Page 48 of The Alpha's Surrogate

They nocked again as they entered the cavern, moving quickly and quietly. The clock had started, and now they were in a race against discovery. It was only a matter of time before a guard change and someone discovered the bodies bleeding into the snow.

Fannar took a step back and allowed Callahan to run point. Callahan picked up Josie’s scent—it was stronger than perfume. He followed it cautiously, heading deeper into the cave as fast as he could go without breaking into a run.

A man and a woman stepped out of a room, distracted in their conversation. The woman looked up first and opened her mouth in alarm, but a quarrel punched through her skull, between her eyes, before she could make a sound. Her friend suffered the same fate.

Fannar looked into the room they had just come from, then nodded at Callahan. They picked up the bodies and dragged them into the corner of the room, then dumped them in a heap.

Callahan was shocked to find that he felt nothing in the way of remorse for the dead pair. They had brought this on themselves. Maybe not directly, but somewhere in this facility, Josie was being held. As far as he was concerned, they were all responsible.

He followed her scent to a rough staircase cut into the stone of the mountain and the lower he went, the stronger the scent. “Just down this hall,” he whispered to Fannar two levels down.

They nocked their crossbows again and Callahan crept forward on tiptoes, sniffing the air in front of him. Fannar followed closely, watching their backs. Doors lined the narrow, dimly lit corridor every dozen feet, but the room at the end of the corridor looked wider.

He could feel Josie’s aura pouring through the door and he had to hold himself together to stave off the excitement burning inside him. Fannar tapped his shoulder and lifted two fingers. Two people.

Callahan nodded and stood to the side of the door, two feet behind Fannar. Fannar nodded and twisted the handle hard, bursting into the room. Two startled men glanced up from a weathered couch, and a heartbeat later, two crossbow bolts were sticking out of their chests.

There was a door across from the narrow room and Fannar glanced at Callahan. He nodded and slowly, they reloaded their deadly weapons.

Callahan bared his teeth in sudden irritation. That smell. It was the same scent from the crash site. The same strange scent in Josie’s kitchen, two strong scents mingling together. These were the men who had taken Josie from him, the men he had come here to kill.

Callahan smashed his shoulder through the door and rushed into the room with his weapon raised. Fannar followed close behind, scanning for a target. The men in the room reacted faster than their counterparts, but not fast enough.

Callahan’s bolt ripped through the throat of one of the men, the man with a pale silver scar on his face. The second man ducked under a worktable, quicker than lightening, as a metallic bolt rang loudly against the stone wall behind him.

Callahan scanned the room and found Josie tied to a chair, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. Before he could move, there was a loud roar from behind the massive table that shook the walls of the mountain. Then a massive polar bear appeared, its teeth sharper than a hundred knives.

“Go!” Fannar shouted at Callahan. “I’ll hold him off. Get her out of here!” He shoved Callahan into motion and shifted just as the polar bear sprang forward, roaring angrily.

Callahan rushed to Josie, producing a blade from one of his boots as he went. There was a loud crash behind him as the massive beasts tussled behind him. They were going to bring the mountain down on all their heads.

Josie stared at him wordlessly as he slid to a stop in front of her. “Are you hurt?” he asked quickly, snapping his fingers in front of her. “I’m getting you out of here. I promise.”

All she did was nod quietly, her face still twisted in confusion. Callahan gripped the vine tying her and…it felt strange. He looked down at it and frowned. No time to ask questions. He ran the blade through the vine, even as the weird sensation spread through his body.

As soon as he cut Josie free, she sprang into his arms, tears in her eyes. “You came,” she whispered, sobbing. “I can’t believe you came.”

He was about to reply when he heard a shrill cry from behind him. He turned to see Fannar’s wolf bleeding on the floor. He turned to Josie. “Hide!” He spun around and shifted, dashing forward as the polar bear lifted bloody paws to finish off Fannar.

Callahan barreled into the massive bear, and together they careened into the wall. The bear smashed an elbow into Callahan’s shoulder, dislocating it and driving the air out of his lungs.

Callahan rolled with the blow, and followed up with a powerful blow of his own to the bear’s head, bouncing it off the mountain wall. He smashed another furry fist into the bear and was satisfied to see teeth crack and fall to the floor.

He gripped the bear’s neck, and then smashed his forehead against its face. Klaus fell backward, stunned and bleeding. He crashed into the worktable behind him and clawed at his bleeding face, stupefied.

Callahan turned to Fannar, who was struggling to pick himself up from the ground. Klaus had come inches from gutting him. He would heal, but he would suffer the pain for a long time.

Callahan turned back and walked slowly toward the prone bear. Klaus. He hated him. He had endangered his mate and his cub. He deserved the most painful death Callahan could think of, but there was no time. Even now, reinforcements could be on their way.

Still, he needed this beast to suffer. He lashed out with a savage kick that caught Klaus on the head, throwing him to the side. He went down on one knee and picked him up, regarding him slowly.

The bear was bleeding profusely now. He brought up his hand to rip out the throat from the bear, but it shifted and he thought he saw it smile, a cold, malicious, evil smile.

Fannar cried from behind him, but it was too late. Callahan saw something driving toward his neck, and he tried to raise an arm to parry it away, but his shoulder was still dislocated, and his arm dangled uselessly at his side.

The syringe entered his neck and he staggered backward as he felt everything go wrong at once inside him. Poison. Had the bear poisoned him? It felt different. He cried out, but his voice sounded shrill…human. He was shocked to see himself shifting. Shocked and afraid.

He looked up at the bear with eyes wide with fear, and the beast smiled at him, baring bloody, broken teeth. Callahan crashed into the floor as everything dimmed around him. What did that cursed bear stick me with?

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