Page 94 of His Claim
The first wolf to reach me swung his rifle like a club. I ducked under the blow and slammed into him, my weight driving him to the floor. His bones crunched under my jaws. Blood sprayed hot across my muzzle.
“Mariah, on your left!” Elsie shouted, firing over my shoulder. A wolf dropped mid-charge, his chest exploding in red mist. She pivoted, her braid snapping behind her, and fired again, then dove for cover behind a metal console.
The lab was chaos, all flashing lights and screaming sirens as the alarms went off. Wolves poured through the side doors, shouting orders, their voices drowned by the roar of gunfire and the sound of my growls.
I tore through another, my claws ripping into his back. He howled and twisted, mid-shift, his teeth sinking into my shoulder. Pain flared white-hot. I ripped free and slammed him into the nearest wall hard enough to crack the plaster.
Elsie ducked under a spray of bullets, reloading on instinct. “You doing alright, sweetheart?” she yelled, firing again without looking.
I snarled in response, blood dripping from my muzzle.
“I’ll take that as a yes!” she shouted, rolling behind another overturned table.
The wolves were organized. For every one we dropped, two more seemed to take their place.
A rifle cracked close enough that I felt the wind of the bullet brush past my fur. I pivoted, claws scraping sparks off the tile, and lunged at the shooter. He barely had time to fire again before my weight hit him full force. We went down together, his scream lost in the chaos.
Elsie took a glancing blow to the shoulder from a stray bullet, spun with it, and shot the attacker square in the face. She staggered, clutching her arm. Blood soaked through her sleeve. “I’m fine!” she yelled, voice hoarse. “Totally fine! Not dying yet!”
Her sarcasm was as ragged as the torn edge of her jacket. I wanted to go to her, but another wave of wolves came in through the far door to join the few left from the first wave.
Elsie swore under her breath. “Ah, hell. This just got even more interesting.”
She dove for a cabinet marked biohazard and pulled out a canister. She threw it toward the enforcers and fired at it. The explosion rattled the walls, spraying glass and fire. The wolves screamed, their fur igniting as they fell.
But there were still more.
Dozens of them.
We were boxed in now with nowhere left to run. Smoke filled the room, acrid and choking. My lungs burned. My claws slipped in blood. The alarms howled and emergency lights flashed.
Elsie dropped behind an overturned table next to me, slamming a new clip into her rifle with shaking hands. Her breathing was ragged, her face streaked with soot and blood.
“Alright, miss wolf,” she said between breaths. “Any bright ideas?”
I crouched low, ears flat, growling deep in my chest as more shadows filled the doorway.
She laughed and it was a wild, breathless sound that didn’t match the despair in her eyes. “Yeah. Me neither.”
The wolves advanced, their steps in perfect rhythm.
There were too many.
Elsie’s hand brushed my paw, a small, defiant gesture of camaraderie in the chaos. “Looks like this is it,” she said quietly. “Not the worst way to go. At least we made them bleed.”
I bared my teeth, growling low in my throat.
Her smile was tired, but she still found time to wink at me. “Go out fighting, little wolf.”
The next second, the wolves charged.
Bullets, claws, and fire filled the air. The room erupted into violence so intense it drowned out fear. Something exploded and the sound of flames licked through the air.
As I threw myself at the first of them, every thought vanished except one: if this was the end, I would make damn sure they remembered us.
The room was an inferno of sound and motion. Gunfire tore through glass, shards raining down. Smoke rolled across theceiling, turning the lab into a blur of red lights and shadows. The wolves came in waves. They shifted mid-charge, their bodies snapping and stretching into monstrous forms. I met the first one head-on, claws locking with claws, the impact driving us both into a wall.
I felt the crunch of bone under my jaws, the heat of blood spilling down my fur. Another wolf came from the left, slamming me into a steel table. I twisted, raking my claws across his throat. The howl that followed shook the air.
