56. Chapter 56

Chapter 56

L ayla's rage boiled over. No longer hidden behind her panic and worry, a white-hot fury left everything else in embers. Her fists clenched again, but she wasn't trying to contain herself anymore.

‘Don't, Layla,' Rebecca said through their mindlink. ‘You don't know what it will do to you.'

Her mother rushed up to the glass and put her palms against it. She hadn't noticed it before, but there were bags under her mother's usually vibrant face, and the undeniable strength she always sensed from her mother was gone.

The Hunters did that.

They took a woman who once shielded a whole packhouse full of wolves, calmed them during the war and reduced her to just a shell of herself. A wolf rumoured to be stronger than anyone.

They took scouts, the bravest and most skilled fighters out of all the packs.

They took Gavin and Faith.

They took children.

She approached the glass that imprisoned her mother and placed her palm against it. Behind her, the mood shifted. The tension in the Hunters who'd kept her prisoner rose.

‘This is our only chance, Mum.'

"Step back from the cage and get down to your knees. Hands where I can see them," the man behind her growled.

‘Listen to him, Layla. I don't know what they've done to me; I can't help you,' Rebecca insisted.

Her mother's beautiful emerald eyes filled with tears, and her lips trembled.

‘I'm not afraid anymore, Mum. When you make it out, head back home. Take care of Hope and Britney.'

‘Layla!'

"I said down on your knees!"

The sound of an alarm blaring didn't surprise her. All around the base, the Hunters mobilised, preparing to go and hunt the love of her life. She sensed their eagerness, even if it was somewhat muted as if they really were robotic monsters who thought of nothing but the hunt.

Her vision sharpened. She knew without looking at her reflection in the glass that her eyes were glowing. Her face tightened, and her gums started to itch.

‘So we're doing this?' the beast inside her said.

It was strange. Sadness mixed with excitement and hunger for the Hunters' flesh.

‘I'm sorry. I didn't even get to know you,' she answered. ‘But I think this was our purpose all along.'

‘Then we shouldn't die in vain. Let's show them who we are,' the beast said.

The sound of weapons cocking behind her penetrated the fog in her head caused by the growing rage.

She took a step back from the glass and lowered her hand. Her mother fell to her knees, her tears now flowing freely.

‘Wait. Jax once asked me what your name is. I still don't know.'

Her jaw stretched. Her nails started to lengthen, and everything tightened in her body.

‘Nia.'

It was a beautiful name.

‘Thank you. It has a better ring to it than ‘It' or ‘Beast'.'

Despite their situation, a smile crossed her lips. And then it disappeared just as quickly when she remembered she would never get to know Nia. She should have trusted herself sooner.

‘You trust me now. That's all that matters.'

And that was the last thing in her head before Nia completely took over. Fury silenced everything except the heartbeats of her enemies. Her claws were still lengthening when she turned and swiped the giant Hunter with both hands, leaving bloody stripes across his chest.

The scent of his blood was a trigger. Something switched off in her head, and she lurched violently into a sea of darkness. There was no gentleness, no compassion. No mercy.

The giant Hunter staggered back and reached around him for a weapon. She was on him again, slashing his arm before she flung herself onto the Hunters behind him, aiming at her. She landed on a set of broad shoulders and immediately twisted the first Hunter's head. The second Hunter fell with his neck bleeding before he could pull the trigger. The third Hunter missed, but only just. She rolled out of the way and swiped his feet from under him.

She almost bit into his throat when someone lifted her from behind and flung her across the room. Her back hit against the cage that held the abomination the Commander created before she fell hard onto the floor. The monster in the cage slammed against it, his eyes still flickering as his teeth lengthened. The fucker was shifting. How was that even possible when she only just bit him?

"Seal the room!" the big Hunter shouted.

The last time they sealed the room, they gassed all the wolves in the warehouse. That wasn't going to happen again. She felt no pain from the impact as she followed the retreating Hunters and grabbed one by the back of his neck. She flung him out of the way, quickly closing the distance between her and the giant Hunter who'd injected her with whatever poison.

