31. Vivianna
VIVIANNA
The hall was empty but seeing as there were no doors branching off of it, that made sense.
We headed down the white tiled floors like it was its own version of the yellow brick road, bright against the dark gray walls.
From our blueprints, I knew this hall led into the main atrium of the whole facility, and from there you could head to different sections.
We veered to the right, where the labs would be found, but we had to pass by the main security hub.
The one thing we didn’t have a clue about was whether people here roamed around as wolves.
If we went to the living area, it would cause more of a stir since it was so late, but it gave us hope the labs would be unoccupied.
Moving at a purposeful but steady pace, we passed through a checkpoint and an alert went off, but nothing else happened so we kept on going.
The door to the labs was an airlock system, which made sense.
You never wanted to let whatever you were working on spread through the whole place.
You needed the control to kill something off that might have escaped.
Rik had thought to grab the badge off the guard, but I wasn’t sure without the head as well, if it would do us any good.
As long as it could get us in somewhere safe for us to set off this dynamite, that’s all that mattered to move the plan forward.
Thankfully, his badge got us into a maintenance room filled with cleaning supplies and other housekeeping items. There were coveralls as well, so Bentley and Orion shifted back and put those on, while I stayed a wolf.
Tav grabbed one of the rolling carts that were used to clean and got to work setting up our bomb.
When it was ready, we scoped out the area and found a section that wasn’t being used.
We armed the timer for three minutes, giving us enough time to get out of the area as he sent it rolling down the hall.
Skidding around the corner down the main hall, the bomb went off, shaking the ground under our feet as the lights flickered and debris burst out of the hall behind us.
The lights turned red, and the alarm sounded, followed by the sound of feet running toward us.
I hunkered down by the wall as two of them laid over me, like they’d been knocked over in the blast.
“What the hell happened here?” a guard demanded.
“I don’t know, man. We were doing rounds when these two maintenance guys told us there was something strange hidden in one of the cleaning carts. We were on our way to check it out when the damn thing blew up.” Tav explained, coughing. “That thing could have killed us.”
“Eagle Eye, this is Tango-seven, do you copy,” the guard said into his radio.
“This is Eagle Eye, go ahead Tango-seven.”
“There is a code red in the B section of the labs. We’ve just had a bomb go off. I repeat, a bomb has gone off.”
“Tango-seven, evacuate the area of all non-essential personnel. We need to do a sweep of the area, as well as the rest of the facility. Bomb protocol must be adhered to. This is now a code-alpha situation. We will broadcast the alert through the facility, Eagle Eye over and out.”
Within seconds, the hall was flooded with people running through the halls, ignoring the security telling them to walk calmly to the exit. We joined the crowd, going with the flow, as they raced to the cafeteria just like I knew they would.
People were pouring in from all sides of the massive room, as a tinny voice spoke over the loudspeakers instructing them where to go and what to do.
I ignored it, knowing that another bomb wasn’t going to go off, hiding under one of the tables waiting for all the non-important people to be gathered in this room.
This would help us know how to react to anyone we saw outside these walls, because my guess is that all the innocents would be locked up safely in here.
“Looks like that’s everyone. How do you want to play this, dearest,” Orion asked, looking down at me.
Loud and proud, my sexy demi-god. Loud and proud.
The room was filled with the buzz of people talking in hushed voices but was brought to a halt when the sound of heavy boots entered the room.
“Listen up, people. There has been an accident in the labs. It seems one of the gas pipes burst and caught fire, creating an explosion. The problem has been contained for now, but we ask that you remain here while we do a sweep of the labs to make sure there is no further danger to you all.”
And now we know that no one here knows what the hell is going on around them, or outside these walls. Makes me wonder how they learned about the rebellion led by the Wolf Queen.
It has to be Neveah or her contacts. The only contact they have is through other people in their system and she’s the one who’s broken into it.
Then I suggest you get ready to bust this place wide open—show time, Wolf Queen.
Crawling out from under the table, I hopped on top of it before I shifted.
Darius handed me his jacket, which I zipped up, unsure of how many people in this room weren’t werewolves and not at all used to nudity.
Taking a deep breath, I stood, gathering my alpha energy around me, then I released it into the room, just as I had out in the forest. I didn’t use as much, knowing that everyone in this room would be submissive or Vadik and Jason wouldn’t have allowed them in here.
The room froze as my power curled around each and every person here, which, to my surprise, was eighty percent werewolf.
“What that man just said to you is a lie.” My voice rang out into the large room, catching everyone’s attention. “That explosion wasn’t caused by a gas leak or any other faulty system of this facility. How do I know this? I’m the person who set the bomb.”
The whole room gasped at this. Women clutched their mates in fear, men balled their fists in anger, while others just seemed stunned by the announcement.
“I’m sure you’re all asking why the hell would I want to blow up the labs here, when all they are trying to do is for the good of our people.
Little do you know, what’s really going on in the world outside these walls and the horrors done in the name of preservation.
Women being forced to become test subjects, babies being killed when they don’t meet the standard, or experimented on when they do.
Vadik and Jason want to use this power of creating fertile women to gain more power to wipe out the human race and place werewolves as the leading power.
They kidnapped me from my home, drugged me for months, then when I had my baby, they stole her from me.
I’m here to get her back,” I declared, looking over the crowd of people watching me with rapt attention.
