“I’m going to go ahead and shut down for the day.”
“Are you okay?”
She had to pull her mask on tighter, smile brighter. “Yes, Mother. I don’t want my mate hollering at me for working too much. The last suit is coded, and I’ve got everything I need for the Alphas. Once they are put into development, they should be smooth going.”
“The machine nearly makes them itself,” Billie agreed. “I don’t even know how much I’m really helping you.”
“More than you know, Billie.” Fabiana pulled the woman close and hugged her. “Without your plan for the pattern, the machine wouldn’t be able to keep up. You worked with very little sleep to create one for every Alpha. I’ll just get things set up and we can continue tomorrow, deal?”
Billie watched her with searching eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m tired, and a bit afraid.” It wasn’t a lie. “The longer we don’t hear from Skuld, the more she has time to prepare. I want to do everything I can before the war is here.”
Billie rubbed her back. “Oh, love. I understand. Okay, I’ll clear out, but you better be out of here in an hour or I’ll drag you out myself.”
Fabiana lifted three fingers into the air. “Promise.”
Billie moved through the lab, passing on the information regarding shutting down the rest of the day. Her head nanotech was the only one who grumbled the most, and Fabiana wanted to throw something at him to hurry it along. She understood though. If it were any other day, people couldn’t pry her away from her beakers and microscope, but she just needed them all gone. STAT.
Billie took matters into her own hands, however, and grabbed the man by his ear before marching him out the door.
Fabiana laughed, hoping it only sounded brittle to her ear and Billie didn’t catch on. She waited a few minutes, doing exactly what she said she’d do in case anyone came back for anything. Ten minutes later, when she was sure she was alone, she let her pain free.
Tears coursed down her cheeks, and the wetness pissed her off. She should have known, should have guessed Adonis would want to use her technology for something else. It didn’t matter what he did, the way he touched her, or the way he made her feel. He’d lied to her and hid plans from her.
She balled her fists at her sides. This place that had brought her so much happiness before was a trap now. It was nothing but a glittering mass of shiny test tubes and expensive materials to propel his business instead of saving lives on the battlefield.
So be it.
He wouldn’t get anything else from her.
Fabiana locked down the machine that was fast at work, producing the suits based on the patterns she’d preloaded. They’d have to be coded by hand later, but she could do that from her lab with Pasquale. It would take longer, but it didn’t matter. She could replace individual signatures with her own, making all the other Alphas have the air-scent like hers.
She’d never meant to share that, but she’d have to make do. By coding them the same, she cut her time by more than half. Next, Fabiana removed the nano containers and carefully added them back into their carrying case before putting that in the outer shell of the production machine. Right now, she had everything she needed to finish the last few suits.
The rest could be destroyed.
Fabiana shifted into her wolf, letting the massive black animal come to life in the room. She stretched, her nails clicking on the ground before she took her first leap. Glass shattered, equipment fell to the floor, and she howled.
I’ll destroy it all.
She didn’t stop there. Barreling through clumsily, she tried to use her entire body to break everything as quickly as she could. As long as she had enough time for the suits to finish printing, she could pack them and the nanos and leave. She slid on a table, unable to find purchase, and slipped into a shelf full of glass apparatuses.
Ow!
Whimpering, she tried to get to her feet, but glass was stuck in two of her paws. She’d have to shift to get it out so she could heal, but the other glass around her would puncture her softer skin. She flicked her paws, blood dripping everywhere as she tried to dislodge the shards.
“Alpha mate, what have you done?”
She snarled at Raphael. Billie stood timidly beside him.
“Oh, Fabiana, I knew something was wrong.”
Raphael pressed the mic at his ear. “Adonis, get to the lab now. The Alpha mate is injured.”
Fabiana’s wolf snapped at him.
That was not part of the plan, but she couldn’t get to her feet.
