by Cheree Alsop
The dean nodded. “I know. I remember the first time I rode.”
Alex’s eyes widened and he stared at Jaze. “You ride motorcycles?”
Jaze chuckled. “Don’t sound so surprised. I love motorcycles. How do you think Trent got the idea to build you one?”
“Where do you keep them?” Alex asked.
Jaze shook his head with a laugh. “No way. If I tell you, I’ll never see you again.”
“Don’t tell me there’s another underground lair,” Alex pressed.
Jaze gave an innocent shrug.
Alex shook his head. “Fine. You don’t have to tell me. But when did you start riding?”
Jaze smiled, his gaze distant. “Nikki’s dad had an old motorcycle. We used to take it at nights to a sanctuary of sorts, a garden with statues of saints.”
Alex tried to picture it. The thought of Jaze and Nikki riding the motorcycle made him happy; thinking of them young and in love also made his heart ache to feel the same way. He thought of Kalia, of the smiles she gave him and the fact that she never seemed to notice anyone else. He considered the way hearing her voice filled him with warmth. He wondered if it was love. He hoped so.
Neither werewolf was surprised at the sound of Brock’s voice. “Thought I’d find you guys out here.” The human patted the wolf statue on the shoulder. “Hey, Jet. Good to see you. It’s getting cold out here,” Brock said amiably as if the statue would respond.
Jaze grinned at Alex.
“Did you need us for something?” the dean asked.
“Oh, uh, yeah,” Brock said. “They followed your lead to the source. Turns out it’s huge. We’re going to have to sweep it quickly if the General has any idea we’re onto it. I’ve got the Black Team and the GPA on board. Agent Sullivan’s already on the way.”
“Let’s get going,” Jaze replied. The easy-going side of the dean was gone, replaced by the all-business leader of the pack determined to save every werewolf in the General’s grasp.
“If it’s a big job, should I bring my team?” Alex asked.
Jaze hesitated and glanced at Brock. The human looked thoughtful. “It’s not a bad idea. Caden says the students Alex chose have done very well with their marksmanship and combat skills. It might be good to have them along with the size of the area we need to sweep.”
Jaze nodded. “Very well. Tell them they have five minutes.”
Alex ran inside. Students lounged in the Great Hall and through the various rooms. He rushed past them up the stairs to the students’ quarters. To his relief, Jericho and Tennison were sitting in the commons room.
The Alpha looked up when Alex burst through the door. “We’ve got a mission,” Alex said excitedly.
The same enthusiasm spread across Jericho and Tennison’s faces. “Trent, Terith, Pip,” Jericho called.
“Cassie,” Tennison said.
“Kalia,” Alex called at the same time.
The two wolves exchanged a look. Alex felt a rush of red fill his face. Everyone appeared at the doorways, saving him the need to decide how he felt about calling Kalia as if she was his girl.
“To the Wolf Den,” Jericho said dramatically. He opened the door with a flourish and everyone filed into the tunnel.
Chapter Twelve
Alex watched the snow rush past the SUV. It was early for such weather, but the breeze had promised as much. The flakes were thick and fell fast, speeding by the windows like streaks of light in the darkness.
Alex could feel the excitement from his pack. Trent and Terith exchanged eager glances. Trent’s knuckles were white as he drove behind Mouse’s black vehicle that carried Jaze’s pack. Trent patted the gun holster at his side. His sister shook her head and rolled her eyes. It was the first time any of them besides Alex had worn weapons or actually left the Academy on a mission with Jaze’s team.
“Remember what Jaze said,” Jericho told them, his tone steady even as anticipation filled his brown eyes. “Steady and smart. We’ll sweep as a team. Everyone sticks together in three person units.” He touched his earpiece. “You read me, Kalia?”
“Loud and clear,” Kalia replied with a hint of frustration in her voice. Though it was obvious she was the right one to monitor the screens and keep them updated on any dangers, Kalia had not been thrilled at the suggestion from Jaze.
