I move down the corridor. Check each cell. Look for Kaylin Foster specifically.
Fourth cell. Fifth. Sixth.
Hybrids in various states of suffering. Some showing signs of recent surgery. Others with obvious genetic manipulation—extra limbs, scaled skin, features that don’t belong.
Seventh cell: empty. Blood on the floor. Recent.
Eighth cell: male bear shifter. Massive even in his diminished state. Covered in burns. Breathing labored.
I reach the end of the corridor. Sixteen cells total. Fifteen occupied.
No Kaylin Foster.
Where is she?
There must be more cells deeper in the facility.
Alarms start blaring. My forced entry finally registered.
No time to search. I need to get these people out now. Get them to safety. To Nadia. She’ll extract them while I find Kaylin.
The connection between us pulses. What I’m beginning to recognize as the mate bond we’ve been dancing around, alive and thrumming.
She’s outside. Waiting. Ready.
Trust our mate. She’ll get them out.
I go to the first cell. Shatter the glass with a scaled fist. The male wolf inside doesn’t react.
I lift him carefully. He weighs almost nothing. I carry him to the corridor.
Next cell. Female hybrid. Same process. Glass shattering. Lifting her carefully despite the wrongness of her body.
The teenager in the third cell backs away when I break the glass. Terrified.
“I’m getting you out,” I say, keeping my voice calm. “Can you walk?”
He stares at me. Doesn’t believe.
“Can you walk?” Firmer.
He nods slowly.
“Then follow me. We’re leaving.”
I move through the cells systematically. Breaking glass. Extracting prisoners. Some can walk on their own. Many can’t. I carry them two at a time. Set them in the corridor.
Fifteen prisoners. Some conscious. Some not. All of them broken.
But not Kaylin.
I check the doors at the end of the corridor. Storage. Medical supply. Empty office. No additional cells. Below, I hear boots. Guards responding to alarms. Shouting. Orders being issued.
I need to move these people now. Get them to Nadia. Then come back for Kaylin and whoever else is still in here.
“Anyone who can walk,” I call out. “Help those who can’t. We’re moving. Now.”
The teenager responds, helping another captive to her feet. Two others manage to stand. The bear lifts a female, whose head lolls against his massive shoulder as he reaches down for a semi-conscious witch hybrid.
