by Ally Parker
Linkin wiped bloody clawed hands onto his shirt, stared at them with his aqua gaze, and shrugged. “About time. What took so long?”
Flynn swept an arm out as if he was gallantly allowing passage for ladies to pass at a ball, not warriors in the midst of a mission. “It’s all about subtlety, lad.”
Slater dragged the dead bodies deeper into the stairwell, leaving a crimson trail behind him, and grunted, his gaze shooting to Flynn. “I thought subtlety was for lassies?”
“Focus… ” Saint shouldered into the platform. “Everyone needs to keep their head in the game.”
Somewhere beneath them, bullets echoed. They froze. Jaxx tilted his head to the side, listening for hints that danger was heading their way. Kenzie’s breathing rushed out of her, and he could smell her fear increasing.
“Ava,” she breathed.
He reached out and squeezed her hand. “The doctor is keeping her for a reason; I doubt she would kill her now.” More than likely it was some poor person who hadn’t lasted through one of the doctor’s experiments.
“Shit.” Flynn tightened his grip on the blade he carried. “Is our cover blown?”
“They’d be raining their arsenal upon us if it were.” Saint shook his head and stepped down the stairs, allowing them all to enter. “The attack seems to be coming from somewhere deeper in the warehouse.”
Cade jogged down the stairs from a higher level, and Jaxx saw a few drops of blood splattered on his arm—by the scent of it, not Cade’s. Heavy footsteps pounded across the ground from the other side of the fire door. At least three humans approached.
“Where the fuck is everyone?” one of the humans hissed, and from the telltale pop of a button, Jaxx knew the male had drawn his gun from a holster.
A minute passed, and another male blew out a breath. “Something’s not right. Stay alert; we need to clear the level. William will skin us alive if anything else goes wrong.”
From the tone of the human, he wasn’t joking. The footsteps trailed off deeper into the warehouse. Saint eased down the stairs two at a time until they reached another door. “According to the plans this level holds the entrance to the sublevel we believe Ava is being held in. We go in and make it quick. We can’t afford for whatever is going on to expose our presence before we’re ready.”
Jaxx turned to Kenzie. Among a group of shifters, she seemed so small and fragile. Any person, human or otherwise, that underestimated her would pay the price. His mate was as strong as any warrior. They downed it to the next level and eased out into another loading area. Hunting had been a temptation to the darker parts of his wolf, and more times than not, Jaxx had fought the pleasure it evoked. Now, only anticipation to free Ava and get his female to safety filled him. Another reminder of the gift Kenzie had granted him.
Saint cleared the area, and they filed into the room. The waning moon’s light filtered in through the framework that hung over their heads and adjoined the exposed higher level. Keeping to the shadows, they cut across the wide expanse of the room. Farther down the corridor, a door opened, and another guard appeared. The human started, then fumbled with the holster at his hips. The guard opened his mouth, and the air whooshed beside Jaxx’s head as two blades sailed past and lodged into the Delmac employee’s chest.
Lucian straightened, an all-teeth smile split across his face, and he stuck his thumbs into the empty knife belt. Jesus—that was the first time he’d seen the male smile. If you could call it that. And he hoped Lucian didn’t do it again anytime soon. Feet pounded behind them. Guess someone had found the trail of bodies they were leaving behind. If Jaxx hazarded a guess, at least half a dozen men were seconds away. “Stay behind me.”
“Jaxx.” Kenzie drew out his name, and he could feel the worry in that one word, even as she prepared to fight.
Linkin and Slater took position at the rear, protecting his mate. Jaxx looked at Kenzie, her eyes trained on where the guards would arrive at any seconds, her muscles bunched, and his heart clenched. She couldn’t be hurt.
“Fuck!” A male’s voice shouted.
Attention jerking to the human, Jaxx saw the guard looked stunned to find them there. Five other humans stockpiled into the leader’s back, filling the neck of the hallway. Kicking into gear, the guard frowned and lifted his weapon.
Fuck! Six semiautomatics aimed straight at them.
“Hey you!” A meathead with a large scar running down the right side of his face hovered his finger over the trigger.
