Page 25 of Despair

He didn’t know if they’d get stuck behind more sealed doors farther ahead, but even if they did, he didn’t expect anything to be able to stand between them and the smell of freedom. Not even steel.

But when he ran back to his cell, he noticed his neighbor was still there, clutching the terrified-looking female.

The smell of his fear rolled between the bars in waves.

351 spared him a single, pitying thought—clearly, he thought keeping his mate here was safer than risking her life out there among a hundred ferals and armed guards. Little did he realize the second Lillian and 351 were out of the compound, they’d be the new guinea pigs.

Lillian was dressed in a white lab coat, ill-fitting pants, and shoes that looked like they were too big for her when he returned to the cell. Next to her, the lab assistant had his arms wrapped around his body, now wearing nothing but boxers, socks, and a t-shirt.

“Got his wallet too,” she said, patting a pocket in the lab coat. “There’s enough cash to get us on the road.”

Pride swelled within him, and he rumbled his approval at her wits. But now wasn’t the time for praise. It was time to run.

“Come,” he told her as he unlocked the door again. “Hurry.”

The lab assistant looked like he wanted to follow, but a warning growl had him quickly stepping back into the cell again.

It was as much thanks as the beta would get for his help. He’d spent months assisting the doctors in tormenting 351—but he had made this escape possible, and for that, 351 put steel bars between the beta and any violent alphas who might get driven back here once the guards clocked on to what was happening.

351 reached a hand out, and his mate clasped it without hesitation. Her palm was small and cold against his, and he could feel the tremble in their bond from her nerves. But when he glanced down at her pretty face, she was all determination, eyes locked on the exit.

They ran through the lab and up the stairs, and were greeted with the distant sounds of snarling and fighting. A gun went off. The guards had arrived.

He kept her behind him as they ran down the hallway, holding tight to her hand. She tripped a few times in the too-big shoes, and he had to slow his pace to make sure she could keep up. Just when he considered throwing her over his shoulder to hurry things along, they passed through a shredded metal door—and entered into the fray.

The guards had guns, but the ferals were ferocious—and outnumbered them twenty to one.

351 kept close to the wall, ensuring Lillian stayed between it and his back as he edged around the fighting to the door the guards had entered through. He swiped the card against it just as the last guard was ripped in two, and quickly stepped aside as the horde of alphas tore through it.

Once again, he waited until they were all through, shattering glass and victorious roars indicating that the path outside was clear.

He led Lillian through the destruction of what had been the reception area, heart pounding as the first tendrils of cool night air hit his nostrils. It’d been so long since he’d felt a breeze against his skin that the sensation was startling.

“Come,” his mate urged from behind him, and only then did he realize he’d stopped at the threshold. “We’re not free yet.”

He stepped through, lifting her over the broken glass and into the fresh air.

That was when the sound of automatic gunfire filled the night.

351 snarled and ripped Lillian behind him again, following the sound to its source.

Guards swarmed from the outer rim of the compound, bathed in floodlights, many more than had been inside.Soldiers.

The ferals attacked them as viciously as they had the guards, but the automatic weapons tore into the alphas’ unprotected flesh and sent many to the ground in a spray of blood.

Thinking fast, 351 fell back against the building and pulled Lillian into the shadows. As fast as he could move her while remaining low to the ground, they half-crawled toward the tall fence looming against the night sky.

Miraculously, they made it through the spray of bullets without being hit. 351 didn’t waste time leaping up the fence, digging his toes into the mesh to push himself up to the barbed wire topping it. Finding the strength he needed in the pulsing fear from the bond anchored behind his ribs, he tore the barbed wire apart with his hands, gritting his teeth against the pain as the metal ripped into his flesh.

Again and again he tore at it, until there was enough of a clear path that they could make it through. Only then did he jump down, grabbing for his mate.

“Your hands!” she gasped, horrified at the bloody mess.

“No time,” he ground out, though he could see tendons sticking out of the wounds. But they couldn’t linger. Every second that passed was a chance for one of the soldiers to spot them. And if that happened…

He had to more or less push her up the fence, grinding his teeth against the pain in his hands. But together, they managed to get her over the fence, and relief that jolted through him when she landed on the other side went a long way to numb the agony.

She was out.

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