* * *

Sage's wolf started growing fond of the males around her, and a playful attitude had begun to spark in the days following. It made either of them feel guilty as she looked so damn desperate to have contact with her own kind.

Luke didn't have an estimate for how long she was imprisoned here, but it was enough to make her close to mute and have little fight left in her.

With such close proximity, he noted a few things. Perhaps his brother too, but at the moment, his brother was taken elsewhere. And to pass the time and find a distraction, he shared a neutral gaze with Sage across the ways.

She was currently tapping her fingers in a rhythm that he couldn't understand or figure out, but he made himself focus on it to crack the code.

It was some kind of pattern, something that she felt the need to learn and ingrain in her head. And while Luke turned his eyes elsewhere, his attention landed on the ID padlock beside the main door. Bingo

"Is that for the door?" His voice always earned a reaction, and her eyes danced between him and the door. While her nose scrunched together, obviously in annoyance as he disturbed her thought.

Her lack of a response prompted him to ask another question. Otherwise, his brother would give him an ear full about bothering her.

But he wanted answers, and this was the only time he could pick them out of her.

"Are your bars silver?" Now that caught her interest as her brows narrowed in confusion, but it also paired steadily with the will to learn. So he sighed, knowing what he needed to do, and leaned forward to touch the bar.

His action was soon followed by a sharp hissing sound, and the smell of burned skin filled the room. So much so that her hand shot out to cover her nose, throwing her into an upscale panic as she shook her head and crawled back against the stone wall.

Luke hadn't meant to scare her, but after her thoughts clear out, her own interest caught up with her—Wondering if she would get hurt by touching it as well. He'd seen her doing pull-ups their first day here and every day since, and so he watched with wide eyes to see what would happen.

And the anticlimactic moment passed with nothing short of a hum that showcased Sage's wonder.

The metal just felt cold on her end of the spectrum, as it no longer held the ability to cause any more pain like it was known for.

"No hurt." She mumbled, looking at her fingers and sniffing them over to make sure that she missed anything. "Doesn't hurt...It doesn't hurt." He corrected, causing her head to tilt.

Nobody had ever really corrected her on her grammar before. It was just set up in broken English, and everyone just went around the thought of teaching her properly.

So she cocked her head to the side, and her eyes blinked slowly in the act of putting her attention back onto him. "Say it with me, 'Doesn't hurt,'" She swallowed thickly, never having been forced to speak like this before.

But the eldest son knew how to be patient, having watched his brothers grow up from small little pups to nearly active warriors in the pack.

"D—does—does..."

"Doesn't hurt. Does not hurt." There was a spark in her eyes. He knew the girl wasn't dumb. Far from it, actually, because she was more of a listener.

Even if she tried to hideaway.

A part of her still wanted to learn.

"Does it hurt?" He questioned, and she shook her head. "Doesn't. Hurt."

Her voice was rough and unsteady, but his smirk grew by the second, and his wolf followed in pursuit as he puffed up in the sense of pride for her shortcomings.

Luke had followed this milestone by asking a few other types of questions, and asked over a dozen times how long she had been here or where they were located.

Anything and everything, but she would just simply shrug her shoulders, but in a way that looked unnatural at best.

But as time went on, the shrugs turned into a muted stare.

That night, which Sage claimed to be Thursday night when Luke had memorized the code that Sage would mindlessly tap onto the black lines of her socks.

Liam had returned with the aid of two guards. But of course, one of them had to be Alex, and he was in the perfect mood to taunt the young female.

"Everyone's leaving early tomorrow, little one...Think I can get you of this cage for a while if you'll be a good pretty girl for me." There was no room for denial or agreement as the man smirked into the holding cell.

He was pumping himself up to get a hold of her.

And now it'd be his time.

When Alex left, her face contorted. And the sudden mask of emotion crumbled as tears of pure fear fell down her cheeks. Pure terror wafted through the room as she shivered and huddled into herself.

Liam sniffed the air and darted his attention off towards Sage. He leaned in as far as he could to offer her a kind smile. "Hun, it's alright. He's not going to touch you." Her eyes didn't rightly meet his as her vision was a blurry mess, and he sighed.

Looking off to his brother in hopes he had an idea.

They needed to leave, and that perverted human was going to be the key. They just needed to wait.

"Sage. The next time he comes, you need to attack him." Her eyes turned quickly over to Luke, and while it sounded like a direct order—he wasn't in a lab coat.

He didn't have anything that would hurt her if she didn't follow what he was saying. But then again, anything vial Alex could come up with would most likely hurt as well.

"Hurt." She mumbled, and Liam jumped at the chance to hear her speak again. "No. Not if you hurt him first." Sage shook her head, tapping her forearm with her pointer finger. "Hurt." She repeated, and Luke caught what she was trying to say.

"Touch her arm. Is there an implant?" He ushered, which caused Liam to lean closer, hoping to feel the object in question.

It was indeed an implant.