“I’m Vivianna Beck, Dama of the Imperial Dawn Pack of Kursar, leader of the Crimson Rebellion and known as the Wolf Queen.
The revolution is now, and I am here to set you free. ”
As I was speaking, the room filled with even more guards, guns at the ready, and trained on me. But that didn’t scare me. They needed me. Without Violet or Hope in their hands, I was the last option for them to continue their quest and I was calling their asses out.
“Where are your fearless leaders? Are they scared of a simple woman here all alone?” I taunted the room, scanning the area, trying to locate them.
“That’s fine, I’ll wait. Just know the longer you make me wait, the more people I will turn against you with the truth and the power of a true alpha female.
We have always been the power behind our people, and when alpha females died out, the decline in our race began.
My vision for the future isn’t one of brutality and blood, but of safety and vitality.
Our people to be united as one all over the globe, thriving and being able to live our lives in peace, not looking over our shoulder for fear the monsters might come out of the night to kill us for loving someone who isn’t the same as us.
Your worth shouldn’t be measured in how powerful you are, or how many werewolf children you can bear, because life isn’t that black and white. ”
The crowd started to murmur their agreement with what I was saying, nodding their heads and clapping at certain points.
This spurred me on, knowing if I could give them a glimmer of hope then it would soon turn into an inferno they could never stop.
Just when I was going to continue, the doors directly across from me burst open and malevolent power crept in, but I could easily brush it aside with a flick of my hand.
“So glad you two could join us... we have so very much to discuss,” I said, giving them a cruel smile.
“Little wolf, what are you doing?” Vadik snarled as the room parted like the red sea for Moses.
Cocking my head to the side, I frowned. “You haven’t been listening in? That’s unfortunate, it really was a compelling speech. I’ll happily repeat it for you once you allow all of these people to leave this bunker.”
“That is not happening, little queen,” Jason growled, his wolf flashing in his eyes.
Now that I had them both standing before me, a cold calm took over me as I stared my enemy down.
With my left eye, I could see that Vadik hadn’t been able to replenish the power he’d been taking from others, making his body weak.
Jason didn’t have a drop of magic in him.
He, it seemed, shared the same father with Vadik, but not the mother who held the magic of her people.
Too bad for him, no wonder he tried to compensate with having power in every other way he could.
“Have you come to lock me away, drug me, and force me to have another child for you?” I questioned as I hopped down from the table, taking a step closer to them.
“Would you risk it all in front of these people to get your hands on the child of an ancient Dama? Seems you have two choices—let them go or kill them all and start over. The choice is yours. Either way, I’m not going anywhere until both of you are dead, or I am. ”
I felt Tristan take a step closer to me at my words, but I held out a hand to stop him.
By putting the ball in their court, I ruined them, no matter what choice they made, but it would make my job so much easier if I could get these innocents out of the damn way for good.
I’d taken the power from them, and I could see it on their faces. They didn’t like it one bit.
If they wanted to kill the whole room, they could have the guards start shooting but that would risk me and my mates.
Possibly, there was wolfsbane in the air system, but that would pose the same problem to me and mine.
By purposefully planting myself in the middle of this room full of people, I made a move they never dreamed I would consider—I was playing chicken with the devil and his brother.
Now, I could be wrong and they could say fuck it and kill everyone, including me, without even blinking, hoping to find Hope one day.
That thought would be like looking for a needle in a haystack with the network the rebellion had set up.
We’d weeded out his people in the rebellion getting to this point.
Sure, they could turn more people against us, but it would be a hell of a lot harder with a child involved.
“Eagle Eye, get these people up to the hangar,” Jason ordered.
This caused Vadik to glare at him. “Brother, what the hell are you doing?”
“She would only be this confident if they got to the child before we did. This is her end game,” Jason answered, crossing his arms. “The final battle for who will rule the werewolves. Isn’t that right, little queen?”
“Babe, we’re here and ready for battle,” Koit called out to me.
Grinning, I glanced at Rik to handle things with Koit, not willing to give up my focus on the brothers. “I mean, you could just hand everything over to me if you’re no longer interested.”
Vadik tossed back his head and laughed. “Oh, little wolf, I haven’t fought tooth and nail to lose to the likes of you, and now that the room is cleared out, it is no longer the shield protecting you.
” With a wave of his hand, the room was filled with armed guards, laser targets speckling my mates.
“A silver bullet in the right place and you’ll never even have the chance to save them. ”
Taking a moment to glance around the room, seeing all the guards, I noticed something odd on the sleeve of about a quarter of them.
Some had a white crown stamped over their hearts under their name badge, while the others didn’t.
Realization hit me, and I had to work to keep my face impassive as I understood what that mark meant, and I knew not all was lost.
“No matter what happens next, you have to trust me,” I whispered to my mates.
“You can’t kill them,” I declared. “Wasn’t it assumed that I would die if all of my mates died?”
“Since you have seven, I think you could stand to lose a few. Maybe their loss will make you more compliant,” Vadik sneered. “I think we’ll start with the demi-god, since his tainted blood caused the other pup to die.”
Orion roared at this, bursting into his half-shifted form to roar once more, shaking the room with its strength. The others lunged forward, holding him back from charging at Vadik, who was smirking at him.
“See what mixed blood does to you. It muddles the brain, making you more animal than anything else. Yes, he will be the perfect one to test this theory of ours. What do you say, little queen, ready to give up yet?” Jason mocked.
“Not even close asshat. I’m just getting warmed up.”