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twinges of the change again. “No!” he shouted. The dense forest around him swallowed up his voice. He fell to the ground as his bones shifted and his muscles stretched. This time the beast didn’t have to fight so hard to take over the man. His fury and fear fed it until his thoughts were gone and only instinct drove him. He ran through the trees, battering anything in his way. He came upon a building of some kind and smelling her inside, kicked and clawed his way through the door.
    No Abby.
    He ran back outside and sniffed the air then turned toward the road. He heard the pop of a rifle, the whir of a bullet. He dashed for the trees. He ran until he couldn’t run any longer and then he stopped. Finally, exhausted, the beast released him. Luckily he wasn’t far from home. Weak and wobbly-legged, he shifted back to a man.
    The quarter of a mile back to his home felt like twenty.
    He fell into a restless sleep, filled with nightmares. He awoke the next morning, wondering if they’d been dreams or memories. He’d never lived like this—on the edge. He barely clung to the normalcy he’d come to take for granted. Go to bed. Wake up. Go to work. That was how it was supposed to be. Instead, impulses kept running through his head. Strange, wild urges. Hungers. Needs. He tried to ignore them but they were so strong.
    He dressed and drove the five miles to work, looking for a white rented Yukon as he drove. The beast inside didn’t want to accept that Abby was lost to him, that she’d only been his for one night.
    Or so he assumed it was the beast.
    On second thought, it could’ve been the man that didn’t want to accept the loss of Abby. At this point he wasn’t sure of much of anything. He pulled into his parking spot, outside of Omega, cut off the engine and fisted his keys.
    He’d been tempted to call off but decided he needed this—his normal day-to-day life—to keep him grounded. Something powerful pulled him. Something he didn’t understand. He felt that holding onto the life he’d known before was his only hope of holding onto himself, his very soul.
    He went into the building, smiled at Denise the elderly receptionist-slash-office manager-slash-gopher. For the first time since he’d started working at Omega, some eight years ago, she didn’t smile back.
    Had something happened to her too?
    He opened his mouth to ask if she was okay when two huge guys he’d never seen before stepped out of the security office, which was located to the right of her desk.
    They gave him a look. Not a friendly one. No, more like the kind of glare they’d give a guy who’d been caught embezzling a million dollars from the company.
    What the hell was going on?
    He felt like he’d stepped into a bizarre new world. Everything appeared to be the same but it was a façade. Something had changed. Something besides him. The people around him acted differently. Like strangers.
    “What’s up?” he asked.
    The two guards rushed him, knocked him to the floor, and pinned his hands behind his back. He was so confused and shocked he didn’t try to fight them off. Whatever mistake had been made would be cleared up. He’d done nothing wrong. He’d been a longtime, trusted employee. His boss, Alexander Torborg, was his mentor. His friend. Those men had no reason to be securing his hands behind his back.
    They hauled him to his feet. He noticed, as the guards escorted him past Denise’s desk, that she was watching the whole scene with a puzzled expression.
    They led him to the elevator, took him down to the basement. He’d never been in the basement before. Had never had a reason to go down there.
    “Want to tell me what’s going on?” he asked, not expecting an answer.
    Escorting him like a prisoner, the men didn’t say a word.
    The elevator doors opened, revealing a dimly lit narrow corridor, painted a dull gray. The ceiling was open, revealing heating ductwork, wire channels, the bones of the building. Their footsteps echoed