"Here." Ares holds out the box of pizza towards me in the lobby. He keeps himself from entering the elevator, something that I appreciate.

I take it pressing the edge against my stomach with my hands holding the other side. We stand awkwardly together, neither knowing what to do. I go to open my mouth, but another shrill voice stops me, "Mr. Gray! Is this your date for the evening?" My head turns to see cameras lined in the lobby, the media snapping photo after photo of my tear-streaked face, and his less than normal clean look, "Oh shit." I can't have my photo taken.

"Darling?" Ares looks down towards me, I swivel on my feet booking it towards the elevator trying to evade any more photos, but one girl jumps in front of me blocking the opened doors. I turn my head back to see Ares with a blank expression, a far-off view in his eyes. So much for helping.

"Ma'am! Are you and Mr. Gray dating? The most eligible bachelor has finally settled down!" She squeals holding up a mic to my face while another man records me.

"Uh... Please excuse me." I go to sidestep her, the pizza acting as a blockade, but another woman steps next to her blocking me once again, "Have you two slept together? What's your status? Are you the daughter of anyone we know?" The other reporter rolls out her questions, my anxiety building within me. This camera on me only increases my fear, he going to find me.

"Please, I need to go home." I try again, but the women step forward pressing into me to get closer. I feel the touch of Ares on my waist as he guides me back into him. The ladies almost scream in joy when I let my back press against his front needing any form of comfort. His touch is drastically different. Now I can feel the sparks all the way to my bones. They sing to me, and unlike before where I could handle a distance between him, now my thoughts are clouded with how to get as close as possible.

"I recommend leaving." Ares's tone is deadly, the ladies pausing their assault of questions to watch him.

"But Mr. Gray-" One bold woman steps forward, I shrivel back turning my face into him. The pizza is long forgotten when I drop it to the floor trying to cover myself as much as I can. Not that it's any use, all my hard work is for nothing.

"Leave." His body shakes against me, a heat building under his skin. I take my fingers, and subconsciously start rubbing circles on his shirt. His shakes start to decrease, but his warmth doesn't, "Or I won't have trouble getting you blacklisted till you hit your grave."

The guard from before, the one who works with Ares and Josh, comes into my bird eye view, arms crossing in front of him, "And I wouldn't mind making that sooner."

"Are you threatening the media? I can have you arrested!" One girl screams out to the guard and Ares, I mix my hands into his shirt holding tight against him.

"And what? That's it?" The guard daunts, "I assure you that getting arrested is the least of my worries when it comes to my Luna's comfort."

Ares's breath stops, hand coming up to the back of my head. The reporter takes his words and runs with them, "Her name's Luna? Like daughter of Eclipse Properties?"

"Get them out of my sight and get their bosses on call. I want them fired and ruined by midnight." Ares calls out to his employee, the man laughing before grabbing at the women escorting from the building. They yell and fight digging their heels in, but none are strong enough to win, all of them getting thrown to the mud before he returns for the next.

"I can walk." I hear one of them curse at the guard, her heels clicking as she leaves.

Soon, the lobby is quiet once more, and I let go of Ares to gather my wits. His palm lays against my face turning me to him, "Are you alright?"

Jessica's voice comes from behind me, "Josh told me what happened, I came to get you." Her voice is kind and soft, she's one of the few people that know what happened and my avoidance of photos. I don't even have social media in fear that one day he would find me.

"Thanks, Jess." Ares drops his hand from me, and I turn to Jessica grabbing the pizza box from the floor. Josh leaves the elevator as well, a new hickey on his lower neck. I wasn't the only one making bad decisions. The men nod to each other, moving to stand next to one another.

"Will we see you both tomorrow? We could meet for breakfast before we go into the office. Then you ladies can take yourself shopping with the guards." Josh proposes, Jessica shakes her head towards him.

"Tomorrow, we want to be left alone. Just us. Please." She looks to me in confirmation, I nod. Both the men set their jaws before slowly nodding.

