Hearing over the radio that the other teams were moving on the gym, Alina picked up the pace, slipping into the med bay with Milan and Morgan. Alina wanted to be in a position to grab Boo—if the girl was there—in the event the shooting started early.
Trevor hadn’t given an update since heading after Frasier and Thorn a few minutes ago. While that made Alina nervous as hell, she took it as a good sign. Hopefully that meant he and Adam hadn’t run into any serious trouble. Her stomach clenched at the idea of him getting into a shoot-out without her there to back him up.
She also hoped that meant Boo was still in the med lab.
Alina didn’t need a shifter’s nose to pick up the antiseptic smell the moment she stepped inside the lab. The scent of disinfectant, alcohol, and the tangy, metallic odor of blood were hard to miss. She only prayed it wasn’t Boo’s blood.
They hadn’t gone more than a few feet when Alina heard a series of sharp snarls and grunts from a room at the end of the hall. She froze. Beside her, Milan and Morgan did the same. Had one of the hybrids smelled them? Were they all about to come running out of the room with guns blazing?
Alina tensed, ready for the possibility, but the growls immediately subsided. She glanced at the two shifters with her. They nodded and motioned her forward.
She moved as slowly as she could, treading carefully and trying hard not to make any noise. She wished she knew for sure one way or the other how well these new hybrids could hear and smell. For all she knew, the hybrids were blissfully unaware there was anyone else in the building with them. Or conversely, they were waiting for them with guns pointed straight at the door of the room they were hiding in.
When she heard another low snarl, Alina decided it sounded more like someone grunting in pain. She didn’t think Boo could make a sound that deep or that loud, but then again, she didn’t know what kind of noise a child shifter made. The fact that Milan and Morgan still looked worried as hell didn’t make her feel any better.
Alina stopped outside the door to the last lab on the right, the two shifters right on her heels. She took a deep breath, then peeked around the jamb to look inside.
There were two of Thorn’s men and two hybrids in the room, along with a doctor. She recognized one of the hybrids as the guy she’d shot three times in the warehouse earlier that day. He was sitting on an exam table while the doctor dug around in his chest for the bullets. That explained what the snarls of pain were all about.
Movement on the other side of the room caught her eye, and she looked that way to see Wade leaning against the far wall. Part of his attention was on the doctor and his hybrid teammate, but mostly, he was focused on Boo.
Alina was relieved to see the little girl alive. She was also furious at the way her captors had treated her. Boo was strapped down to an exam table while two doctors stood over her with eager expressions on their faces, as if they couldn’t wait to cut into her. Boo seemed to realize that, too. Her small claws and fangs were fully extended, and she looked completely terrified as she struggled against her restraints.
Alina pulled back and motioned Milan and Morgan back down the hall. Then she pulled her radio mic close.
“Trevor, we found Boo. There are three hybrids and two of Thorn’s men in the room with her,” she said softly. “But there are also two doctors who look like they can’t wait to start experimenting on her. We need to get her out of there.”
Milan’s eyes widened at the mention of the two doctors. Terrified the slender woman might take off and try to save Boo on her own, Alina put a hand on Milan’s shoulder. Then she covered her radio mic with the other.
“We need a plan,” she said to Milan. “Those hybrids are too close to Boo for us to storm in there. And the doctors are even closer. They could kill Boo before we get ten feet into the room.”
Milan and Morgan nodded their understanding and held their ground.
“We’re on the way,” Trevor said in her earpiece. “Be there in two minutes.”
“Hurry,” she whispered. “We may not have two minutes.”
* * *
Tanner pressed his back against the brick wall beside the side entrance to the gym. The door was an emergency exit, so it was always locked. Ivy picked the heavy-duty dead bolt in seconds, then led the way inside. Landon followed, then Tanner. Over the radio, he heard Clayne calling out that his team was standing by the front entrance. A few seconds later, Angelo announced they were through the back door.
Ahead of Tanner, Ivy and Landon stopped, allowing him to take point. He moved quickly down the service hallway that opened up into the main part of the gym. They’d decided early on during the abbreviated planning for the raid that Tanner would go in first to do recon. If Thorn’s new hybrids were able to smell better than Trevor thought, they might not pay attention to Tanner’s scent. He was a hybrid, too, after all.
Just then, Alina’s voice came over the radio saying they’d found Boo and were getting ready to rescue her. That meant the rest of them needed to hurry.
Tanner dropped to a knee by the door, only to freeze when he heard a long, drawn-out hiss. A moment later, two very familiar scents reached his nose. He knew who they belonged to without looking, but he leaned in to check anyway, praying his nose was wrong.
It wasn’t.
Jaxson was lying on one hip in the middle of the floor, his right arm clutched awkwardly to his chest. From the bruises on his face and the slash marks on his arm, ribs, and back, it looked like he’d been punched a few times as well as sliced open with something razor-sharp. Dark blood soaked his T-shirt.
The hybrids surrounding him would probably still be going at the guy if one enraged feline hybrid wasn’t keeping them away.
Sage was standing over Jaxson, her fangs and claws fully extended, eyes glowing scarlet red as she snarled and slashed at anyone dumb enough to get close to her and the man she was protecting.
Tanner was thrilled Sage had retained enough control to be concerned about Jaxson, but it looked like the hybrids were getting tired of their little game. Sage was never going to back down, even to protect herself.
He scanned the room and was shocked to see two DCO analysts standing alongside a big hybrid over by a folding table, studying the map spread out on it. They didn’t look happy to be there, that was for sure. Thorn must have dragged them in to help, though what he intended to do with them later was anyone’s guess. The thought that a man like Thorn might simply make them disappear when they’d outlived their usefulness certainly came to mind.
