Chapter 22: Chapter Twenty-Two

Had it been any other situation, the look of complete surprise on the mans face was almost comical as Cassidy shot towards him. He might have assumed she was a pup and she used that to her advantage. Before, when they had been surrounded by the BlackStone pack, the human half of her had frozen with a fear like state unsure of what to do. She had no wolf then to protect herself or to fight back. Her wolf had been in control for weeks and weeks now, the two halves of the mind slowly coming to terms with each other and accepting one another in the most intimate of ways. That connection she had been building came into use now, using all the teachings that Jett had spent years drilling into her mind out of repetition and using the pure instinct of her wolf.

Cassidy went after the first thing she could get ahold of, her jaws going wide and clamping right down across the mans face. The mixture of snarls from Cassidy and screams from the man echoed in the room as he stood up, or at least tried to with the vicious she-wolf attached to the front of his head. Cassidy shook him, teeth sinking deeper and bones cracking under the strength of her jaws. She ignored the fingers clawing at her body for purchase and the fists pounding to her ribs. It infuriated her and for a moment, she seen a haze of red. Snarling, bones snapped and crushed and the man fell to the ground. He released her in a rush and the second she was free from his hands, she let go of his crushed face and bolted for the door.

The cell had been her home for weeks if not months. She didn't know how long exactly she had been here anymore but she refused to stay another day or another minute. She came out into the hallway and looked around a little disorientated. She focused and got her bearings quickly. To the left, was the way to the lower floor where the shower was. To the right, she didn't know but it had to be the way up. She wasn't going down to the third floor again.

She did not run, she more or less walked, half couched and slinking along one of the walls moving as quickly as she could. Adrenaline was running high through her body and every sense was heightened. She passed two open doors with empty cells before she came face to face with two more rogues. One with a firearm strapped to the hip, his arms around another that looked like he had been through eight rounds with a heavy weight boxer from the torture he received by the guards here. Her hackles rose and she growled, moving before she could even think twice or before the rogue could registered what he was seeing or what was happening.

The man dropped the wounded and nearly dead man like a sack of heavy potatoes when he realized the wolf was coming after him. He had stopped dead in his tracks seeing a white wolf drenched in red. They were only feet apart when he had been dragging one of the prisoners from the cell into the hallway when he glanced down the hall and seen the wolf just as she was leaping for him. The gun was an afterthought as he dropped the man he was helping and caught the body of the she-wolf full force. He was more aware than the first victim had been, but the force of Cassidy coming at him had him stumbling backwards to try and keep his balance. His boot caught on the body he dropped and sent him down, landing hard on his rear and holding a snapping and snarling wolf back just inches from his face.

Cassidy had lunged and jumped up at the man. His hands caught her at the sides of her face and she tried the same tactic she had with the other rogue. The man fell back with her on top of him, holding her back just inches from contact with his face. “Holy Shit!” He was surprised and for a second when he yelled out, they both stilled and stared at each other for a breath of time.

She wasn't a killer. Not unless she had to be. Even the wolf side of her that followed her instinct closely was not a killer. She and the rogue stared at each other for just a fraction of a second before a deep, rumbling growl began in her chest and rose in volume. Asserting herself in her human form was one thing, but with her wolf now fully linked with that human side of her, her dominance took on a whole new level. The growl started small and within seconds it became loud and aggressive and turned into a snarl that had all the power of a full grown alpha behind it and it reverberated off the walls around the two of them.

The look of fear, the fear of her was something Cassidy wasn't used to. No one feared her. Sure Jett had submitted to her a time or two when her temper was pushed too far but he never feared her. The growl her wolf had just used was a demand of respect, a promise of death if the other wolf did not submit. It was a sound only the Alphas of the strongest bloodlines could manage to make and every lower ranking wolf would feel the compulsion to submit. A whimper came from the severely injured man and with it came the strong scent of urine as the man had been beaten enough by the guards, her dominance just scared the hell out of him. The wolf that was holding her trembled under her, fighting the fear but with a snap of her teeth he let out a strangled sound that was a mix between a whimper and denial. Like a pup being disciplined by their elder, the man let go of her and looked away.

He submitted to an Alpha that was not his own. He might have hoped for mercy from Cassidy, but she gave none. The second he submitted, she went for his throat and made a kill on him. The man tried to fight her off, but she ripped into his exposed neck and she jumped away to leave the man bleed out quickly. Cassidy ran from him further down the hall, just turning the corner as shots rang out behind her, the bullets just barely missing her back legs and lodging into the wall at the end of the hall she just turned out of before the metallic sound of the gun clattered to the floor.

Cassidy wasn't stopping now. She ran, passing Blackstone guards that had been killed as well as the rogues that had been killed. There were shouts behind her as men that had been on the lower floor were coming back up and finding the first man dead. The stairs were right at the end of the hallway and she bolted for it, running up to the first floor of the prison as fast as she could. Just as she entered the stair way, she heard the elevator in the second level hall ding as BlackStone warriors filed out into the hallway she just left, the sounds of battle echoing up the stairs.

‘Dont get caught. Dont get caught. Dont get caught…’ she repeated to herself in her mind as she exited the stairs. She moved swiftly, looking left and right down the hallway and moving on. There were a few bodies in the hallway, but the scent of blood was heavy from the slaughter in the locker rooms where the two shifts of guards were ambushed. The door to the prison was open, just up a short flight of stairs into the darkness outside and the second she caught the scent of the tall pines on the fresh air, Cassidy bolted.

Running as fast as she could, she took the stairs four at a time and the rush of excitement of finally being free, finally being out of that four white walled cell and silver barred kennel was over whelming her with relief and happiness. Cassidy passed through the door of the prison into the forest and made a run for it. She didn't know where she was going to go or even what direction she was going, but she needed to get as far away from this place as she possibly could.

Five steps into her freedom, Cassidy’s world was rocked. A force that felt like a freight train came at her from the side out of no where, knocking the wind out of her painfully as her body was launched and flung several feet. Not prepared for it, Cassidy landed on her side, desperately trying to draw a breath as she looked up at a looming pitch black shadow int he night and the angriest dark green eyes she had ever seen.