“Aw, come on,” Alex heard Brock say over the headset. “It’s not that bad here. Have a chip.”
“No, thank you,” Kalia replied curtly.
“Your loss,” Brock said. Loud crunching followed.
“She’s going to kill us when we get back,” Jericho said.
Trent met Alex’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “You’re going to have to keep your girl in check.”
“Trent,” Alex warned.
Trent grinned. “What? It’s pretty obvious. We’ve all seen the way you two look at each other.”
Alex glanced at Cassie. His sister nodded, happiness in her eyes.
Alex sighed and turned to the window. He couldn’t deny the way he felt around Kalia, but he also couldn’t help feeling like something was missing.
“Shut off your lights,” Mouse’s voice said over the SUV’s intercom. “We’re going to pull around back. The longer we can keep the General from knowing we’re onto this location, the better.”
“I thought it’s supposed to be empty,” Pip said from the backseat with a hint of fear in his voice.
“It’s alright, Pip,” Alex reassured him. “Your job is to stay with the vehicle and radio us if you see any suspicious activity. Can you do that?”
The little werewolf nodded quickly, relief clear on his face that he wasn’t going to go inside the big dark building Trent drove around.
The rest of the vehicles sat in darkness like beasts waiting to spring. Alex and the rest of the pack climbed out of their SUV in silence. Tension hung in the air. Alex checked the position of his gun again, reassuring himself that he wasn’t about to run into a firefight without it. He had gone with Jaze enough times to know that sometimes the places that were supposed to be empty held the highest danger.
Jaze nodded at them when they reached him. Alex recognized members of the Black Team standing on the dean’s other side. Jaze and Agent Sullivan spoke in undertones. The agent smiled when he saw Alex and held out a hand. Alex shook it wordlessly.
“Mouse says he sees a few faint heat signatures, but nothing substantial,” Jaze told all of the teams quietly. “Keep alert just the same. We need a quick sweep to ensure that the place is empty. I have no doubt the General will blow it if he knows we’re inside.” He looked at Alex’s pack. “Keep in contact, stay in your units, and notify me if you see anything suspicious.”
“Will do,” Jericho replied. The rest of the pack nodded.
Jaze gestured for them to move out.
Cassie and Tennison fell in behind Alex as he followed Jaze into the building. Jericho took Trent and Terith around the front with the Black Team.
“How’s it look?” Jericho’s voice asked quietly over their earpieces.
“Good,” Kalia replied. “Stay quiet. Brock said there’re signs of recent activity in some of the lower levels. This place is a lot deeper than it looks.”
Alex followed Jaze’s team through the wooden interior. The building looked like it was going to fall down at any moment, yet support beams of fresh wood and the occasional brace had been placed in key locations to ensure that didn’t happen.
Jaze paused at a set of wide doors. At Chet’s nod, he pulled one open. Everyone flinched at the smell of decay that flooded the air. Alex’s stomach tightened. He had smelled the same scents at other locations linked to the General. Worry at his team’s first mission filled him; it wasn’t going to be pretty.
At Jaze’s motion, Alex, Tennison, and Cassie continued to the basement. They branched left while Jaze’s wolves went right. Brock had been correct about the size of the building. It could have fit a baseball stadium comfortably, yet it lay mostly abandoned. Dust and cobwebs filled corners a
long with machinery that looked as though it had not been used for years. Alex studied a huge conveyor belt covered in a deep layer of dust and debris.
“What do you suppose this place was?” Tennison asked quietly.
“An assembly factory of some sort,” Cassie guessed. “By the looks of these machines, it probably had to do with vehicles.”
“Found the source of the scent,” Professor Dray said into their earpieces. The disgust in his voice was obvious. “We apparently got the experimentation floor. Someone needs to tell the General that it’s not nice to cut up werewolves and leave them to die.”
A few minutes later, Jaze’s voice came on. “These last tables are fresh.” His voice was tight. “I’d say hours. We may not be alone. Brock, any sign that the wires have been triggered?”