"It's probably remote. You think the guard would have it?" Liam asked, and Luke followed with a growl. "Means we might have one too..."

Liam had been too caught up with feeling his limbs for an implant that he didn't catch Sage's face. She was studying his hand, recalling its warmth. It wasn't cold and disgusting like the humans that touched her.

Instead, it was kind and gentle. Tender to what he was trying to accomplish. Her hand hovered over it to retain the feeling, and he hissed at how cold she is. But by now, it didn't bother her. From what she could remember, it never bothered her.

Both she and her wolf craved affection, even if they didn't know what it was entirely made out of. But the feeling of unity and a soft caress was a new emotion to strike through her tear-stricken face.

"We're going to get out, hun. Just you wait...And we're going to blow this fucking place up before we leave." The violence of blowing it up didn't register in her mind, as she didn't understand what would happen to the shelter she's been living in for goddess knows how long.

*

Henry noted that both the males were stalking back and forth in warning when he came to check on Sage, but he wasn't privy to too much information.

But one question wracked his brain—Did they form a pack?

Whatever it was, she became less responsive. Even when he offered to braid her hair, she declined. Allowing her to hide behind the tangled mess in creating some sort of safe space.

But by lunchtime, he had been ordered to take her for a shower.

Liam frowned at the memory. It was more or less than a hose down. And the point was to drown them in god-awful smelling soap to appear more docile.

Neither male was around the last time she had been returned back from a shower, but now? They saw first hand just how red her skin turned after the nurses scrubbed her down, all without any sort of care in the world. It was the last straw for Liam, and it took all the coaxing he had to subdue his wolf from combusting right here and now.

Time was kept by Sage's black hair air drying or the activities she found herself doing. But as the clock clicked closer to seven, the sense of anxiety permitted the room and demanded to be heard.

It would be showtime soon, and most o their plan relied on how far Sage could pull this off.

The second the cell latch had been unlocked, which acted as a red curtain as Alex swaggered down the hall with a skip in his step, all paired with a cocky grin. "Nice and clean for me, little one?" The question caused Liam to growl.

It wasn't often that the test subjects were kept alive at this point, but this breed they had found was strong-willed.

Which would've been an obvious indication of being a part of a different pack to anyone familiar with their kind. It left the labcoats stumped and eager to complete their next objective: To find out where they were breeding this type of wolf.

"Come...Now." Sage rose on order and followed dutifully after him. Yet, the males in the room felt the drastic change in temperature that showcased her anxiety and dread.

But as soon as she tasted the sadness in the air, she realized what Luke told her to do, and her claws were one step ahead of her as they silently extended forward. The urge overcame her as she gripped the back of the unsuspecting human's neck, clutching at the thin layers at the top of his spine.

Instantly throwing his across the way, and while the room had been housing such raw emotion—the scent of blood held Sage in such a territorial and demonic way that she shifted to her without any integration to the cause.

The shadowy female marked her claim and tackled forward, ignoring the electric buzz in two parts of her body. Nothing was going to stop her from committing what only appeared in her dreams as her jaws clamped around the human's throat.

Liam smiled, but it was Luke's attention to her form of takedown that rendered him speechless. Sage didn't just rip his throat out.

She mutilated it.

All the comments over the years had come forward and overwhelmed her. All the laughter and fear he installed. It all came together as the blood of her kill dripped from her chin.

She stared wide-eyed down at the bastard and huffed in approval before turning off towards Luke for what to do next.

"Does he have keys? Check his pockets." And she did just that or tried to anyway. But as she soon learned her snoot didn't give her much leverage, she shifted back and hurried along to find the bundle of keys.

After a small stumble, while getting to her feet, she managed to hand them straight off to him, giving Luke the freedom to unlock the door from the inside.

"Get dressed. We're leaving this hellhole." She understood that order, or most it anyway, as she threw on a new shirt, shorts, and socks. But not before dousing herself with the cup filled with water and drying herself with the bedsheets.

Her eyes scanned her little room. Her home.

She'd never been given free rein in leaving her room. She'd always been escorted in or out. So she stood still for a moment in waiting.

Until Liam gestured for her to come and join them in the hall.

"You ready, brother?" Luke cheered as they slapped each other on the shoulder, while Sage looked at them entirely lost.

But her job was done, and Liam knew well enough that she was a liability if they left her to make quick decisions on her own.

"Come on, hun. Hop on. We're out of here." Her eyes blinked rapidly at his offer as she didn't grasp what in the world he was trying to say.

"Beep beep?" Luke nodded. "Yeah, beep beep. I've got the door and keys. Hop on his back and keep your head down." She had started to get the picture once Liam leaned down, and she reached her arms out around his neck, and he lifted her up behind her thighs.

Surprising them both, she let out a playful giggle.

If it hadn't been such a time-sensitive mission, they would've counted that sound as a blessing.

"Now or never," Liam ushered, rushing forward to meet Luke as he swiped the card. "Beep beep," Sage repeated, and Luke growled once again, knowing full well she was trying to tell them something.

