At Dawn, in the Forest

A knock was heard on the office door of the Alpha of the Redwood Pack. “Come in,” Mateo answered. Max entered. “Alpha, Thomas Hilliard is here to see you. He says he has good news about Dawn’s case.”

Mateo sat straight up, pushed himself slightly away from his desk, and leaned back. “Send him in.” Shortly after the lawyer entered. He was wearing a suit and held a briefcase in his hand. “Thank you, Alpha Mateo, for agreeing to see me on such short notice. Normally I would send a message out, but I came straight from a case when I got the news.”

Mateo nodded his head and signaled for Thomas to sit down. “So what is it that you heard?”

Thomas put his briefcase on his lap and shuffled through it and finally took a stack of papers out of them. “We have an official statement from Dr. Klein that she is willing to go on record and testify against her husband. She is willing to admit it was them, but mostly Dr. Willow who was in charge of the experiments performed on Dawn… This means we can demand Dr. Willow will be only convicted according to werewolf law and he could get a death penalty.”

Mateo looked the documents over and hummed. “And you are sure we can drag him into our court?”

“Almost a hundred percent, Alpha Mateo. The acts of Dr. Willow against Dawn are in the highest category of torture, meaning that many of Dawn’s werewolf rights, like human rights, have been violated in the highest category that is counted for. I could make a solid base and a good argument for Dr. Willow only to be convicted by us.”

A small smile settled on Alpha Mateo’s face. He tried to keep his opinion on the matter to himself, seeing as his role as an Alpha he has to respect the justice system. But he was like many others outraged by the way Dawn’s case had been dismissed. “Well, this is certainly good news. I will go look if I can fetch Dawn myself so you can say it for yourself. In the meantime make yourself comfortable, there is some water over there and biscuits if you want.”

When Mateo reached the ground floor he could hear commotion outside. He quickened his step and saw Ajax in the treeline, holding an unconscious Sarah in his arms, multiple pack members surrounding him. His walking turned into running, others had joined as well. “What happened?” He asked.

Ajax stammered. “I don’t know, I found her like this up the hill.”

“Put her carefully on the ground,” Mateo ordered.

As Sarah was lying on the grass, Mateo quickly looked over for any injuries and saw in her neck two point makers. He recognized the marks and knew what kind of weapon it could be. “Tasers,” He muttered.

Then from the distance, a distressed Aiden was heard. “What’s going on? Why is Sarah lying on the ground?” In a hurry, he made his way next to his cousin. “What happened?!” Aiden’s worry increasing.

“I don’t know, but I think she was tased. Look here,” Mateo pointed at the marks.

“Where is Dawn? Maybe she knows more about what happened?”

“Why would Dawn know what happened?”

“They were together this morning going for a run.”

Ajax stepped forward. “I haven’t seen her near Sarah. I checked the area and there was no one there.”

Aiden stood up. “What?! Then where the hell is she?” He looked around and everybody who stood around them shook their heads, signaling to him they didn’t know either where his mate was.

Suddenly they heard Sarah coughing and her eyes fluttered open. Aiden was quick next to her on the ground. “Sarah? Are you alright? What happened?”

Sarah needed a second to adjust to the sunlight and then looked at Aiden and then her eyes widened. She remembered what happened. “Aiden, Dawn is…”

“What’s wrong? What about Dawn?”

Sarah shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I t-tried to help her, I really d-did. But I-I was t-tired from all the r-running,” She hiccupped.

“What happened?” Aiden asked again.

“They got her. They captured her.”

Aiden stood up turned around and let out a loud angry scream. His breathing quickened and his body tensed. His fury was growing like wildfire and he couldn’t contain his wolf anymore and he shifted on the spot in his large brown wolf. Once shifted he ran into the woods, trying to find any trail of his mate.

He couldn’t lose her, not again.

***

When Dawn opened her eyes, she could feel a pounding headache. She groaned as she tried to sit up, holding her head in pain. The moment she took in her surroundings she recognized it quickly. She was in a cell very familiar to the very same one she had resided in the past nine years of her life.

The kicker was though, it wasn’t the exact same, so she wasn’t back at the building Dr. Willow and Dr. Klein held her in.

Dawn tried to inspect the room further when she noticed by the sound and weight on her ankle she was shackled like a true prisoner to the wall. The chain was thick and looked like a high-end metal, something you couldn’t break easily, even as a werewolf.

Where was she?

There were no windows in her cell, only an ugly bright fluorescent light hanging on the ceiling. The walls were made out of concrete and her bed was built in the concrete wall with a thin rubber-like mattress on top of it. In the corner a toilet, she probably could barely reach with her chain. On her left was a thick white door with a tiny window in it, but the window was blurry, and could only see lights coming from the other side. The door was also out of reach for Dawn to investigate.

The door suddenly burst open as if Dawn’s intensive staring had caused it. In the cell walked in a young looking man, somewhere in his mid-thirties Dawn guessed. He was fully dressed in black. A black dress shirt, dress pants, dress shoes. Even his hair and eyes were black. He appeared like a businessman, not a doctor as Dawn had expected.

“Ah, you are awake. That’s good. For a second there I thought my men had been too rough on you with their toys,” The unfamiliar man gave her a wicked grin. Dawn sat up straight, ready to take action if necessary.

“I must say I am glad we were able to bring you back to your home. For a moment we thought we had lost you forever.”

Dawn growled. “This is not my home.”

“I see you are more in contact with your wolf side again, that’s good. We need you up to health anyway for our next phase. Dr. Willow and Dr. Klein for sure went too far with you, our most prized subject.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Dawn growled again. Being called a subject had triggered her inner fury.

“My apologies. I am the head of the organization your former doctors were part of. It’s called AlphaGenesis Research Institute and my name is Draven Delano. It’s a great pleasure to meet you, Dawn.”

“Not likewise,” She muttered. Draven laughed. “I like you already, such a spitfire. I am sure we need that, keep it, pup.” Dawn looked down at her lap. She knew she couldn’t act out yet because if she would they would give her something to make her mellow and that was the last thing she needed right now. But keeping calm around this arrogant dickhead was harder than her recovery altogether.

“I will let you get settled in. Tomorrow it will be a life-changing day for humankind.” And with that Draven exited the cell, leaving Dawn alone.

Dawn felt her anger rising to the surface, her fists tightened around the edge of the bed, and her breathing became heavier.

One thing she knew, tomorrow she wouldn’t back down. Not again.

Dawn was going to fight.