Page 160 of Glitched Fates & Stolen Mates

“Shift and die!” Rory snarled. “Your choice!”

He hauled Moira to her feet, wrenching her arms behind her back before her transformation could complete. Her partially shifted features snapped back to human with a sickening pop.

“I’ll… go get some silver chains,” Isla said, her voice thick with tears. “But we can’t kill her. She’s… still my ma.”

“We can’t kill her anyway,” Rory said cheerfully, maintaining his grip. “Seb will want to torture her properly.” He turned to me. “You need to get us out of here before the others venture out from the bunker.”

I grabbed my tablet with shaking hands, pulling up the facility schematics. “Would they really risk being eaten by Kit’s wolf army?”

I glanced at him, standing surrounded by his pack like some ancient wolf king. Several wolves still pressed close to his flanks, seeking comfort from their new alpha’s presence.

Rory laughed. “Probably not.”

Isla returned with silver chains, face streaked. She and Rory worked together to bind Moira, who shook with rage, lips pressed into a thin, furious line.

“There will be repercussions for this,” Moira hissed. “You can’t just take me. You can’t just take them!”

“Lead the way!” Rory shouted to me.

I started forward, Kit’s massive wolf form beside me, a hundred wolves following in perfect formation behind us. Our footsteps echoed through the corridors like a marching army.

“Wait!” Rory’s voice rang out behind us. “I almost forgot. We still need to burn the place down!”

37

Felix

Iburied my fingers deep into Kit’s thick fur, gripping tight as the massive shutters groaned open in front of us. Freezing mountain air rushed in, sharp and clean after the recycled facility air.

We’d done it. We’d actually bloody done it.

Kit’s powerful muscles bunched beneath me as he padded forward, leading our unlikely procession out into the snow. When he’d growled at me and used his snout to nudge me towards his back, I’d been unsure. Riding a massive wolf hadn’t exactly been covered in any of my computer science modules. My thighs ached from gripping his sides, and every powerful stride reminded me I was clinging to a creature that could tear a man apart. But riding Kit felt like trust made physical—his strength carrying me to safety, my hands buried in fur that smelled like home.

On one side, Rory dragged a silver-chained Moira, her face twisted with rage. Behind them, the two soldiers we’d shoved unconscious into cupboards shuffled along, hands bound behind their backs.

On the other side, Isla walked with downcast eyes, shoulders hunched against more than just the cold. Behind us, dozens and dozens of freed wolves followed in Kit’s wake, their breath creating small clouds in the frigid air.

The first few steps onto the mountainside felt like victory. Snowflakes landed on my nose and I couldn’t help but whoop, the sound echoing off the mountain walls.

BOOM!

The explosion ripped through the facility with a bone-rattling roar. Heat rushed out of the entrance behind us as the mountain seemed to swallow the building whole, concrete and steel collapsing in on itself with a grinding, thunderous crash.

“RUN!” Rory’s voice cracked across the mountainside, sharp with terror. “EVERYONE RUN, NOW!”

The wolves went absolutely mental. They scattered in all directions, some tumbling over each other in their desperation to get away from the collapsing facility. Bodies crashed together as panic took hold—wolves shifting mid-sprint, humans stumbling and falling face first into the snow only to scramble up again. The mountain groaned ominously above us.

Kit didn’t need the warning. His ears flattened as he bounded away from the entrance, carrying me down the slope in powerful leaps that jarred my spine. Behind us, I could hear the thunder of dozens of feet and paws as everyone fled.

“Felix, mate!” Rory shouted as he sprinted past us, still dragging Moira’s chain. The woman was stumbling to keep up, her face pale with something that might actually have been fear. “I thought we were going to wait until we were all at least a couple of hundred metres away?”

“Oops,” I said breathlessly, bouncing on Kit’s back as he leaped over a fallen log. “I guess I can’t be brilliant all the time.”

Truth was, my method had been a bit too effective. I’d used the existing HVAC system to turn off the sprinkler system and pump pure oxygen throughout the facility, then remotely triggered an electrical malfunction via my tablet. Overloaded lighting circuits, forced air conditioning units to short out, tripped electrical panels to arc. Any spark would ignite an oxygen-rich atmosphere.

“You’re going to blow this place up with air and a light switch?” Rory had said. “That’s the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard. I love it.”

What I hadn’t properly considered was that blowing up a facility carved into a bloody mountain might have some knock-on effects.