He kissed her.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
He used his Influence to calm her, and then kissed her. His lips were impossibly soft against her, and she could have drowned in his kiss forever.
It infuriates her. She decides to take it out on Gerard.
“Where were you?” she screeches, running to catch up with his strides. “Why weren’t you outside the door?!”
“Away,” he says simply, walking down the hallway.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
She sputters, enraged at his attitude. “What is wrong with you? What if he had attacked me!”
He chuckles as he leads her down the hallway. “I highly doubt that. Besides, it’s not like you’d say no.”
“What?” She shouts.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
But Gerard ignores her and continues walking.
They meet Doctor Porter at the front of the building just as the fire alarm stops.
“Miss Winters!” he exclaims, waving a hand at her. “It was a false alarm! I apologize.” He frowns and looks at Gerard. “Is Erik…”
“He’s still in your office,” Gerard says. “Locked in.”
The Doctor nods. “Alright. Bring him to his cell.”
Gerard walks away, leaving Ellie with Doctor Porter.
“Are you alright?” He asks her, and it takes a moment to pull herself together.
There’s no fire.
Erik kissed me.
She nods, flashing him a small smile. “Absolutely. We were wrapping up, anyway.”
Liar.
“Well, I look forward to discussing your session with him. Let’s meet tomorrow morning?”
She nods hurriedly, walking towards the door. “Of course.”
“Look for an email from me tonight. I’m so sorry about that alarm, again. You look a bit spooked.”
She barks out a fake laugh. “Just a little jumpy, today. Too much coffee.”
She lets the door fall shut behind her before she can engage with the doctor again.
It’s colder than last time.
Something tells her she shouldn’t be walking in this much snow and cold, but she needs to burn off her anxious energy.
Her breath comes in short clouds in front of her face as she walks, the cabin coming closer into view.
There are too many things to process.
Erik fucking kissed her.
He kissed her, after using his Influence to calm her.
Part of her is furious.
How dare he reduce her to nothing but a submissive creature?
But she never felt as safe as she did at that moment. His touch was a soothing balm to her soul and quieted the fears and flashbacks brought to life by the fire alarm.
And his sinful lips were too soft and full for their own good.
No.
She’s already shared too much with him. He knows too much about who she is, about her empathy towards revenge and her absolute meltdown over something as simple as a fire alarm.
This is over. It has to end.
But apparently, fate has other plans.
“I’m sorry, Miss Winters, but no one can get in and out of Green Woods because of the storm on the roads.”
She clenches her teeth as she tries to reason with the towing company. “I will pay whatever you need. I just need someone to get me out of here. Please.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the receptionist sounds truly sympathetic. “But it will be at least another few days before anyone can tow you. No cars are coming in or out.”
This is a joke, she thinks. A cruel fucking joke.
She ends the call, at her phone buzzes almost immediately.
It’s a private number.
She powers off her phone, not wanting to deal with whatever he has to say.
The entire trip has been a mistake, for so many reasons.
His words from before fill her mind, the ones he spoke right after he kissed her.
Don’t run from me.
But she should run. She should get as far away as she can from Erik and Green Woods.
She could forget it all, pretend it was a nightmare, and go back to working in Los Angeles.
Yet now, she can’t even leave. She’s snowed in.
Trapped.
It’s been less than a week and he’s seen more of her than most people have in the last few years. Only Lita knows about her fear of fire, yet she showed her vulnerabilities within three days of meeting the murderous Alpha.
And at that moment, she had wanted to tell him everything.
She wanted to tell him that in the darkest parts of her soul, she believes that revenge is the answer.
And that truth scared her more than she could imagine.
She should quit.
But her inner Omega knows she won’t.
She’s upside down, blood rushing to her ears as smoke burns her lung.
Mom doesn’t make a sound. Neither does Juliet.
She hopes it’s because they made it out of the car.
Fumbling, she reaches for the latch on her seatbelt, pressing the button until she falls out of her seat.
Her body screams with pain as her hands find gravel. She pushes on, shoving herself through the small opening of twisted metal. Glass embeds in her palm as painful splinters, but she forces herself to keep going.
Her leg catches on something sharp. She cries out, kicking furiously at the stinging sensation, until her pant leg rips and she’s out of the car.
The air tastes of rubber. She dry heaves, smoke burning her eyes and filling her nostrils.
There are shouts, with rough hands dragging her away until finally she breathes fresh air.
She stares at the car, now just a smoking heap, and a horrible realization hits her.
