Savage Craving - Cecilia Lane Page 0,6

danger was too much. She needed another planet as her escape.

If she survived.

Smart. She had to be smart with a man who could break her like a toy. Desperate to live, to breathe, she shook her head.

Lilah yelped as Jasper hauled her to her feet. She stumbled away from him, only to bump into the guard. She whirled again, and more flashes of her past tried to catch up with her.

Back and forth, right and left. Just when they gave her an opening to run, another big, hairy body snapped her back into place.

“What’s the matter, girlie? You never seen a bear before?”

Lilah swallowed back the scream that threatened to claw its way out of her throat. Wordlessly, palms slick, she took the tote bag the guard shoved at her while Jasper armed himself with Cedric’s briefcase.

“Let’s go,” Jasper snarled.

Three others waited in the hall outside. Lilah wobbled away from Jasper and his murderous guard, a cry for help bursting on her tongue.

Her relief at a rescue died as soon as she spotted the pool of blood spreading from under a door behind them.

“Is it done?” Jasper asked.

“Our people are in place and waiting for the signal.”

“Good.” Jasper nodded. “I don’t want to spend a minute extra in this place.”

Lilah’s ears buzzed. The red puddle rolled closer to the back of one guard’s boots, then parted around his heel.

Movement on the edge of her vision couldn’t pull her attention from the slow spread. Her stomach twisted and turned. Bile soured her tongue. Cedric. Holy hell. Others, too.

Guards taking orders from the inmates, murder in the halls. What in the damn hell had she fallen into?

Booms rumbled in the distance and rocked through the facility. Lilah lifted wide eyes as her heart thundered in her chest.

Silence bled into one heartbeat, then another.

Roars billowed into the air from all sides, loud enough and from so many throats that she wanted to cover her ears with her hands and retreat into her fear. No one was coming to save her. There was no surviving an entire prison of shifters.

The overhead lights died as emergency red flashed up and down the hall. Sirens blared, but even that didn’t cover the roars of the animals attempting to break free.

“Ready?” someone asked.

At her captor’s tight nod, they prodded Lilah forward. Two guards took up positions in the front while the other two fell in behind, leaving her sandwiched in the middle with Jasper.

Left. Right. Left again. She quickly lost her way in the rabbit warren of halls and crossings. Wherever they were taking her, it was definitely not the way she’d entered the prison.

Two enormous bodies darted in front of them, drawing her up short. One of Jasper’s guard lunged ahead and swung the butt of his rifle against the back of one fighter. The other received a sharp kick.

“Keep moving,” Jasper ordered even before they were both subdued.

Lilah hurried forward, not wanting to test his patience.

A hint of smoke tickled her nose, then grew and grew. The howls and roars of other inmates, too, rose up louder than before. More bodies rushed through crossings, some clad in jumpsuits and others in the black riot gear of the guards.

A hand caught her upper arm and kept her moving forward the first time a massive wolf streaked in front of their group. The beast paused and lifted a lip in a snarl, but the matching noise from Jasper sent him scurrying on his way.

One final turn brought them into a large, smoke-filled cafeteria. Trash cans were engulfed with flames, with orange tongues flicking against the walls. Lilah covered her mouth and nose with her hand as the group strode straight through the kitchens, ignoring the appliances burning there, too.

Then, blessedly, she was shoved through a door and out into fresh air.

Lilah stumbled to a stop and blinked. No, the smoke hadn’t killed her brain. There was a giant hole where the perimeter wall had once stood.

They were hardly the first arrivals, but Jasper was expected. Her eyes widened when she recognized some of the faces. Ira Jacobson, a top recruiter for the Crowley Consortium and Jasper’s second. Roland Levine, alpha of his own pride and one of Jasper’s right-hand men. It was like staring at a meeting of the SEA’s Most Wanted.

On the other side of the rubble, an SUV waited with open doors.

“A human?” Roland sneered once they were clear of the walls.

“A necessity.” Jasper flicked his eyes over her. “She served her purpose. Get rid