Wolf under an oak tree.

Iris Hendrix

“Iris, we got to go, Now!” Elana’s eyes were the size of saucers, and she abruptly got up from her place and dragged me along with her towards the door, I can hear the panic in her voice and the urgency in her steps. And a few seconds later, an alarm went out in the hallway. And my heart was beating hard against my ribcage, and my breathing was irregular with all the adrenaline that was pumping.

“Elana, what happened? What is going on?” I yelled at her while she continued to drag me like a rag doll toward the elevator, she continuously kept pressing the button, and it is a wonder that the button was still intact.

“Rogues have breached the border, and they have come inside the pack. But what is worst is that they are fighting right outside the packhouse,” she explained.

“Urg! Why doesn’t this damn thing work?” she sighed in frustration and pulled a handful of her hair.

“Can’t we use the staircase?” I suggested, and her eyes widened, and she smacked her forehead before she held my wrist again in a firm grip and dragged me towards the staircase but instead of going down, she pulled me upstairs.

“Elana, Where are we going?”

“We are going to the Alpha’s quarters, and in one of the rooms up, there is a secret tunnel that will lead us to the safe house,” she explained while running up the stairs, and I followed her. Once we entered the Alpha’s quarters, Elana took a sharp right and ran towards the last door that was there, she rattled the door handle, trying to open it, but it looks like it is locked.

“Do you have a hairpin?”

“Yes, I do,” I said and took out a pin from my hair and gave it to her, and after battling with the lock for a few minutes, the door opened up, and she rushed inside while I stood there for a few seconds before I stepped inside the room. This room was different from all the rooms that I have seen in this house.

The walls were done in a mint green color with yellow and purple flowers, there was a huge king-sized bed that was covered with a white cloth, and there were two bedside tables on either side with antique lamps. But what caught my eye was the rocking chair that was kept next to the bay window, and there was a basket with knitting needles, yarn of all colors, and an incomplete piece of cloth that appears to me as a sweater, and there was a novel lying open beside the rocking chair, and it looked dusty.

After observing the entire room, something struck my brain.

This must be Jace’s grandmother’s room.

“Elana?” I called her name, looking around to see that the closet door was open, so I went inside to see that there were a lot of clothes, shoes, accessories, and bags just left there with a thick line of dust coating them.

“What are we doing here?” I asked Elana, who was standing behind an array of clothes, searching for something.

“This is where the door to the secret tunnels is. But, I am unable to find a lock or something to open it,” she mumbled, and right then I heard glass breaking and someone yelled from down. I peeped out from the closet door to see that someone threw a rock inside, and this sent chills down my spine.

“Elana, I think you got to hurry up!” I whispered, and right then, I heard a click and something moving. When I went behind the clothes, I saw that the wooden wall was moving aside to reveal a set of stairs.

“Come on, let’s go.” and I followed Elana down the stairs, as soon as I went down a few stairs, the door closed, and I walked in the darkness till Elana turned on the light on her phone to see where we were going. Once we reached the end of the staircase, there were two metal doors.

I think it’s right.” she said and opened it and went inside, and I followed behind while closing the door, and I heard the lock click.

“Are you sure this is the right path?” I questioned Elana again, and she turned around to give me a pointed look before she guided me toward another set of the staircases, when we reached the bottom of it, we reached a huge room filled with cozy furniture, and there was a cupboard.

“Wait! I think we took the wrong turn. This room is grandma’s study room.” I shook my head and followed her back up. And when we reached the metal door, Elana tried opening it, but it wouldn’t open, and right then, a keypad appeared on the wall next to us, prompting us to enter the passcode.

“What the hell?” I didn’t know there was a bloody keypad!” Elana tried typing a few combinations, but it all got rejected till we had only three attempts left, and I pulled her hand away from the keypad and turned her around to face me. Her eyes started to water, and she was shaking.

“I am so sorry, Iris. I should have known what I was doing. I thought, I knew everything very well, but I guess, I apparently missed out on the security system that was installed here.” she mumbled and kept apologizing.

“No, Elana, I should be the one apologizing. I should not have closed that door.” I told her guilt was eating me up, but she shook her head and wiped her tears.

“It’s not either of our faults, but right now, we must find how to get out,” she said, and I nodded my head before we went to the room that we saw earlier and started searching for maybe a diary or something. I opened the cupboard to find a locker inside, but other than that, there was nothing else.

We searched the entire place for the next two hours before we gave up and took a seat on the sofa. “I don’t think we will ever get out of here. No one knows about our location, and to top it off, there is no signal in this place.” Elena started rumbling while I sat there deep in thoughts.

Well, looks like we are officially screwed.