“Kenzie,” he sent through their connection. “Run!”
Kenzie yanked out her knife and threw it at the soldier. The guard fell, and his gun popped off an arc of bullets that hit one of his comrades.
“I… I can’t leave you.”
“I’m right behind you. Now go!” As soon as he got through the guards.
He could sense her indecision. Hell, he hated sending her off to face God only knew what without him, but against semiautomatics the odds weren’t in their favor. “Damn it, Kenzie. Go!”
Jaxx cocked the trigger on his gun. “Linkin, get her the hell outta here.”
Linkin curled his hand around Kenzie’s bicep. “Come on, this way.”
Jaxx focused on her light footfalls dimming. A door banged behind them, and she was safe. At least from the immediate threat. He cut off their mating connection. The chances of getting injured were pretty fucking high against automatic weapons. No mate of his would be experiencing pain because of him.
Saint growled, the promise of death in the air. “In five, four…”
His wolf at his command surged forward.
“Three, two…”
Jaxx shifted, the change washing over his body like water. His clothes split, falling to tatters on the floor. Muscle rippled, fur sprang across his skin, and he took the shape of his wolf with a growl. In his periphery he saw Saint already shifted, and Cade and Flynn stalking forward.
A male with a harelip grappled not to drop his gun. “What are you waiting for? Shoot!”
The door slammed with such finality Kenzie’s steps faltered. How could she leave Jaxx? How could she leave any of the warriors out there fighting because of her? This was her battle. Simple answer; she couldn’t. Spinning on her heel, she slammed straight into Linkin’s chest.
“Oh, no you don’t. You heard our orders. If you barge back out there Jaxx or any of the other males will be more concerned with your safety, and their focus won’t be where it needs to be.” Linkin waved between them both. “You and I are going down.”
She bit her lip. If Jaxx or any other male got killed because of her, how would she live with herself? A shudder cascaded over her body. There may have been a tiny bit of logic to Linkin’s words, but it didn’t mean she liked it. Kenzie blew out a shaky breath and nodded. “Okay.”
“Good. Now stay behind me.” Linkin pushed past her and jogged down the stairs.
The last five years of her life had been working toward this moment. It wasn’t exactly how she imagined gaining her freedom would go down. But surrounded by a group of shifters and weres wasn’t the worst-possible way it could happen.
She just hoped they found Ava and got out of there before the council decided to send a cleanup crew. From the little she understood, shifters would preserve the secret of their existence at all costs. Her mind hovered with Jaxx. Stretching her consciousness, she tapped into their mating connection, and slammed into a blank void. Bile rose, burning the back of her throat, and her steps faltered. Was Jaxx… injured? Dead? She shook her head. Surely she would sense if anything bad happened to him. Wouldn’t she? Her wolf whined audibly.
“Kenzie,” Linkin hissed. “Someone’s coming.”
Linkin’s voice cut into her frayed mind. Her gaze shot up to find Linkin’s body hunkered down facing the descending stairs, his hands splayed wide, showcasing sharp claws. Adrenaline fired across her muscles, and her wolf surged forward. Heavy footfalls pounded on the treads. Three men dressed in black fatigues rounded the corner.
Barreling forward, Linkin slammed a redheaded guard against the wall. The redhead staggered back, knocking the shortest guard down to the next level. A male with muscles upon muscles stared at her with dead eyes and sneered. “Abomination.”
She growled. Launching from the stairs, she landed on the giant. His gun clattered to the metal treads, and they rolled down several steps. Her head banged on the metal, and her vision dimmed. The giant sprang up, hoisting her up by the collar, and punched her in the solar plexus. A crack rent the air, and she struggled to draw in breath. Yelling out, she slashed her claws down his face, and he dropped her like a ball. Her diaphragm spasmed, and her lungs seemed to stop working. On all fours, she wheezed out a breath.
“You stupid whore! You think your animals can save you? You’re wrong.”
