Alpha & Omega // Ateez // P.SH

- 31 -

His roar when he found her behind the locked bar door could crack mountains. As soon as she had pushed the electronic lock she desperately searched for the headphones that kept all sound out. She knew they kept them in the top drawer right below the panel. As soon she got them on, she drew a deep breath. Silence. She took some time to calm herself. Keeping the link to her father closed took some effort, but it wasn't impossible. She was a very strong omega, she could do it.

Of course, he tried to rip the door open, but he couldn't even touch it before an electric shock made him fly halfway over the floor towards the stairs. The words leaving his mouth were foul and intense. He made the guards try too, and soon the room smelled of burnt skin and flesh, hair and fur. None of them were able to reach beyond the power field. Had they managed, they would have found the door locked.

«Open the door, omega!» her father roared, over and over again, with all his might, out loud and in their link. She stood with her back to him, not reacting to what he was saying.

He threw what he found in the room towards the door, but it was bounced off by the electric field.

«Find out where this thing gets its power from,» he snarled to one of the wolves, who quickly ran up the stairs. To the other one, he said: «Do not let her out of your sight. Do you hear me?!»

«Yes, alpha.»

Ellinor sat in the tiny bathroom for a while just thinking. There should have been some sort of curtain to shield her from the rest of the room, but there wasn't. Maybe she could use blankets so that she could sleep without them watching her? An old-fashioned blanket fort in the bunk bed?

Without looking toward whoever was outside her cell, she did just that. She used two large blankets and hung them over the bunk bed so she could have some privacy inside of it. She could have slept in the bathroom, but it was so small, she would have had to curl up in a ball. The comfortable mattresses in the bed were a lot more tempting.

She brought some bottles of water, some crackers, and other snacks and got into her fort. With a deep sigh, she let out a lot of air and fear. She was safe for now. How long that would last, she didn't know, but power for the cell was not a worry. Hongjoong had said it would last for several months even if someone stopped the power to the house. That was probably what they were working on right now. She had water for a long time, and boring dry goods to last an atomic winter or two. She should be fine for a while. Ellinor ate and drank before she finally could go to sleep.

—

Not even Sunwoo and Livv knew about what Mila and Kai now were ready to share with the pack. They had waited a long time, maybe too long, to be absolutely certain they could trust the pack. It wasn't easy for them to trust adults, so much had happened in their lives. But now, finally, the pack got to see the entrance to the old catacombs connecting the fortress to the city. Many of the hallways were shut with bricks, but an intricate route into the city was open, and inside the city, there were four different places one could get up without being spotted.

«This one,» Kai said. «Is closest to the house. This one is second closest.» He pointed to the map on the table. They had been down there to have a look. There were no dangerous scents, no one had been there for months.

«Did you kids ever use them?»

Kai shook his head. «Just the adults.»

«Thank you for showing us this. We will investigate it, I think it'll help us a lot.»

«Are you mad we didn't tell you sooner?»

«No,» Hongjoong said in a serious voice. «This is your home, we're your guests. If it'll be our home too is up to you guys. And this is crucial information for your survival, I understand why you wouldn't share this before you were absolutely certain about us.»