X-Ops Exposed

by Paige Tyler

  Tanner didn’t want to think about how much damage he was doing to himself, which was good, since the wave of agony that tore through him made thinking impossible. So he stopped thinking and roared, the animalistic sound easily drowning out the crowd’s cheering and screaming.

  Spencer growled and charged again. Tanner met him midlunge, spinning him around and slinging him across the octagon as hard as his inner beast would let him. Spencer was still three feet off the ground when he slammed into one of the gates and kept going, his weight and momentum tearing the gate partially off its hinges. Spencer smashed his head hard, then hit the stone floor outside the cage just as hard. He was up in a flash, growling and enraged even as blood poured from a wound across the side of his face.

  Two guards who’d been serving as crowd control outside the cage ran straight at Spencer, weapons coming out at the same time. Spencer must have smelled them, because he spun in a move so fast, it was a blur. He swiped at the first guard’s neck, then the other, before he was on the move again.

  The crowd had already been stunned to complete silence by Tanner’s roar and the sight of Spencer getting thrown right through the fencing of the cage. Now that Spencer was free, the crowd became completely unglued. First were the shouts and screams of panic, then the struggle to get away.

  It only got more insane when Tanner climbed out of the cage, shoving aside the door that still hung there by one hinge and the chain that had been used to lock it closed. People took one look at Tanner up close and began climbing over each other to get away. That just made the panic worse. People got trampled, but Tanner couldn’t find it in himself to care.

  A blur of movement caught Tanner’s attention, and he caught sight of Spencer making his way through the crowd, heading toward the steps leading to the second level. Tanner glanced up at the luxury box where Lillie had been, but there was no sign of the girl now, or Ryan and Nguyen for that matter. But Spencer must have believed he could find them in that direction, which was enough for Tanner.

  He didn’t have to worry about the crowd getting in his way. Even the people taking videos of him on their phones practically killed themselves to get out of his path. He didn’t bother trying to exert his control over the beast and shift back. It was already too late for that. He might as well make use of his hybrid’s talents now that the secret was out.

  Tanner had only taken half a dozen strides when another guard pushed his way through the crowd, knocking people aside with the butt of the assault rifle he carried. Tanner didn’t want to waste the time fighting with the guy, but he had little choice. The man was standing between him and where he needed to go.

  He charged forward and met the guy just as he broke through the crowd. The man tried to get his weapon down and pointed in the right direction, but Tanner never gave him the chance. Closing his left hand around the gun, he shoved it up and away. The rifle shattered in his grip, the bullets clanging and pinging as they ricocheted around the room. At least one of them went through the glass window on the luxury boxes, shattering it into a million pieces. The already panicked people on the lower level scrambled for cover as glass rained down on them.

  The man didn’t try to fight Tanner for control of the assault rifle. Instead, he let go and reached for his backup piece. Tanner wrapped his claw-tipped fingers around the man’s neck, gave a hard squeeze, then slung him across the room. He didn’t bother to see where the man landed, but from the thud he made when he finally hit the floor, Tanner knew he wouldn’t be getting up again.

  Tanner had just turned and headed after Spencer when he caught a scent that stopped him cold and froze his heart.

  Zarina.

  What the hell was she doing here?

  Chapter 18

  Clayne skidded to a sudden stop a few feet ahead of her and Danica just as Zarina heard an undulating sound she could feel through the soles of her boots. She frowned and glanced over her shoulder at Cam, who was bringing up the tail end of their little team since they’d entered the tunnels. He looked as confused as she felt.

  “What’s that noise?” she asked Clayne.

  She kept her voice barely above a whisper, worried someone at the other end of this insane network of tunnels would hear them. If there was another end. Zarina wasn’t so sure, since it’d been nearly thirty minutes since they’d left Tate and his team, and the tunnel they were in now looked exactly like the tunnel they’d started in. They could have gone in one big circle for all she knew.

