hangover from hell, but our wrists were more or less still unsecured. The woman was gone and we'd been left food. It smelt like she'd been gone for a long time, when I knelt down to check, but I didn't sniff the floor- I kept that damn camera in the corner of my vision at all times.
Neither of us wanted to touch the food. Neither of us wanted to go feral, either, but food in this situation seemed absurd. Particularly with what it was- two plates covered in pancakes, raspberries, cream cheese, ice cream and the real maple syrup. Ham. A lot of it, like giant thick chunks of it, so much that it made my mouth water. Tubs of yoghurt. A long slice of chicken slices. So much food. That scent got up in my nose pretty fast in the tiny space, covering up everything else. I was hungry. Clayton stood up and tried to pry the things off his wrists. He glared at the food as if it was distracting him as much as it was me.
"Don't touch it." He muttered. "They're testing what we like."
I saw what he meant. There were raw slices of beef too, raw meat, in containers. The camera was on us and they wanted to see what we'd want.
"You sure you didn't shoplift and this is some new American security?" I muttered.
"Didn't hear about this on the news." He wasn't in the mood for joking but he didn't tell me off, exactly, just tried to bend the metal and get it to let go. Clayton kicked the plate of food into one corner hard, so it all fell all over itself, and yet in my hunger it almost looked edible even like that.
A rumble from Clayton's stomach and his neck getting tense, tight, tendons getting worse, confirmed he was struggling too. The problem with starving a werewolf was that the longer we went without food, the less likely we were to control ourselves or our changes. Or who we fed on.
"How long have we been here?" I muttered, moving closer, standing close enough so our scents filled our heads instead- so that he could focus on pack-sister rather than food and stomach. It seemed to help him relax.
"Too long." He replied, reaching out to hold my arm in a hand, Clayton's fingers grasping it just a fraction too hard. He shut his eyes, lowering his head, just enough so that his curls brushed my hair, inhaling a long deep draw in. Out of all of us, Clayton was the one most likely to loose it here. Wasn't he? I wasn't sure. "They said they'd go for the Pack."
That was what was wrong. He was stuck here. Stuck in a cell, being tested food, and he wasn't sure if the pack was in danger or not. I trembled a little. Pictured Nick in a cell. My kids. Fuck, my kids. Matt.
I needed to inhale deep then, as if I was a smoker and he was some kind of ciggerete, drawing it into my lungs in return. Pack. It was okay. I had to stay calm too.
"Fuck it."
Clayton rammed his shoulder against the door before I could open my eyes, ramming against it so hard that the walls shook. How ever secure this place was, it didn't change the fact that Clayton was not a human, and it shuddered. The entire wall, the door, all of it. Something in the door bent just a fraction near the bottom.
Then the gas started again. Clayton didn't get a chance to re-do it and get the door open completely.
The two of us were forced to go to sleep again.
This continued several times. It was impossible to know how long we'd been there. Days. Hours? Clayton lasted about five minutes before he tried to break the door down again, every time, and something about these people made it impossible for them to figure out how to put a door in that he couldn't break. We saw six doors of different kinds but it wasn't just the doors Clayton was breaking. The wall had started to crack too. They were threatening his pack and suddenly he wasn't Clayton, as I knew him, he was crazy angry Pack Protector... well, angry, anyway. He was one hell of a smart man and that was just making what he did all the more effective.
It also didn't help that they were starving us. When Clayton changed, when it started, I was about to do it too. I didn't know how he'd be- what kind of state he'd be in- but he growled, "Hold on as long as you can," and I didn't resist the order.
Clayton, as a wolf, wasn't dangerous towards me. He stood close, just out of touching range, fur up, body showing his rage. When they tried to throw food in through a hole in the door he got his teeth into an arm and I smelt that the damage was pretty significant.
Then one day, or night, just when I was on the verge of loosing control over my own change we woke... and the door was wide open.
