Page 16 of Alphas Never Hide (Willow Lake Supernaturals #5)

Chapter Sixteen

RYLEY

I rushed through the tunnels, keenly aware that something besides mystery speakers and metal bars could be hiding behind the walls. If something sprang out at me right now, I’d have a heart attack, hit the dirt floor, and die before they even touched me.

I never should have compared this place to a fun house, because now that the thought was in my head, it was haunting me. When I’d first left my herd, I’d wanted to experience everything the mundane human world had to offer. Going to a fun house had seemed like it’d be, well, fun. It wasn’t. There were creepy clowns, eerie laughter, nothing being what it seemed, and people jumping out at you to make you scream. Why did humans like to be piss-your-pants scared? They were almost as messed up as Robbie was.

I skidded to a halt on my hoofed feet when I reached the ladder to freedom. I looked up. The damn hatch was covering the exit. Without giving myself time to panic any more than I already was, I shifted into my human form and scrambled up the rungs. The hatch, which had opened easily for me last night, refused to budge. There was no latch or handle, but the thing wouldn’t move. I put on my glasses to see if I’d missed something, but nothing stood out. It would have been better to do a partial shift and look through my faun’s eyes, but my nerves were too frayed. I was scared I would lose control and my whole body would change. The last thing I needed was to suddenly have hooves while trying to balance at the top of a metal ladder. I pushed up against the lid. I beat it with my fist. Nothing worked.

Son of an ass-zit. This was bad.

I reluctantly climbed down the ladder again. My brain scrambled to come up with a new plan. There had to be a way out of here. Every building needed at least two exits. There were regulations.

Right . Because people who built illegal bunkers on their land cared about building codes. But there had to be vents for air or, if we were really lucky, a hidden escape hatch. We had searched the tunnels and found nothing like that, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there, just like that speaker.

I pushed myself to shift again as soon as I stepped off the last rung. My transition was sluggish. My muscles quivered with the effort. I wouldn’t be able to shift many more times without food to balance my magic. But I felt a hell of a lot better being in my shifted form, even if I’d never be as powerful as a wolf shifter or a hellhound. I trudged back to the cell where Hayden was trapped .

He took one look at me and cursed. “ No luck?”

“ No luck,” I confirmed. “ I have a new plan. There is a speaker behind this plywood, right? And every wall and ceiling has plywood just like this. I bet we’ll find other things if we rip it down.” Like hopefully a way out .

Hayden eyed the haphazard supports. “ Sounds like a good way to have the whole place collapse on us.”

I ignored him. No one appreciated a Negative Nelly . “ But first, we’ll get you out of the cage.”

“ Good idea, Sherlock . And how are we going to do that?”

“ I had a lot of time to plan my escape. I went for the lock because it was the easiest thing to do, but we don’t have that option here,” I said, absently waving toward the lock-free bars. “ But I saw a documentary once about how when people were locked in a room, they always focused on the door and the lock, but the weak spots are often the walls.”

“ It is a place to start, I suppose.” Hayden eyed the walls skeptically. “ But I don’t think this will be as easy as kicking through sheetrock.”

“ We won’t know until we try. Can you shift?” I asked. “ Maybe you could claw at the plywood. I once saw a video of someone’s dog ripping through a door like they were digging a hole.” I tapped my foot on the ground. “ What if you dug under the bars? These bars can’t be embedded too deeply.”

“ I …” Hayden swallowed and averted his eyes. Color rose on his cheeks. “ I tried shifting, but…”

Shit . This was worse than I’d thought, but I wouldn’t get on his case about it. I knew how fickle magic could be .

“ Hey . No worries at all,” I said quickly and with false cheer. “ It was just a thought. We can absolutely do this without you shifting. One hundred percent. No problem. We’ve got this.”

The color on his cheeks darkened even more, but I pretended I didn’t see. I made a production of taking off my backpack and setting it aside. I studied and poked at the walls on one side of the room, before doing the same to the other. One panel moved more than the other. Hopefully , that meant it was a weak spot with nothing behind it. I thought about going through the tunnels to hunt for something to use as a pry bar, but I couldn’t bear the idea of going out there alone again. If this didn’t work, I would do that next. Everyone needed a Plan B .

“ So , um, I’m just going to, you know, kick the shit out of the wall over here.”

As soon as my ass hit the ground, I flopped onto my back. I scooted over so my ass was closer to the wall and my feet were resting at a comfortable angle against the plywood. The bars to the cage were pressed against my right side. I really hoped this worked.

“ Here goes.”

Quite a few years ago, when I still lived with the herd, my brother Conny —man, he’d hated when I called him that, but he’d been too small for a name like Constantine —discovered a stash of old VHS tapes when he was about nine. Amongst them was a recording of a Riverdance show. It’d been love at first tap. He came up with his own routines, determined to be the next big name. I knew that would never happen. Fauns couldn’t be in human shows. But I didn’t see the problem with him having an interest outside all that damn flute playing fauns were supposed to enjoy. Because anything was better than having another flute player in the family.