"Fine. But call us if you need anything. We will be here in a moment's notice."

"Of course." Jessica grabs me leading me to the elevator and we ride up to our room. The doors open into the living space, the beautiful city view overlooking the city taking my breath away once more. I go to set the pizza on the island, but Jessica grabs the box tossing it to the side forcing me to face her, "We need to leave. Tonight."

"Wait what?"

"Your photo is everywhere, look." She holds up her phone, the media live streaming everything the whole time we were down. My photos plastered all over the internet standing in the arms of Ares Gray, one of the most desirable men alive as the media calls him. Article after article critique every part about me, ripping me to shreds, but none can confirm who I am and now people are determined to figure me out.

"Fuck. What if?" I pinch the bridge of my nose trying to put two and two together, but my thoughts are jumbled mess, "How in the hell do we get out of this? Those men have guards on us twenty-four seven that just stand outside our apartment. And something is off about them. How did they know to come down? Ares never pulled out his cell."

"I agree somethings up, Josh just knew something was wrong. Told me to go down and get you. He never lifted his phone after we um..."

"Don't worry, we slept together too. I know what you're feeling." I grab her pulling her into a tight hug. Our bodies smash together, neither needing to say the underlying feelings we are having.

"What's the plan? How do we handle this?" She whispers guiding me to the farthest room of the apartment.

"Somehow we have to get the guard to lay off for a moment, but these bitches are pretty stubborn. And we have to avoid anything with that weird wolf logo, I swear these people act like a pack of wolves."

Jessica covers her mouth in surprise, "You've notice that too? I can't believe I am saying this, but sometimes Josh has more animal ways of doing things than human, and he's misnamed himself before, calling himself Beta?"

"I haven't had that happen..." I mumble off thinking through my short memories of Ares.

"Well, the only thing I can think of is telling the guard we need something random and running while he goes to get it, stupid, but simple." She rambles on but I lean back against the wall looking over the lights of the surround buildings.

"And are we ready to break the contract this early? You know what happens if we get caught, and I know for a fact that neither you or I would win in that fist fight."

"Then we have to do it right the first time. I can't stay and let myself catch feelings for someone so controlling. This just isn't for me, but there's this tug that I have, and I can't shake it." She shivers thinking about it and I send her a smile.

"You feel it too? It's like this electric touch that just..."

"Makes you feel safe?" She whispers looking down at her palms. She hasn't had it easy either, her ex beating her senseless until she was able to leave. Now she takes pride in breaking men's hearts since they broke her so many times.

"Yeah." I take a breath, "It's overwhelming."

"And all he wants to do is take care of me. He said anything I wanted was mine..." Her voice is broken, defeated in a way that I hadn't reached yet, "I was tempted to take it tonight."

"You aren't the only one."

We sit in silence for a moment, letting the truth settle deep in our skins. Maybe we aren't crazy after all, "Still want to run for it?"

I bit my lips running my thumb back and forth over my arm, "I have to. If he finds me..." I check my phone to see the updates on James, a reporter caught him hoping a flight for an 'emergency business trip' in New York, "He is going to kill me. And he is one of the few that can cover it up."

"Shit babe." She grabs the phone from my hand looking over the story, "You never told me it was Volga."

"I didn't think I would ever have to."

She sighs handing me back over my phone. I lock the screen to stop staring at it forcing myself to calm down, "You deserve peace, Veronica."

"And you do too. You don't have to come with me. I know you have some feeling for this crazy male. If you want to stay, I will support you one hundred percent." Our hands lock between us, her smile returning.

"Nah, men aren't shit right? And I have you. I can't leave you when things are about to get hard, you need someone that has your back like I know you have mine."

"I love you."

She laughs, rolling her eyes, "I know."

Jessica grabs her phone removing the sims card, I do the same. Neither of us have any cash, but we thought it would be better to cut the black cards than risk using them for anything. We tried to take scissors to them, but we laugh at our idiocy when the metal wouldn't budge, "I guess we just leave them here." We snag comfy clothes, both in jeans and hoodies with soft tennis shoes. Neither her or I carry anything extra, the only thing we hold onto being the service-less phones that we slide into our back pockets, "Ready?"