  “I think it’s people shouting and cheering,” Clayne said. “And if the scents I’m picking up are any indication, it’s a lot of people.”

  “Do you think we’ve gotten turned around in these caves and ended up on the club level somehow?” Danica asked as she surveyed the map in her hand.

  Clayne scowled at his wife. Danica might have the map, but they’d mostly trusted the wolf shifter’s nose to lead them through the tunnel. “Are you asking if I got us lost?”

  Danica lifted a brow. “Do you have another explanation for all the noise if it’s not the club?”

  Clayne looked like he was more than ready to let Danica know what he thought of that question, but before he could get the words out, a rage-filled roar pierced the stale air in the tunnel, making the hair on Zarina’s arms stand on end and her heart seize up. She’d know that roar anywhere.

  “Shit, that was Tanner,” Clayne muttered.

  With a growl, he turned and sprinted down the tunnel in the direction they’d been heading. Zarina, Danica, and Cam followed, running after the wolf shifter as fast as they could, trying to keep up.

  They hadn’t gone very far before Zarina heard screams of panic and fear. A few steps later, the claustrophobic darkness they’d been traveling through for half an hour brightened, then disappeared completely as they stepped out into a large, well-lit room the size of a large movie theater.

  Going from the pitch-black tunnels to the bright lights of the open space was blinding, and all Zarina could do was blink through the stars as her eyes adjusted while she tried to guess what was happening based on nothing more than the screams of terror and the growls and roars of an angry hybrid. Then gunshots rang out, followed by the sound of breaking glass, and the screaming got even louder.

  When her vision finally cleared, she realized the situation was even worse than her overactive imagination had come up with. The place was in total chaos. Men were running around waving guns while people in fancy clothes screamed and trampled each other as they tried to get away.

  Tanner had just climbed out of what looked like some kind of metal-enclosed fighting ring, and while the men with guns were frightening, everyone was running from him.

  Zarina had no idea what the cage was about, but she knew Tanner was in trouble. There were two dead men on the floor with their throats ripped out, and even as she watched, he wrapped his hands around the throat of another man holding a rifle and tossed him fifteen feet across the room. The man bounced off the cage like a rag doll, crumpling to the floor in an unmoving pile of arms and legs.

  Blood covered the side of Tanner’s neck, his eyes were scarlet red, and his jaw had broadened to accommodate his teeth. The muscles of his arms and shoulders rippled as his body continued to shift, going further than she’d ever seen him go before.

  “What the hell is happening to him?” Cam breathed in horror.

  “He’s completely lost control,” she shouted.

  Shoving her hand in the pocket of her jacket, she pulled out the auto-injector still safe in its plastic case. She popped the injector out then looked at Cam, who was still standing there, stunned by the intensity of Tanner’s rage.

  “You have to help me get to Tanner before he kills someone he shouldn’t,” she said.

  Cam looked at the injector in her hand, then back at Tanner. “We’ll lead the way. Stick close.”

  There was more chaos as they circled around
the outside edge of the huge open space, trying to cut Tanner off. Clayne and Cam moved out in front, shoving people aside and making a path for them through the crowd. On the far side of the cage, Zarina heard gunfire. She looked over to see Diaz, Chase, and Tate engaging with a group of armed men. She hoped that meant Chad and the others had found their friends from the prepper camp and gotten them out of there.

  She was stunned to see half a dozen people filming the chaotic scene with their phones. That was going to be bad. But there wasn’t anything they could do about it. All she could focus on was getting to Tanner, then doing whatever she had to do.

  They tried to reach Tanner before he got to the tunnel leading out of the main area, but there were too many people in the way, and he disappeared from view down the semidark corridor.

  Clayne and Cam moved to follow, but as they reached the entrance to the passageway, a handful of Ryan’s mercenaries suddenly bullied their way out of the crowd, swinging their weapons in Zarina’s direction. She didn’t even have time to consider throwing herself to the floor before Clayne and Danica reacted, leaping in front of her and knocking the first two men backward in a move so perfectly synchronized, it was like they’d practiced it a hundred times before.