They’re still inside.
She wakes up with a start, soaked in sweat.
Her body shakes and she wraps her arms around her knees, rocking back and forth.
You can’t change what happened, she thinks to herself.
The past is the past.
But her fear of fire triggered one of the worst nightmares she’s had.
Jumping out of bed, she flips on all the nights, too wired to go back to sleep. It’s barely even morning, the sun only beginning to creep in through the window.
She grabs her phone and reads the email Doctor Porter sent to confirm their meeting.
He’s kindly offered to pick her up, but she groans at the thought. She’s not sure she can look him in the eyes ever again after Erik kissed her.
She should quit, regardless of the money. All of this is madness, and it’s gone too far.
But…
Now she doesn’t want to.
She wants more of the taste of Erik’s lips and the feeling of his inner Alpha speaking directly to her Omega.
If she’s honest with herself, it was the best kiss of her life.
It was sweet and chaste with the promise of passion.
Don’t think about him. It’s inappropriate.
Oh, but how she wants to.
She wants to think about the massive size of his powerful hands and the way they could wrap around her waist easily to lift her against a wall.
She wants to think about his mouth at her mating gland, the one she tries so desperately to hide behind her hair or scarf.
She wants to think about how it would feel to give in to her desires.
You need to stop.
She opens her laptop to study more about his heinous acts, desperate for anything to snap her back to reality.
She looks at the crime scene photos again—this time, through a different perspective.
Revenge.
What could these three men have done, to warrant that brutality?
Erik not only tortured the victims, but he also antagonized their families.
One of the Alphas he killed was married, and he sent a finger of the man to his wife, wedding ring still attached.
She stares at each photo and reads each file, trying to put the pieces together.
There was no evidence linking him to the crimes—he executed them perfectly.
He wasn’t even a suspect until…
He turned himself in.
Her mouth falls open in shock.
The coffee shop is barely a mile from the facility, and Ellie couldn’t be happier to smell the familiar scent of roasted beans.
“Do you have everything you need for the rest of your stay here?” Doctor Porter asks her, sipping his cappuccino. “The storm is going to make everything much more difficult. Does your car have chains on the tires?”
She frowns. “Actually, the battery in my car died. I’ve been walking to the facility every day.”
His grey eyebrows shoot up. “Absolutely not! I’ll make sure Gerard picks you up in the mornings and takes you home as well.”
She shakes her head. “No, really, it’s fine—”
“Ellie.” The doctor says gently, his eyes kind. “A Los Angeles winter differs greatly from a Green Woods winter. You’re not walking in that mess. You’ll blow away in the wind, or freeze to death.”
She wants to protest, but the doctor is right. His concern for her well-being tugs at her heart, and she nods. As much as she doesn’t want to ride with Gerard, she also doesn’t want to butt heads with the person she’s working under.
“Alright,” she agrees. “Until I can finally get my car working again after the storm.”
“Perfect!” He exclaims, opening his notebook. “Now, let’s discuss my favorite patient.”
“Oh,” Ellie says, hastily putting her cup down and opening her laptop. “He’s your favorite? Of everyone?”
“Maybe favorite’s not the right word,” he corrects himself, but continues to smile. “But he is by far the smartest and most interesting resident of Green Woods facility.”
Ellie nods, keeping her expression neutral. “He’s not what I expected.”
“And before we go further, I owe you an apology, Ellie.”
His words surprise her. “Why?” She asks, confused.
The doctor clears his throat and shifts uncomfortably. “I judged you, for your…status,” he confesses. “I was nervous about you working with Erik. And I can see I was wrong. I’m very sorry, Miss Winters.”
She shakes her head. “You already apologized before. It’s fine—”
“No, it’s not. I had an unconscious bias because you’re an Omega. I’m very embarrassed and truly sorry.”
She nods. “Thank you,” she whispers.
“And Erik…he can be difficult,” he adds, frowning. “He can easily use his words as weapons, and they have serious consequences. That’s why I told you the minute you became uncomfortable you should leave.”
A chill runs up her spine, because the doctor is correct.
Erik made her fall apart on the phone with only his words.
But she changes the subject before she follows that train of thought. “Why is he the only Alpha here? Is that normal? You have an entire ward dedicated to them, right?”
There’s a moment of silence before he speaks. “Well, there was another Alpha here. But he unfortunately died while in our care.”
“Oh,” she says awkwardly. “That’s terrible.”
