Page 35 of Alpha's Embrace

With a sudden lurch, I bent into his hand on my neck hoping he wouldn’t actually break anything, and managed to brush my face up against his shoulder. My open mouth found cloth only, but I gambled on more. I bit down and my teeth grazed muscle. I pushed harder, my mind spinning now from lack of air, and bit down again as hard as I could.

I heard a howl. It seemed to come up from the bowels of the building.

Tory’s grip on my throat lessened and I was able to back up, my teeth ripping cloth and flesh as I went.

As if from out of nowhere, something struck me across the head.

The world went black.

Chapter Ten

Geo

My cell phone sang on the edge of my desk.

Glancing down, I saw it was one of the nurses on the second floor.

I hitanswer.

At first, all I could hear was a lot of background noise, and something that sounded like a scuffle. There was a rumble of murmuring voices, then a shout.

I spoke into the phone. “Geo, here. What’s going on?”

“He’s gone rogue, I think,” said a voice. I didn’t recognize who it was.

A loud knock at my door made me look up. Whoever it was didn’t wait for my response. Instead, my office door swung wide open banging against the wall to reveal a guard.

“What the--?”

The guard said, “It’s Misha.”

“What?”

I jumped up and ran out the door, following the guard to the elevators.

As we jogged, I said, “What’s going on?”

“Misha and Tory. They’re both injured.”

“What?” But I realized as I’d run into the hallway, Tory was not at his desk.

The guard pushed the button for the elevator. As we waited, I noted he was breathing hard, his cheeks dark. He’d run all the way to my office.

“Tell me.”

“We don’t know. Just that they’re hurt. They’re both being brought to the hospital wing.”

Just then the elevator doors opened. Inside were the two on-shift doctors, one of whom was Prim, surrounding a gurney. On the gurney, naked and unconscious, lay Misha.My Misha.

I don’t know why I thought of him that way, but it was an instant response. I couldn’t hold back. My heart jammed into my throat.

I shoved my way through the circle of doctors and nurses. I saw red and purple bruising around his throat, and scratches down the right side of his ribs. He had an intubation tube down his throat and a nurse compressed air steadily into it.

“Out of the way!” yelled Prim.

“Is he alive?” I asked.

Prim glanced up at me. “He is. But we have to get him to the ICU at once.”