I open my mouth to say something—I don’t know what. There’s no combination of words in any language that would work right now—and then I hear it.
A howl.
Distant. Carried on the air through vents and concrete and whatever else stands between this cell and the outside world. But unmistakable. I’d know that howl in my sleep. In my grave.
Cole.
Another one joins it. Lower, rougher, carrying a fury that vibrates in my bones.
Zeke.
They’re here. They found us. And from the sound of it, they didn’t come alone.
Something sparks in my chest. Not the drug this time. Something older, deeper. The connection to my pack, the threadthat ties me to my brothers and my pack regardless of collars or walls. It’s been muted since they put this thing around my neck, dampened, like hearing music through water.
But the howls cut through all of it, and suddenly I can feel them. Not clearly, the way I would if I could shift, but enough to know they’re close. Enough to know they’re coming in hard and they’re coming in angry.
I look down at the collar. This thing, this band of metal and circuitry that’s kept my wolf locked behind a wall all this time. I’ve pulled at it, clawed at it, tried to work my fingers under the edge until my skin tore. It held every time.
But I wasn’t angry enough before. Not like this. Not with my brothers’ howls in my ears and the marks of my own hands on my mate’s body and the memory of Moore’s calm voice telling me he’d check back in a few hours.
I wrap both hands around the collar and pull.
Pain. Immediate, blinding, electric. The collar fights back, sending voltage through my palms, up my arms, into my jaw. My teeth clamp together so hard I think they might crack. My vision goes white. The smell of burning skin fills the cell.
I don’t stop. I pull harder. I think about my dad, who died protecting someone who needed him. I think about my mom, who couldn’t live without her mate. I think about Tara in a cell somewhere in this building with a collar of her own and men who hurt her because her brother didn’t cooperate fast enough.
I think about Iris. What Moore did to her. What Moore made me do to her. What Moore has planned.
The collar snaps.
There’s a crack of metal and shattering circuitry that echoes off the concrete walls. The pieces fall away from my throat and hit the floor, smoking, and my wolf surges forward like a dam breaking. He floods through me, filling every space the collarhad kept empty. The relief is so intense my knees damn near give out.
“Iris.” I’m already moving, crouching beside her. “Listen to me. When it starts, I need you to stay hidden. Back corner, behind the gurney, don’t come out until I come for you. Okay?”
She stares at the broken collar on the floor, then at me. I feel her fear spike, but underneath it, there’s something fierce.
“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” I tell her. “I promise.”
Then I shift. A flash of heat, the crack of bone, and then I’m on four legs and the world opens up the way it always does with scent and sound and instinct snapping into focus. The cell smells like chemicals and fear, and blood. Beyond the door, the corridor smells like more of the same… plus the bite of gunpowder.
The lights go out.
Everything plunges into darkness. Emergency power kicks on somewhere—I hear generators chugging—but this section stays black. My eyes adjust instantly. With all his years of research, Moore should’ve remembered wolves can see in the dark.
If he’s the one who cut the power and not my family.
The cell door is steel, reinforced, and locked with the deadbolt system I’ve been listening to for days. I know its sounds. I know its weaknesses. In human form, it was unbreakable. For a wolf running on rage, it’s just a door.
I hit it at full speed. The hinges buckle on the first impact. I back up and hit it again, and the whole frame tears out of the concrete wall in a shower of dust and broken bolts.
The corridor is dark and chaotic. Alarms are screaming. Red emergency lights strobe at the far end, turning everything into a nightmare of flashing shadows. People are running—techs, orderlies, guards. Some of them see me. They don’t run fast enough.
I don’t think about it. I can’t afford to think about it. The first guard rounds the corner with his dart rifle raised, and I take him at the throat before he can fire. The second one gets off a shot that goes wide, punching into the wall above my head, and I’m on him before he can chamber another round. He screams until he doesn’t.
Cole.I push through the pack bond, reaching for my brother.Lower level. East corridor. Iris is in a cell behind me. Tara’s somewhere on this floor.
The response comes back. Not words, but impressions. Cole and Zeke are inside the building. Upper level. Fighting. Kyran’s bears are at the perimeter, taking the fence line. The facility’s security is crumbling. They hit hard and they hit fast, and Moore’s people weren’t ready for a full-scale assault.
