15

BYRON

Maybe if the man who appeared with Maxim hadn't caused my mate to reek with shame, I could have controlled it.

Maybe if he hadn't stuck a needle in her neck and then purposefully moved out of the way as she fell, letting her head hit the floor with a hard thump, I would have been able to heel my wolf.

But the moment Maxim walked up, while my mate was on the floor, and drove his foot into her ribs, there was no stopping the beast from tearing through my flesh and pulling me inside out to throw himself against that glass.

It broke on the second launch, and even though Maxim was waiting with a tranquilizer, I had a plan of my own.

He must have thought I would come straight for him, so I managed to rip that little weasel of a scientist's arm clean the fuck off before Maxim tranquilized me.

"This was not the plan!" Umansky's hiss pulls me from the deep hole of unconsciousness.

It's heavier than other times, and my eyes are leaden as they blink open on the older man squaring up with his son beyond where I'm strapped to a table.

"Well, I made a new plan! And the synthesis is almost done."

Umansky sniffs. "That man can barely stand up."

"He's fine. We fixed him up. By the way, those trauma patches we designed work. You should put them to market."

"We don't put things to market without testing them first. That's how you stay in business."

"Well, Dad, it's tested, and it works. He says he'll be done by the end of the day."

Umansky glares at his son, then sniffs again and looks away. "Fine. But now we have to figure out what to do with them ."

He flings a hand in my direction and stalks out of the lab.

That's when I see Aida lying on a table to my right. Her head is turned away from me, but she's been stripped to her bra and panties.

My gaze focuses on her side and belly, which are mottled with purple bruises. Her neck, too, is discolored, and my eyes scan the size and shape of the print to determine immediately that it was Maxim.

"You awake, doggie?" A blow to my side drags my attention away from my mate to the man who is going to pay very soon for marking her.

"That's the last time you put your hands on her." My wolf growls out the warning, his teeth bared.

Max's mouth slowly shifts into a smile as he moves to the table where Aida lies. "Took me a while to figure out what made you shift before. Then I realized it was because I'd slapped your bitch around." He runs his fingers up Aida's legs, and I jerk against the restraints. Suddenly, his hand stops, and he raises his gaze to mine. "So, did you fuck her?"

My nostrils flare, but I keep my face impassive.

It's not that I care.

I'll shout to the heavens the number of ways I've fucked my mate, but this little piece of shit doesn't hold any cards.

He thinks he does, but that shit's about to get disabused very shortly.

He chuckles, his hands getting closer and closer to her upper thighs.

My body starts to shake with the shift.

"Yeah, I bet you did. Probably fucked her through the bars like the monkey you are." He stops at her pelvis, dancing close to her center.

She groans, her brow creasing as she starts to come around. Slowly, her eyes peel open, focusing on me.

I still, holding her gaze, and use all of my willpower not to shift.

"You're okay, baby." I nod my reassurance and lift my gaze to Maxim. "You have ten seconds to get your hands off my mate."

He snorts. "Yeah? And if I don't? What you gonna do, boy? Turn into your little dog? I'll put you down before you can sprout fur."

"Eight." My arms twitch, and I clench my fists, holding on as much as possible.

"Or maybe I'll finger fuck your bitch and make you watch."

"Five." My chest rises and falls heavily, but I keep my eyes on the man whose blood I'll soon know the taste of. "Three, Maxie poo."

Maxim smirks, his hand sliding over the front of Aida's panties.

And that's it.

I unclench my fist, letting the heat of the shift rush over me, just as the door behind Max bursts open, and a large, hunched body tears into the room in a flash of spotted fur.

Maxim swings, his hand going to his gun, but my wolf is already twisting and contorting its body to maneuver from my restraints.

I land on the floor in a scramble of paws, my gaze sharpening on Maxim as he fires off wild shots across the room. He's so intent on trying to hit whatever's come in that he doesn't see me coming until the last minute.

I latch onto his arm, clamping through to the bone immediately, my chest swelling with the sounds of his screams.

He trains the gun at my head, and I clamp down harder, hearing bone crunch as his mouth parts on a piercing wail.

I love it.

I shake my head back and forth, determined to dislodge the arm, even as he starts to beat me about the head and muzzle with the gun.

I don't even feel it. What I do feel is immense satisfaction at knowing I am going to maim him before disemboweling him while he still breathes.

Beyond the door, there's chaos—screams and gunshots, growls. The sounds get closer and closer until the door bursts open again. No less than seven guards file into the room and send a hail of bullets ricocheting off the space.

My mate.

My eyes shift to the table where Aida is struggling to get up.

Her head lolls to the side, and she starts to slide off the table.

A guard advances, aiming in our direction, and I fling Maxim away, my bloodlust forgotten. I dive, shifting midair to cover my mate and rolling us to the floor just as the guard starts shooting.

Bullets ping on the metal table where she just lay, and I huddle closer, using my body as a shield until suddenly there's a high-pitched hoot, and then the air rents with the men's screams.

It goes quiet at once, but I can hear the heavy pants of the beast on the other side of the room.

Slowly, I lift, my eyes scanning Aida to be sure she hasn't been hit.

She moans but doesn't open her eyes again, and when a footfall sounds behind me, I stand, turning to face the giant, muscular body prowling forward.

Its deep hazel eyes narrow the closer it gets. The high wither of its back is spiked with a thick, stiff mane.

I watch him, unmoving, and then, in a blink, a man stands where the animal was, his expression solemn.

"Byron." He nods his head, and I smile despite myself.

This dude never turns off.

"I'm glad you came, Kofi."