He was the youngest in the herd, so everyone spoiled him. But I was the only one who’d encouraged his love of dance. I was already in my twenties at the time, but I’d been right there beside him. I let him teach me his choreography, which was impressive for a kid under ten. Unfortunately , the other fauns, including my parents and their siblings, were assholes and didn’t like his too-human hobby. His obsession lasted for three years before he succumbed to the pressure to stop. It’d broken my heart when he tossed all his CDs and videos.

CDs and videos. Did anyone have those anymore? Well , besides me? I still had every bit of electronics I’d ever purchased. My apartment was full of gadgets and machines. My herd would flip if they saw it. If I hadn’t already left them, they would have banned me for sure.

But before that, when Conny and I had been dancing, I’d learned a lot about hoof health and how to stomp for hours without hurting your hooves. Although I never imagined how important good strong hooves would be in my life until now. Yesterday , I’d been relieved to escape with only a couple of nicks in my hooves when I’d broken the lock. My left hoof was also smaller after they’d taken samples of it to test them for residual magic, so it wouldn’t be able to take as much abuse. But an injured foot was better than the alternative.

Today would test my hoof strength. When we got out of here, I really needed to look up the manicurist the scary dragon mentioned last night. You know, if this worked, and we got out of this place before we died.

“ It’s working,” Hayden said.

I glanced down at my feet to see the wood splintering and breaking away, but I wasn’t through to the other side yet. Emboldened by this modest success, Hayden sifted through the stuff we’d dumped out of people’s bags earlier. When he found a small camera tripod, he lifted it like it was Excalibur . Then he used it to chip away at the plywood on his side of the bars, too.

When the first hole appeared, we both crowed in victory. I tried to peer through the splintered wood to the space behind it, but I couldn’t see anything in the shadowy gap. The hole was big enough for my finger.

I swallowed. I had a thing about not sticking my hands or anything else through mysterious holes. All those glory hole clips on porn sites made me cringe and want to cover my junk. But it couldn’t be helped in this situation. At least it would only be my finger at risk. It also helped that I didn’t expect there to be anyone waiting on the other side with pruning shears. I shuddered. Nope . I shouldn’t have thought about that.

I’d definitely watched too many slasher movies when I’d first joined the human world.

Damn it. Why couldn’t the first hole have appeared on Hayden’s side?

With clenched teeth, I eased my finger into the hole. I was tense, ready to whip my hand away if anything—any tiny little thing—brushed against it. I got to the first knuckle. Everything was okay. I still had my finger. Second knuckle. My finger was still attached. I pushed my finger all the way in.

“ Huh ,” I said, wiggling my finger.

“ What ?”

I pulled my finger out and tried to look inside the hole again. I still couldn’t see anything. “ I can’t feel anything on the other side.”

“ Really ?” There was a whisper of hope in his question.

I glanced at him. “ Really .”

“ This might actually work.” He sounded surprised. His reaction didn’t offend me. I couldn’t believe my idea was working either.

With renewed energy, we beat at the wall some more. The hole grew larger and larger. This time when I looked through it, I could see the chiseled earth several inches behind it. The gap wasn’t a lot, but if we could get the plywood out of the way, Hayden might be able to squeeze through it.

Hayden grinned at me.

I didn’t think he’d ever smiled at me before. I hadn’t known him all that long, but I would have remembered something like that, because he was…

I swallowed. Was it hot in here?

“ What ?” Hayden was watching me carefully.

“ Uh …” I blinked.

“ Ryley ?”

I shook my head. “ Nothing . I just…” Just what? Nothing . At least nothing I’d say aloud. “ Let’s , uh, let’s get this out of the way.”

His forehead crinkled like I’d confused him, but he nodded, and we got to work again. My fingers were bleeding. My feet hurt. I had splinters in weird places, like the webbing between my fingers. But after a while, we finally had the plywood removed from floor to ceiling. The gap extended about a foot or so on either side of the bars.

Hayden hurriedly went through the remaining bags for people’s identification, then he shoved the small bag with the few wallets and phones through the bars to me. Then we both stared at the hole we’d created. This was it, the moment we’d find out if it worked. If I’d been stuck on the other side instead of him, I wouldn’t have been as apprehensive, but Hayden was a big, muscular guy.

He cracked his knuckles and twisted his body one way and then the other, like he was preparing for a marathon. I didn’t know what good that would do, but whatever. He put his back against the wall and pressed up to the hole we’d made.

Fuck . I couldn’t watch.

Fuck . I couldn’t not watch.

This was so not going to work.

I held my breath and squeezed in my stomach like I was the one trying to fit through the gap.

“ Come on, come on, come on,” I muttered quietly. I hadn’t been this stressed since… Well , since I broke myself out of a similar cage yesterday. I swear I didn’t know how my life had become so messed up.

Then he was through.

Holy fuck a doodle. It worked. I crashed into him, and he hugged me tight.

Now we just had to open the hatch, and we were golden. Hell fucking yeah.