"Ready." I nod back to her, and she hypes herself up before walking over to stick her head of the apartment door.

The guard is immediate, turning his head to her with a smile, "Beta, how can I help you?"

"Beta?" She calls back, I see his face turn red before waving his hands.

"Sorry, Mrs. Denmark not what I meant, I meant to- Well I can see that upset you as well." He swallows deep, and Jessica just stares at him while he fumbles over anything he might consider a brain cell, "How can I help you?"

"Veronica and I order a delivery meal and they are refusing to bring it up, mind grabbing that for us? We don't want to deal with the media again if they are down there. And the pizza isn't what we need. Ice cream and tacos are more the moment." She pushes out her bottom lip, the guard looking around the hallway for moral support I assume.

"Do you promise to stay here? The alpha would kill me if he knew I left my post." Alpha?

"Of course, we promise to stay here and keep our mouth shut. No need to worry. I am just about to get into my pajamas anyways. I even sent a message to Josh to let him know." She smiles at him and that finally convinces him with a wave of her phone. He nods at her turning away to run to the elevator. She waves as the door closes before turning to me, "Let's move. Stairs are on the right."

The two-elevator system confuses me, one entering directly into our apartment, one only being for the people in the hallway. However, when you must make a break for it, it's nice that there is also stairway access. We exit the apartment, closing the door behind us. Our feet are padded as we run down the carpeted hallway to the emergency stairs. Jessica pauses, "This is our last chance, are we sure?"

I nod, she nods in return, and then we were off. Our feet patter down the staircases, one after the other as we move as fast as we can. The numbers tick down on levels, each number a new relief to see. I keep a subtle count to myself just a reminder to keep me centered on the matter at hand, and not the five thousand things running through my head. The base floor comes quick enough, our breath heavy from all the stairs even though it was only a downhill walk, "Here's the exit. It's going to set off the alarm, we have to run, okay?"

"Wait. We need to think about this. Those guards seem to smell things, have you noticed?"

She taps her chin, "I have, what are you getting at?"

"The dumpster, it's on this side of the building, right? We need to jump into it to cover any normal smells we have."

"You're kidding." She whispers running her hand down her face, I laugh lightly.

"We know somethings up with them, why take any chances? And the dumpster will also help us cover ourselves. Hard to pick a face out when it's covered in mushy banana. These two have more pull in the world than we want, and we must play that game." I toss my thumb back at the dumpster, "And that's our best bet."

"Fuck..." She groans pretending to slam her head into the wall, "Fine, let's go."

She counts to three throwing her body into the door setting off the fire alarm for the whole building. My heart sinks as we run into the alley, thankfully a full dumpster coming into view, "Come on, together!" I call out grabbing the edge to jump in covering myself in the trash of the building. I crawl to the other side, grabbing the edge and launching myself out to run towards the opposite walkway, Jessica follows suite. I smell the air and want to gag at the smell of myself, perfect. We take quick turns through the back ways of the city, left rights, they all blend until our lungs give out and legs burn to the point of no return. We stop in a back alley trying to fill ourselves with the polluted air of the city. Jessica laughs, me joining her, "I can't believe we just did that."

"We aren't done yet; we have to get out of the city."

"And with no money what's our plan?"

While we should have thought through this better, the freedom that we taste on our tongues is worth it. This is how we should feel all the time, "People know our faces by now, they've pinned you too last time we checked. We have to stay in the dark." The media was all over us, Jessica now looped into it by taking another one of the wanted bachelors. We gag at how they ripped us apart, both her and I looking obviously pissed in the few photos they stole or caught of us. Because we look so happy with these men.

"And what does that correlate too?"

"We are going to have to walk. Stay on the sidewalks. Streets are always busy and there's a trail that connects Canada to New York that we can walk. From there we can break west to stay in the more rural areas."

