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“They are monsters, Aria. You would do well to remember that. They are not human, they are lesser beings that are no better than animals.”
“We don’t do this to animals,” I spit, and he arches a brow at me.
“Don’t we?” He turns away, pulling me along. The sick, vile acts taking place in the labs make my heart ache for another reason. I know we weren’t all good, but this is beyond my wildest imagination. If this is what they are doing when they have been cut off from the monsters for so long, then what did they do to them when they had full access?
No wonder the monsters hate us so much.
No wonder the haze was triggered and they killed so many.
Right now, I understand it. If I could, I would turn on the humans myself. Death for death isn’t the answer, but right now, you bet it fucking is. They call them monsters, but the truth is, they are.
They perverted nature and are trying to play god, and they don’t care who or what gets hurt in the process. Akuji was right—I don’t belong here amongst these…these criminals. I belong over the wall, in our nest, hunting and laughing with him.
I belong with the monsters.
Too bad it took seeing this to make me realise it. Let’s just hope I’m not too late to fix this so I can live where I always belonged—over the wall with them. The only person to ever care about me, protect me, and cherish me is Akuji, and his tribe are the only people to ever welcome and trust me.
I owe my own species no loyalty, not anymore. They don’t care about me, but the monsters did. I owe them my loyalty, and I will prove it here. I will save them all, not just Talia, and I will let the world know how the war started so long ago. I will show everyone the greed of the humans they look up to.
Past the rows of labs, which I know will haunt me for the rest of my life, there are sharp left and right hallways. We go right, and the walls fade to an unpainted grey concrete. This corridor feels narrower and darker.
At the end is a true cell door made of shiny, brand-new metal with a small slat at the top. Once we reach it, the scientist looks into a camera above the door. “Open it,” he commands, and then there’s a moment of silence before a loud buzz sounds that makes me jump.
My heart leaps into my throat as it swings open, and he steps aside with a mocking grin. “After you, Aria.”
Giving him another look, I step into the darkened room beyond, the hair on the back of my neck rising. There’s no noise, just the stale air circulating around me. Once I stop in the blackness, I feel the scientist step in behind me, and then the door shuts. I whirl to confront him, but then there is a noise, so I spin around, staggering at what I see.
My heart rejoices, even as it breaks further.
There, beyond a partition that was removed to emit his roars, is my mate. He’s chained down to a table, his chest is a mess of healing wounds and blood, and his eyes are completely red. Scientists stand next to him with tables of equipment covered in blood. He spots me and goes crazy, arching from the table as he roars and scrapes his claws along the metal.
“Calm him,” the man behind me orders, and with a grim smile, one of the scientists grabs a long metal stick and stabs it into Akuji’s wound. The resounding buzz and jerk of his body spurs me into action. I dash forward to help him.
“Akuji!” I scream.
* * *
AKUJI
“Aria!” I try to shout, but in the haze, it just comes out as an agony-filled, possessive roar. She races forward, running to me, and my heart starts to pound, despite where we are and the pain I’m in. I cannot stop the joy that washes through me at seeing my mate again.
When I had woken up alone and chained, I feared the worst, and it sent me into the haze. The fear I felt for my mate made me unstable, and I ripped open my own wound again and again as I tried to hunt for her, but I didn’t care. I would rip every inch of me apart to be at her side.
She’s here.
Tears fall down her face as she screams at the scientist who pronged me with the contraption that makes my entire body light up like a wildfire. She grabs it from him and stabs it into his chest over and over as he screams and crumples to the floor.
“Aria!” I roar in warning, fighting my restraints to get to her as the other man rushes around my body and grabs her. He throws her into the wall and away from the other human. She smacks into the wall with a thud that makes my stomach roll, and the red haze only gets deeper until I’m fighting to stay with her and not kill every human in this godforsaken city for even daring to look at her, never mind touching her.
The door buzzes, and more guards stream in as she wipes blood from her nose with the back of her hand. With a roar worthy of a monster, Aria launches herself at the one who threw her, tackling him to the floor and smashing his head into the ground, before leaping to her feet. “He’s mine.”
My heart freezes for a moment before I roar for a whole other reason. She chose me! Her mate! The roar that comes out is enough to send the other humans to the floor with their hands over their ears.
My mate.
My Aria!
She stands before me, ready to fight her own people, but the man who came in with her holds up a button, and she tilts her head. “One more move, and he dies. This is linked to the table he is lying on, and it will fry him in seconds. A fail-safe, you see.”
