Jenny Murphy had been a nurse long enough to know when something was wrong and everything about the past week screamed wrong at the top of its lungs.
Sage had not shown up to the clinic in five days. Had not called, had not answered her phone. She just vanished like she'd never existed.
The clinic had been vandalized twice.
Once with spray paint all over the walls calling Sage a traitor and the other time with the windows smashed and equipment destroyed. Jenny filed police reports but nothing happened.
The patients kept asking where Dr. Monroe was and Jenny had no answers.
She had gone to Sage's apartment and found it empty. Went to that fancy building downtown where Sage said she's been staying.
The doorman wouldn't let her up, he kept saying Ms. Monroe was not available and would not be for some time.
Something was very wrong.
Jenny sat in her car outside the building for three hours waiting.
Around midnight she saw two large men walk out and get into a black SUV. She followed them because she had nothing else to try.
They drove three blocks and parked outside a plain concrete building with no windows, they got out and went inside.
Jenny waited twenty minutes then followed.
The front door was locked but there was a side entrance that opened when she tried it. She walked into a dimly lit hallway that smelled like mold and something else. Something metallic.
Blood.
She should have left or have called the police. Instead she followed the hallway to a staircase going down.
The basement was colder. Concrete walls, flickering lights and bars. Actual prison bars across small rooms.
Cells.
Jenny moved quietly past the first few that were empty. The next had someone sleeping on the floor. Then she heard a voice she recognized.
"Please. He needs help. He is dying."
Sage.
Jenny ran toward the voice and found her pressed against silver bars staring into the cell next door where a man lay unconscious on the concrete.
"Sage!!!" Jenny grabbed the bars then jerked back when they burned her hands. "What the hell?"
Sage spun around. Her face was pale and thin like she had not eaten in days. "Jenny? What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you! You disappeared. The clinic has been destroyed. What is this place?"
"It's complicated."
"Then uncomplicate it." Jenny looked at the bars, the unconscious man, at the other cells she could now see held people. "Are you being held prisoner?"
"Yes."
"By who?"
"Marcus Webb. He is…" Sage stopped. Looked at Jenny like she was deciding something. "I need you to listen and not freak out."
"I'm already freaking out."
"It's going to get worse." Sage took a breath. "Werewolves are real. The man I have been living with, Kade, he is the Alpha of a pack. Marcus is his second-in-command but he is planning to take over. He's been imprisoning anyone loyal to Kade. Including me."
Jenny stared at her. "You hit your head. You are delirious."
"I'm not." Sage held up her hand and her fingernails extended into claws. Her eyes flashed gold. "I'm half-wolf. My father was a full wolf. Kade is a full wolf. And we are in serious trouble."
Jenny stumbled backward. Her brain could not process what she was seeing. Sage's hand looked normal now but those claws had been real. Those eyes had been animal eyes.
"This is insane," Jenny whispered.
"I know. But I need your help." Sage gestured to the cell next door. "That is Cole. He's been beaten and hasn't had food or water in days. He is going to die if someone does not treat him."
Jenny looked at the unconscious man. Her nurse training kicked in overriding the panic. "Can you get out?"
"Not without a key. Silver bars block my wolf."
"Where's the key?"
"Guard station at the end of the hall."
Jenny should have run. Should have called someone. Instead she found herself walking toward the guard station because a patient was dying and that was more important than impossible things like werewolves.
The guard was asleep at his desk. She found keys hanging on the wall. She grabbed them and a ring of what looked like medical supplies, she went back to Sage's cell.
It took six tries to find the right key. The lock clicked and Sage pushed the door open.
"Thank you," Sage said.
"We will talk about the werewolf thing later." Jenny opened Cole's cell. Knelt beside him and checked his pulse. Weak and thready. Severe dehydration and possibly internal bleeding. "He needs a hospital."
"Can't take him to one. They'd ask questions."
"Then I do what I can here." Jenny pulled out the medical supplies. Started an IV line. "Why is Marcus doing this?"
"He wants to be Alpha. He has been turning the pack against Kade." Sage looked at the other cells. "We need to free the others."
"All of them?"
"Anyone willing to run."
They went cell to cell unlocking doors. Most of the prisoners were too scared to leave. Said they would be hunted down.
But three agreed to risk it. A young guy named Riley, an older woman named Beth and a teenager who looked barely eighteen.
"We use the side entrance," Sage said. "Stay quiet."
They moved through the basement with Jenny supporting Cole who could barely walk. Up the stairs, through the hallway, out the side door into the cold night air.
"My car is around the block," Jenny said.
They piled in. Jenny drove with shaking hands while Sage gave directions to the clinic.
"So werewolves are real," Jenny said.
"Yes."
"And you're half-wolf."
"Yes."
"And there is some kind of gang war happening."
"Pack war. But basically yes." Sage looked at her. "I'm sorry I did not tell you before."
"When would you have told me? Hey Jenny, nice day, by the way I turn into a wolf sometimes?" Jenny turned a corner too fast. "This is insane."
"I know."
They reached the clinic. Jenny parked in the alley and they got everyone inside through the back door. The place was still trashed from the vandalism but the exam rooms were mostly intact.
Jenny got Cole onto a table and started working. Sage helped. Beth and Riley and the teenager whose name was Marcus watched from the doorway.
"What now?" Jenny asked while inserting another IV.
"Now we figure out how to stop Marcus Webb from killing Kade," Sage said. "Because if Kade dies, everyone in this room dies next."
Riley spoke up from the doorway. "Marcus is calling for a challenge. I heard guards talking about it. Maybe three days."
"What is a challenge?" Jenny asked.
"Fight to the death for Alpha position," Sage said. "If Kade loses, Marcus takes the pack."
"And you are going to stop this, how exactly?"
"By finding proof that Marcus is behind the attacks. That he hired the hunters. That he has been embezzling pack money." Sage looked at Riley. "You said Marcus has an office at Blackwood Industries?"
Riley nodded. "Top floor. He keeps files there."
"Then that is where we go." Sage checked the clock. Two in the morning. "We have a few hours before sunrise. Before people start looking for escaped prisoners."
Jenny grabbed her arm. "You are going to break into an office building."
"You got any better ideas?"
"Call the police. The FBI. Someone."
"And tell them what? Werewolves are having a civil war?" Sage shook her head. "This has to be handled inside the pack. Which means I need evidence against Marcus that even his supporters cannot deny."
She looked at Riley. "You know the building?"
"I used to work security there before I joined the pack full time. I know the layout."
"Then let's go." Sage turned to Jenny. "Stay here with the others. Keep Cole alive. If we are not back by dawn, run. Get as far from Seattle as you can."
"What about you?"
"If we are not back by dawn, I'm probably dead." Sage grabbed a jacket from the closet. "Thanks for coming to find me, Jenny. You are a better friend than I deserve."
Then she and Riley left through the back door and Jenny was alone with three werewolves and an unconscious man, with absolutely no idea what she had gotten herself into.