  “Keep going!” Clayne shouted as he lashed out at the man in front of him then turned toward the next. Beside him, Danica did the same thing. “Find Tanner before it’s too late.”

  Zarina didn’t pause to think about the fact that she was abandoning her friends. Instead, she ran into the tunnel after Tanner, squeezing the auto-injector firmly in her hand so she wouldn’t drop it. A few moments later, she heard heavy feet running behind her. She knew it was Cam but didn’t slow down to let him catch up. Tanner had too much of a lead on her already.

  The tunnel she was in soon split into a Y-intersection, and she instinctively went left. But then she ran into another intersection, then another. There were only a few lights in this part of the tunnel, and the darkness, combined with the absolute maze of twists and turns, quickly convinced her that she had a better chance of getting lost than finding Tanner.

  Zarina slowed down, hoping she might be able to hear the sounds of Tanner’s footsteps when she heard a heavy thud behind her, quickly followed by a second one. Pulse pounding, she spun around, realizing with a start that Cam wasn’t behind her anymore.

  “Cam?” she called softly, heading back the way she’d come. “Is that you?”

  When she got to the last turn she’d made without seeing or hearing him, she started getting worried. She was sure he’d been right behind her. There was no way she could have outrun him. She wasn’t that fast.

  “Cam?” she shouted, starting to freak out a little. Coming back here without Clayne and Danica had been really stupid. “Where are you?”

  Zarina saw Cam’s boots first. She ran toward him, her heart in her throat as her mind suggested all kinds of horrible things that could have happened to Tanner’s brother.

  She was so focused on Cam, she didn’t even realize someone was in the adjacent tunnel until Ryan slammed into her and knocked her against the wall. She grunted in pain, crying out in dismay as the auto-injector tumbled out of her grip and disappeared into the darkness.

  Zarina quickly stopped worrying about the injector as she saw another big man with pale-blond hair step out of the tunnel, carrying a large automatic pistol. He leaned over Cam and, for a moment, Zarina thought he was going to shoot Tanner’s brother. But after yanking him partway into the light and seeing the blood covering the side of Cam’s head, the blond guy muttered something and shoved him aside. Oh God, Cam had been hurt bad.

  “Let me go!” she yelled, trying to shove Ryan away, first in an attempt to get to Cam, but then to get to the revolver on her belt.

  Ryan must have seen the move, because he caught her wrist and pinned her arm to her side easily. “I don’t think so, Zarina.”

  Grinning, he casually reached up to slam her head back against the stone wall. The blow didn’t seem that hard, but stars still exploded in her vision, and she felt her knees go weak as she tried to keep her legs under her. She blinked and shook her head, refusing to let herself black out. She had no idea what Ryan had planned for her, but she was going to fight it no matter what.

  “I couldn’t ask for a better hostage to help get me out of here,” Ryan added as he tugged her revolver out of its holster and tossed it aside. “Tanner won’t risk coming within fifty feet of me if I have a gun to your head.”

  She could have pointed out that Tanner likely wouldn’t even recognize her at the moment but decided not to bother. Instead, she jerked her wrist out of Ryan’s hand and punched him as hard as she could.

  Zarina hadn’t ever done anything like that before, and it likely hurt her hand more than his face, but she drew back her fist, ready to try again. Ryan cursed and slammed her against the wall again. Her legs buckled as pain stabbed through her, but she refused to be cowed, instead swinging at him again, getting in another glancing blow.

  Ryan’s face twisted in anger, and he shoved her back, looking like he was ready to kill her this time. As his fist came up, Zarina didn’t think she was going to get out of this one with a thump to the back of the head.

  Then a blur passed through her peripheral vision, and Ryan disappeared as Tanner slammed into him, knocking him five feet down the dark corridor and crushing him to the floor. Without Ryan there to hold her up, Zarina’s knees gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. Growls and screams echoed around her as Tanner tore into the man who used to be his best friend.