He sighs. “Remember how I said Erik can use words as weapons? He was within earshot of Kean for a while. And Erik didn’t like him, at all.”
A wave of nausea overtakes her, and she has a feeling she knows where the story is headed. “I see.”
“We believe Erik convinced him to take his own life.”
It’s like a cold slap in the face.
All the attraction she felt towards the Alpha evaporates into guilt and horror.
“We moved him to a soundproof, isolated cell after that,” Doctor Porter continues in a somber voice.
Ellie stares at the table, refusing the look the doctor in the eyes. “What was Kean in there for?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
“He was a serial rapist.”
Revenge.
“He seems to have a vigilante complex,” the doctor says. “He’s never told me, but I believe the murders he committed weren’t random.”
“He turned himself in,” Ellie adds. “They had no reason to suspect him.”
“Right,” he agrees. “Something doesn’t add up, and even though it’s not my place, I know he has a story to tell. And maybe he will, if the time ever comes.”
Revenge. He did it for revenge.
She swallows, and even though it feels like a betrayal to Erik, she offers what she knows.
“When I was speaking to him, he alluded that there was a reason for what he did,” she says softly.
Doctor Porter gives her a small smile. “Maybe. Or perhaps I’m finding false hope in someone who can never be redeemed.”
Me too, she thinks.
They still have more to discuss, though.
There’s a pressing issue in the back of her mind.
“I also had a concern, which I would like to go over with you. Is he being administered suppressants against his will?”
To her surprise, the doctor nods. “Yes. To keep everyone else safe.”
She frowns. “Even though you only have Beta and Alphas in your facility?”
“An Alpha in Rut can overpower any Beta if they choose,” he says slowly, staring at her as if the reason is obvious. “It’s not safe.”
She remains silent, not wanting to push on the issue—but it raises a red flag.
Not that she wants him to go into a Rut, but it should be Erik’s choice.
She files the information away in her head to report back to Lita.
But to her surprise, Doctor Porter sympathizes. “I know what you’re thinking, Ellie,” he says. “And I don’t necessarily like it, but he’s never voiced his concerns to me. Sometimes, you have to do the wrong thing for the greater good.”
Something uncomfortable stirs in her and she quickly changes the subject.
“Has any family come to visit him?” she asks. “I know he has a sister.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Oh. I’m surprised you don’t know. His sister passed away, a few months before he came here.”
She gasps.
He knows what it’s like; she thinks. He knows the pain.
“That’s awful,” she whispers, as the doctor nods.
“It is. And to answer your question, no family visits—he doesn’t have any, really. The only people he speaks with are me, Gerard, and now you.”
She has no response to that.
“He’s here for the rest of his life, longer than I’ll be alive. Longer than you’ll be here, for sure. And a small part of me pities him.” He shakes his head, his face overcome with misery.
“Why would you pity him?”
“He’s a brilliant man, Ellie,” he says. “Insanely intelligent. He designed the security system we used to use. We had to install a whole new program when he arrived.”
A chill runs down her spine as he continues.
“He threw his life away for reasons he won’t share. He’s doomed to rot here, with only myself, Gerard, and now you as company. Eventually, everyone will forget him.”
Tears prick at her eyes, and she does her best to hide them.
“He’ll never have a mate, either. Without a mate for an Alpha…I fear if he’s not already unstable, it’s only a matter of time before he truly falls into madness.”
She can barely keep her hands from shaking as she asks her next question. “What about the other Alphas you had here? Did the same thing happen to them?”
He nods slowly, sorrow etched on his face. “That’s why we eventually made the suppressant injection mandatory. No matter how much a monster someone may be, the sounds of a man howling with loneliness still hurt to hear.”
Her chest aches as she imagines Erik howling from loneliness.
“You’re far more empathetic than me,” Ellie tries, giving him a small smile.
He shrugs. “Not always. With Erik, I have a soft spot. And now I have one for you, too.” He takes a sip of his drink, his eyes warm. “Whatever you’re doing with him, keep doing it. I would like to improve how this place runs when treating Alphas. Whatever information or ideas you have, please pass on to me.”
“I will, Doctor. So far, it was just about the suppressants. I’m glad I understand why, even if I don’t agree.”
“You’re doing a great job, Ellie. I’m extremely impressed.”
And as much as she would like to bask in the praise, guilt stands in the way.
The phone call.
The kiss.
She was supposed to tell Doctor Porter about how Gerard locked them in the room, yet she can’t bring herself to do it.
Part of her liked it.
And that’s what scares her.
