I smell the fear wafting off him, and despite everything going on, I savor it. It tastes delicious on my tongue, and if I had my way, I would hurt him the way he hurt Addison.
Instead, I approach him slowly, watching as realization dawns on him. The shifter is what he wanted to emulate, to hold captive and experiment on our fighting back.
“Please, no,” he begs, his voice shaking. He mutters that over and over again before I raise my paw and slash it out against him. My nails cut into his abdomen, leaving three large gashes. His clothes are ripped, and I see the blood seeping from the wounds in an instant.
He reaches his fingers down and touches them to his chest to see the blood for himself, as if he couldn’t believe it before. The look of terror in his eyes only grows as he realizes his entire life is over. Everything he’s built, everything he’s worked for has been for nothing because in a moment, he’s going to be dead. And if there is a hell, he’s going to meet the devil.
I rush forward, biting his arm and feeling the satisfaction in my limbs as he screams. I taste his blood, and it’s as vile as he is. But even through that, I enjoy this.
I toy with him, knocking him around and scratching him, making his face virtually unrecognizable by the time I’m done with him. He’s still alive when I sink my teeth into his throat and take a big bite, tossing him aside to leave him bleeding out on the ground.
I turn back around, and most of the other doctors are gone. I help a couple of others and lunge forward at a guard who tries to break through the room.
When we’re done here, we search the rest of the facility. We look in every door and corridor for guards and doctors trying to hide. We continue doing that until we run into Declan and Cole, who have both cleared their part of the facility. Within an hour, every person who worked at the facility is dead.
We shift back into our human forms to fix the electricity and look through the computer systems and download any relevant documents. We need to know everything we can about Axiom to determine whether there is another facility or more information available.
We don’t have time to look through it yet, so Nick and the rest of wave one copy everything on the hard drives while Declan and Cole run back to the cars to get the C4. They set it up at strategic points throughout the facility, ensuring nothing is left behind.
I head to the basement of the facility, where Declan had searched previously and discovered that a few new shifters were being held in cells.
I recognize where I am because of the descriptions Addison gave, and I know this is where she was being held. We free them all, thankful they’re not injured yet because they’ve only just arrived. They’re a little sedated and exhausted, not to mention terrified. We guide them back out of the facility toward the cars so we can take them home and get them fixed up before returning them to where they belong.
When everything is over, and all the hard drives are copied into our possession and destroyed, we all go to a safe distance and watch as Declan presses the button on the remote detonator, and the facility collapses.
We cheer. Knowing what was going on in there, this is a triumph. Not only are we avenging Addison and her family and everyone else who lost their life in that facility, but we are saving countless others from enduring the same.
Not long after, we drive home. We’re all buzzing with excitement from a successful win. In all of that, we didn’t lose anyone. We were strategic enough to annihilate everyone there. A few people have scrapes and cuts and were shot in non-fatal places, but we’re all used to battle scars.
The car pulls up outside, and before the engine turns off, Nora and Addison rush out of the house. Nora’s hand is on her belly, and as soon as she sees Cole, she nearly breaks down in tears.
Addison spots me getting out of the car and runs so fast toward me that she nearly knocks me over when she wraps her arms around me.
“I was so afraid I’d never see you again,” she whispers.
“I told you I’d come back.” I laugh, brushing her hair out of her face. She smiles up at me, raising an eyebrow to silently ask how it went. “It’s all gone now. It’s over.”
She smiles, and I see tears of happiness growing in her eyes before one spills over her cheek. I wipe it away and lean down to kiss her.
Kissing her feels lighter this time. I can feel the relief knowing the people who hurt her won’t ever hurt anyone else again, deep in her bones.
Addison wraps her arms around me and doesn’t let go. Now, she’ll never have to.
Epilogue
Addison
“What’sthe point of putting it in the piñata instead of just eating the candy?” I ask Tara as she grabs handfuls of candy and shoves them in a colorful donkey-shaped piñata.
“Because it’s fun to beat it with a stick,” Tara says with a devious smile, shoving another handful of candy inside.
I nod my head as I understand, but I don’t.
Jenny walks in carrying bags of groceries in her arms with Thane behind her. He’s holding a large, heavy-looking box with some sort of device inside.
“Car-ah-oak?” I ask, sounding out the unfamiliar word on the box.
“Karaoke,” Jenny corrects. Thane rolls his eyes and sets the box down on the table.
