“Move! Move! Move!”
Baron’s augmented Alpha powers hit me at the same time the roar came over my communicator, giving me a headache. I hated when he augmented his powers. I was on the fucking other side of the building! I just hoped he wasn’t coming up fast behind me, because I needed time.
I snorted. No fucking way I was going to stop now. Not until I found what I had come here to retrieve. I would challenge him for Alpha before I would stop searching and God knows, I didn’t want his job.
I kept moving further down the hallway, opening doors frantically, checking inside quickly, and then moving onto the next door. They had to be here!
“Shane! Boomer has set the timers! We are out of time!”
This time, the power in the command caused me to stagger, almost turning back. I growled, righting myself. I ignored my Alpha’s command. Not going to leave without them. I tried using my nose, but human noses aren’t as sensitive as wolf ones. Besides, the ammonia smells tickled my nose. One good sniff and I would be sneezing. After the first five times this had happened, I decided that shallow breaths were better.
This lab wasn’t supposed to exist, and yet it did. On top of that, it had been doing illegal experiments. It wasn’t on any government or private list, anywhere. The lab was a ghost. It would pop up and then shut down at a moment’s notice. If it wasn’t for Shaz, we wouldn’t have found it this time
Someone had discovered that lycanthropes existed. That same someone had targeted us for inhumane experimentation. They were capturing, or in this case, murdering, wolves in order to get their test subjects.
When they fucked with my family, though, I was going to move heaven and hell to get them back.
“Shane!”
The shout turned almost into a howl, the Alpha’s power causing me to stagger again. Damn it! He was closing in behind me. I sped up my search, my heart pounding.
My insubordination was going to bring me a world of hurt later, but I didn’t care. Being Beta suited me. I didn’t want to be Alpha. Even if we both knew that I would win.
I just didn’t want it. Way too much responsibility of people I cared little about. But I wasn’t stopping my search yet.
A slim grey wolf slid up next to me, its long and lanky form hiding slightly in the shadows. Shaz. He yipped softly at me, his eyes glinting, his tongue rolling out of his mouth. I growled at him, not stopping. He put his body in front of mine, forcing me to either run him over or stop. I stopped, my growl growing louder. He rolled his eyes and then darted forward down the hall.
I watched him, as he passed several doors before pausing and looking over his shoulder at me. Looked like he knew where he was going. I followed, my two feet not quite as fast as his four. As soon as he saw this, he continued loping down the hallway.
Shaz stopped in front of a reinforced metal door, almost at the end. He sat, panting, his eyes gleaming as if to say ‘This is it’.
My hand went to the door handle, but it didn’t budge. Locked. Damn it! I pounded on it once in frustration.
Lock picks. Where did I put them? I started patting my pockets, searching for them.
The wolf shook his head, snorting in derision. He quickly shifted, the naked man crouching in the dim and dusty light.
He stood, not caring about his lack of clothes, and grabbed a key that hung to the left of the door and shoved it in front of my face.
“Oh, Oblivious One.”
I stared at the key. My eyes traveled to the spot where it had been hanging and then back to the man grinning wildly in front of me.
“Seriously? They left the key here? Just outside the door?”
Shaz shrugged. “They are stupid assholes, Shane. What did you expect?”
I snorted, snatching the key out of his hand. It took me a minute to push it in, with my hand trembling with exhaustion, but it finally clicked in the lock. I pushed the door open slowly.
The darkness in the room overpowered my human sight, but the smells of urine and excrement permeating the air were noticeable even in this form. I walked in warily, my eyes flicking from shadow to shadow, my hands slightly outstretched. Right now, I really wished I had my wolf’s ability to see in the dark.
Shaz stumbled behind me, swearing loudly as he searched for a light switch. The thought of what was on these floors caused me to cringe.
Fucking hell!” The man growled. The sound of a desk being shoved violently came from behind me. Items rolled to the floor and then a click sounded.
A narrow beam of light illuminated the room.
Great. Shaz had found a flashlight. Definitely useful here.
In the next minute, he clicked on a light switch and the weak light from overhead lit the room. I almost wished for the darkness, given what I was seeing.
Syringes and vials laid over on one counter. A table that still had remnants of blood and gore stood in the middle. A computer sat at another station in a far corner, its screen blank.
“Over there.” I started to move towards one wall, where I saw large cages stacked together. The doors on the top two swung open, empty.
“Hurry up, Shane. Boomer never gives us much time once he’s set his bombs. We need to be out of here yesterday.” Shaz’s eyes roamed nervously around the room.
I move closer to the cages. It was not an option to leave. Not at this point. “Can you use that flashlight and shine it down here?” I knelt and opened the bottom cage’s door.
Shaz shuffled closer, pointing the light where I wanted it. I sat down cross-legged in front of the cage.
Three small pups laid on a dirty blanket, motionless. Their ribs showed through the scraggly patches of their fur. They looked…. Dead.
No! It couldn’t be too late!
I held my breath, my hand lying gently on the nearest pup’s chest, counting out the seconds. One… Two…. Three….
There! A shuttering, croaky breath came from that one. Then another pup exhaled softly.
No time to check on the third. I reached in, pulling out the small male pup first.
“Take Soren, Shaz. I will get the two girls.”
“Oh, man!” He looked down at the small pup in his hands, his eyes wide with shock.
My eyes glinted with anger as I gazed at the pup. “I really hate these fuckers who think they are justified in experimenting on us. But to use pups!” I shook my head, trying to get my emotions back under control.
I reached in and picked up the larger of the two females. Betta. She appeared to be in a similar condition as her brother. I checked her over quickly before laying her gently on one thigh.
