Chapter 79: Chapter 79

A throbbing sensation was the first thing Suki felt as she sluggishly opened her eyes. The weight of her grogginess was shown in her struggling to keep her eyes open.

She whimpered.

What the hell happened?

Where am I?

As the realisation hit, her eyes flashed open, and she gasped, trying to sit up, but as she did, her arms were slightly restricted. She looked down to see steel shackles around both her wrists, attached to thick chains on the bed. A hospital bed.

She looked to her side where a machine beeped away, monitoring her vitals. Looking around the rest of her surroundings, Suki realised the bed and medical equipment stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison to where she was – inside a cage that looked designed to hold animals.

To hold in werewolves.

She felt like she couldn’t breathe. Placing her hand on her chest, struggling to handle the weight of the chains, she slowly drew her hand up towards her neck and felt something cold and solid around her neck.

“Well, look who’s finally awake,” a sluggish, but familiar voice startled her.

Suki shot her head in the direction of the voice. She couldn’t believe who she was looking at. “Hadeon?” she exhaled. Brendan’s older brother, in a hospital bed in another cage, just like she was. The only difference was that he was strapped down with standard restraints and that he didn’t have anything around his neck.

How long had he been here? She thought.

He pointed to his neck with a shaky and weak hand and offered a pained smile. “The perk of not having a wolf, they don’t want to risk electrocuting and killing the only and main source of their werewolf-restricting vaccine.”

Her eyes widened when she noticed another difference between their situations – an IV in Hadeon’s arm, taking his blood. No wonder his mannerisms and voice sounded frail.

“It was… you?” she croaked. Her throat was drier than she thought. She shifted in the bed. How long had she been out cold? Clearing her throat, she tried to speak again, “Your blood is used to make that substance?”

Hadeon nodded slowly. “I was an idiot for trusting them.” He groaned, staring back at the ceiling. “I thought they wanted to make a better world, one where werewolves and humans could live side by side and in harmony. But it was all a lie.” He looked down.

“Oh, Hadeon…” Her tone softened to soothe his regrets. She looked around again. “You don’t happen to know why they kidnapped me, do you?”

A beat passed as he closed his eyes, trying to keep himself awake from his loss of blood. “I think… I think they’re aware that the werewolves are getting close to figuring it all out. So they probably decided to take the last victim of their project to use them to finalise their tests.”

“Tests?”

He sighed, “They aren’t just creating a formula to temporarily get rid of your access to your wolf, they’re trying to eliminate the werewolf race.”

Suki muttered a swear under her breath. “That witch’s vision…”

“Yep,” he breathed, struggling to keep his eyes open. “It’s coming true.”

Shaking her head, Suki tugged at her chains.

“What are you doing over there? Why are you making so much noise?”

“I refuse to let these people kill us just because they don’t understand us. We’ve never hurt humans before and never would. I’m not going to let them destroy our people.” She grabbed hold of her chains and pulled as hard as she could, flinching and groaning in pain.

Hadeon turned his head to her, watching her try to break free. “If they catch you, they’ll kill you, or worse.”

“If,” she repeated. “Them putting me to sleep was a mistake, it gave me a chance for my body to heal. I can feel a bit of my strength coming back; it’s not a lot, but all I need is enough to break these chains, then I can get us out of here.”

A weak chuckle escaped Hadeon’s lips. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

She felt determined, feeling a small ember of her connection to her wolf come to life. “You will.”

Allowing herself a moment to centre her energy, Suki closed her eyes and inhaled through her nose and out through her mouth. She did it once more, but this time, when she finished, she yanked at the chain as hard as she could, breaking it. She smiled.

The damage wasn’t as powerful as it could have been if she had her full strength, but it was enough to start the escape.

She looped her chains off the bed and removed all the connections to the machine from her body. The shackles were still around her wrist, and so was the metal choker around her neck, but she couldn’t risk using too much strength at once to attempt to break them too.

Moving over to the door to the cage, she pushed it, and it swung open. She furrowed her brows. Why was it unlocked?

“Suki…” Hadeon’s voice sounded weaker. “Are you still there?”

She shook her head, snapping herself back to focus. There was no time to question things. She rushed over to Hadeon’s cage. The door was also unlocked – these people must really have believed they wouldn’t be able to escape.

“Hadeon,” she spoke softly as she carefully pulled out his IV. “Hadeon, I need you to wake up.” She tapped his cheek gently. “Open your eyes.”

He did, slowly, and smiled weakly. “Wow… You’re even more beautiful than I remember.”

“You can flirt all you want when we get out of here,” Suki replied quickly, unbuckling his restraints and pulling him up and off the bed. She wrapped her arm around him and allowed him to rest on her as she guided them towards the only door out of the large room they appeared to be in.

Hadeon put his arm around her shoulder, leaning onto her. “I’m sorry. They took a lot of blood…”

Suki whined, feeling the extra weight. “It’s alright, it’ll be alright. I don’t have all my strength, so I need you to try and hold yourself up as much as you can, okay?”

He nodded. “Thank you,” he exhaled.

“Thank me when we’re out of here.”