"It was you. Who else would I send?" It's a serious question because, as I've said, my man is never not serious, but I leave it and turn to where Aida still lies on the floor.

"I'll get her. Who's the team?"

"Ishaaq, Musa snuck in even though he thinks I didn't notice, and the twins are clearing the building. Most of the guards ran like bitches when we breached. They had a pad on the roof. Umansky got away, and so did some of the other scientists."

The mention of Umansky reminds me of the unfinished business I threw to the floor.

I swing around, that hunger for dismemberment making me salivate, only to find the tile bloody and clear where Max should have landed.

Training my hearing to the open door, his labored breaths and shuffled steps signal him fleeing down the hall.

My wolf and I have tasted his fear, and we want more.

Twice, Max harmed Aida. There's no way I am letting him get away.

Lifting her into my arms, I turn to one of the only men I genuinely trust. "This is my mate. You understand what it means when I say nothing should happen to her?"

"Of course." He lifts her from my grip, cradling her gently but with efficiency. "He's the one who did it?" He nods to the sound of Maxim's retreat.

"He is."

"Then he should die. Our van is half a click east of the entrance. You can follow your scent line there. That was smart, by the way, having her leave a trail. We'd been scouting the area but couldn't get a good lead." Without another word, he leaves, and the fact that I don't think twice about letting him go with my mate is a testament to my faith in him.

I follow the scent of blood and terror in the opposite direction until I arrive at another lab.

The frantic pitch of shouting comes from inside, and when I step in, I see Maxim snatching a syringe from the scientist they brought in to replace Aida. The scientist is pale, and the stump of the arm I ripped off is covered in military-grade trauma patches.

"I—it hasn't been tested. It might kill you."

"Shut up!" Maxim stabs the needle into his neck, depressing the plunger at the exact moment he notices me standing in the doorway.

His bloody grin is triumphant before it shifts to a grimace. He jerks, folding over. The bones in his back start to protrude and contort.

He screams and falls to his knees as a loud boom shakes the building.

"B, come on!" Musa is running toward me from the right, his bare chest covered in blood.

"Musa? I heard you snuck in."

He's relieved one of his victims of their pants, and they mold tightly around his enormous thighs.

"Blowing in sixty." He grabs my arm, yanking me away from the scene of Maxim's now grotesquely deformed figure. The scientist stands over him, his eyes widened in terror.

It's not the end Maxim deserves. He deserves so much worse, but I'm satisfied knowing that by the pitch of his screams, whatever he's done to himself is excruciating.

"Gotta go, boss."

I pivot and follow Musa down the hall at a run, glancing into the rooms we pass to see the scattered remains of those who worked here.

The team would have left no one alive, and if Aida hadn't ended up being who she is, she'd be among them.

My stomach rolls with the thought.

We clear the building and dart into the surrounding forest just as it explodes, collapsing in on itself in a heap of concrete and dust, sending a tremble rolling through the ground.

I follow Musa through the trees, but I don't need him. The distinct musk of my scent guides me to the van where Ishaaq is waiting at the open side door.

"Kofi's inside with your mate. He's scanning her now." He speaks to me but glares at Musa. "Not even going to ask, but we'll chat about you being here later."

I clap him on the shoulder as I climb past and into the spacious inside of the van. It's outfitted with a mobile trauma center, communications station, kitchen, and several compact sleeping pods. It's more of a small command center on wheels than a van, and it's the usual way the teams roll, always prepared and more technologically advanced than most human militaries have reached.

Kofi is in the back leaning over a table where he's placed Aida. As I approach, her head tilts, and she turns wide, frightened eyes on me.

"Byron."

"I've told her that we know you." Kofi disregards her fear and continues to pass the wand over the bruised part of her abdomen.

"Hold up a sec, chief. Let me see to her first."

He sighs and sets the wand aside before shifting to allow me to pass. "Ribs are bruised but not broken, same with the jaw. Her insides are fine as well." He pauses, narrowing his eyes. "Is there something wrong with your nose?"

I shift my gaze and shove him out of the way. "My nose is fine. Thanks for checking her."

"Hm. Well, thank you."

When I frown, he gestures to Aida.

"Most shifters wouldn't relinquish a mate in her condition, but you gave her to me." That's it. He moves to the front of the van, and I brace myself for the lurch as we pull off, bumping over the rocky terrain.

Turning, I place a steadying hand on Aida's thigh, my gut tensing with the memory of Maxim touching her there.

"Byron." Her head hangs to the side again, her gaze hazy. I inhale and realize that she's still pretty drugged up.

"I got you, baby." I take her hand and kiss her fingers before rubbing it over my beard.

Once she's well, I'm going to rub myself all over her.

"Z—Zo—"

"Shh. She's fine. Get some rest. I've got you."

Her eyes slide shut again as Ishaaq walks from the front of the bus.

"We had another team pick up the girl from a hotel where she was holed up. Your mate will have to call the woman who was watching her to confirm our story so no one gets suspicious. Although, from what we can tell, she and her daughter don't have anyone."

My eyes shoot to his, blazing bright with the insult.

He chuckles and backs away, throwing his hands up. "Come on. You know what I mean, on the other side of the veil. Over on this side, she's got clans across continents, doesn't she?"

I relax and nod, knowing it's just residual tension from all that's happened.

He smiles, moving back close.

Kofi's immovability and reliable sternness have made him a firm confidant and comrade. But Ishaaq is a friend.

More like a younger brother, but a friend no less.

Bumping my shoulder with his and nearly knocking me over in the process, he nudges his head at Aida's sleeping form. "Second chances, huh?"

I chuckle before focusing back on my mate. "It would seem so."