~~~4. The Price of Escape.

The guards shoved him through the doorway without warning, and Moonless hit the floor hard, his palms scraping against the polished wood.

He stayed there a moment, breathing hard, waiting for a needle that didn’t come. Only the door clicking shut behind him and footsteps fading down the hall.

Slowly, he pushed himself up onto his knees and looked around.

A fireplace crackled low in the corner, throwing amber across the black silk sheets pulled tightly over a bed built for someone who expected comfort waiting for him. It looked nothing like a cell.

He was still on his knees when a door opened on his left.

A scent wafted into his nose before he even turned his head. It curled into his lungs until his arms nearly gave out beneath him.

He turned, only to see the Masked Man standing shirtlessly by the bathroom door with only briefs at his waist and the iron mask still fixed in place.

Moonless’ eyes dropped on instinct, and that was when he saw it: something inked into the man’s chest.

The Masked Man crossed the room without hurry and Moonless flinched back until the wall stopped him.

“Please.” His voice cracked in half. “Please, don’t do this.”

“Shh.” A gloved hand brushed hair back from his face. “I know you're frightened. That's alright. I would be too if I was in your place.” He tilted his chin up. “But you've already given me so much these past few days. Let's not waste it now, hm?”

Moonless' stomach turned violently at the softness in his voice.

"Three days," the Masked Man murmured, his fingers tugging at the collar of Moonless' shirt. "I waited three days for your body to be ready for this. Most don't get that courtesy. You should be grateful."

Grateful.

Tyler's voice surfaced without warning—you should be grateful I even let you stay—and for one disorienting second, Moonless couldn't tell which nightmare he was living inside of.

"You'll thank me eventually." The Masked Man's hand slid to Moonless’ jaw, his thumb tracing his lower lip. “By morning, you'll already be carrying exactly what we need from you. My pups.”

My pups.

Those two words rang a bell in Moonless’ head as his body trembled.

“You heard me right.” The Masked Man said.

“Please, I can’t—”

“I’ll be gentle.”

Moonless swallowed hard.

He couldn't fight the man in front of him. He couldn't fight the guards outside the door. He couldn't outrun a facility that had already proven it could find him anywhere. All he had left was the useless, humiliating fact of his own weak body that was thoroughly caged to do anything but exist inside whatever was about to happen to it.

Tears slid down his face as he was guided back onto the bed, and he let them fall silently, because silence was the only thing he had left that still belonged to him.

His clothes were gently taken off him till he was completely naked. Lips against his throat. Hands mapping down his bare skin like he was already nothing more than a vessel waiting to be filled.

He turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Goddess to save him.

And just then, a fist pounded the door.

"Sir!" A guard's voice. "Fire in the main laboratory! It's spreading fast!"

The Masked Man went rigid above him.

For one terrible second, Moonless thought he might not stop even for that.

But he rolled off him and snatched a robe from the chair.

He opened the door.

"Watch him," he snapped. "I want him exactly where I left him when I return."

Footsteps retreated fast down the corridor. One guard remained, planted by the door, watching Moonless with bored, indifferent eyes.

Moonless lay frozen for a moment, his chest heaving, mind screaming at him to move before the fear could talk him out of it.

He rolled off the bed, grabbing his shirt off the floor, his hands shaking too hard to actually get it on.

"Hey." The guard stepped forward, irritated.

Moonless' hand closed around a syringe on the nightstand.

"Get back on the—”

But before the guard could finish, Moonless drove the needle into the guard's neck with everything he had left.

The scream cut off into something wet and gurgling. Blood splashed hot across Moonless' face as the man collapsed.

Moonless stared down at his own shaking hands like they belonged to a stranger. He had never hurt anyone in his life.

Muffled voices carried through the wall. "The fire is escalating more than expected. The boss has ordered that we lead his new experiment out of the building— now!"

Now or never.

Moonless didn’t finish that thought before he bolted for the door. He ran down the hallway he was brought in through, breathing heavily.

A lab coat, dropped by a fleeing staff member during the fire breakout, was lying on the floor.

He grabbed it, shielding his naked body with shaking hands.

His legs moved as fast as possible towards the small opening ahead of him—the one he had seen earlier when he was being led to the Masked Man’s room.

He broke past the opening, the coat clenching uselessly to his chest and with the help of the full moon, he continued running through the path in the forest.

He didn't know how far, nor the direction he was heading. Only that the path allowed him to get away from the place he had been held captive and the facility's lights disappeared behind the trees at his back long ago.

Subsequently, he stopped abruptly, his eyes widening.

“What’s happening?” He asked no one.

An overwhelming heat surged through him without warning and his legs buckled beneath him. He crashed to the floor, gasping, every part of him burning from somewhere he had no name for.

As if that was not enough, boots crashed through the brush nearby and deep voices followed after.

“I see him.”

“On the floor, over there!”

Moonless saw his life flash right in front of his eyes as the guards made their way towards him.

At that time, a deep, feral howl tore through the night, close enough to shake something loose in his chest.

“Oh no— that’s a dominant Alpha!” One of the guards yelled.

Moonless barely had time to crawl back before a massive silver wolf broke through the treeline, jaws closing around the nearest guard's arm and flinging him aside like nothing at all. The others scattered, screaming, weapons useless against the fury tearing through them.

Moonless watched, half-conscious, as the ones too slow to run were left broken in the underbrush.

Then the wolf turned toward him.

Every muscle in Moonless' body locked, too far gone in his own heat to think clearly anymore or run for his life.

The wolf's form rippled, bones cracking as it shifted back into its human form.

Recognition flashed across Moonless’ face. “A-Alpha Brayden?”

Brayden knelt in front of Moonless, his chest heaving, eyes still edged white.

"You're safe now," Brayden rasped, reaching for him with hands that hadn't quite stopped shaking either.

At the first touch on his face, Moonless gasped, his body shivering before he launched forward, sealing his lips against Brayden’s.

The warm Alpha scent wafted into his nose, wrapping around every sense he had left.

Brayden fought back, the omega pheromones intensifying his rut.

*Fuck— I want to be inside him already.* Grey growled, running out of breath.