Page 51 of Wolf Unleashed
“Keep moving,” Voss ordered. “She should have been inside by now.”
Just as Voss slapped his palm against the keypad, a string of four naked men, hands cuffed behind their backs, filed out of the van. The middle man stood tall, his eyes quickly taking in his surroundings. In a flash, dark wild eyes locked on her. She didn’t have a chance to say a word as Cooper dragged her inside and Voss pulled the door shut with an ominous clank.
Even as her heart sped up, Alyssa played back what she’d just seen. Rafe. And beside him, Tiernan. They were alive! Her joy quickly disappeared as reality struck. They werehere… at a WSSO research facility. Her father would experiment on them, and not with the care he was using with her. Just as Cooper had said, the shifters here were lab rats, and the WSSO had no qualms about sacrificing as many rats as they needed to achieve their goals of ridding the world of all shifters.
* * *
RAFE
“Walk,”one of the four guards ordered as another opened the door to the middle building. They walked single file, with the two shifters from Oklahoma at the front of the line.
“That was her,” Tiernan whispered behind Rafe.
“I know,” Rafe said, trying to focus on the guards’ positions and the layout inside the building. The guards shoved them into a freight elevator. As they descended, Rafe counted, trying to estimate how far down they were going. There were only two buttons on the panel for a bottom and top floor.
Tiernan released a deep breath. “She’s alive, Rafe. And we know which building she’s being kept in.”
“Because she spotted us and stalled.”
“You still haven’t told me what you and Gallagher discussed,” he whispered.
“Be thankful I let you come along. You should have stayed with your pack and finished healing.” He would have filled Tiernan in on the plan, but the shifter had caught up to him just as his wolf had been baited into a WSSO trap by the smell of blood. Tiernan had seen the trap, shifted, and tried to cut Rafe off before he fell into the pit that was too steep to exit without a ladder. It had been a simple but effective trap, and exactly where Gallagher said he’d find it. Rafe didn’t want to drag Tiernan in with him, but if he’d let Tiernan pull him free of the pit, then he wouldn’t be here now where his female was being held.
“I’m fully healed, and this is my pack.”
Tiernan had him there. “Did you ask Liam to release you from your oath to him?”
“I never swore an oath to him. No one has in my pack.”
His and Tiernan’s packs were more alike than he’d realized. Which was good, because if his plan didn’t work and he didn’t make it out alive, Tiernan would need to take Artemis back to Liam’s pack for protection.
“Stand there,” the guard directed, pointing to the wall. A chill ran through Rafe as he looked at the cells lining the underground structure. They stretched far back, hundreds of feet.
“You need to find a way to slip out of those cuffs,” Rafe whispered to Tiernan as the lead guard spoke with an older man in a white lab coat.
“Done,” Tiernan said, as he shoved a pair of cuffs into Rafe’s hands.
Rafe rolled his eyes. “So glad I found someone from the alpha line who can shift just his hands to slip out of cuffs. I didn’t mean this second.”
Tiernan took the cuffs back. “You’re very cranky today.”
“I wasn’t expecting an underground facility. It changes the plan.” He took a deep breath.
“We have a plan?”
“Yes,” Rafe said, playing out the options in his head. “Okay, new plan. I distract, you escape. Use those scout skills of yours to stay hidden until you reach Artemis.”
“And then?”
“Get her away from here and run. Keep her safe.” Rafe winced.
Tiernan and the other shifters turned their heads to him at the smell of blood. Rafe turned his back slightly, enough to place the tracker he’d dug out of his wrist into Tiernan’s palm. “Just keep her safe and hidden for twenty-four hours.” Rafe didn’t say more, not with how one of the other shifters was scowling at him.
“This isn’t a good plan. You won’t make it out,” Tiernan said as his hand clasped the device that was slightly bigger than a grain of rice.
“It doesn’t matter if I make it out as long as she does. I’m counting on you, Tiernan. Get our girl to safety.”
Chapter Fourteen