Clayton approached it consciously, keeping me behind him, his nostrils flaring as he moved closer to the door. He didn't give a damn what they thought of him now. Clearly, with what they'd seen, he fully intended on destroying them. Clayton replied, voice soft, pulling me closer. "Stick close to the protector, Alpha."
Oh yeah. I was supposed to be a pregnant Elena. Did this mean I had to act weak? Would she act weak? I somehow doubted it but I did what he said anyway, shifting closer, like I needed a protector. It'd just make it sweeter if I had to defend myself and see the shock on their face.
We made our way through the now empty corridors. From the smell of it, it had been used just minutes ago, but the alarms echoing up and down the corridor was probably the sign to 'get the hell into safety!' Why they needed this, I wasn't sure, but I saw multiple doors like ours along the hallway. Each had a alarm button.
Clayton ignored them. We heard feet coming. Boots and heels. I was shoved back roughly, hissing 'This how you treat your wife?' and heard him snort as he pinned me against the wall behind him.
Men. With guns. No, not men, though the uniform made it look that way. Men and women with guns. Soldiers? What the hell? The woman was back, heels, tailored suit, and she raised an eyebrow as Clayton moved closer.
"Calm down, Mr. Denvers. Come on. I suppose we'll move the meeting up a few hours if you insist." She was behaving like he'd politely insisted on a meeting, not like he'd just snapped someone's throat and even smiled, like she was pulling some kind of joke. "You both woke faster than we expected. Mrs. Sorrentino."
"I insist." Clayton didn't sound even remotely amused. He was one hundred percent back to being cold bastard and this time I did not tease him about it.
"Come along." She turned and led us away. With guns at us, there wasn't much chance for us to do anything but do as she said.
I wasn't sure where we were but we headed up a staircase, the armed people behind us, and slowly came into what looked like an office area. The windows were shut off, blinds drawn, and we were led into a small office. Neither of us liked it. It felt like one giant prison, one giant cage, and the armed Americans were bugging me big time.
"Lower your weapons." The woman snapped at the men. Women. Whatever they were under those androgynous masks and gear. "Honestly. I am sorry. I asked my people to find you, Anne. They took it as capture. George, take those cuffs off their wrists."
One of the people in the room not holding a gun, one of the people at a computer, came up intending on taking the chaffing metal objects off my wrists, and I struggled to not shove him back, attack him or... my skin prickled again, I breathed in deep, Clayton's hand coming to rest against my arm as he tried to get close. "I'll do it." He said casually, snatching the keys, and shoving the man back. "You might loose your pretty fingers."
Clayton undid my wrists and then I undid his, while we kept our attention on the armed guards and the strange woman, and he tossed them aside into one of the bins.
"My name is Nicola Seteian. This entire mix up must have you both furious with me. Where's that food, George?"
George was vanishing again fast and bringing food out. When we refused to eat it she sighed. Took some of the turkey. "It just arrived for our christmas lunch. I swear. We haven't poisoned our own food."
"Christmas lunch?" That really started to get me worked up. I squeezed my eyes shut, as the arm tightened. There were some days in our year that were big deals .Today was one of them. We did trees, we did feasting, we did gifts, and she was …
It was the need to change. It was making me unstable. I had to get outside and change.
"Think it's time you send us home then." Clayton suggested.
"Half an hour and you'll be on your way. I promise. This was supposed to be a meeting, an equal thing. As I said- it was a misunderstanding. They assumed I wanted you captured without knowing who you are."
"Bullshit." I heard myself snap. "You had cameras on us."
"Yes." Nicola agreed. "We know you're werewolves. But they weren't aware that I wanted to meet you because you own this company, not because I want to test you. Some of your mutts, the ones expelled from America, have been brought here. I have dealt with the idiots who mistreated their boss."
The words might have shocked me if I wasn't itching to tear out her throat. Everyone's throat. I was starving.
Clayton yanked the tray of food towards me and shoved the entire turkey at me once he'd sniffed it, checked it and made sure it was safe. By now I couldn't hide or pretend to eat nicely. I was hungry. The people in the room were starting to look less like humans and more like giant walking prey.
