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In time, they’d be nothing but a memory, replaced by new memories, days and nights spent with her one and only love. Their life would go forward and create a new day where she could lie in the sun and be content or lie under the stars and be free from their old pains.
“I love you, Niamh,” he breathed against her.
“I love you too, Olcan,” she replied.
“I don’t know what you’ve done to me. You’re all I can think about. I’ve never loved someone so much in my life,” he told her.
“I feel the same. I can’t imagine life without you.”
“But you have to, don’t you, Niamh? You broke us. You destroyed our future together, and why? To save yourself? I can’t help you anymore. You need to wake up, Niamh. You need to fight your way out of this,” he said, his voice growing fainter as he spoke
“What?” she asked, raising her head, but she found she was suddenly alone.
Olcan was gone, and so was his bedroom. Instead, she was back in the cell, a captive of Sorley’s hired goon, and someone was pulling her upward, hanging her as if she were a side of meat, preparing her for whatever horror was about to come. She sprang up from the floor, terrified before realizing it had still been a part of the dream.
Now, awake, she could hear voices outside the door bringing her fully back from the dream into her reality, back into the dank cell in which she found herself caged. Tears ran down her face as she considered what might befall her next. As she continued to shake off the remnants of the dream in which she’d managed to find some respite before it had turned to darkness, she became aware of the familiar clang of the door being unlocked.
Quickly, she checked the phone to make sure it was still secured in her bra and waited.CHAPTER TWENTYOlcan
“HERE. IT’S ABOUT A mile down that gravel road. An old animal control facility built for the most dangerous animals captured. There are nearly forty acres of habitats she could be in,” Niall said, referring to the note from Carter.
“Do her GPS coordinates not help narrow it down?” Olcan asked.
“No, not really. She could be anywhere on the property, but from what she’s told us, she’s in some sort of underground bunker reserved for the most violent of creatures. I’ve been reviewing blueprints of the facilities, and it looks like there is only once place like that. They used to keep large, rabid animals there for testing.”
“Large rabid animals?” Olcan asked.
“Bears,” Ronan replied.
“Bears don’t get rabies,” Olcan told him.
“It’s rare, but they do. I mean, not us, but regular bears. There was apparently an outbreak here in the fifties, and they used it as an opportunity to do experiments on them.”
“To cure them,” Olcan replied.
“No. To weaponize them.”
“What kind of facility was this?” Olcan asked.
“Military.”
“Fuck. So, how did these people get into it?”
“My guess? Mercenaries who had access to it for other reasons.”
Olcan’s knuckles grew white from the way he was gripping the wheel. Did these mercenaries know what Niamh was? Were they just there to procure her or did they have other plans? He wanted to floor the vehicle and get there faster, but he was afraid of sending them a warning if they knew he was coming. Instead, he pulled off to one side of the road where there was a small parking area long overgrown. He, Niall, and Ronan piled out of the car as the others pulled in behind them, everyone gathering in the center of the lot behind their vehicles.
“All right, we’re looking at some sort of underground military facility. I don’t know what we’ll be facing to get inside, but we need to be prepared for anything. My brothers and I will shift and go in as bears, along with half of you. I want the rest to go in as human, prepared to do whatever needs be done. Hopefully, she is right, and there are no more than two captors,” Olcan told them, stripping off his clothes and dropping them in a pile. The others followed suit, only the ones remaining human staying dressed and heading out ahead of them to scout.
As it turned out, the location wasn’t hard to find. The entire site was abandoned, so the unmarked white van outside a large round building was a dead giveaway. The men who had remained in human form eased up to the doors, pulling them open for the bears to enter. There was no resistance, as whoever had brought her there didn’t seem to think anyone would come for her other than the people who had hired them.
In fact, the only human they encountered was a thin wiry guy in glasses and a Grateful Dead t-shirt. He was quick to throw up his hands in defeat as the men and the bears approached.
