“Seriously, Joker. What is going on? I heard an explosion—”
“Yeah, my pack likes to make an entrance,” he replies casually.
I blink at him. He’s a patient here. They admitted him. If he was a member of a registered pack, that would have come up in the processing. “Your…pack? What—”
Joker taps something in his ear with one hand, holding up a finger between us with the other.
“What’s your status?” he asks to no one.
I gape at him, confused and angry and worried all at the same time.
“I asked you first—I’m fine. I’m…securing the exit,” Joker says, winking at me as he answers whatever voice he’s hearing.
“What—”
Joker waves his hand and I scoff at him, mouth dropping open indignantly.
“Understood. I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point in two minutes.”
Joke turns back to me, his face suddenly serious. “Do you trust me?” he asks urgently.
“What is going on?” I ask again.
“Luv, I would love nothing more than to explain everything to you, from tip to tail, but we simply do not have the time. I need to know if you trust me,” he says, voice low but sincere.
I pause for a moment, and Joker offers me a gloved hand. My head is screaming warnings at me, that this omega is trouble and nothing good can come of taking his hand. But my instincts overpower my logic, and I nod, placing my shaking palm against his.
Without another moment of hesitation, Joker pulls me to my feet, his fingers sliding into the spaces between mine with ease. We stop at the door for him to retrieve yet another knife from under the bottom gap and then we’re off.
“Stay close to me, okay? And whatever happens, just remember that I’ve got you, and I would never let anything bad happen to you,” he says, taking on that serious tone from before when he was speaking to someone I couldn’t see.
“Okay,” I reply hesitantly, holding tighter to his hand.
I can hear the other patients in their rooms, but the staff are nowhere to be found which strikes me as odd. Shouldn’t there be some sort of emergency evacuation happening? But it’s like the entire facility has gone on lockdown.
“Get down!” Joker shouts, pulling me from my thoughts.
I obey without thinking, dropping to the floor as a sharp crack fills the air and something whizzes over my head. Joker is up and moving, charging toward the security guard at the end of the hall. I let out a cry as I see the shotgun raised at him, but Joker closes the distance too fast, knocking the gun away. A flash of silver and the security guard crumples to the floor, crying out in pain.
“Let’s go. Come on!” Joker yells, motioning for me to get up.
I move, my eyes wide as I try to see more in the dark. But then Joker has my hand and is pulling me along the hall. I slip on something for a moment before I get my feet under me, and I try to look down, but Joker growls.
“Don’t look. Eyes forward, luv. There’s my good girl,” he says, almost in a purr.
My instincts respond to the command even though it’s not coming from an alpha, and I fix my eyes on the back of his vest as we run out of the minimum security section and cross the common area toward the exit to the omega ward entirely.
I shriek as I hear distant gunshots, ducking and covering my head with my free arm.
“It’s okay, luv. You’re okay. Just stay with me,” Joker soothes, squeezing my hand.
There’s more shouting behind me, but before I turn to look, Joker spins and shoves me down behind a chair.
“Don’t move. Don’t look.”
I barely hear his clipped words before he’s gone, and I’m trembling so hard my teeth are chattering. There’s more shouting, and Joker’s laugh above it all, and then a few more screams of pain before it’s over. I don’t dare to look out to see what’s happening, not that I have the chance to before Joker’s back.
I swallow hard as he crouches down and takes my hand again, his glove wet with something I don’t dare think too hard about. We go to the main entrance, and Joker pulls out an access card, swiping it just long enough to unlock the door and pull us through to the lobby.