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“I take it you two had some success?”
They both nodded as we ran for the cover of the woods.
“All clear,” I called over the radio. “Sit rep.”
“We’re all clear, prez and ready for the firework show,” Switzerland crowed. He was just a few paces ahead of us. I could hear his jubilant voice as he readied himself to detonate the C-4.
“Go ahead.”
“Fire in the hole,” he sang. I could hear the faint click of the trigger and then…
“Damn.” Hunter whistled in appreciation as, one by one, the silos went up in flames. “He wasn’t joking.” I laughed.
“I feel like the kid should get a new nickname.”
“Don’t you dare,” he called out from behind a bush. We all laughed as we reconvened at the rendezvous spot with the other men who’d been stationed as lookouts.
“Great job, guys,” I praised them. “This will set them back at least another month or two. Let’s head back to the bikes, and we’ll meet up at the compound to debrief.”
A chorus of agreement rose up.
“Watch your six,” Hunter warned. “It’s still suspicious that there weren’t any guards. Maybe they weren’t expecting opposition or maybe they—”
“Wolf!” Gunner shouted my name, alarmed as a large red ball of light lit up the sky. “Granny is in trouble.”
“On your bikes,” I ordered, my feet moving as fast as I could push them. “Let’s ride.”
Hold on, Granny. We’re coming.
CHAPTER NINE
“Let’s get everything locked up.”
Granny tossed me the keys to the front door. We usually went out the back because the stairs leading up to the apartment above the café were in the alley. I hated the vulnerability of the small space. It held barely any light, and my wolf would push beneath my skin whenever we went back there. It reminded me of Damien. Small, tight spaces were where he would trap me before taking what he believed was his.
The whole situation made me uneasy.
It was weird. My entire life, my wolf had been mostly subdued. A simple lingering in the back of my mind. But since coming to Haven, she’d become restless, hovering near the surface, trying to gain control. I couldn’t let that happen. Every shifter had the essence of their wolf within their mind. Their instincts were what drove us. Our abilities stemmed from them, but for most of us, the only outward appearance we had of being shifters was the ability to extend our claws. Some shifters were able to shift into full wolves, but they were rare.
At the compound, we called them elites. The upper echelon of our society. They believed that those who couldn’t fully shiftheld variant forms of human DNA. It made them weaker and therefore disposable. Shifters were tested when they turned ten, and their DNA catalogued. It would determine where they stood in our society once they transitioned into adults.
Shaking off my thoughts, I reached for the doorknob, key in hand.
Sour milk.
I stilled, my wolf screaming at me to run, but it was too late.
A scream wrenched itself painfully from my throat as my feet left the ground. I soared through the air, blown backward by the force of a sudden explosion. The door, a cherry oak with a stained-glass window, splintered. Glass shattered through the air, embedding itself in my skin.
I landed with a hard thud, the wind whooshing from my lungs.
“Rey!” Granny cried in alarm, her gray eyes glowing amber. She moved with the quickness of a shifter, kneeling at my side. Carefully, she brushed back the hair from my face, a worried frown marring her normally jovial features.
“We warned you, Lizzie,” a voice called through the dark, empty café. “Give us what we want, or we would take harsher actions.”
Granny growled, the sound emanating low in her chest. My pained breaths prevented me from moving, but my gaze drifted down to her hands, which were clenched at her sides. Both of her arms had shifted, claws bared.
What the fuck?