"Stop staring. You've got fifteen minutes before she's doing that to your leg. Twenty and I'll take an arm." He snapped at 'George', who was gawking at me. "You say this is the company her children have inherited?"
"Get some more food, George. All of it." Nicola ordered. She nodded as he rushed off. "This is your company. I know, I know, CEO recruitment, but we still view you as the owner. Most shares are in your name now. Right. Fifteen minutes. We need to show you something, as the Boss around here, and we need you to decide what to do with the Alpha. As it's probably not polite to take the Alpha-"
"Damn right it isn't."
"-then we were intending on asking you, Mr. Denvers to take her place. Or your father. Not capture you. This is simply to show you the problem, the Boss and your pack, and let you discuss it amongst yourselves."
"I'm not interested." I wasn't. I was only interested in hunting. Control slipped a fraction more as I found a bone. I couldn't eat it- my body couldn't handle it like this- but the urge made it so hard to put it down. So so hard. And it was Christmas. "We have to get back. No business on Christmas, right, Clay?"
"Pack rules."
"A show and tell. I'll show you what I have to show you and then you're heading home with my contact details and food."
Food wasn't going to cut it for long. I'd have to run before I faced the pack. But if this was going to make her shut up and get us out...
"Sorry." Clayton said quietly. He was rolling up his sleeves. "You've got five minutes to get us into a car and on the road, or you'll have two hungry wolves running loose."
"It isn't-"
It was too late for me. Too fucking late. I felt it, felt my control slip, and felt Clayton hoist me under an arm as I slipped away.
SPACE
I didn't stay a wolf for long, Clayton told me after, just long enough to nearly tear an arm off, pace around the stationary closet, and eat everything that was thrown in. Then he lost it and we ended up in the closet together, eating, growling, more than willing to kill them. All of them.
After we woke more or less at the same time, surrounded by what was probably going to be their Christmas lunch. Tough. Platters all over the place.
When we came out, I felt a little less stressed, a little more calm, but my stress and anger was still at an all time high. Clayton seemed to be calmer than I was. He strode ahead and pressed some button I wasn't aware of. It seemed to alert her to the fact that we were more or less alive again.
This time, when Nicola came back, I saw her properly as a woman. Not as prey. A proud woman, tall, beautiful, shiny dark hair and... I had seen her before.
She'd been kneeling in front of Nick in the alleyway, his pants down, when he'd been ...well, when he'd been an idiot. I forgave him. He said he didn't know what happened and I believed him. But her? What the hell was this slut doing here?
"It's you." I gaped at her, shock, anger, suddenly hitting me so hard that my body actually shuddered, fists balling as I lunged. Clayton's arms grabbed me and yanked me back hard. "The slut!"
"An interesting way to put it." Nicola's tone had gotten a little icier. "I did require a sample of DNA from a male wolf and there's a sure way to get it. Nick didn't seem to mind the feminine attention."
"He's my mate." I could have said husband but the word mate slipped out with a low dark growl, trying to lunge again, Clayton's arms tightening. "You don't touch my mate or his... slut."
"How else would I get his semen?" She asked coldly.
Clayton's arms let go then, as he got what I was angry about, and I lunged at her. Only to be hit back with the back of a gun, the barrel pointing at my head.
"I wouldn't mind a sample from you either, Mr. Denvers, if you require the -" She smiled somewhat, her lips suddenly moistened by her tongue, "-attention."
Clayton let her know exactly what he thought of that idea with a few choice threats that made her pale.
"Let her up, idiot. That's your boss that you're pointing a gun at." The woman turned around. The security guard seemed to pale a little at that, his eyes going from me to the bruise that was probably already a stunner on my face, and then he backed off fast. Clayton hoisted me up onto my feet.
"We're not your enemies, Ms. Sorrentino. I was doing my job. Now I work for you and I am making sure everything is transparent. My name is Nicola, by the way, not slut."
I glared at her. "Maybe I should fire you."
