made quick work of the dead guard’s clothes, though while I dressed my stomach roiled. Doherty’s remains surged up my throat and I heaved, spewing them from me. I had to pause dressing to vomit twice more. Damn, he was nasty, though I didn’t want to think too much about the monster that had relished eating his remains.
The clothes and bullet proof armour were tight and the boots too small, but I gritted my teeth and forced my body into them. In the dark and chaos of the attack, no one would notice.
Outside the window, an attack drone hovered, laser bright light exploding from it in short bursts, taking down more of the prison guards who retaliated until bullets ricocheted off the walls.
I spat the vile taste of Doherty from my mouth and grabbed Ember from Zander’s arms, hating that his scent permeated her clothing. Unable to look at her waxen features, I watched the battle unfolding below the window.
Zander stripped and donned the uniform of the other guard. The grimace he gave as he shoved his large feet in the boots gave me a small amount of satisfaction. Sliding daggers into the sheaths on his thighs, Zander picked up the discarded weapons. “Let’s go.”
I followed him out, letting him take point. I couldn’t shoot, not with Ember in my arms.
Zander led us down the flight of steps, slowing as we approached the bottom of the stairwell. A bot hovered in the entrance. I gripped Ember more tightly, ready to protect her with my own body. Dressed as we were, that machine would see us as the enemy, but before it could spin, Zander shot it. A precise strike right where Drake had advised. The thing went down with a clatter that was absorbed by the battle raging around us.
Lupines, felines, bears and other shifters ripped guards apart with teeth and claws. It was carnage.
“Fuck! We have to get across there.” Zander gestured to where the warden’s guards kneeled in a perfect formation. When one fell another filled its place. As a wall of weapons and force, they fired on the swell of shifters, all the while moving forward and pushing the shifters back.
Despite being out weaponed, my own kind fought hard, but they blocked our way across the hall. Some clearly didn’t care about getting out, they were seeking revenge. The sight of them dying sickened me, but Zander was right, Ember had agreed to this. She had refused to leave with the others, telling me she wouldn’t leave me behind.
Right now, she was barely hanging onto life. If I could get in that science wing, maybe I could find a way to save her and keep her wolf with her, as well as discover what the warden was truly doing with the bodies of my people.
“Here, take her.”
Zander put his weapon in its holster and took her without question. I pulled my own, but it was for show—I hoped. I sent a wave of alpha power out, enough to disorientate those shifters in our way and clear a path to the warden’s guards.
“Now!” I yelled through the mask.
We sprinted across the mats. Even Ember’s weight didn’t slow Zander. A huge wolf lunged at me and I had no choice but to fire. I aimed to injure, taking it down to the mat. I kept running, my heart pounding. I glanced back and saw the wolf’s yellow eyes flicker to a familiar grey.
Owen! Fuck!
Owen’s huge wolf slammed into the floor and he shifted back. His gaze met mine, his eyes wide. My gut flipped as I held his stare. I hadn’t shared my whole plan with him because I didn’t want him risking his life by trying to help. I had no idea what we would find in the science wing, but instinct told me it would be powerful and far darker than anything we’d seen before. I pushed a wave of compulsion against him, urging him to leave.
Another group of shifters bounded between him and me, and I saw someone drag him out of the arena. I swallowed hard and hoped he didn’t think me a traitor to him and our brothers.
We ran through the front line of the guards and they closed the gap behind us. Another team of guards grabbed the fallen bodies and dragged them into the prison. At least half of the arena belonged to the guards now, even though fighting continued around the fight rings and in the balcony.