Chapter 8 -Bad To Worse: Vanessa

“We should see if there’s anything else I can feed you. Are you hungry again?” he murmured and began rummaging around the kitchen. 

“Ezra, I told you to keep that thing out of my kitchen. You’ve fed it once already today, now take your pet and go,” the servant, whom he called Destiny, scolded. 

“She’s not a thing, Desi. She’s my beautiful wolf, and you’re gonna love her. Come on, girl, we’ll go back to our room. Don’t you pay any attention to Destiny, she’ll come around,” he said, stroking his hand down my back and nuzzling his face in my fur. 

Once we were back in his room, Ezra sat me back on the floor. Rather than going to the rug, I scurried under the bed. I needed to be away from him and his misguided affections. If he knew my true identity, I am 100% certain that he wouldn’t feel love or adoration for me. ‘I don’t know how much longer I can hold this form, Vanessa. We’re gonna have to get out of here sooner rather than later,’ Lena whimpered in our head. 

‘I’m trying, girl. We’ll get out of here somehow, we just need the right opportunity,’ I told her.

I slept for what felt like an eternity, but when I woke, I could sense that there was no one else in the room. ‘Lena. How long will you need to rest?’ I asked her, sensing that holding wolf form was growing painful from maintaining it for so long. 

‘I don’t know, Vanessa. It may be a while. Do you think there’s someplace safe that we can hide while I recover?’ she whimpered. 

We crept toward the foot of the bed and peeked around the room. There was a closet, but that wasn’t very practical for hiding purposes. The armoire is closer to the ground than the bed, so that won’t work either. I looked at the door, which wasn’t completely closed, and thought, it can’t really be that simple, can it? 

‘Okay Lena, we’re gonna go through that door. I don’t know where we’re going to go, but there’s got to be someplace for us to hide out there,’ I said.

We crawled out from under the bed and carefully crept over to the door, nudging it open with Lena’s nose. Thankfully, it opened smoothly, without any noise. We looked up and down the hall and didn’t see anyone, but could hear voices from the direction I remembered Ezra bringing me to his room. ‘Head to the right, away from the voices. We’ll find somewhere to hide, I can’t say what the conditions will be like, but we’ll find something,’ I promised her. We wandered for a few minutes and passed several doors. Behind one of the doors, I could hear someone having rather rowdy sex. We quickly moved past that one and continued down the hallway. A few doors down, it sounded like someone was being tortured, but I could be mistaken on that. 

‘Oh goodness, do you smell that?’ I asked my wolf. Of course, I know she can smell it, because it’s our nose. 

‘Smells like soap. Kind of perfumey,’ she replied, wrinkling her nose.

‘Yeah, but that just might have some place good to hide. Plus, there are likely some clothes or blankets in there,’ I explained as we continued to follow the scent.

We found the laundry room, which was huge. There were industrial-size washers and dryers, along with several rows of shelving. ‘I think this will be a good place to hide while you take a rest,’ I told my wolf.

She shifted quickly, and I was left standing naked. I looked around and found a thin blanket and a nightgown that left nothing to the imagination. Those will have to do for now. I am not sure how long Lena is going to need for recovery, but I am not going to get worked up over my choices. 

After slipping the gown over my head, I took the blanket and laid it on the floor behind one of the shelves and sat down. I guess I didn’t think about other needs I might have while in hiding, like food, something to pass the time, or even bathroom facilities. Well, hopefully this won’t last long. Once we shift back, we can at least get a meal, even if it's just a bowl of food on the floor.

As I sat and thought about the events that led me to this moment, I couldn’t help thinking about what was going on in my pack. Were my parents worried about me? Was the Alpha angry because I rejected my fated mate? Would that bastard, Tyler, be stripped of his title? A small part of me hoped he was, because he didn’t deserve to be the Delta. The leaders of the pack should be respectable, and Tyler was anything but. 

I still can’t believe that it took us being paired as mates for me to realize what a terrible person he truly was. Did Cass know what he really thought about her? Why didn’t I at least think to explain things to Lucien? He should at least know that Tyler isn’t his friend.  

I spent most of the day thinking about things that I should have done differently. After I realized that trying to think of what I should have said or done differently was pointless, I focused my efforts on coming up with ideas of how to escape. If Ezra was going to collar me every time he took me outside, I would never escape that way. I would have to hope for an open door to slip through, or he would forget to collar me, and I could just run. 

I finally grew bored of playing the what-if game and decided to curl up on the blanket and get some sleep. There wasn’t anything I could do anyway. Maybe if I rested in human form while Lena was recovering, we’ll be able to shift back when we wake. I know we won’t be able to hide in here for long, but it is a nice reprieve from playing Ezra’s lapdog.

I’m not sure how long I slept this time before I was woken to the sound of someone shouting. “Has anyone seen my beautiful wolf? She’s not in my room. I could have sworn I closed the door when I left,” Ezra’s voice rang out. “POOCHIE! Where are you, girl? I have your dinner ready,” he added to his plea.

‘Lena? Hey, are you ready to shift back? They’re looking for us,’ I nervously asked my wolf.

‘I can try, Vanessa. I am still very weak, you forget that I am still a fairly new wolf,’ she replied as I heard doors opening and closing in the hall. 

‘Try your best. We can’t let them find us like this, or we’ll be killed,’ I said urgently, as I could hear them getting closer. 

I could feel Lena trying her best to shift, even as I tried to relax and envision myself switching places with my wolf. I was on my hands and knees waiting for my bones to rearrange themselves and my fur to appear, but nothing was happening. When I heard someone enter the laundry room, I held my breath. 

“My beautiful wolf, are you in here? I have your dinner ready, you should come eat,” Ezra called out. 

I turned my head slightly and saw that he was moving slowly in my direction. Panic surged through me, knowing death was an imminent part of my immediate future. I could only hope that it came quickly. I watched with tears welling in my eyes as he passed each row of shelves. When the toe of his shoe became visible to me, I knew my time had run out.

When he spoke, my stomach churned and bile rose in my throat. “Well, what do we have here?”