"Which would be understandable, yes, but unwise. I know this division. I liaise with the FBI and CIA and several other organisations that'd kill me here and now if I uttered their name. I work for you and I care about my work, not your ethics." She shrugged lightly as she sat down in a chair and pressed a button. A computer opened. "I brought you here simply to introduce myself and show you what problems we're having. Remember? A fifteen minute show and tell before I send you both home in time for Christmas dinner."
"So you got us thrown into a police car, handcuffed and kidnapped?"
"Is that how they brought you here? I knew it was rought but... I'll fire them. I suppose they were nervous about approaching two fully grown werewolves and announcing that we knew what you were." She raised an eyebrow as she fixed her eyes on Clayton. "We all know your policy for humans."
"It's our Law." I snapped.
"In the space of twenty years, you've rewritten several laws and now have more children than any other pack, ensuring your own Pack's future strength and security. No other Pack in the world currently has such a successful future ensured as yours does. Now it's time to rewrite those laws again." She returned her attention to the computer as she fed something into it. A password? More than one, multiple passwords, over and over.
"That ain't for you to say, human." Clayton spat. He shot her a scathing look as she laughed.
"No. It isn't. But we handled the outcome of the disease long before your Pack did and we're still handling it. The fallout requires your specialised knowledge. And I know that your Alpha's got connections to others. Sorcerers. Witches. Necromancers. We're going to need help."
"Help?"
"That ain't for us to say and you-" I growled softly, "Should have come to us. A meeting. Private. Not have us brought to you. This is something our Alpha has to hear. On our own land. On our terms alone."
"I couldn't bring this to you." She finished putting in passwords and pressed enter. The blinds opened.
The office was up high. It reminded me a little of Stargate, of their controller room, except that this office was above a warehouse so large that it resembled a football field. We stepped closer, staring down, flood lights illuminating the floor.
Hundreds of people were down there. It was divided into two halves, right down the middle, and it reminded me of some horror film about some vampire harvesting place. Humans, I had to assume they were, were everywhere. On one side they were awake, watching TV, eating, doing things. Armed guards watched them. The other side was stretchers, hospital beds, with more armed guards.
"We keep the dangerous ones sedated." She pointed at the half that was all sleeping. "Those others are safe."
"What the hell is this?" Clayton snapped as he stared at it.
"Humans, sent to us by the government, humans that have recovered from the disease. This company's been hired to discover the cause, so they can use it."
"Why are they here?" I stared at them in horror. It wasn't just adults. Kids were down there too. The elderly. So many.
She smiled then, stood up, and moved to stand near us. My hair rose as she did, wanting to snap her neck still, but she ignored me.
"There's been a two in three chance of people surviving from the pandemic. They estimate that a third of the world's population will be wiped out by the end of the year. Seven billion humans, give or take, at the start of this year. By the end a third gone."
I couldn't figure out the maths. How much was a third of …
"So you saying there'll be two billion?" Clayton got it fast, betraying his quick mind, his face scowling.
"Normally, that'd be the expected outcome, wouldn't it?" Nicola agreed. "But out of those that are surviving, which remain in quarantine, we're finding ...abnormalities."
"Abnormalities?" I couldn't help it. The way she looked at the humans, a mixture of amusement and envy, it was like this was no small thing.
"When your kind get sick with the disease, you're reduced to a human like state until the cure is given. When our kind gets sick, it flips it around, it brings latent things to the surface." She replied softly. "You're looking at the American humans that survived and are no longer human."
"They... they changed?" I asked.
"They changed. Interesting timing, don't you think?" Nicola turned her attention back to me. "We need you. Our boss dies. Here you are, just what we need, just at the right age. Young. Fit. Connected."
"I didn't kill him." I wished I had.
"No." She agreed as she returned her attention to the humans. "Nor did we. So here we are. I have shown, I have told, and the helicopter waits above for you both. This is my contact details and a summary of what I've told and shown you. It includes additional details for you to check. Merry Christmas. I'll be sure to punish the idiots heavily for throwing you two in a cell. They'll regret doing that to their boss."
