Chapter 6

Elara kicked the glass door open.

The alarm blared louder. Voric spun around, his eyes widening behind the gas mask. He raised his sidearm.

Elara didn't run at him. She ran at Kaelen.

She grabbed the Alpha by the back of his sweater. He was heavy, dead weight, but adrenaline gave her strength she didn't know she possessed.

"Move!" she screamed at him.

She dragged him across the concrete threshold and into the glass cell.

Voric fired. The bullet sparked off the concrete inches from her heel.

Elara heaved Kaelen inside and slammed the glass door shut. She jammed the wires back together, re-engaging the magnetic lock just as Voric reached the glass.

He hammered on the polycarbonate, muffled shouting coming from behind his mask.

Inside the cell, the air was clean.

Elara dropped to her knees beside Kaelen. He was convulsing.

"Breathe," she commanded, slapping his cheek. "Kaelen, breathe. The air is clean."

He gasped, sucking in a lungful of filtered air. The black veins in his neck began to recede. His wolf healing was already fighting the toxin.

He opened his eyes. "You... you opened the door."

"I did," Elara said, checking his pulse.

"You could have run," he rasped. "You could have left me to die."

"Inefficient," Elara said, though tears were streaming down her face. "You are the only one who knows the exit codes."

Kaelen reached up, his hand trembling, and cupped her face. "You stayed."

"I calculated the odds," she whispered. "A world without you seemed... statistically insignificant."

Outside, Voric was attaching an explosive charge to the glass.

"He’s going to breach the cell," Kaelen said, trying to sit up. "I can't fight him yet. The toxin..."

"We don't need to fight him," Elara said. Her eyes shifted to the ceiling of the cell, where the PA system speaker was mounted.

She looked at the console inside the cell. It had a microphone for the prisoner to communicate with the guards.

"Voric thinks he cut the comms," Elara said, a cold, dangerous smile touching her lips. "But he only cut the external transmission. The internal PA system is hardwired to the entire base."

She pressed the 'Broadcast' button.