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I took my skin, stumbling to my feet. “Dad!”
His head jerked up. “J-Jude?” His mouth gaped open as he blinked in confusion. “They told me you were dead.” My dad reached out to touch me, as if to check that I was real, and I grabbed his hand, dragging him in for a hug.
“I’m alive,” I confirmed. My dad had always seemed so much larger than life, but in the years since I’d last seen him, I’d grown up. I was inches taller, broader, and he seemed so frail in my arms.
Dad pushed off my chest and looked up at me with tear-filled eyes. He set a hand on my cheek, chuckling as he brushed the light beard I’d grown. His sob was at odds with his beaming smile. “I wasn’t sure you would ever get the chance to grow up, but here you are, a man—and a wolf!”
As much as I wanted to catch up, tell him everything that had happened, now was not the time. “Come on, Dad. We need to get you out of he—”
“I think not,” another voice interrupted.
I spun around and came face to face with my nightmares. He was older, grayer, but with his white lab coat and cold smile, he was the same Dr. Gray.
“Welcome home, Son,” he said. “It’s so good to see you again, and looking so healthy. You’ve done well out in the wild. I’m so proud of you.”
I’d always suspected he was my alpha father, but to have it confirmed felt like a scalpel through the heart. I sneered at him in loathing, moving between him and my dad. “You’re no more my father than the needles you stuck me with.”
The director tsked in exaggerated disappointment. “You’re wrong. I love you. How else do you think you managed to escape? It was all thanks to me.Ileft that door unguarded, kept it from latching all the way. I knew you weren’t happy here, that you wanted your freedom, and so I gave it to you. Dr. Taylor was most vexed with me.” He gave me his standard cool smile as he approached me. I’d always hated that stupid fucking smile. “And now you’ve come home, just like I always knew you would.”
He moved another step closer, nearly within reach now. “You know, you really did a number on poor Dr. Taylor. He’ll probably never walk again. We weren’t sure he was going to make it.” He shook his head. “No matter. It’s asmall price to pay to have you back with me. You are all that matters.”
It’s a distraction, my wolf said, as if I hadn’t already noticed the way Dr. Gray had slipped his hand into his coat pocket. I didn’t need to see it to know he had a syringe, no doubt filled with sedative. The asshole still thought he could take me alive.
“And where is that mate of yours?” he asked, taking another step. “I was hoping to meet him. He would be welcome to stay as well, of course. Anything for my son.”
I saw the exact moment Dr. Gray’s mask slipped. His smile turned hard, his eyes calculating. I braced for the fight, but as he went to pull the syringe from his pocket, my omega dad stepped up beside me.
“Please, allow me. This cunt is mine,” he snarled, looking over at me as his gaze flashed an intense blue. “I’ve waited 25 years for this opportunity.” He pulled his scrub shirt off, exposing his torso, pale from lack of sunlight, underfed enough to count his ribs. “Who’s going to protect you now, Bob?”
I’d only seen my father’s wolf once before when I was young, during a full moon, shortly before he’d been shot full of tranquilizers. I watched in awe as he shifted now into a beautiful dark-coated wolf, too thin but no less deadly.
Dr. Gray was smart enough to know he couldn’t overpower us both. When he turned to run, I darted forward and blocked the doorway. Claws out, I grabbed him by the neck. “What’s the matter, Dr. Gray? You look worried. I promise, it’ll only hurt for a moment.” How many times had I heard him say those exact words?
Blood trickled down from where my claws punctured his throat as he began to beg, grappling uselessly at me. I held him there as my dad tore into him. When he screamed, I squeezed harder. From mere inches away, I watched the light die from those green eyes, so much like mine.
My alpha father died… and I felt nothing but disgust.
When there was nothing left to him but an empty shell, I dropped him to a heap on the floor. My dad and I stood side by side, staring down into the bastard’s lifeless eyes. “I told you to run, and you got your chance,” he said, turning to look up at me. “Why did you come back?”
I sighed, feeling a sense of relief and resolution now that it was over. “After six years, I’d had enough of hiding, and I found myself with a good reason to fight.”
My dad cocked his head, thinking that over, then his gaze moved to my throat, searching. “You’re mated!” he gasped. “I agree, that’s a good reason.” He reached up tentatively and ran a finger over the distinct pattern ofteeth—clearly not a wolf. “Human?” His eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“Yes.” I tilted my chin up, daring to make a comment about it.
His eyes softened, his lips curling into a smile. “I’m sure he’s amazing. I can’t wait to meet him.”
I was grateful toget the hell out of that dorm, with its flood of nightmares and now stinking of death. With an arm around my dad’s shoulders, I led him through the gore-splattered halls back outside. He drew the first deep breath of fresh air in decades. He tipped his head back and howled long and wild, singing his freedom to the stars.
As promised, Joe’s clean-up crew showed up once the fighting was over, their van filled with gear. A man with a tablet began barking out directions to the team, and I heard him say, “Clear the survivors and situate the accelerant. We want it to burn hot and fast.”
“Actually, can you wait a few minutes?” I asked, walked over to him. “I want to make sure we’re not leaving anything behind.”
The man’s features were sharply angled, giving him an overly stern appearance. He glanced at his watch thenleveled me with a hard glare. “You have 20 minutes. Not one second more. Our diversion to keep the fire departments busy will only work for so long.”
As much as I loathed this place, I knew there was one last thing I needed to check. “Dad, stay here,” I said, passing him and headed back inside. “I’ll be right back.”
Grabbing a keycard from one of the corpses in the hall, I made my way back to the dreaded unmarked door. My siblings disappeared through this door, but where did they go? I had assumed it was a death sentence, but now that I’d found my dad alive, I didn’t know what to believe anymore.
