Feral Obsession

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ruby didn't sleep at all that night. She laid in the bed and stared at the ceiling, counting the minutes. Her mind raced at how close she had come to being free. At how close she had come to going to the police station and getting back on track to save her life.

And now, she was nothing more than a caged animal. Owners had changed, sure, but this was just as suffocating. And, Ruby couldn't ignore the fact that she was completely terrified of what Atlas Langdon was capable of. What any werewolf was capable of.

She had stretched her legs to look out of the window, across the dark lawn, staring into the woods. Not quite like Kierson's home, but a similar experience. She wondered where everyone else was. In Kierson's home, she heard wolves at all hours of the night. People walking, people talking, people moving about outside.

She had never felt alone at Kierson's home. But here, she felt isolated. The only person locked away.

By the time the sky began to lighten, Ruby's eyes burned. Her head ached. She felt a heaviness in her chest that she couldn't seem to ignore. She felt utterly hopeless to whatever situation Atlas deemed fit for her.

Kierson will kill you, Atlas had said, and it was right. Ruby knew that. She knew that Kierson was likely prowling around the city looking for her, sniffing her out, ready to drag her to Hell for what she did. She knew Ryan was out there somewhere, searching for her and reporting back to Kierson. No, not at the apartment. No, not at the restaurant.

She shivered with the implication that Atlas was likely right: no where was safe for her in the city. Not as long as Kierson lived here.

It made Ruby feel hollow, knowing that if she ever escaped Atlas, she would have to run away again. Move somewhere else. Start somewhere new. It made tears gather behind her eyelids. She had worked hard to get to the East Coast, and it was all gone in the blink of an eye.

There was a knock at the door. It had Ruby sitting up, eyes cutting to the window where the sun had barely begun to rise. She crawled off of the bed, stomach twisting in knots. She knew what this meant.

When she opened the door, an exhausted Atlas stood on the other side. Dark circles were gathered under his eyes, and his face looked paler than she had ever seen it before. She wasn't sure what he was losing sleep over, and she wouldn't ask.

She tilted her head down, not looking him in the eyes. Something about the eye contact felt intimate in ways Ruby didn't want to explore. "I'm not running. You can't make me." The words felt like steel in her mouth, sharp and unforgiving. "I'm not your toy, and you can't make me train. I refuse."

"I'm not here to make you run. Or train you. Or do whatever crazy shit Kierson forced you to do. I'm not him." There was disgust in his voice at the comparison. "We're going into the city."

Ruby's eyes did look up then, right at Atlas. Hope bloomed in her chest, and she tried to pop it to save herself heartbreak. She wasn't sure her expression got the memo. "Really?"

"I have errands to run, and I'm not comfortable with you staying here alone." He eyed her outfit, and his mouth flattened. "We'll be leaving in about an hour."

Ruby looked back to the window, then tried to see around Atlas into the hall. "Where are the rest of your pack? Surely I wouldn't be alone if I stayed?"

Atlas gave her a strange look. "This is my personal home. My pack doesn't live here with me. They live in the city like civilized people."

"But..." Ruby thought about everything she knew about werewolves from media: in most books she read, they did live in the woods.