"Okay, okay, fine. We can start walking and then figure it out on the way. Dive bars are always looking for a server or two." She winks at me, and we begin to walk.

It's only an hour later before we finally give into the tired, our bodies lagging as we travel the busy streets. I poke Jess, her eyes just as heavy, "Come on, we have to sleep." We find a nearby alley, other homeless already filling the space as well.

I pull her to one corner, and we lean against each other, heads holding one another up. We take our phones and slide them down our pants, no need to take chances, and if anyone attempts to take them then we will know. And if it were to happen, have much bigger problems. She hums against me, none of the others in the alley giving us a glance, "Good night."

"Good night."

~

"There scents pick up nearby, Alpha. We're close." A familiar voice cuts through the morning air. Jessica grabs my shoulders shaking me fully awake.

"It's fucking Daniel. We must move. The dumpster wore off." She scolds grabbing at me once more to drag me to the back of the walkway, another dumpster coming into view. Jessica shoves at me and we both jump in, the squish of food entering our personal space. It had to be a restaurant dumpster. She tries not to puke, the smell of rotten food sending us into gagging fit that we stop breathing to evade.

"Where the fuck could they have gone Daniel?" Another male calls out to him, and I hear his growl in return.

"The Luna isn't stupid, she probably noticed something and has been using it to avoid us. Doesn't help that Beta is just as intelligent." He scuffs coming close to the garbage. I hear his intake of breath; I assume from smelling around us. We both hold our breaths keeping as still as possible.

"They will be great for the pack." The other responds, a laugh leaving him.

"I agree if they would stop running from their mates. Such determination, it will be good for the pack to be led by strong women, and watch the Alpha learn how to submit once in a while." Daniel laughs while we listen to his feet shuffle over the concrete.

"And why can't they just come and tell them?"

"Tradition I suppose. The girls need to admit their feelings before their secret is shared. Listen pup, the mates of the high ranks are always human, it keeps them balanced and reminds them of their softer side. You can't handle a human like you would a female wolf." Female wolf? These people really are delusional... but then again...

"Have you gotten their scent yet?" The new one asks, both Jess and I starting to starve for air. I meet Jessica's eyes, her face burning.

"No, but I assume they're close. Just... waiting."

"What do you think is going to happen when we find them?"

"I'd be surprised if they ever leave their sights again. It was a whole ordeal just to get them into the high security apartment. My back still hurts from changing out those windows to be permanently closed." Jessica nods her head at me, her eyes watering, face as red as a tomato. I shake my head at her, but she can't take it, opening her mouth to breath in as much air as possible.

"Got you." The lid to the dumpster is thrown back, Daniel looking down at us both with a warm grin, "Hello ladies, I was sent with Adrian here to find you both. It's good to see you alive." I start breathing as well, trying to evade his hands that grab at me, "Mind-link the Alpha, tell him we found them. Beta Josh is nearby."

"What are you talking about? Is this some..." I start quizzing them trying to get an explanation for everything that we just heard. Daniel waves his finger at me tossing me into the hands of Adrian.

"Not for us to share, Luna, you got lucky to hear what you did."

"Please don't send us back there without an explanation!" I scream, Jessica fighting against Daniel's hold when he pulls her out as well.

"The dumpster was smart, Luna. You just needed to be more diligent. I promise the Alpha won't hurt you."

It's not him I'm worried about, "Daniel, please, please. We aren't running from him, please!" I cry out to him, but he shakes his head looking over my shoulder. I try to turn my head, but Adrian keeps my arms pinned behind me facing Jessica whose eyes go wide at the sight.

"Hello, mate."

Fuck. I whisper to myself looking at the fear covered face of Jessica. Her chest rising and falls quickly forcing herself back into Daniel. I try to turn my head to see what she sees, but Adrian keeps me forward setting his jaw to fight against me, "Release her."

My body shivers, his voice is beyond what I have heard before, something dark and dangerous that works its way to my spine, "Are you sure Alpha? She is terrified-"