Alex couldn’t hear Brock’s reply. Kalia repeated it for their team. “Brock says no signals have gone through. Mouse is sweeping for remote triggers. Hurry guys.” There was a hint of panic in her voice.
“Let’s get this over with,” Alex told Cassie and Tennison.
They began to jog through the basement. The scent of decay intensified until they reached a huge round cylinder sunk deep into the floor in the middle of the room.
“What is that?” Tennison asked, covering his nose and mouth at the putrid smell that rose from it.
Alex looked up at a hatch that opened in the ceiling above them. “A disposal for the bodies,” he said. His stomach rolled with nausea at the stench that surrounded them.
A sound caught his ear. Alex leaned over the hole.
“Careful, Alex,” Cassie warned.
“We should get out of here,” Tennison said. “There’s no sign of anything living.”
Alex pulled the flashlight from his gun and shined it into the hole. The sight of bloody, broken, decaying bodies made him close his eyes. The thought of the pain the werewolves had gone through filled him with frustration. He opened his eyes and forced himself to look into the hole again. There it was, that small sound. It was sharp, but faint, like a gasp of air taken in through bruised ribs. Alex knew the feeling from his encounter with Torin. The Alpha definitely hadn’t pulled his punches.
The smallest movement caught Alex’s attention. He peered closer.
“Alex, you’re going to fall in,” Cassie said, grabbing his shoulder.
Alex concentrated on the mass of bodies below. He saw it again, a hand, fingers reaching weakly.
“There’s someone down there,” Alex said. He tore off his wristband of nylon rope Caden had insisted they all wear and began untying it.
“Are you kidding?” Tennison asked. “There are bodies down there, but no one alive.”
“Alex, what are you doing?” Cassie asked.
Alex handed Tennison the end of the rope. “Tie this off somewhere.”
He climbed onto the edge of the cylinder.
“Are you crazy?” Cassie said, her voice near panic. She tried to stop him.
“Cass, there’s someone down there,” Alex told her. “We have to get whoever it is out before the General knows we’re here and blows the place.”
Cassie shook her head, her eyes wide.
Alex met her gaze, his tone firm. “This is why we’re here,” he told her. “We help werewolves who are in trouble. I’m not going to leave whoever is down there to die.”
“It’s tied,” Tennison called from beside one of the machines.
Alex looped the rope around his back. He took a deep breath of disgusting air and stepped over the edge.
“Be careful,” Cassie told him, worry thick in her voice.
As Alex lowered down into the pit, he heard Tennison say over the earpiece, “Alex found someone alive in the basement. He’s climbing into a hole in the floor to get them out.”
“Hurry,” Kalia replied. “And be safe.”
Alex stepped carefully down the metal side of the hole. The cylinder tube wall was wavy and coated in grime from the bodies sliding down. He tried to not imagine what coated his sneakers as he worked his way down.
Alex reached the bottom with a sickening squish. The smell that rose up around him made his stomach heave. He hunched over for a moment, trying to force the nausea down. Blood, both dark red and brown, covered the bodies around him. He couldn’t see the hand that had caught his attention before. Alex began to make his way careful among them. Horror, fear, and pain showed on the twisted, still faces. The sight burned into his mind.
Alex was about to put off the moving hand as a figment of his imagination when he heard the slight breath again. His head jerked to the right and he saw wide gray eyes watching him.
Alex dropped to his knees next to her. The girl’s cheeks were streaked with blood, making her look like the corpses around her. As he cleared away the bodies that had been piled up as though they had all been dumped in one mass, Alex realized that the blood that coated his hands was hers. She had lacerations along her stomach, her arms, her legs, and her back. She made a slight sound of pain as Alex shoved the last body free.
“It’s okay,” Alex said. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
A tear trickled from the corner of her eye, cutting a path through the blood.
Alex put a finger to his earpiece. “Tennison, I found a girl. She’s alive. I’m going to put the rope around her and I need you to pull her up.”