If she didn’t summon the ability to move, she’d be at the mercy of the giant—and he didn’t have any. Pushing up off her knees, she reached for her blade and sprang up, arcing her weapon upward. Drops of blood hit her face. The male yelled out and looked down at the wetness spreading across his uniform. Clasping his stomach, the giant staggered and fell back on his ass. From behind, a gun cocked. “They were right. You’re nothing but an animal.”
A deep rumble raced from the tip of her head down to her toes. Her heart pounded, and she could pick the sound from a sea of monsters. “Jaxx!”
Over the smell of blood and death she could smell him, her male. Jaxx. He was alive. She spun. Shorty staggered back, the gun’s aim moving from her head to Jaxx sailing through the air.
“Noooo!” she screamed.
The gun went off.
Jaxx landed on the giant. His jaw wrapped around the guard’s throat until the crunch of bones filled the stairwell. Kenzie rushed over and sunk to her knees, ignoring the stench of blood, and death. Her fingers ran through Jaxx’s fur, inspecting every inch. Her fingers skirted around wet, matted fur along his leg and shoulder. “You’re hurt?”
Jaxx whined. His head burrowed under her chin. “I’m okay,” he said through their connection.
Damn it, having him back in the recess of her mind settled every frayed nerve.
A cell vibrated.
“Shit!” Saint cursed, tailing down the stairs. “We have to hurry. The council is on its way.”
Blood whooshed in her ears. Her attention moved back to Jaxx. He was injured, and time was running out. “It’s nothing more than a flesh wound, already healing.”
He moved past her as if to prove his point. She straightened and winced, feeling her own fractured rib healing, her eyes taking in the blood glistening on the naked men. “Is everyone okay?”
“We’re doin’ better than the other guys,” Cade muttered.
Saint’s voice dropped an octave. “We gave the humans a choice—they made the wrong one.”
The alpha’s words rang with the hard reality of her new life. She would hate to be on the receiving end of his wrath. She swallowed and rounded another platform, the stairs descending to a small alcove with B2 written in white on a red door.
Thinking back to the map, she recalled the layout. “This should lead us directly to the area where the feed cut off.”
Saint nodded and opened the door; a beam of light streamed into the stairwell with the hum of a generator. Saint tilted his chin and drew in a breath.
“I smell blood. A lot of it,” Jaxx whispered into her mind.
Even without her enhanced senses, she could smell the iron perfuming the air. Her heart thudded faster. Worry was a constant bedfellow. The shifters eased into the corridor, and she hustled out after Jaxx. Blood splattered against the paint-chipped walls, and a man lay ahead of them in a pool of blood.
“What the hell happened here?” Linkin murmured.
Ava was somewhere among the stench of death, and the only question floating in Kenzie’s mind was: was she one of the casualties? The deeper they tracked through the hall, the thicker the stench of blood became and the tighter her chest got. Choking back a cough, she glanced down at the young man propped against the wall, his gaze fixed and lifeless. So much death. Men sprawled on the ground as if they had been fleeing the area. Stepping over a maze of limbs, a solid steel door sat ajar, muffled voices drifting out.
From behind them a door opened, and two guards walked out.
“Oh, fuck!” one of the guards said, grappling for his semi.
The other guard raised his gun and fired. Jaxx stood in front of her like a shield. A stray bullet slammed into her thigh. Fire ripped through her leg, and it buckled. She screamed. From beside her, Linkin grunted. She turned, and he fell face-forward. Her wolf surged under her skin. As quick as her next breath, she’d drawn her blade and threw it, hitting the guard in the stomach. Saint lunged and delivered justice with a cold, hard blow.
Jaxx spun on his heel. “Kenzie!” He extended his hand. “Give me your hand, little wolf.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist, and together they walked toward the door. “Is he… is he dead?”
“Not likely, but we need to get him topside.”
Through the death clinging to the air, Kenzie smelled Ava. Her scent was strongest behind the steel door. Kenzie limped forward, and Jaxx raced around, shouldering the door open. Three computers hung on a wall, their screens nothing but white snow. Kenzie steadied her balance on a paper-littered desk, and murmured voices whispered from behind another door wedged between tall bookcases. Jaxx turned to face her and cupped her shoulders. “Are you ready?”
