Chapter 11: Cameras

It had been a week of training and today was no different, this time they were supposed to play capture the flag as a 'team building' exercise. Artemis had absolutely no idea why they needed a team building exercise in this competition but she knew she had to find out. The clock in their living room read 6:02 while Artemis was lacing up her shoes. She wanted to go see the Alpha and more specifically she wanted to see how much of her suspicions were true. Had he really given her an opportunity to save one of her friends? Or had it just been a coincidence? She didn't even know if he would show up but she could only pray that he would.

As she got up she inadvertently heard the sound of someone behind her. She turned around to see a very sleepy Iris pouring herself a glass of water.

"Morning, early bird," she grumbled before she emptied her cup and dropped herself down onto the couch and fell asleep almost immediately.

Artemis sighed in relief, the fact that she ran every morning clearly helped because her running attire had thrown Iris off her intentions. She felt extremely guilty and it made her feel slightly giddy. She'd never done anything out of the rules before.

She hurried out of the hotel room whilst quickly grabbing her black jacket and her keys before shutting the door behind her as quietly as she could. She raced to the elevator and out of the lobby in record time. She walked in between the two marked paths as she had before and watched the early morning fog consume her.

The early morning made the air mystical as she waded through the twigs and leaves. No bricked path came into her sight as she walked, she didn't even think that he'd show, the last time had either been extremely coincidental or highly intuitive on his part. She'd always heard that Alpha's could sense their pack members life force from a considerable distance.

From her trail of thought, Artemis barely noticed that her feet no longer waded through brambly twigs and broken branches but rather smooth bricked path. Her thoughts trailed the gaps that had sprouted when she saw an unmistakable silhouette through the fog and into the line of trees. She looked around panicking trying to find somewhere to hide. Flailing wildly, she stupidly hid behind the thin tree where she could be easily noticed. Artemis had run every morning but she had never met anyone who was awake this early, or perhaps other girls had been awake this early but had done other things instead of running. This sight was definitely a first though.

"Who's there?" someone called.

Artemis cringed and wondered if the man had seen her. It was painfully obvious what the man had been doing. Artemis wished that at that moment her vision hadn't worked in her favor and had seen the bent position of the girl as well the guard that had been propped up behind her. Her body gave an involuntary shiver and not the good ones that sent butterflies to your stomach. She quickly made her feet start running as soon as she heard fast paced footsteps coming towards her.

Artemis' sprint would've made Usain Bolt jealous as she ignored the shouts of protest and the defiant 'waits!'. She felt revolted at what she had just witnessed. That was definitely not what she had in mind when she left her hotel room a few minutes ago. She only slowed when the hotel lobby was in front of her and the other girls were still in their sleepy, dazed state as they mulled around getting ready for today's training session. Nobody noticed when Artemis came in and blended in among the girls' sportswear. Mounds of them looked similar to Artemis dressed in all Adidas and she was glad. At least that girl and the man wouldn't recognize her.

She stood on her tip toes looking for Iris and the rest of her roommates. They were situated right along the corner surrounded by a few of the other girls. Artemis waded through the girls and made her way towards them. Iris looked glad to see her while Rosalind carried on chatting to them.

"Hey, Artemis," chirped one of the girls. Artemis recognized her as Clara. She gave them all a small wave when they all turned around to see her from Clara's call. Artemis was about to greet them when the TV in the foyer turned on with a sickening screech. They all winced at the high pitched noise and cringed their ears away.

The Alpha appeared with his hooded figure once again and Artemis watched in curiosity as did all the other girls. For some reason, although they couldn't see him in person, they could feel the angry aura that radiated from his figure. Artemis placed it as an intimidation factor being spread through his pack members that at this moment were the girls and their guards.

"Welcome contestants," he informed us with a stern voice. "I've only made this announcement last minute and in anger, throughout this competition I will not tolerate any fornication!" He bellowed at the girls. Some of the girls at the front jumped in fright while the others like Artemis were just shocked.

"Is that clear?!" He shouted at them.

"Yes, sir!" The girls chanted loudly without knowing if he had heard or not.

"Very well, today's training is canceled please subject yourself to your rooms," he snapped before the TV went black.

Artemis frowned in confusion. How had he heard them? That didn't make sense at all... Artemis waited behind the staircase until everyone had filed out and had gone to their bedrooms. It took a long time and Artemis was at the end of her wits with impatience by the time the receptionist locked the doors and disappeared behind a set of double doors. Artemis emerged carefully scanning the lobby for anyone else but thankfully it was empty.

She immediately got to work and the first thing she checked was the corners of the lobby in the ceiling and she noticed it at once. She gasped and wondered how she hadn't noticed it before. Just about every corner of the room was covered with lizard-sized devices with a large circular glass. No one would've noticed it as a camera. Whoever set it up clearly didn't want it to be found because they had gone to incredible lengths to hide it with the wallpaper and make it blend in.

We're all being watched...