They crept toward the inner chamber.The air vibrated with Caruso’s voice, mocking and cruel.Klarissa’s defiance followed, sharp and beautiful even in pain.It was the sound of her that kept Rune moving, every step steady despite the carnage around him.
They reached the doorway.Rune’s chest thundered, his tiger clawing, demanding release.He glanced at Kamon, then at the bears above.
This was it.
They would take her back—or die trying.
Chapter Thirteen
The chamber stank ofoil, sweat, and fear.Kamon slipped into the room shoulder to shoulder with Rune, his tiger snarling inside him, begging to tear apart the man who had chained their mate to the wall.Klarissa sat at a battered metal table, pen in hand, her movements steady despite the bruise blooming across her jaw.Children huddled against the far wall, wide-eyed and pale.Their breaths came shallow, their small bodies trembling, but they clung to one another with stubborn resolve.The bodies of their dead teachers had been left where they fell.
Caruso stood behind Klarissa, a gun pressed against her temple.His eyes gleamed with triumph as he saw them enter.“And who are you?”he sneered, voice oily with contempt.
Kamon’s chest expanded with a growl.“We are her mates.”
Caruso laughed, cruel and sharp.“Abominations.Mutants.Pollution of the species.”His spit hit the floor inches from Klarissa’s shoe.“You disgust me.”
Rune tensed beside him, claws threatening to burst free.Kamon’s own tiger pressed hard against his skin, every instinct demanding he leap across the room and end Caruso where he stood.But Klarissa’s gaze snapped to him, her eyes steady, commanding.Hold.Not yet.
Caruso strutted, waving the gun as if it were a conductor’s baton.“See how weak they are, daughter?Chained by fate to beasts.Is this the legacy you dreamed of?A legacy of filth?”
Kamon’s throat rumbled with suppressed fury.He took a slow step forward, his muscles coiled tight.Rune mirrored him, silent, deadly.Klarissa shifted in her seat, her pen still moving, the scratch of it almost absurdly calm against the chaos around them.
“Eyes on me,” Caruso snapped, shoving the barrel harder against Klarissa’s temple.“Not on her.You two want to live long enough to watch me tear her apart, then you keep your gaze where I tell you.I have men in the crosswalks above us, just waiting to put bullets in these children.”
Caleb’s voice cut through the tension.“Not anymore.”
Wyatt’s deep growl preceded the thud of a body hitting the floor.One of Caruso’s guards lay sprawled at his feet, throat torn open.Ivan dropped another corpse beside him like a sack of grain.Blood pooled across the concrete, the metallic scent thick.
The children shrieked, pressing tighter against the wall.Klarissa lifted her head sharply.“Stop that!Not in front of the kids!”
The room froze.Then a boy, older than the rest, maybe twelve, spat on the ground.“We don’t mind.The more assholes that die, the better the world will be really.”
Klarissa’s lips curved, blood staining her teeth.“Good point, sweetie.”
Caruso roared, slamming his fist against the table.“Enough of this farce!I am the future.I have an ally in the shifter council who shares my disgust of you abominations, one who knows the truth—one who will help me cleanse this world of your mutant stain!”His voice climbed higher, manic.“Soon, the council itself will fall, and from its ashes I will rise!”
