Chapter 7: LILA

The special fur cloth was useless against the furnace-like heat of this chamber.

A few seconds ago, I was terrified, thinking I was going to freeze to death, and now I feared I would not just burn but melt to death. If you asked me to choose my fate, I'd choose freezing to death every single time.

Not like I wanted to die but staying outside was much more better than being inside this burning hell hole.

The room was dim, touched with a faint shade of red from the blood moon shining through the glass window. The place smelt of explosives, burnt wires, and tires. My legs were already starting to burn, and I wasn't sure how I was supposed to stand in one place for too long.

Look straight ahead, you're going to see a giant black air conditioner. That is the cooling system.

I recalled Rhodes' voice, but I could barely concentrate with the sight before me.

The bloody Alpha was chained to the floor like a caged animal. He looked very different from the warlord in a suit. He was sweating profusely and shaking like he'd just been struck by a thousand bolts of electricity. A second later, he jolted upright with an ear-piercing groan. Thick veins stretched from his chest to his head like they wanted to tear him apart.

Shivers ran down my spine. I haven't seen something like this in my years of existence before.

Look away, Lila. Look away, I told myself. Just do what you were sent to do, fix the system, and run out of this place before the fur completely loses its purpose and you melt to death.

But I couldn't stop staring at him. I felt my eyes sting with tears. No one deserved to go through this kind of pain.

He tried to crawl, like he wanted to get away from the torture, but another loud scream ripped from his mouth. His body flexed painfully, and I could see smoke pulling from every corner of the floor.

Each scream from Reis made the systems in the chamber spark and fry themselves to bits.

As though he could feel my presence, he suddenly snapped his head up to stare at me. His eyes were bloodshot red, his fangs longer than the ones I normally saw, and he looked very different. Vulnerable, yet still staring at me like I was his prey.

I was terrified of this man, but the pity I felt for his situation was enough to override the fear. The wolves were having the time of their lives in the den while he was down here receiving the kind of torture that could raze the entire Tartarus Pack to the ground in the blink of an eye.

I forced myself to pull my eyes away from his. If I wanted to help him, I had to work as fast as I could on fixing the cooling system. I began approaching the gigantic air conditioner when a strong force suddenly yanked me backward, and before I knew it, I was in the arms of the burning Alpha.

My eyes squeezed shut tight, expecting my body to start melting or my head to disconnect from my body at any second, but nothing happened. Something was strange. I just couldn't place it.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. Reis was holding me tightly, but he wasn't growling or burning. It was like I had sucked the pain out of every pore in his body.

To be clear, I touched him and confirmed that, somehow, I could actually touch him.

"Don't let go," he whispered, his lips quivering as he held me tighter. "Stay with me... please."

He was begging. The bloody Alpha, who never asked before taking lives, was begging me to stay with him.

I was so confused about what was happening, but I did as he asked and held on to him, brushing my fingers through his soft hair. It was the same way I used to put Marcy to sleep or calm her whenever she was in a bad mood. Somehow, my touch was calming Reis. His breathing relaxed with every passing second.

"Don't go," he kept pleading.

"I'm here, okay? I'm not going anywhere," I assured him.

The chamber had changed from lava-like heat to a lukewarm temperature. I heard the transformer power down, and the loud screeching sound of the gate opening followed shortly after by footsteps. I knew they belonged to Vane and Rhodes.

"Shh. It wasn't easy getting him to sleep. I don't think you'd want him waking up," I whispered softly as Vane approached closer, staring at me like he couldn't believe his eyes.

Rhodes had the same expression on his face. "You're touching him," he mumbled, not even waiting for my reply before turning to Vane. "Can you see this, Vane? She's touching him."

Vane ignored him. He kept staring between me and Reis, too stunned to speak. He was trying to process how a burning Alpha could touch me, an ordinary wolfless omega. Even I was surprised. I didn't know if I should feel proud or terrified that an extraordinary Alpha as powerful as Reis might finally noticed me.

Come to think of it, this was nothing to feel proud about. I was supposed to be invisible. If Reis set his eyes on me, then it was certain I wouldn't be able to keep my longest-hidden secret anymore; that I was a null pretending to be a wolf. And what was worse than being a nobody in the Tartarus Pack was staying here illegally.

I wasn't just putting myself in danger, I was also putting my family in danger. It didn't matter that Reis was sleeping harmlessly in my arms like a baby. I knew for a fact that once the blood moon night was over, this bloody Alpha would go back to being the same bloody Alpha who killed without batting an eyelash.

Even if he didn't harm me, there was no certainty that he wouldn't harm my family.

I stared at Vane with pleading eyes. "Please, let me go after this. I don't want him to remember what happened tonight... please," I pleaded.

The look on Vane's face told me I was wasting my pleas. 

The pack had finally found the long-hidden cure for their cursed Alpha.