Was she ready? She bit her lip. “I just want this over with.”
He nodded. “Okay, stay behind me.”
Sneaking across the room, they heard the voices more clearly.
“Hurry. Do it now!” the all-too-familiar voice of the doctor ordered.
Stepping into the dim room, Kenzie sucked in a breath. A small child lay still in a bed. Deathly still. A machine beeped beside her. Ava towered over the bed, the child’s frail arm stretched out in her grip. Ava’s head whipped toward the doorway, her golden wolf eyes burning in the dim light. Her sister’s mouth opened wide, her extended canines glistening, poised, and ready to bite down on the child.
Jaxx tensed. That’s when Kenzie saw the gun aimed at the back of Ava’s head.
Doctor LeRoy took a step forward. Blood coated her stomach, so dark it looked black, and her skin was ashen. Arm quivering, the doctor kept the gun pointed at Ava’s head and waved her other hand clutching a small device, her thumb hovering over a red button. “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll blow us all up.”
22
“Easy now.” Jaxx stepped closer.
What a fucking mess. A dying human, a traumatized were, and an innocent child in the middle of it all. Plucking the information from their connection he knew the female was Doctor Marie LeRoy. If not for the bomb strapped around her waist and the blood pooling from her stomach, one could mistake her for a run-of-the-mill middle-aged woman, not a creature capable of the monstrosities they’d all seen.
Unfortunately, the doctor wasn’t solely to blame. Guilt curdled into his stomach, acknowledging he played a significant role in the events leading to this moment. If she hadn’t witnessed him biting Lucas, she wouldn’t have been introduced to their world, and this may have been avoided.
The doctor’s gaze darted to him. “Stay where you are.”
Holding out his hands, he halted. A human pushed to the edge was dangerous. His attention flickered to Ava, her sandy hair a matted mess, her skin caked with filth, and blood oozing from a bullet wound on her shoulder. Keeping his voice low, he aimed for a soothing tone, an amazing fucking feat, considering. “Let’s not make any rash decisions.”
His gaze darted to the small child lying in the bed; she reeked of the doctor’s essence, which spoke of a blood relative. Surely even a monster wasn’t capable of experimenting on her own kin.
Hand tightening around the detonator, the doctor flicked her wrist. “Get back, and we won’t have a problem.” Lip curling, she s
pat, “For crying out loud, cover yourself.”
Out of everything in the room, his nakedness was the one thing that bothered her? Obliging the order, he scouted the room and snatched a lab coat off a bench, sliding into it.
Kenzie moved beside him. “Please let the child go.”
LeRoy’s gaze darted to the child. Her eyes softened. “You know, I’ve been practicing medicine for twenty years. Plus have I’ve received many awards for my achievements in medical research. Yet the one thing I would do anything for—have done anything for, is to save my baby. Hope is an innocent. She didn’t ask for any of this. Why…?” The doctor’s breath caught. “Why is my baby sick? What did she ever do to deserve this?”
Sometimes life dished out unmistakable wrongs to people least deserving. Yet those wrongs didn’t give the human a license to experiment on others in her daughter’s name. The smell of sickness soured the air, radiating from Hope. The child didn’t deserve to be sick, but the many humans the doctor tested and slaughtered, not to mention the weres kidnapped and killed, didn’t deserve such a fate either.
“You’re right.” LeRoy’s gaze bounced back to him, and he continued. “She doesn’t deserve to die. But if Ava bites her, she will.”
The doctor wobbled on her feet; her skin looked like wax that glistened with a fine sheen of perspiration, and she shook her head and smiled. “I’ve made sure that won’t happen.”
Jaxx inspected the child closely. Blue veins spread along her translucent skin like webs. Other than the fact that Hope’s treatment had robbed her of hair, he didn’t detecting anything out of the ordinary. His brows pulled together. “That would be an amazing accomplishment.”
A rather alarming one. Knowledge of that magnitude, especially in the hands of people ruthless enough to test on their own kind, was a scary concept.