Only static answered. Alex looked up.
Cassie’s head blocked out the light high above. “Alex, the place is going to explode! Kalia says someone triggered an alarm!”
The ground shook, throwing Alex and the girl against the wall. Alex gathered her in his arms and hunched over her protectively.
“Get us out of here,” he shouted.
Crashing and splintering sounded from above. The rope fell, coiling among the bodies.
“Alex!” he heard Cassie shout.
His earpiece clicked on and off, but he couldn’t hear anyone speaking. He realized the cylinder was cutting off the reception.
Another explosion sounded. The entire building was going to go down. Alex’s heart clenched. He wouldn’t let his sister die.
“Get out of here,” he yelled.
“I won’t leave you,” Cassie yelled back.
She appeared at the mouth of the hole again. Blood streaked her cheek. Tennison grabbed her arms.
“Get her out of here,” Alex commanded to Tennison as the floor buckled again.
Tennison nodded. “We’ll be back for you,” he shouted.
“Just get Cassie and the others to safety,” Alex yelled. Another explosion tore through the building.
A huge chunk of the ceiling fell into the hole. Alex leaned over the girl, holding her close.
His heart thundered in his chest, filling his ears with the roar as more explosions sounded. He realized they were going to be buried alive in the tube of bodies if it didn’t collapse first.
Each explosion sounded louder than the last. Alex held the girl close to him. He could feel the warmth of her blood as it seeped through his clothes. The ground shook and the ceiling above the hole collapsed. The light above them was shut out, leaving Alex and the girl in the haze lit only by the light from his gun.
When the rumbles ended, Alex blew out a breath, trying to clear his thoughts. He was trapped on a pile of bodies with a girl who looked like she was going to bleed to death if he didn’t do something. He could fall victim to the fear that pressed in on him from every side, beckoning for him to fade into numb shock, or he could do something to save her.
Alex checked the girl over quickly. At first he had thought she was younger, but he realized she was close to his age. She watched him through half-open eyes, her gray irises almost swallowed by her pupils that were dilated from the pain. Her wounds weren’t closing, which let him know they had been made with silver.
Alex took off his shirt and tore it into pieces. He spoke to her while he worked to reassure her and keep his mind focused despite the horrors around and above them.
Chapter Thirteen
She winced when he tied the knots firmly to keep the wounds from bleeding.
“I’m so sorry. I wish you didn’t have to go through this. It must have been horrible.” His voice died away at the thoughts of what she must have experienced.
He found her watching him while he worked and asked. “What’s your name?”
At her silence, he smiled. “You don’t have to be shy. We’ll probably be here a long time.” Thoughts of being captive in that little hole and unable to get out tormented his mind. He forced his voice to remain positive. “I may be the only guy you have to talk to for a while. Might as well make the most of it.” He winked as he tied cloth over a particularly deep laceration down her thigh. “I’m not that bad, though my sister might tell you otherwise. She thinks I was crazy to jump into this hole.”
“Siale,” she whispered.
Alex paused, his hands motionless. He met her gaze. For the first time, it felt like she really saw him. He stared at the reflection of himself in her eyes, dirty, blood from some cut from the falling debris on his forehead, dark, unruly hair, searching blue eyes. She seemed to see past all of that to his core. He held his breath without realizing it.
“My name is Siale,” she repeated. She winced and held her ribs.
Alex checked her quickly. His hands came away wet with fresh blood. “I need to see what’s going on,” he said, trying to keep his voice gentle despite the panic that welled up in him at the amount of blood. “If I don’t stop the bleeding, you could die.”
She nodded, her eyes never leaving his face. He carefully peeled back her shirt. His stomach knotted at the sight of a huge hole in the side of her rib cage. It looked as though someone had implanted a thick tube that was yanked out before she was thrown away. He could see shards of silver in the wound. Blood poured out with every breath.
Alex pressed the last piece of his shirt against the hole. Siale let out a small cry that she smothered weakly with one hand.
