‘He’s not right, Layla. His wolf isn’t right,’ Rebecca said. ‘You’d have to break the keypad to open the cage, and I don’t know if you can do that without opening both cages. Just leave me here and save yourself.’
As if.
Her bones cracked and felled her to her knees. The same pain she felt when she’d killed the witch at their gates rushed through her body but only for a moment. When she looked down at her hands, two huge paws were in their place.
She’d shifted.
She did what the Commander told her would kill her wolf.
‘No! We could have fought like that,’ she screamed.
‘The Commander has Hunters far more skilled than the ones you’ve just got rid of. I was always going to shift,’ Nia said as she faced the newly turned wolf.
Nia growled, low and deep, and the sound reverberated around the room. The new wolf whined and stepped back. Nia growled again, and the wolf rolled onto its stomach.
What the...
She laughed in her head as the Commander’s new weapon was defeated by his own nature.
‘Stay!’ Nia growled before she turned over to the keypad on the wall.
Breaking it wasn’t an issue. The electric circuit smoked and sizzled as it broke, and the bright overhead lights flickered. As both cage doors opened, she kept her gaze on the wolf, but he remained in place, unable to go against the command of his Alpha.
‘Let’s go. Can you shift?’ she asked her mother.
‘I’m too weak,’ Rebecca answered.
‘Stay behind me.’
The lights flickered again as they walked out of the room. The hounds had quietened down. She stopped to watch them, her head cocked to the side. They were sitting the same way the wolf was.
Could it be...
Had her command affected them, too? If they were created using wolf genes, then it was a possibility. They didn’t make a sound as she slowly walked past. They didn’t even make eye contact.
‘Most of them are still inside the base, Mum. Keep hidden.’
The lights flickered again. If she could find the generator and kill all the lights, both of them would be at a better advantage.
‘Don’t worry about me, mum. Stay alive.’
Her paws were bloody when she stepped out into the hallway. For the first time since her first shift, she got a true sense of her size. Her shoulders almost touched either side of the walls, andshe was sure that if the ceilings weren’t so high in the warehouse, she would have had to duck.
A pang of sadness filtered through the anger. She would have loved to see what Nia looked like.
The alarm blaring through the base suddenly cut off, and everything fell silent. No footsteps, no vehicles moving. It was as if they were playing a game.
Her head lowered to the ground as her senses picked up the slightest movements.
It seemed the hunters were hunting both her and her mate. She kept her step light and her head down as she turned into another hallway. It was empty, as the first hallway had been.
And then the scent of fear reached her nose.
She lifted her head and looked down the familiar hallway, dread filling her stomach even in her rage.
‘The warehouse. They’re in the warehouse!’
Chapter 57