Page 37 of Alphas Never Hide

RYLEY

Haydenwent to put his hand on my neck again, butIswatted it away.Ididn’t want to be lulled into a feeling of safety and security.Iwasnotsafe or secure, andIneeded all my senses soIcould protect myself.

Hepressed his lips together but dropped his hand.

Myheart was pounding a bazillion times a minute.Thelast timeI’dbeen in this tunnel system,IsworeI’dnever go back, thatI’ddie fighting anyone who tried to make me.Andyet, hereIwas, less than twenty-four hours later, traipsing through the door likeIwas an eager guest with an embossed invitation.

Reckless.Thatwas the only word for it.

Still,IfollowedHaydeninto the hole in the ground likeIwasn’t living through my worst nightmare.Ileft the hatch open.Itwas our means of escape, andIdidn’t want anything blocking it.Lightsflickered on as we neared the bottom of the ladder, andIfigured they were motion-activated because they’d done the same thing whenIbroke free of my cage last night.

Assoon as my feet were on the ground and the tunnel walls were pressing in all around me,Iregretted all my life choices that’d led to this moment.Okay.Maybenotallmy decisions.Ididn’t regret leaving my herd.ButIabsolutely regretted not rolling over inHayden’sbed this morning and letting him come out here on his own.

WhathadIbeen thinking?Iwas a faun.Weweren’t known for our heroics.Mykind also weren’t meant to live underground.Wewere a one-hundred-percent above-ground kind of being.

Ishifted into my faun form to give myself a little more strength, but even that didn’t give me a lot of comfort.Myshifted form didn’t come with armor.Mybare-assed chest was very vulnerable to bullets and bites and knives of all kinds.

Ieyed the ladder going up to the surface.Icould be up those rungs in a matter of minutes and run back to the truck, likeHaydenhad suggested.Fromthere,Icould callVanand let him deal withHayden’ssingle-minded and foolish quest to confrontRobbie.

Yeah.ButIwouldn’t do that, wouldI?Becausethat’d mean going out there into the woods.Alone.Again.

Vancould already be on his way.Heseemed like the guy who’d come running as soon as he opened the textI’dsent him marking our location.Ofcourse he would, and he’d bring the rest of his merry little gang, too.Because, unlike me,Haydenhad people who seemed to care where he was and what he was doing.Ijust had to stick close to him until they arrived.So,Icrossed my fingers and hopedfor the best.Outof the corner of my eye, a shadow flickered up by the ceiling.Iscanned the tunnel, but everything was quiet and still.

“What?”Haydenasked.

“Didyou see that?Somethingmoved?”

Haydenshook his head and scanned the ceiling. “Whatdid it look like?”

Great.NowIwas imagining things.Thisplace was messing with my head. “Iguess it was nothing.”

“Butit might not be,”Haydensaid, looking around for threats again.Nothingappeared. “Ismell…”Hehesitated, like he wasn’t sure if he should finish his thought. “Death.”

Yeah.Thatwasn’t a troubling thought at all.And, obviously, that wasn’t the source of the movementIsaw because dead things didn’t move. “Let’sgo.Ithink it might have been a moth.”

“Ifyou’re sure…”

“I’msure,”Ilied, because saying thatIwas seeing shit that wasn’t there wasn’t a comfort to anyone.

Henodded, butIcould tell he didn’t believe me.Hespun in a circle, taking in the less-than-luxurious accommodations.Wewere in a room of sorts with tunnels leading away from it.Thewall sconces were the cheapest motion-activated outdoor lights you could buy at the hardware store.Thelight was bright white and made my eyes water.Two-by-fours and plywood crudely supported both the walls and the ceiling, though the earth floor remained bare.Basedon the haphazard spacing of the posts,Idoubted they complied with any kind of structural engineering standards.Noneof those observations eased theimpending sense of doom clinging to me like burrs on my faun’s furry ankles.

Darktunnels led away from the room.Icouldn’t remember which oneI’dused, butHaydensniffed the air and chose one.Ishuddered and tried to peer down the ones we weren’t taking.Ifonly they led to something interesting, like a stash of gold or a wine cellar or…Whatelse did people store in creepy underground bunkers?

“Yousure this isn’t a trap?”Iwhispered.

“Nope.ButIcan’t sense wolves in here.Thereare other scents though, so stay close.Ican’t tell if they are new or not.Thelack of fresh air is messing with my nose.”

“Great, just great,”Imumbled, butIfollowed him anyway.

Noway wasIletting him out of my sight; splitting up was how people died in slasher movies.Statisticsshowed that more women than men survived horror movies.Yes, yes,Iknew this was my real life, but itfeltlike one of those fictional movie sets, andIwas determined to be the exception to the survival statistics.Ialso wantedHaydento survive too, becauseIwas generous like that.

Aswe walked into the tunnel, more lights came on.Ourfootsteps scuffed against the bare ground loudly enoughIcould hear them over my thundering heartbeat.

Nothingin the hall was straight.Thewalls tilted a few degrees this way or that.Theceiling wasn’t level either.Whoeverinstalled them clearly didn’t understand how to use a plumb bob, a level or, you know, just their eyes.Theonly other explanation was they really liked those creepy human fun houses, except this one didn’t have mirrors or the weird circus music.Andif we were lucky,nothing lurked behind corners waiting to lunge for us, either.

Wegot to the first door.Itwas ajar.Ihadn’t thought my heart could beat any faster, but it tried anyway.

“Waita minute,”Haydenwhispered.Thenhe shifted, not fully, but enough that his face changed into a wolfish configuration, and he grew bigger.Hesniffed at the gap.Whenhe didn’t stiffen or shout at me to flee,Ifigured we were safe.