Page 48 of Marked For A Bite
"You think he's being held at the medical facility?" Zoe asked, leaning forward intently.
Maya nodded, sliding the blueprints toward them. "Kieran still has the building schematics from my rescue. But the thing is, these blueprints don't show anything that matches what I sensed there—stone walls and older construction that felt almost ancient."
Logan studied the blueprints with the focused intensity of a predator analyzing prey. Something about Maya's description triggered a memory from earlier that day, and he glanced at Zoe to see if she was thinking the same thing.
"What if there's a hidden level?" Zoe said suddenly, her curator's mind making connections that his tactical training had missed. "Just like in the underground bunker today. A super sublevel, way underground, that doesn't show up on the official blueprints."
Logan could have picked her up and spun her around the room. His brilliant, clever mate had just solved the mystery that had been nagging at him all afternoon.
"Of course," he said, admiration thick in his voice. "They'd use the same concealment principles we encountered today. Design something that's invisible to the unsuspecting eye."
The pieces were falling into place now, creating the foundation for what would undoubtedly be the most dangerous mission of his career. But as Logan looked around the table at the assembled faces—his Alpha, his mate, and their allies—he felt something he hadn't experienced in over fifteen years.
Hope.
TWENTY-ONE
ZOE
Zoe watched as Kieran began tracing his finger along the blueprints spread across the dining table with an intense expression on his face. The memory of his rescue mission to extract Maya three months ago seemed to replay behind his gaze as he spoke.
"The main entrance was heavily fortified," Kieran said, his voice taking on the clipped tone of a military briefing. "Broad atrium with those damn high windows in the southeast section—clinical white floors that echoed every footstep. Made stealth nearly impossible."
Malcolm leaned over his brother's shoulder, studying the architectural details. "The exterior is pure concrete brutalism. But the maintenance tunnel access point..." He tapped a section near the back of the facility. "Hidden grate with a locked latch, built right into the hillside behind the medical facility."
Twenty-five years,Zoe thought, her chest tightening as she imagined her father somewhere beneath all those layers of concrete and steel.He's been trapped down there for my entire life.
"Those maintenance tunnels were a nightmare," Kieran continued, his jaw clenching with remembered frustration."Damp and narrow as hell. We had to move single file, and every sound carried. The normal underground section is in the eastern wing, accessed through those tunnels."
Zoe was unconsciously gripping the edge of the table as Kieran described the heavy metal door that required a keycard, and the two guards who'd been stationed there like sentinels.
"Inside the underground level, everything reeked of antiseptic and fear," Kieran's voice dropped lower. "White corridors, tiled floors, and heavily armed guards at every checkpoint. The whole place felt like a laboratory designed to break someone's spirit."
And somewhere below even that hell, my father has been waiting.
Logan had been absorbing every detail with focused intensity, his green eyes tracking each point on the blueprints. Now he straightened, and Zoe could practically see the tactical wheels turning in his mind.
"I think I know where they'd put the entrance to the hidden super sublevel," Logan said, his voice carrying that authority that made everyone in the room immediately focus on him.
Zoe's pulse quickened as she watched him lean over the table, his finger hovering over a specific section of the blueprints.
"It would be in the most obvious place," he continued. "Just like how they hid the scroll right at Moon Hollow under the High Council's noses. The hidden door would be right here—" He tapped the floor space near the heavy metal door Kieran had described. "Right by the entrance to the regular underground level."
Malcolm's eyebrows shot up. "That's... actually brilliant in its simplicity."
"Nobody would think to look for a floor entrance right next to a guarded door," Logan said with satisfaction. "Plus, it explainswhy they stationed two guards at that particular chokepoint. They weren't just protecting the underground level—they were protecting access to something even deeper."
Zoe felt a surge of pride for her mate's tactical brilliance, even as anxiety knotted in her stomach. The plan was taking shape, but the reality of infiltrating such a heavily defended facility was becoming stark.
"We'll need the same basic approach as Maya's extraction," Kieran decided. "But with additional pack members in each strike team this time."
He began sketching on a separate piece of paper. "Alpha team goes in through the maintenance tunnels—that's our primary insertion point. Beta team creates a diversion at the main entrance to draw guards away from our target zone. Gamma team secures the escape route and provides medical support in the southeast section."
Logan nodded approvingly. "Good strategy, but they might anticipate our approach from last time. I suggest we stagger additional backup teams—Delta and Sigma units to come in after the initial deployment. And most importantly, every team uses extreme stealth protocols and silent signals only."
"Agreed." Kieran was already reaching for his phone. "I'll round up pack members now. We meet at the border between Silvercrest and Granite Ridge territories in two hours. That gives everyone time to gear up and coordinate."
Zoe's heart hammered as the reality of the mission crystallized. In just two hours, they would be heading into enemy territory to rescue her father. The man she'd never known, who'd sacrificed everything to protect her and her mother.