Not so giant anymore. They were a similar size. The Hunter looked back, and his eyes widened just before she speared him in his back and brought him down. Her hands were covered in fur when she straddled him and sunk her claws into his chest.

She wanted to savour the kill, to watch the light die in his eyes, but the main doors to the restricted area were sliding closed even as other Hunters made their way towards them. She was on her feet in seconds, shouldering Hunters out of her way until she reached the doors. She grabbed the heavy silver door with both hands and forced it back open. A whirring motor above it sparked and smoked, but the door still tried to close. Someone fired a shot behind her, hitting the wall instead.

She released the door and rolled out of the way to watch for the culprit. And then it occurred to her that all the guards watching her were gone. What remained were the doctors—the mad scientists who made the Commander's plan a reality.

They were not trained to kill her.

But she would kill them.

She reached the door before it closed again and, this time, bent the useless metal out of its panel so it couldn't close. If they wanted to gas the room, they wouldn't contain it.

She looked back into the room and listened. Her ears easily picked up where the remaining doctors hid. And the fear...

She closed her eyes and took a lungful before she lost herself completely to the darkness. Minutes. Only minutes to end the doctors who tortured her. By the time she walked back up the room, the Hunter hounds were barking out of control and crashing against their cages in their bid to escape and rip her apart. The glass didn't crack or give in any way.

Her mother was still on the floor when she returned to the cages at the end. And the Hunter beside her entirely shifted. His fur was an odd brown and red, and his eyes still flashed between blue and green. And he was snarling like the hounds in the other room.

‘He's not right, Layla. His wolf isn't right,' Rebecca said. ‘You'd have to break the keypad to open the cage, and I don't know if you can do that without opening both cages. Just leave me here and save yourself.'

As if.

Her bones cracked and felled her to her knees. The same pain she felt when she'd killed the witch at their gates rushed through her body but only for a moment. When she looked down at her hands, two huge paws were in their place.

She'd shifted.

She did what the Commander told her would kill her wolf.

‘No! We could have fought like that,' she screamed.

‘The Commander has Hunters far more skilled than the ones you've just got rid of. I was always going to shift,' Nia said as she faced the newly turned wolf.

Nia growled, low and deep, and the sound reverberated around the room. The new wolf whined and stepped back. Nia growled again, and the wolf rolled onto its stomach.

What the...

She laughed in her head as the Commander's new weapon was defeated by his own nature.

‘Stay!' Nia growled before she turned over to the keypad on the wall.

Breaking it wasn't an issue. The electric circuit smoked and sizzled as it broke, and the bright overhead lights flickered. As both cage doors opened, she kept her gaze on the wolf, but he remained in place, unable to go against the command of his Alpha.

‘Let's go. Can you shift?' she asked her mother.

‘I'm too weak,' Rebecca answered.

‘Stay behind me.'

The lights flickered again as they walked out of the room. The hounds had quietened down. She stopped to watch them, her head cocked to the side. They were sitting the same way the wolf was.

Could it be...

Had her command affected them, too? If they were created using wolf genes, then it was a possibility. They didn't make a sound as she slowly walked past. They didn't even make eye contact.

‘Most of them are still inside the base, Mum. Keep hidden.'

The lights flickered again. If she could find the generator and kill all the lights, both of them would be at a better advantage.

‘Don't worry about me, mum. Stay alive.'

Her paws were bloody when she stepped out into the hallway. For the first time since her first shift, she got a true sense of her size. Her shoulders almost touched either side of the walls, and she was sure that if the ceilings weren't so high in the warehouse, she would have had to duck.

A pang of sadness filtered through the anger. She would have loved to see what Nia looked like.

The alarm blaring through the base suddenly cut off, and everything fell silent. No footsteps, no vehicles moving. It was as if they were playing a game.

Her head lowered to the ground as her senses picked up the slightest movements.

It seemed the hunters were hunting both her and her mate. She kept her step light and her head down as she turned into another hallway. It was empty, as the first hallway had been.

And then the scent of fear reached her nose.

She lifted her head and looked down the familiar hallway, dread filling her stomach even in her rage.

‘The warehouse. They're in the warehouse!'