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A deafening ringing punctured the air. With my shifter-heightened senses, the sound shook my brain. The lights flickered, then the room was plunged into complete darkness.
The hunters were caught unawares and muttered among themselves as they tried to work out what was happening. My shifter sight allowed me to see that all the cell doors were unlocked. The doors must’ve been connected to a system command.
Without wasting another second, I pounced on the nearest hunter and knocked him out before he could run from the room.Coward. I whirled around, pinned Kyle back to the bars, and hit him square in the chin with all the strength I could muster to stop him from reaching for the gun.
The other hunters were storming out of the room, preparing themselves for the incoming attack. I slammed my foot against the unconscious hunter’s head one more time to make sure he’d be out for a long while.
Audrey picked up the gun she’d dropped and handed it to me before running into Diana’s cell, picking her up, and tossing her over her shoulder fireman-style.
Holding Kyle in front of me, the barrel of the gun pressed to his temple, I led us out of the room. We moved quickly, utilizing all our senses to guide us through the building and out into the open. Once the sunlight hit our eyes, it took a second to take in where we were—in the center of a small compound with modern facilities. I did a three-sixty look. This place was in the middle of nowhere. Beyond the fence surrounding the buildings, a sagebrush-filled desert went on for miles and miles.
The dry desert heat assaulted me as I scanned the area and tried to figure out where Zander was.
We stayed to the side of the building. I kept my hand firmly planted over Kyle’s mouth so he didn’t alert anyone. Several hunters roamed the area, their weapons drawn. It made sense that there weren’t many hunters milling about the place—that would only draw attention to the site—but I’d expected to see more than a handful of them. It seemed the hunters thought they were infallible.
Their organization didn’t have the numbers I’d initially expected, at this site at least. Certainly not enough to equal the shifter population. I had to remember that so I could act accordingly.
“They’re escaping!” a loud voice bellowed across the way.
Every hunter in the vicinity stopped, stood tall, and aimed their weapons at us. Audrey, still carrying Diana, fell in behind me, but before one round was shot, a massive gray wolf the size of a horse plowed into them, tearing the hunters apart with his sharp teeth. Their screams overtook the airwaves as blood pooled at the wolf’s feet.
I’d never been so happy to see Clawson. I was seriously impressed that he’d managed to track us down and do all this in such a short amount of time.
Elation soared through me when Tori’s scent hit me. My mate was nearby. But that elation quickly vanished, and I clenched my jaw as blood rushed into my ears. How could she put herself in such danger? I’d die if anything happened to her. As relieved as I was that Clawson had come to our rescue, I was going to lay into him the first chance I got. How dare he endanger my mate?
Dragging Kyle along with me, I followed Tori’s scent. I needed her in my arms, needed to know she was okay. She was wounded, and I’d already almost lost her. This field trip of hers was too much excitement for someone who needed to heal.
Chapter35
Tori
I was thrilled, relieved, and a little surprised by how easy it was to break into the Colorado faction. Fortunately for our mission, I’d spent the last year of my old life training here, so I was familiar with the compound. Normally, pledges weren’t allowed to know exact locations in case they didn’t pass the training, but Kyle and I had been an exception because of our dad.
It’d been fortunate that Kyle had brought Ridge and the others here—it saved time searching for them on the other bases. It wasn’t hard to read between the lines and figure out where the compounds were located. I’d sought out most of them years ago during training, when I’d learned about the paranormals who existed unknown and unseen in the world, but who knew what changes my father had made in the four years I’d been gone? It was a relief to know Ridge and the others were somewhere I knew well. We wouldn’t have to lay waste to every camp until we found them.
But I’d have done it for Ridge. I’d do anything and everything to find him.
We’d parked well out of sight of the compound and hid the rental car in a brush. We were silent as we moved closer, using the small bushes and boulders for cover. Hunter factions had always relied on their magically enhanced firepower and strength that they honed with intense training, not so much on their numbers. However, I was still shocked to find that the compound had far fewer hunters stationed there than I’d expected.
They were currently detaining four shifters we knew, and possibly prisoners from other packs. With such valuable assets, I’d expected the place to be outfitted with many hunters and even additional patrols marching the outside perimeter. During my training, they’d been known to hire private defense contractors who knew nothing about paranormal creatures for the menial task of guard duty while people in the know were inside, doing what needed to be done. I saw none of that here.
Clawson and I had waited and observed for an hour before the patrolling hunters suddenly ran across the lot into a larger building in the middle of the property. There seemed to be a lot of commotion happening inside the largest windowless building. The hunters patrolling the fence even deserted their posts to assist, leaving it wide open for us to make our move and sneak in. We walked past the front gate unobserved and made it into the security room, where we got the drop on two hunters who hadn’t seen us coming. They’d been too enthralled with what was happening on the bank of monitors before them, leaving their backs unprotected—a dereliction of duty that my father would have punished severely.
Clawson snuck in on light feet. For a man of his size, he was pussycat-quiet. He punched the first guard so hard that he was out cold. Before the second guard even reacted, Clawson had him in a sleeper hold, and within seconds, the guard passed out. While I hacked into the security system, which was a little too easy, Clawson used the hunters’ own handcuffs to secure them and locked them in the closet.
Either I’d been trained exceptionally well, or these hunters had become lax in their security. I hated to admit it, but if we had to embark on another rescue mission in the future, it’d never be as easy as this—they'd regroup and retaliate. Hunters learned from their mistakes. They had to, because as much as it pained me to say, their mistakes caused lives. They spouted vitriol that shifters and vampires were nothing more than senseless beasts that needed to be eradicated, but I’d seen the truth now. They were the true monsters. I wanted the hunters to cease to exist.
“Are you getting anywhere?” Clawson asked as he hovered over my shoulder.
My fingers flew over the keys as I quickly read the code. “Almost there. This system is ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous, how?”
“Well, this is a highly secure facility with paranormal secrets that the majority of the world isn’t privy to, yet their system is vulnerable to hacking as long as someone knows what they’re doing and where they’re going. It’s flimsy.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you’re just good at this shit?”
Laughing, I said. “Yeah, I’m sure. And I am good. I know where I’m going, but I’m not a natural hacker. This is all from rudimentary training.”