Something useful, or else she wouldn't bother speaking, but he couldn't figure out what the hell she was mumbling about.

"Sage, what does 'beep beep' mean?" She pointed her finger forward off towards the wall as Luke was headed off already in that direction.

Since it was Friday, most of the staff had gone home—thanks to Alex, who mentioned they were off early for the long weekend. If anything, the guards should be on their way if—

"Beep beep." She growled, gripping the back of Liam's shirt as he turned to the beside him.

"Er...An alarm, Luke?" The brother had been stalking forward in front of them, making sure the hallway was cleared before taking the risk. The idea of an alarm was the perfect solution. But would it alert them to their location?

"Fucking genius, Sage." Luke issued, if there was an attack option that just outed everyone in the building, then there would be no need for badges and all that. "Beep." She finalized as if it clarified her previous comment. Smiling into the back of Liam's neck and he smirked. "Girl's happy. When we get out of this, we'll find some real food." Her huff had Liam struggle to keep in his laughter—considering where they are out in the open.

The two brothers learned her tells and cues in the last few weeks, and what she had just said meant something between an insult and a snarking comment. With her lacking most if not all of her humanity, she was filled with wolf gestures in skin.

She relied on tilting her head, blinking, and twitching her nose.

All of this was her wolf scratching at the surface to communicate.

Luke already had plans when they returned back to their pack. He decided that Crescent Moon would be the best for Sage, as she needed to rejoin a pack.

"Well, beep beep." Liam joked just as his brother pulled the lever to sound off the alarm. And in the midst of the siren, the eldest offered a janitorial closet while the chaos erupted in the hallway.

Although Liam couldn't see the look on Sage's face, Luke surely didn't miss it. She liked the look of anarchy, this first stage of revenge.

A satisfied rumble filled the enclosed space as Luke peeked his head out. Humans were damn stupid. Whoever managed to start a fire was making their job a lot harder to find an exit.

Or easier.

"Know where the door might be, Sage?" She blinked around between those running this way and that, but a frown formed as she remembered the gyms, her doctor's office, and the operating room.

Her finger pointed up to the ceiling, and it was a good guess as any in need to find an accessible staircase.

So off they went, taking them two at a time and rushing through the crowd without being caught. Indirectly following those who know it better than them.

Those less fortunate in the staff were getting brutally trampled on. And yet nobody had a care in the world to come and aid them—Giving Sage another reason to hold her smile.

She was indeed a spitfire with a sprinkle of sadism inside her, but Liam felt the same. Even Luke agreed that the place needed to be burned to the ground and lost to the ashes.

However, taking an emergency exit caused an unpredicted complication. The implant that was in Sage's arm sent an electric shock all throughout her body. Forcing her to suffer a slight convulsion, leaving her unconscious close to instantly, one of which that Liam had felt and stopped and leaned forward to keep her from falling.

"Brother? What is it?" Having nearly dropped Sage after she turned limp, Liam stuttered a response. "It...It felt like a shock. Do you think she's okay?" As Luke kneed down beside the girl, her hair draping over her face, he managed to weave through it to uncover a heartbeat.

It was unsteady but strong enough to get away and deal with it somewhere safe.

"I got her. We need to find a car." Liam agreed, and the two picked up the pace as they entered the scattered parking lot. Luke held onto the young she-wolf as if she were a pup as they both maneuvered through the struggling humans before arriving at one of the remaining lab coats.

Perfect.

"Sir?...A little help?" Luke had managed to sound as innocent as possible, but Liam didn't hesitate to take the lead in snapping the doctor's neck and snatching the keys from his head.

There was hardly any time spent opening up the back door to set the girl in. Though he slid in with her, just to make sure she was buckled in at the very least. While his brother took any and all that he could from the doctor they'd just killed.

It felt good.

They were all on a high, and yet Sage's poor body was heavily exhausted. She had fought again every ingrained teaching they had beaten into her since day one.

Staying in her room was one of her biggest constants, and every step felt like a tug against the task she wanted to accomplish.

Want.

She hadn't rightly wanted anything before. Sure, she wanted hair ties and socks. But that wasn't the same.

Luke drove like a mad man, not bothering to be gentle with the Mercedes.

With the given plates, they would need to ditch it eventually. But otherwise, all they had was the scientists' wallet and cash at hand, besides anything else that could be found in the car itself.

"Count it up. We need to find some new clothes." Liam was already one step ahead of his brother, managing to do both that and leaning in for Sage to keep her head stable.

"About three-fifty and gift cards. Oh man, can we get burgers?" His brother chuckled behind the wheel, dreaming of what their first meal would be like.

The idea of a double cheeseburger with fries—Anything will be better than what they were fed the last few weeks.

______

Date: 11-01-2020

Time: 10:21

Words: 2693

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EDITED:
DATE: 07-20-2021
WORDS: 3225