When the door behind me closed, I continued to stand there until I realized Roger had left the room. I was alone.
I was alone!
I turned and looked at the door, waiting to see if it would open again. When nothing happened after a few minutes, I dropped the towel and shifted into my fox. It hurt to change forms, but I knew it would. It always hurt after Roger had a go at me.
Once I was in my fox form, I could feel my body mending itself. That hurt, too, but it was so worth it. I shifted back to human then back to my fox form two more times before I felt fully healed again.
I was still a bit achy, and I was starving after having used so much energy, but I could breathe without a sucking pain in my chest.
That was one of the things my father never seemed to understand. I was small and not nearly as tough as he was, but I could shift from one second to the next. It took my father at least sixty seconds to shift. Roger took even longer. I long suspected the length of time it took for someone to shift was in direct correlation to just how evil they were.
I grabbed clean clothes out of my dresser and quickly pulled them on. I wanted to be fully clothed when Roger came back. Mostly because it gave me the creeps the way the man looked at me when I was naked, but also because I didn't want him to know I had healed and the bruises had faded.
A commotion outside drew me to the window. My curiosity overrode my common sense. I hurried over to peek out through the blinds. My father had said the woman he'd mated me to wouldn't be here until tomorrow.
Had she arrived early?
My breath caught as I watched my father, the nanny, Roger, and a contingent of guards climb into two vehicles and pull away from the mansion. I had no idea where they were going, and I didn't really care. Considering their fancy dress, I was hoping they'd be gone for a long while.
This might be my one opportunity to escape.
I raced over to the bed and dropped down to my knees. I reached under the bed, grabbing the bag pushed back against the wall. I placed it on the bed and opened it up, quickly looking through it to make sure I had everything I'd need.
A couple changes of clothes for me and Tommy, some money I had stashed away, a flashlight, my identification, Tommy's birth certificate, and a picture of his mother. He'd want to know who she was at some point in his life.
I zipped the bag up then went to the closet for my jacket and shoes. Once I was fully dressed, I tucked a chair under the door handle of the door leading out into the hallway. I knew they had it locked from the outside, but now it was jammed from the inside. It would give us a few extra moments to escape.
I crept to the door between my room and Tommy's. The nanny's room was on the far side of Tommy's room, but if she wasn't here, I wouldn't have to worry about her. I just didn't know if anyone else was in Tommy's room.
I pulled the door open and peeked inside. The light was off, but I could still see Tommy's small body under the covers on the toddler bed. I breathed a sigh of relief that no one else was in the room.
I placed the bag on the floor next to the window then sat down on the side of the bed. I gently shook Tommy's shoulder. "Tommy," I whispered, "wake up."
Tommy rubbed his eyes before blinking up at me. "Daddy?"
I held my finger to my lips. "Ssshhh."
Tommy blinked some more.
"Remember when I told you that we were going to go on a trip, just the two of us?"
Tommy nodded.
"Well, it's time for us to go."
I got up and walked over to Tommy's dresser. I pulled out warm clothing for him, right down to his socks. "Here, put these on," I said as I set them on the bed next to him. "But be very quiet. We don't want anyone to hear us."
"Okay, Daddy."
While Tommy pulled off his pajamas and got dressed, I grabbed his jacket and shoes. Being three, he had been dressing himself for a while now.
He was very smart.
I did have to help him with his jacket and shoes.
When Tommy was all dressed, I took his pajamas and shoved them under the blankets, ruffling them up just a bit to create a small lump. It wouldn't fool anyone very long, but maybe for a quick glance it would.
We need every bit of luck we could get our hands on.