It was the last pup, though, where my heart almost broke. Lexi was so dehydrated and starved, she looked like a skeleton. I couldn’t tell if she was even still alive. I was afraid to touch her, she looked so fragile.
No matter. She was coming with me, dead or alive.
Leave no one behind.
The room’s door slammed open, hitting the wall behind it. Shaz took a protective stance while holding Soren. I curled over Betta who was in my lap, while leaning towards the cage where Lexi still laid.
A large, stocky man stormed in. He snarled softly. “When I told you to leave, I meant now. Those bombs are set to explode in sixty seconds whether we have left the building or not. We need to be in Timbuktu, you fucking asshats!”
Both of us relaxed, Shaz moving carefully towards his Alpha.
“Grab one of the pups from Shane, Baron. We will move faster if we each have one. But, be careful. They are in terrible shape.” He exited the room, his voice wafting back as he moved down the hallway. “There’s an exit down here that we can use, I think.”
Baron turned to me, moving closer. He gasped as I handed Betta up to him, holding her tiny body with two large hands.
“Take Betta, Baron. I need to get Lexi out of there, but I am afraid I will hurt her when I pick her up.”
Baron’s eyes filled with sorrow as he clasped the small female to his chest, moving to the door. “We won’t do them any good if we all get blown up inside this building. I don’t want to leave it standing. Gather up your pup, Shane, and let’s move.”
I moved to kneel beside the cage and gently reached in to lift out Lexi. The small female was so light, I was afraid I would hurt her without trying. Standing, I pulled my T-shirt up to wrap it around her, making a pouch out of it to protect her small body. I followed behind the other two men, my strides long.
“Thirty seconds!”
Shaz stood near an outside door, the sunlight streaming in. I blinked. I felt like I had spent a lifetime in this house of horrors. The bright sunny day outside seemed wrong in contrast.
Baron and I jogged towards the door, exiting before Shaz closed it carefully.
“That’s a firewall door. Hopefully it will help keep the debris away when the building blows but run like hell, boys, because we don’t have much time.”
We scrambled for the tree line about fifty yards away. It was a trade-off – run fast and jostle the pups or run slower and be impacted by the explosion. We ran like the devil was on our tails. No saving the pups if we died in the explosion.
We had barely passed the first few trees when the first bomb went off, rocking the ground.
I fell, twisting in the air so that I would land on my back, protecting Lexi as much as I could. Shaz barely kept his feet, pausing when he saw I had gone down.
“Off your back, Shane. No time to be lazing around. Second blow is going to happen in about ten.”
Baron had already disappeared into the woods.
“Move it!” The Alpha bellowed, his voice easily reaching us.
A white and black wolf darted out of the woods, heading for me. He shifted as he got within a few steps of me. Reaching down, the man helped me stand, peering at the bundle being held close to my chest.
“Fuck!”
“Splinter, Shane, now!” Baron’s voice was further off, but still held authority.
Without thought, we turned and ran into the woods, heading towards the Alpha. A second explosion sounded behind us, followed closely by a third.
We barely kept to our feet, dodging rocks and debris that came raining down on us. Splinter reached out to keep me steady, matching me step to step. We reached a gravel road and quickly moved towards a lone SUV.
“Left that a little close, didn’t you?” The man leaning up against the driver-side door grinned at us. “You know my babies like to make a splash.”
“Let’s get out of here, Boomer!” Baron snarled, taking shotgun and carefully laying Betta gently on his lap.
Boomer leapt into the car and started it, his face turning serious as he took in Betta’s condition.
“Shit.”
Shaz and I slid into the back, holding our bundles carefully. I kept Lexi wrapped in my shirt, figuring the more structure she had, the better. Splinter squeezed into the back, leaning over the seat to look at the pups, his face serious.
“Where is Max?” I couldn’t help it. The words came out as a growl.
As soon as the doors shut, the car accelerated, the wheels churning in the gravel on the road. At the same time, Boomer hit the phone button on the steering wheel.
“Call Max.”
I thanked the gods we had the satellite phones. The call went through immediately. “Hey, Max? Where are you located? Shane found the pups . They are half-dead.”
Another explosion rocked the truck.
“Shit! That wasn’t one of mine. They probably had a gas of some sort in that lab.” Boomer struggled to keep the car upright and on the road, only accelerating again once the ground had stopped rocking. The phone crackled and popped with static, causing us to miss what was being said
“…meeting point.”
“Max, this is Boomer. Sorry, we had another, unplanned explosion here. You’re at the meeting point? Good. Plan to get into our truck with your bag of goodies. We have three pups…” He looked over at Baron, sitting next to him, gently stroking Betta’s ragged fur. He swallowed. “…Three pups that are looking really bad. I am not sure if you can even save them. Sorry, Shane.”
The last remark was thrown over his shoulder at me.
I ignored him, watching Lexi’s chest. I wanted to breathe for her, but I couldn’t. I checked to make sure she was doing it on her own, placing two fingers on her tiny chest. One…two…. three…. four…. five… I felt a slight movement beneath my fingers, causing me to inhale as well.
How was she still alive? I rubbed her chest to try to stimulate her body a little.
“Come on, Lexi. Uncle Shane is here. I’ve got you. I’ve got all of you. Please live. You are all strong pups. You have to live.”
I didn’t realize I was mumbling this to her, my voice soft and insistent as I pulled her close to my body heat. I refused to think about my brother and sister-in-law – their parents – who had been killed, probably right in front of these pups. My brother had wanted to start a Pack and had left to build his own den. They had been killed in that den and left to rot, their pups taken and experimented on.
Revenge for what had been done to my family burned in my chest.
I pulled Lexi closer. “You’re safe now, little one. Uncle Shane has your back.”