  Shadows continued to threaten her vision, but Zarina ignored them when she saw the big blond man turn his weapon Tanner’s way, trying to line up a shot at him. She scrambled for her lost gun, crawling over Cam as her hands flailed around, searching for it. She found the auto-injector first, scooping that up out of instinct as she kept searching for the revolver.

  She felt something hard under her hand and scrambled to pick it up even as the blond man shoved the barrel of his weapon up against the back of Tanner’s head. Even though she knew she was out of time, she got the weapon up, pointed at the man, and squeezed the trigger.

  The gun jumped in her hand just before the blond man’s did the same in his. She had no idea where her bullet landed, but his hit the wall right over her head, peppering her with stone fragments and then ricocheting back and forth down the corridor. She flinched hard but kept pulling the trigger until the weapon didn’t fire anymore. She had no idea whether she’d hit anything until the blond man dropped to his knees and then fell forward onto his face with a thud.

  Everything was quiet then, except for the horrible ringing in her ears. She wondered if she should reload the revolver when it occurred to her that Tanner wasn’t growling or fighting with Ryan anymore.

  She pushed herself into a sitting position and twisted around, fearing the worst. Tanner crouched a few feet away from her, his eyes glowing vivid red. She had to force herself not to flinch. She might love him like crazy, but in the dim light, he looked pretty damn scary.

  His fangs were still extended, and his long claws scraped against the floor as he clenched and unclenched his fists. His jeans and bare chest were covered in dark stains that were impossible to mistake for anything other than blood. She searched his red eyes, hoping to see some indication the man she loved was in there somewhere, but all she saw was the beast and the rage.

  She looked over his shoulder at the torn and twisted shape lying in the darkness behind him. Ryan was dead. Tanner’s hybrid half had killed him. While she had no doubt the man deserved everything Tanner’s inner animal had done to him and more, she knew Ryan’s death was one more thing that would eat at Tanner for the rest of his life.

  Swallowing hard, Zarina slowly placed the revolver as far away from her as she could reach, then carefully push herself up to her knees. Tanner would probably think the auto-injector in her han
d was much more dangerous than the gun, but there was no way she could set it aside now, not when he was this far gone. Gaze never leaving his, she slowly crawled toward him, the injector cradled protectively in her palm.

  “It’s me…Zarina,” she whispered softly when Tanner growled at her a little. “I want to help you, but you have to trust me. Okay?”

  He growled again, but this time, it almost seemed like he understood what she’d said, or at least realized she wasn’t going to hurt him. Zarina prayed that was the case, because she didn’t want to use the antiserum on him. Not without talking to him about it first.

  Stopping in front of him, Zarina sat on one hip, then very slowly reached up to gently cup his jaw. He closed his eyes at her touch, giving her hope that everything was going to be okay.

  “Are you in there, Tanner?” she asked in a low murmur. “Please be in there. Because I don’t want to give you this drug if I don’t have to.”

  He leaned into her touch for a moment, but when he opened his eyes again, they were as scarlet as ever. His fangs and claws were just as terrifyingly extended as before, too. She continued to murmur soft words to him in English and Russian like she had so many times in the past, praying they would soothe the beast inside the man she loved.

  But this time, her words seemed to have no effect. Normally, Tanner’s more obvious hybrid attributes would have faded away by now, leaving him exhausted and heartbroken over yet another loss of control. It was like the hybrid had decided it wasn’t going to relinquish control.

  As if she needed an example, a loud scream from somewhere in the tunnels reached them, making Tanner’s head jerk around in that direction, a deeper growl rumbling from his throat. Zarina immediately caught his chin with a finger, tugging his face back around so he was looking at her.

  “You have to come back to me now, Tanner,” she told him, her voice breaking a little as tears clouded her vision. “Before it’s too late and you do something you’ll regret for the rest of your life.”