Page 58 of Bound to the Guard

Please let this work.

The minutes drag by, and then the soldier drops from the shaft, right into the middle of the storage room, catching the men inside off guard. The soldier shoots them before they can react, then moves to the computer, his fingers flying over the keys.

“I’m in.” He pops a memory stick into the computer. “Files downloading now. Appears to be details on the backers. Names, locations, test subjects, everything.”

My heart skips a beat, my mind racing with the possibilities. With this information, we can tear down everyone who had a hand in these experiments.

My knees weaken with relief, and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. They did it. We did it.

But the fight isn’t over yet. Gunfire and the shouts of the soldiers still come from other monitors. Damien is still in danger.

I scan the videos, searching for the one with his body cam. When I locate it, the feed shows him moving down a corridor, his weapon at the ready, his team flanking him on either side.

“Damien.” Tension stiffens Milo’s back. “You’ve got incoming.”

More guards are pouring into the corridor, their weapons drawn.

Damien and his team are outnumbered and out-gunned, but they meet the guards head-on, their weapons blazing. Damien takes down one, then another, his movements swift and deadly.

In the feed from someone else’s body cams, I spot a guard sneaking up behind Damien, his weapon aimed at my Alpha’s back.

“Damien!” I shout, forgetting for a moment that he can’t hear me. “Behind you!”

Too late, the guard fires, and Damien jerks, his body cam showing dizzying images of the walls and floor as his body falls to the ground.

And then everything goes dark.

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“No!” My heart shatters into a million pieces as I stare at the dark screen of Damien’s chest cam. “No, no, no.”

More shots sound, and then the room falls silent, the only sound the static crackling over the coms.

Then a voice cuts through the silence.

“Fucking hell, that hurt,” Damien groans. “The vest took the shot. I’m fine.”

Relief crashes over me, so intense I shake with it.

He’s alive. Hurt, but alive.

His video feed comes back into focus as he sits up, and one of his men comes forward to help him to his feet. After only a few heartbeats to recover, Damien turns and leads his men into the room the guards had been protecting.

My breath catches in my throat as the camera pans across the room, revealing the true extent of the horrors inflicted in that place.

Cages line the walls, the metal stained with rust and blood. Restraints hang from the ceiling, the leather straps frayed and worn. And everywhere are vials, hundreds of them, filledwith unknown substances, their contents glinting in the harsh fluorescent light.

Nausea curdles in my stomach as memories of my time in this place come rushing back. The pain, the fear, and the helplessness threaten to drown me.

Like a nightmare come to life, a new figure appears on the screen, a man I recognize all too well. The Doctor.

He holds a scalpel in his hand, swinging wildly as Damien advances on him. Old hatred and fear rise within me as I remember the way he looked at me, like I was nothing more than a lab rat. The way he smiled as he cut into my skin, as he pumped me full of drugs and ignored my screams.

Now, seeing him trapped and powerless fills me with a twisted sense of satisfaction. Fear mixes with those feelings, too. Because even now, even with Damien there, I can’t shake the memory of the Doctor’s hands on me, the sound of his voice in my ear.

Damien disarms and takes him down, pinning him to the ground with a knee on his back. Part of me wishes for him to end it, right then and there. Put a bullet in the Doctor’s head and be done with it.

But that’s not the plan. Damien promised to bring the Doctor back alive so I could face him one last time before he died.

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