Page 50 of Marked For A Bite
The pure conviction in his voice steadied something deep within her.He believes in me. My mate believes I can do this.
Twenty minutes later, they moved through the darkening forest toward the Granite Ridge medical facility like a pack of hunting wolves. Zoe could smell the industrial concrete and antiseptic even before the brutal building came into view.
Logan raised his fist, signaling the Alpha team to halt at the edge of the tree line. The maintenance grate lay fifty yards ahead, built into the hillside exactly as Malcolm had described.
"Remember," Logan whispered, "stealth is everything. We're ghosts until we reach the hidden door."
Within minutes, he made quick work of the locked latch with tools that appeared in his hands like magic. After he pulled the grate off without making a sound, he turned to the Alpha team and mouthed a countdown.
This is it,Zoe thought as Logan disappeared into the narrow tunnel first.Dad, this time I'm the one who's doing the protecting.
TWENTY-TWO
LOGAN
Logan descended first into the maintenance tunnel through the access point carved into the hillside behind the medical facility. The damp concrete walls pressed in around his heavily armed frame as he moved forward in a tactical crouch, every sense heightened for potential threats.
He counted mentally to thirty, then heard the soft whisper of Zoe dropping into the tunnel behind him. Her breathing was controlled despite what he knew had to be racing adrenaline.Good girl. She's remembering her training.
The tunnel stretched ahead exactly as Kieran had described—narrow, damp, and forcing them into single file formation. Logan's photographic memory overlaid the facility blueprints onto his mental map as they progressed through the oppressive darkness.
Five minutes to the heavy metal door,he calculated, adjusting his father's hunting knife where it rested across his lower back. The familiar weight of twin Glocks in his shoulder holsters provided additional reassurance.
Behind him, he could hear the rest of the Alpha team descending at precisely timed intervals—Lena's light footsteps,then the heavier treads of their five pack member backup. Each movement was controlled and professional.
This is going too smoothly,Logan's tactical mind warned as they approached the final corner before their target destination.Granite Ridge isn't known for sloppy security.
He raised his hand, signaling the team to halt. Zoe pressed closer behind him, her warm presence settling his wolf despite the dangerous circumstances. Logan turned and caught her eyes in the dim light, then pointed at himself and held up two fingers—he would handle the guards alone.
Her jaw tightened with obvious reluctance to let him take the risk, but she nodded understanding.
Logan rounded the corner with lethal silence, immediately spotting the two massive Granite Ridge guards stationed at the heavy metal door exactly where intelligence had predicted. Both shifters were armed with military-grade weapons, but their relaxed postures suggested routine guard duty that met little resistance.
Arrogant bastards.
Logan moved like death incarnate through the shadows. His father's hunting knife slid from its sheath with practiced silence as he approached the first guard from behind. The blade found the precise spot between vertebrae that caused instant paralysis before death—a technique drilled into him during his most brutal enforcer training.
The second guard barely had time to register his partner's collapse before Logan's knife found his throat. Both bodies lay crumpled on the ground within seconds of Logan's attack.
Still too easy,Logan's instincts screamed as he signaled the all-clear to his team.
He dropped to his knees beside the heavy metal door, running his hands across the concrete floor in search of thehidden access point his tactical analysis had predicted. His fingers found nothing but solid stone.
What the hell? I'm never wrong about these assessments.
"Logan." Zoe's whisper was barely audible as she approached the wall to his left. Her keen eyes—sharper than his own, he was beginning to realize—had spotted something he'd missed entirely.
She pressed her palm against what looked like an innocuous scuff mark on the concrete wall. Suddenly, ancient mechanisms groaned to life and the floor beside the metal door impossibly split open to reveal a ladder descending into absolute darkness.
Brilliant,Logan thought, pride for his mate warming his chest despite the danger.She sees things I miss. And I usually never miss anything. How is that even possible?
He caught her eyes and held up one finger, then pointed down—he would descend first, followed by ten-second intervals for the rest of the team.
Logan swung onto the ladder and began his descent into what felt like the bowels of hell itself. The temperature dropped dramatically with each rung, and the air grew thick with scents that made his wolf snarl with instinctive revulsion.
Fear. Old fear that's soaked into these stones for decades.
But underneath that, something darker. Something twisted and unnatural that spoke of experiments and suffering that went far beyond simple imprisonment.
