Page 188 of Forbidden: Part One
I peered around Cam to see Dave standing there next to the director, a blank expression on his face. He gave me a curt nod and the tightness in my chest eased enough for me to take a deep, shuddering breath. If Dave was here, Amirah must have had a hand in this.
Theo, so used to being in control, looked stricken. “I’m so sorry, love.” He kissed my cheek before whispering, “I texted Amirah for backup. I’m going to make sure everything’s okay.”
Ben simply pressed up against my side, holding me as tightly as he could.
Cam shook his head, his eyes becoming more focused. He turned to look at Dave, his expression hard.
“We are not leaving here without you,” Cam said in a low growl, gripping my chin. “We are all walking out of here together as a pack. You belong with us, sweetheart.”
I nodded, desperately wanting to believe his words. Cam tucked me into his chest, briefly purring for me before letting me go.
I forced myself to take steady steps away from my alphas.I’m doing this for them. I have to protect them. I walked past the guards, their menacing stares quickening my footsteps.
Panic overtook me as I followed Dave down a long corridor off the main lobby. I looked back, my alphas’ desperate gazes meeting mine. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to run back to them, to escape this place once and for all. But Director Cross’s threat hung in the air. I needed to show them I could be a good omega. So I forced myself to turn away from them, to follow Dave deeper into the bowels of the Designation Center.
We left the brightly lit and luxuriously decorated lobby, the halls turning bleak and gray the further we walked. I wished Dave would talk to me, comfort me like he had when he escorted me for my interviews. But today, he walked in stony silence, setting a quick pace that forced me to almost jog to keep up as he led me through the twisted maze of hallways. My harried footsteps and pounding heart were the only noises breaking the eerie silence.
Dave stopped abruptly at the end of a small hallway tucked away at the back of the building. My wide eyes met his as he pulled open the metal door. I wanted to ask him what was going on, to scream, anything, but my throat was closed up.
“They’re expecting you,” Dave said in a gravelly voice, gesturing for me to enter the room.
I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other, feeling like I was dragging my limbs through concrete. As I walked past Dave, I caught a whiff of his scent—his deeply distressed and acidic scent. Alarm gripped me, my omega whining at the intensity, my body on full alert. I whipped back to the door, ready to bolt down the hallway back to my alphas. I no longer cared about following the procedures. I needed to get out.
Just as I lunged towards the exit, Dave shut the door.
Locking me inside.
Alone.
Panic consumed me as I clawed at the door, the solid metal expanse refusing to give way. I tried to scream, but no sound escaped. I clawed at my throat, trying to breathe. Blackness encroached on my vision and the room started to spin. I leaned against the door, the coolness of the metal a contrast to my heated skin. I dug my nails into my palms, wishing it was Theo’s soothing hands I was feeling instead, but the pain was enough to bring me out of my panic spiral.You can get out of this, just fucking pull yourself together.
I pushed myself off the door and turned to face the room. In the haze of my panic, I registered a vaguely familiar scent I couldn’t quite place underneath the medical antiseptic smell. A warning tickled in the back of my brain, something alerting me to danger, but I didn’t know what. I scanned the room to see if there was any other way out and saw two things I hadn’t noticed before.
The first was an exam table with wide leather straps.
The second was a metal door just to the left of the table.
My mind went blank and I crumpled to my knees.
I was trapped.
Keep going, keep fighting, don’t give up.
My arms shook and tears I didn’t realize I was crying hit the floor.
Keep going, keep fighting, don’t give up.
The mantra played on repeat in my head. And it was my alphas’ voices. And Luc’s, and Sam’s, and all of my friends.
I pressed my nose to my sweater, the combination of cinnamon roll, apple spice, and coffee clearing my mind.
I started crawling towards the metal door, silent tears streaming down my face, my shaky arms barely able to drag me to what I hoped beyond hope that it was an exit.
I cowered as I reached the medical table, momentarily frozen by flashbacks, the scar on my arm burning with memory. I lifted my head, forcing myself to focus on my destination—the door in front of me.
And then it opened.
Out stepped an alpha in a perfectly pressed black suit.
The smell of rotten fruit assaulted me.
Glen Jacoby met my gaze with a sinister smile. “Hello, Josephine.”
To be continued in book two.
