When the doctor fell lifelessly to the ground, I sprinted toward the door and opened a keypad, hitting random keys and hoping that I would be able to unlock the room somehow. I racked my brain for any sort of code that Thiago would have used.

No.

Nothing.

(because he was the devil himself).

Nada.

Annoyed, I slammed my palm against the keys and hit enter a bunch of times. I didn't know the code and would never be able to figure it out. While I might've only met Thiago a couple times, I didn't know shit about him.

Most of the time, Mom and Dad would knock me out while I was here, while they were running tests on me. Hell, I didn't even know that I had One Alpha inside of me until I read that book that Callum had.

Thiago and my parents would always mention One Alpha, but I thought it was some type of gene or something. I didn't think it was an actual wolf lingering inside me. How the hell would I put that together?

But now I wished I had figured it out sooner. I wished that I had found the time to understand Thiago's motivations, snooped into his offices, found something that would help me get the fuck out of here.

After searching the doctor for a key-card and finding nothing, I paced the room. Back and forth and back and forth until I was nearly ripping my hair out, searching for another way to escape. It was useless.

I sprinted back up to the locked door and threw my body against it, summoning my wolf. My body dented the metal slightly, but it didn't budge. I slammed my body against it again and again, the dent becoming larger and deeper.

On the fifth slam, the door snapped open.

Yet it wasn't because of me.

Thiago stood on the other side of the doorway, eyes a piercing gold and canines extended. He stormed into the room and slammed the door behind him, growling low and deeply, trying to intimidate me.

I stepped back, heart pounding inside my chest.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he asked. "And where is my doc—"

He glanced down at the ground where I had killed his doctor in cold blood, then he looked at the equipment he was using.

Before he could even use the thousand-dollar equipment, I grabbed a spare part that had fallen to the ground from my initial struggle with the scientist doctor and smashed it to pieces, making sure that the machine wasn't usable in the slightest.

He could never find out those results. Ever.

In one of Callum's books, I read that One Alpha could be passed down from mother or father to child. If Thiago found out about the results, he would rip my womb right out of my body with his claws. He wouldn't care; he wanted the power for himself.

"Get over here, you little bitch." He seethed, stalking closer to me. "You're going to fucking pay for that shit."

I hurled the broken piece of equipment at him, then my wolf forced me to drop to all fours. She seized control of my body. My bones snapped, the harrowing sound echoing through the entire room. My claws lengthened, my canines extending.

And for the first time, my body transformed into that of a wolf, standing tall in front of Thiago. Fear flashed in his eyes, and he stepped back. I lifted my paw, new and improved senses overcoming me.

But when I went to stalk forward, I stumbled.

Thiago furrowed his brows, then straightened his back and smirked down at me. "It worked."

He chuckled menacingly, as I stumbled forward again, my vision blurring.

What was happening? Why couldn't I walk straight?

"You already have the drug in your system," he said. "There's no fighting it. Close your eyes, Bria, and sleep for me. When you awaken, you will be mine for good."

Desperately, I forced my eyes open, blinking the darkness away as much as I could.

But it was consuming me, spreading around my vision, taking control of me, becoming me. I clenched my jaw and forcefully rubbed my eyes with my paws, hoping that the dark would fade. Still, nothing.

I couldn't see any light.

My fingers were numbing. My limbs tingled. My head was light and fuzzy.

With all my might, I tried to fight the brainwashing chemical that they pumped into me. But the world faded quickly around me, my consciousness succumbing to the darkness and Thiago's evil voice echoing through my head.

Worst of all, I knew I was about to lose consciousness and could do nothing about it.

All I could seem to do was think about Callum, the doctor's test, and how Thiago could never find out the test results... that the first shot of sterilization didn't work and that I might've been pregnant.

Yet if he gained control of me... he would soon know everything.

He would kill my baby, and then he would kill me.