Instinct

38. The Final Stand (Part One)

Stephanie crept down the hallway, trying to navigate her way around the mall without encountering open space, especially the atrium. It was eerily quiet. All she was aware of was the burn of adrenaline in her veins and the weight of Lea against her as she walked.

What she was doing was stupid - it was a Hail Mary at best, and suicide at the very worst. Even though she kept her footsteps as light as she could, she felt like everyone in the building could hear her heartbeat and the harsh rush of her breath past her lips.

Lea was a small woman, but her deadweight was still a struggle to carry. Stephanie's muscles seared with exertion, her arms growing heavier.

They hadn't encountered anyone yet, but that didn't mean anything. In spite of the odds, Stephanie started to believe that they would make it. Winding ever farther from the atrium, ever closer to an inevitable exit, she started to feel a weight lift from her muscles. She pushed herself to walk a little faster.

At the end of the long, empty hallway they were traversing, Stephanie started to pick out the light of day. There had to be a door there, to the outside world. To salvation.

Naturally, just when she thought they were going to make it, she heard footsteps coming from the corner at the end of the corridor. Stephanie bit her lip to stifle the gasp of misery that sat at the tip of her tongue. Wildly, she changed directions, making to return the way she had come. Lea was ungainly in her arms, a weight slowing her down. The girl hadn't stirred since she'd lost consciousness.

Voices accompanied the footsteps behind her, unhurried, muted. They didn't know what they were about to happen upon.

Though Stephanie wanted to sprint, she needed to keep her footsteps quiet to avoid alerting them. She didn't have speed on her side, only anonymity. The stretch of walkway had multiple doors spread out among it, but each that she quickly tried was locked. There wasn't any time to pick the locks on them. They were too far from the one she knew was open.

Stephanie hurried on.

There weren't any alcoves that she could have stolen into, no pillars to hide behind. Just a white stretch of hallway, and once the assassins turned the corner, there would be nothing standing between Stephanie and a bullet.

Of course, that was when things got more complicated.

Stephanie started to pick up faint echoes of footsteps coming from the other direction too, and the turn off into another corridor was beyond them. Stopping in her tracks, Stephanie cast her eyes around, desperately trying to find her way out. A door, a window - anything would do, but there was nothing.

Her legs were shaking as she looked down at Lea's slack expression and then at the approaching shadows from either side of them. Stephanie found herself being thankful that Lea wouldn't know the difference, in the end. It was better this way. There was nothing Stephanie could do but stand there as small teams of armed people came into sight and started at her sudden appearance between them.

Disconcerted, they all yanked their weapons to the ready and approached warily. Stephanie panted for breath, trembling where she stood. She felt her hope and will crumble under the weight of reality.

This was how she was going to die.

Just as she was about to close her eyes and fall to her knees, unable to hold herself and Lea up any longer, she caught a familiar eye and it all made sense: the radio silence on attacks, Laura being out of town, everyone becoming too comfortable, too complacent - they had been waiting for the right moment.

Isa's cunning dark eyes caught Stephanie's. They were accompanied by a twisted smirk. On all sides, they were surrounded. Stephanie could feel the presence of multiple wolves, but they parted like the Red Sea for Isa, their alpha.

"Oh, this is just precious," Isa said.

She strode forward lazily. Her body language was unconcerned, open. Concealed beneath that grace was a predatory sharpness. Isa exuded confidence. Stephanie gritted her teeth and swallowed. She was sweating, as much as from carrying Lea as from the anxiety of being surrounded by loaded guns.

Stephanie looked for Vermont Facility wolves among the pack, but found none that she knew. It was just Isa. There was a new scar marring her face. Twisting cruelly down her left cheek, it was ragged and angry, much like the emotion simmering in the wolf's eyes. Isa didn't look well - she was skinny, her bones wrapped in desperate muscle tone. She looked like a starving wolf - lean and wild, but not in any sustainable way.

Isa came to a stop in front of Stephanie and sneered at her. The flash of Isa's white canines made Stephanie flinch and look down. A short, harsh laugh reverberated around them as Isa took amusement in that submissive action.

"What made you so goddamn special, huh?" Isa asked, all teeth and hard edges. She sounded unbalanced. Not human. "We were all in there and you got out, scott free. Does that seem fair?"

It wasn't fair, Stephanie wanted to say. It wasn't fair that she had gotten this while others had gotten so much worse. But it wasn't her fault. That was just the way it went. So many arguments sprung to mind, but Stephanie knew they wouldn't help her. Isa had suffered. These wolves surrounding them had probably suffered. They didn't care who did it - everyone had to pay. Everyone.

"Yeah, well," Isa snorted. "You're not so special now, are you?"

"Please," Stephanie whimpered. "Please just let her go. Let Lea go. She's - she's just a human girl. S-she hasn't done anything wrong, she needs help, she's dying - just please, please -"

Stephanie felt like she was going to suffocate on her own fear and anxiety. She felt like she was going to be sick. Like she was going to pass out and it was all too much. It was enough to break her, it was too much. She hadn't stopped begging, and they all looked at her like she had grown another head.

Isa just shook her head, chuckling lowly. It was a dark sound, one that tightened itself like a noose around Stephanie's neck.

"Kill me," Stephanie pleaded. "Kill me but take her, get her some help, I am begging you Isa. Please don't-"

"Be quiet," Isa snapped.

Stephanie obeyed, too weak to rail against the alpha.

"I don't do sympathy," Isa said. "Human, werewolf - it doesn't matter."

There was palpable hate in that statement. Just pure, unadulterated hatred. Digust. It was born from being hurt, Stephanie knew, but it didn't make it any less terrifying.

"It's time to finish what we started back in the Facility, and this time, you will bend to my command."

Stephanie couldn't even find it in herself to cry. She felt a hopeless anguish bloom in her chest as Isa told her to get to her knees. As soul sick and exhausted as Stephanie was, she felt the order like a sledgehammer to her chest. She fell to her knees at Isa's feet, Lea's limp form still clutched to her chest. Blood soaked Stephanie's shirt. It coated her arms and her hands. She felt it drying on her skin.

"Put the girl on the ground," Isa ordered.

The promise of harm in her voice forced Stephanie to comply wordlessly. It was like her body was acting of its own volition. Setting Lea aside felt like condemnation, a silent surrender. Tears burned in her throat as she looked on at the pale skin, the closed eyes.

Isa started to talk. It didn't even make sense to Stephanie at first. The words were all jumbled and disconnected, meaningless in her mind. Then, Stephanie turned her eyes to the watching pack and away from Lea. It started to all make sense then.

"There are worse things than the Facility," Isa said. "Things that warp the soul and make it sick."

She kept talking but Stephanie couldn't bear to hear it. Seconds ticked by and Stephanie was numb.

"I couldn't believe a pup like you had managed to disobey me before when you couldn't even get the omega to listen to you. It shouldn't have been possible," Isa spat. "But now I know real power. Now I can cut you down from your throne like you should have been a long time ago."

Stephanie looked into Isa's eyes and saw no hesitation there, no remorse as she lifted her gun and aimed it at Stephanie's forehead. As the metal touched her skull, Stephanie closed her eyes and prayed for forgiveness.