I was given a heavy briefcase and she pointed at the security to escort us. Clayton scowled at them as they got a bit to close us in the hallway and when we got to the lift it got worse. I didn't blame him. I wanted to hit them too.
"You own a large house, don't you?" The pilot asked as we got in. He handed us ear things. "Good. We'll drop you off at your property."
And like that, we were whisked off in a helicopter, the two of us trying to drown the noise out with the ear things.
It was a long flight and we stayed close, warmth between our legs maybe keeping us calmer than we might have been otherwise, but my anxiety levels weren't helped by my hunger levels. Clayton seemed just as tense and upset. It wasn't surprising and if it hadn't been a week, a whole fucking week, he might not have been so eager to leave without first making it clear what'd happent o them if they did it again.
Maybe he intended on going back after Christmas. I was tempted.
Finally we saw it, the old mansion that Nick had bought, and Clayton's leg pressed harder against mine. I breathed out slowly. Half expected to see Nick come out. My babies. Anyone. This wouldn't be the kind of entrance they'd be expecting, that was for sure.
We jumped out as the helicopter landed, head low, and ran for the house as the helicopter took off again. It'd dropped us off some distance away on the lawn.
"Back to your castle, hm?" Clayton asked.
"Honestly, Clay?" I said softly as the helicopter left us standing on the lawn of the big house. "I think this house is a bit too big for me. It's pretty but I... at the risk of sounding ungrateful... kind of miss Forestwatch." There. I'd said it. I'd lasted three weeks in this place and I was already sick of it.
"Glad you think so. I was worried." He laughed as he stared at the huge house. "Nick's used to big houses. Grew up in a big one. I think it's a fucking waste of space."
"The land's good."
"Yeah, that's true. Shame you can't just put your house here." Clayton gazed around. "We'll kick those skinwalker things out of your home soon. This place sounds empty."
It did. It had that strange 'empty' sound to it. No one was here and I had to guess that meant everyone was now at Stonehaven eating their anxiety away. The lights were off, the fireplace wasn't going, and …
"I don't care. I'm starving. Clayton, let's eat before we head to Stonehaven. I know there's a huge dinner but ..."
"Glad you suggested it. Where do you hide your keys?"
I went for the space we'd hidden the keys and we let ourselves in. They must have spent the night at Stonehaven- the smells were fading- and while I knew this was normal for Christmas it didn't stop me from feeling anxious about my family's safety.
Clayton and I went to sit at the fridge, eating everything we could from it, till our anxiety had lessened somewhat and we could relax. The last thing we needed to do was freak out at the Pack because we were starving and strung out.
The drive itself to Stonehaven was the longest drive I'd been on. I sat there, twitching, Clayton tapping the wheel impatiently, as we tried to not hurry. It was cold and wet, though it hadn't started to snow yet, and the second we saw Stonehaven's gates there was this burst of speed from the car, which finished fast when Clayton got into the drive and remembered there were kids running around now.
I got out of the car first, running at the house, Clayton seconds behind me. Maybe it was geeky, maybe it was a bit corny, to want to go running back to the Pack like this. I didn't give a damn.
Nick burst out the door and apparently didn't give a damn either, he ran at me and swept me up, pulling me against him with a low growl and, "Where the fuck have you two been?"
I couldn't answer. He was too busy kissing me for me to get a word in. Nick lowered me down only when three pairs of hands tried to pull me into them, three toddlers grabbing at me and trying to hug me. Nick was shaking, literally shaking, as he let them at me. Matt wasn't far off.
"Briefcase. In car." I said, spotting the dark hair that was probably Antonio, and they went for the car while I let myself be attacked by three upset toddlers and one upset kid. Clayton was more or less getting the same treatment from his kids. Elena was just staring at him from the doorway.
"Merry Christmas?" Clayton called, sheepish grin on his face as she narrowed her eyes.
At least we'd gotten home in time for dinner.