Wade stood, pure, unadulterated hatred in his blazing red eyes. The urge to shoot at him until she ran out of ammo was almost irresistible, but there was a good chance she could hit him multiple times and still not keep him from killing Boo.
No. She needed him out of here. And the best way to do that was to make him chase her.
With that in mind, Alina turned and ran. She hit the door outside the lab at a full run, shoving it open. She didn’t know where she was going. She only knew she had to get Wade as far away from Boo as she could.
She barely got a dozen yards from the building when she heard the door bang open. Behind her, Wade let out a growl. He was following her all right.
What the hell was she going to do now?
* * *
Tanner felt his control on his inner lion slipping as he surged across the gym floor and slammed into the huge hybrid who was about to shoot Sage. His M4 carbine went flying, but there was nothing he could do about that. The hybrid’s weapon went skittering across the floor, too, so that made them even. Tackling the guy hadn’t been his first plan, but with so many innocent civilians, they were having to get a lot more hands-on with this raid than they’d ever intended. Simply standing back and trying to deal with the hybrids from a distance wasn’t an option anymore.
Tanner roared as he took the hybrid to the floor, his long fangs extending so far they made his jaw hurt. The hybrid didn’t seem impressed and roared right back as he shoved Tanner away, then lunged at him with a mouth full of knife-sharp teeth. Tanner got an arm up under the creature’s jaw, barely keeping those teeth away from his neck. The thing was incredibly strong and vicious as hell.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tanner saw his friends locked in combat with the other hybrids. Even with Clayne’s and Angelo’s teams in the fray, it was nearly impossible to take them down. There were too many of the hybrids, and they were too hard to kill.
To his right, Sage jumped on one of Thorn’s men just as he was about to shoot Jaxson in the back. The man went down screaming in pain as Sage swiped at him with her claws. While she had to do it to save Jaxson, Tanner knew from experience she’d regret it later.
Tanner’s momentary focus on what the hell was going on around him almost got him killed as the hybrid he was fighting clamped razor-sharp teeth down on his arm. Tanner roared in rage, but instead of jerking his arm away and causing even more damage, he shoved it deeper into the man’s mouth as savagely as he could.
There was a crack as something in the hybrid’s neck snapped. He immediately released his hold on Tanner. Ignoring the blood and pain, Tanner spun away, scrambling for his weapon. Even though his head was tilted at a slight angle, the hybrid came at him again.
Tanner grabbed his carbine and squeezed the trigger the moment he got it pointed at the psycho. His rifle round hit the man square in the center of the forehead, putting the hybrid down for good.
“Go for a head shot!” he shouted into his radio mic. “It’s the only thing that will kill them.”
Tanner heard a feline yowl behind him, and he immediately spun around, expecting to see Sage in trouble. But it was Dreya. A hybrid had her pinned to the wall, his forearm shoved against her throat, trying to crush her windpipe. Tanner expected to see Braden coming to her rescue, but the cop-turned-DCO-agent was busy trying to keep two of Thorn’s men from killing Minka and didn’t even realize his partner was in danger.
Snarling, Tanner scrambled to his feet and charged across the gym toward Dreya and the hybrid, his control slipping a little more with every step.
* * *
Trevor was halfway down the hallway before his nose told him Alina wasn’t in the lab.
“Alina!” he called over the radio. “Where are you?”
No answer.
Shit.
Torn between tracking her and checking with Milan and Morgan to see if they knew where she was, he raced toward the sound of fighting coming from the room at the far end of the hall.
Milan crouched down behind Morgan, Boo in her arms, while the big shifter tried to protect them from the lone hybrid taking shots at them from the other side of the room. Morgan had been hit multiple times and was already bleeding badly.
Trevor lifted his weapon and shot the hybrid in the head like Tanner suggested. The hybrid looked stunned for a moment, then toppled to the floor.
Morgan collapsed a split second later.
Trevor leaped forward, catching the big shifter and easing him to the floor as carefully as he could. Boo left Milan’s arms, falling to her knees beside him. Long, dark curls framed her face as tears streamed down the little girl’s cheeks.
“You’re going to be okay, Uncle Morgan,” she said. “You have to be okay. You’re too big and strong to die. Please don’t die. Please!”
The anguish in Boo’s voice just about ripped Trevor’s guts out, and he prayed against all rational hope that somehow Morgan would be okay. Boo had been through enough already tonight.
Morgan chuckled weakly. Even though he was bleeding like crazy, he still had the energy to take Boo’s hand and give it a squeeze. “Don’t worry, Little Peanut. I’ll be okay. I’m just catching my breath. I’ll be up and about in no time.”
“Promise?” the little girl asked, her lips trembling.
