The Experimental Mate (in editing process)

Follow Close Behind

Jay's POV:

I could feel her panic and distress as well a dull pain along my stomach and foot. I'm not sure how I'm feeling her pain, but I am. With most wolves, they won't feel their mates' pain without marking one another so this is definitely out of the usual. This whole thing is. A while ago, the late pack doctor had a gift of sight and he told my parents that I didn't have a mate, as far as he could see. There's no way she can be my mate. I wonder what Noah did to make it seem so. Was this all just a set up after all? Maybe Colby and Dre were right.

As we were following the path they took, I paid attention to the halls, so we know our way back. The different halls were disturbing though. They had multiple rooms in each hall that all held windows so you could see in the rooms. Some rooms had women inside getting whipped while the next hall had rooms full of nothing but babies. From the looks of it and the pink and blue blankets, they were ninety percent girls. What the hell is this place?

We were fixing to head down the next hall when we heard her scream. Her begging got consistently louder. She was pleading with him not to hurt her, and I felt my heart clench with guilt and worry for what has and is about to happen. When she fell silent, my heart began to drop thinking the worst happened. I began walking towards where they were when Lomen grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"I don't want to die or start a war here. Let her be for a little bit, let's grab Gifford, and then you can have your weird obsession time with that lunatic girl later." Andrews growled at the way he talked about our girl, and I couldn't help but flash my eyes once more.

I bit my tongue, not wanting to disclose anything yet in case I had it wrong. Why are there so many four-way hallways here!? I could hear a small scraping noise become more prominent, so I grabbed Lomen and ducked around the corner of a random doorway down the hall we are in. Through the four-way hall, we saw a medium sized gray wolf dragging that girl. Andrew began to growl at the site, and I couldn't blame him. She made eye contact with me before Lomen gently nudged my arm, breaking me out of my trance. We began walking towards the hall they just left, following the blood trail. Something inside me snapped at that very second and it became dangerously hard to breathe.

We promise we'll come get you. Just hold on.

The faster we get Gifford to safety, the faster we can get her, and any other girl we come across, to safety. We ran down the hall once it was clear to do so and checked every cell that had so far been empty. The sign of this hallway was called the 'eighteenth bunker' and something clicked together with her name. But she must have an actual name. All the sudden, Lomen called me over where we found Gifford in a cell of his own.

"Hey, big boy." I smiled, relieved he was still alive. That relief was short lived though. That girls still at risk and we have no idea how to open this door or how we're going to get either of them out without anyone noticing. We don't even know the pin for the hatch.

A loud agonized, high pitch scream echoed down the hallways making my blood run cold. Andrew came to the forefront of my mind.

"We'll go save her man but we gotta get this open first." Lomen reasoned, trying to snap me out of it. 

"We're saving that crazy girl!?" Gifford whispered, causing a growl of anger to slip out. They both looked at me weird before Lomen shook his head, taking his attention back to the bars. The bars weren't made with silver or wolfsbane so with one snap they should break in two.

"Gifford, why didn't you and Red just break out?" I asked, confusion written all over my face as Lomen and I slowly but surely broke enough bars for him to squeeze through. Don't get me wrong, breaking them was still a hassle but it was doable.

"They did something to Red. I haven't been able to contact him since I got caught."

Lomen snickered before pointing out that this is the first time Gifford has been caught and Gifford could do nothing but scowl before a small smile lined his face.

"I got too comfy, I guess." He hummed in agreement.

As Gifford was squeezing out, a second high pitch agonized scream echoed down the halls, and it seemed as though Andrews was winning the battle for control.

Get to our mate, idiot! He's hurting her! Tear his throat out!!!! Sever his limbs one by one! Use them as a chew toy or make a crown!

We don't know if she's our mate, idiot! We have to be careful. The doc said we don't have one. 

I almost let Andrews completely take over but stopped when Gifford began talking. I didn't hear the first half, distracted by my raging wolf and my own anger, but I heard the second. She was going to be in the pageant. Or I guess the event as Gifford had called it.

"There's only a few minutes left." I state, looking down to the time on my watch. Andrew calmed down enough for us to begin thinking a little more logically on this.

"We'll follow the sounds of her screams, stay hidden in the shadows, and when they leave for the event, we'll follow close behind them so we can get out and in, wherever we need to be." Lomen began. The whole reason I chose him as my betta making its appearance once more. He had the most stupid but clever ideas that were always a ninety-nine to one ratio of working and he was able to think off the top of his head in risky situations.

"Sound like a pl-" Yet another scream ripped through the halls, all of us instantly moving to follow the sounds, and for once in a lifetime, I felt my anger might just get the better of me.