Regan placed her black-gloved fingers on the door’s security panel—flashlight beam a narrow point of illumination in the pitch black of the corridor—and keyed in a five-digit sequence.It had taken five tedious dinners with Epoc Industries’ chief of security to procure the password: one night of bad food, bad personal hygiene and very bad wandering hands for each digit.
A chill of revulsion shot up Regan’s spine at the memory but she shoved it aside.What was on the other side of the door was worth it.Seeing the animals running free from Epoc’s building was worth it.Seeing the bastard’s normally smug and composed face twisted with rage tomorrow night on the six o’clock news was worth it.Completely.
A soft click sounded and the door’s locking mechanism deactivated, followed by a faint hiss of escaped, artificial air—rank with animal faeces and disinfectant.
Regan’s lips spread into a grim smile.Bingo.
Muscles and nerves coiled, she gave the door a gentle and oh-so-minute push.So far, her “romance” of the security guard had landed her all the codes and schedules required to get to the main lab undetected, but she wasn’t stupid.Being stupid led to being caught.Or shot.
She stood frozen, on the balls of her feet, ready to run.Or fight.
Nothing.
Except the low and mournful whimpers of animals locked in cages awaiting a slow and agonizing death.
“Not anymore.”
Her voice was barely a breath.She pushed the door wider and stepped into the guts of Epoc Industries’ Scientific Division, flashlight seeking those she had come to rescue.
The animals.
“Oh, shit.”
A German Shepherd cowered in a cage before her, tail tucked between its bent hind legs.The sharp outlines of its ribs jutted out beside the hollow pit of its gut, the raw pink skin of its shaved neck and chest festered with weeping sores.It turned a sunken brown stare on her, its misery and pain clear in the liquid depths.Various tubes punctured its neck and chest, feeding something in and out of the emaciated dog.
“Epoc.”Regan shook her head.“You bastard.”
Stomach heavy, she took another step into the lab, moving her flashlight from one poor animal to another, throwing each into stark illumination as she did so.Here a bank of nine white cats, strapped into a device rendering them incapable of movement, eyelids wired open, a murky orange liquid dripping in slow, even drops onto the exposed eyeballs of each.Here a chimpanzee in a small cage, wires protruding from four stitched incisions on its spine, connecting the primate to what appeared to be a Geiger counter.Over there another bank of cats—these ones with their mouths braced shut around fat tubes filled with a black, viscous fluid.
Regan’s stomach rolled and her grip on the flashlight grew hard.Fury surged through her.Fury and burning helplessness.
It didn’t take a Zoology degree to see the animals in this lab would never run anywhere again.
Their eyes—their miserable, beseeching, dying eyes—held her.And asked for help.
Regan swallowed down the sudden lump in her throat and she thought of the small vial of Rimadyl in her backpack.It wasn’t enough.Nothing would save these animals from their pain.Nothing.Epoc.You inhuman bas?—
A low groan to her far right cut the dark thought short.Fear and adrenaline scorching through her veins like electricity, Regan swung around.“Holy shit!”
The wolf was massive.Bigger than any Regan had ever seen.At least half the size of a buffalo, it stood on all fours in a heavily barred cage, bound by multiple leather straps completely restricting its movement.Two clear tubes jutted from a neat, little cut high on the base of its neck—one pumping in a thick, black liquid, the other empty, as if waiting for its use to commence.
Regan took a step forward, moving her flashlight over the wolf’s muscled form.
It was sick.Possibly dying—the rapid, shallow breath, the dullness of its steel grey coat told her the animal was suffering.Big time.Yet even unwell, it still exuded primitive strength—a wild power almost frightening to behold.Regan’s heart pounded in her chest and she slid the flashlight’s beam to its head, careful to avoid shining the narrow but powerful light directly in the animal’s eyes.
The wolf snarled silently, long teeth glistening, the twin silver discs of its eyes fixed on her.
Silver?
A slight frown pulled at Regan’s eyebrows and her apprehension vanished immediately.A canine’s eyes reflected green light in the dark, not silver, regardless of the genus.She shook her head, despair making her heart ache.“You poor thing,” she whispered, throat tight.“What has Epoc done to you?”
The wolf’s strange eyes stared at her.Seemed to delve into her soul.She pulled in a long, slow breath, unable to look away.Wolf?Is it really a wolf?
The wolf watched her from its cage, radiating power and rage.
And pain.
Regan blinked, shaking herself.What the hell was she doing standing around?God, did she want to get caught?
