Page 100 of His Claim
Itburned,crawling under my skin, into my bones. My wolf stirred—and then faltered. I dropped to one knee. Around me, wolves screamed as the same thing hit them.
“Fuck!” Rowan shouted. “They’re using dampeners—can’t shift!”
Desperation clawed at me. Half our force was suddenly human, naked, vulnerable, unarmed.
“Hold formation!” Soren yelled, trying to keep the squads from scattering. “Focus on cover fire! Everyone, take your positions!”
Bullets tore through the air, cutting down both sides indiscriminately. I dragged myself behind a wall, chest heaving. My skin felt like it was on fire from the inside out, the wolf inside me thrashing against the chemical restraint.
I clenched my teeth, forcing my breath to stay steady. Somewhere above us, another explosion rocked the city, a jet of fire shooting upward from the northern sector somewhere near the lab district.
Mariah.
I grabbed Soren’s shoulder. “You hold the line here,” I said. “No matter what. I’ll take the north.”
“Varek—”
I pushed off the wall and sprinted through the smoke, past the wreckage and the dying, toward the fire blooming in the distance.
Every instinct told me she was there.
And if I didn’t reach her soon, I might be too late.
CHAPTER 26
Mariah
The world was silent.
I’d shifted back and was kneeling beside Elsie’s body, my hands still shaking, blood sticky on my palms. Her eyes stared at nothing, the wild grin still frozen on her face. The hallway around us was wrecked, glass glittered like frost while the walls were painted in smoke and blood. The sirens had stopped screaming, but the silence was worse.
She had done it. She had saved me, saved all of us, and it had destroyed her. My chest felt like it was being crushed under the weight of her sacrifice. I touched her face once, gently, like maybe that could make her move again, but her skin was already cooling beneath my fingers.
“You said no quiet exits,” I whispered, my voice shaking with sorrow. “Guess you got that right. You are a hero, my friend. We’ll never forget you.”
Tears burned down my cheeks, but there wasn’t time to grieve. I needed to move. The serum hadn’t been destroyed. Neither had the fertility drug.
Elsie hadn’t died for half a victory.
I stood, my legs trembling, and scanned the corridor. The guards she’d killed were scattered like broken dolls. One of them, roughly my size, lay face-down near the door. I pulled at his jacket with shaking hands, forcing my mind to stay focused.
The fabric was stiff with blood, but it would have to do. I stripped the jacket and pants from the corpse, my fingers clumsy, and dragged them on over my bare skin. The clothes hung loose, the smell of smoke and sweat clinging to them. I slung the guard’s rifle over my shoulder and found a half-full magazine of bullets in his pocket and tucked it into the belt. Lastly, I pulled off his boots and slipped them onto my feet.
When I caught my reflection in the shattered glass of a lab window, I barely recognized myself. There was soot streaking my face, blood on my neck, and my eyes were wild and hard. I looked like someone else.
I walked over to where the rage serum was housed. For a heartbeat, I hesitated, staring at the liquid that had twisted Elsie into such a monstrous and magnificent creature. Then I grabbed the nearest crate and slammed it against the cabinet, glass shattering like ice. The chemical hissed as it spilled, searing through the metal floor and filling the room with a harsh, acidic fog. I smashed every vial, one after another, until the nothing was left but shards and the smell of burnt ozone filled my lungs. Just as I was about to leave the room, I spotted an unused grenade that had rolled from one of the soldier’s hands nearby and grabbed it. I pulled the pin, tossed it behind me and ran.
As I sprinted away, the room exploded. I didn’t look back, but I could feel the heat from the fiery blaze on my back.
The lower corridors were a maze of reinforced steel and flickering lights. The deeper I went, the stronger the chemical smell became. When I reached the storage vaults, the air burned in my throat.
Rows of containment units lined the walls, each labeledProject: Genesis Fertility Enhancer.My pulse spiked.
The fertility drug. I had found it.
The glass cylinders glowed faintly pink from the liquid inside. I stepped closer and smashed the butt of my rifle into the nearest container. Glass shattered, the fluid hissing as it splattered across the floor.
I didn’t stop.
