Chapter 14 Breaking Instincts
Rescue
The facility did not exist on any public map.
Official records identified the property as a decommissioned military communications station abandoned more than fifteen years earlier. Satellite images showed little more than a cluster of aging concrete buildings surrounded by dense forest several hours from the city.
Every document was a lie.
Nathan stood beside the digital map projected across the operations room inside Wolfe Industries.
“The shell company purchased the land six years ago.”
“Since then?”
“No public activity.”
“No deliveries.”
“No employees.”
Damien studied the terrain carefully.
“If nobody is supposed to be there, why maintain security?”
Nathan enlarged another section of the map.
“They’re hiding something.”
Thermal scans revealed faint heat signatures beneath the surface.
Underground levels.
Independent power generation.
Ventilation shafts hidden beneath artificial landscaping.
The abandoned station was very much alive.
One of the former military analysts looked toward Damien.
“We’ve intercepted limited communications.”
“They’ve increased internal security.”
“They know someone is coming.”
Damien wasn’t surprised.
People capable of erasing military records would also anticipate retaliation.
“They’re expecting an assault.”
Nathan nodded.
“So we don’t give them one.”
The room fell quiet.
Damien traced one finger across the digital layout.
“They prepared for soldiers.”
“They won’t prepare for maintenance crews.”
A faint smile appeared on Nathan’s face.
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
Less than four hours later, two maintenance vehicles rolled slowly toward the facility’s outer checkpoint.
Every uniform.
Every identification card.
Every work order had been carefully prepared using information gathered from former intelligence officers who still understood how military logistics functioned.
Damien sat silently inside the lead vehicle wearing plain coveralls instead of an expensive suit.
No one would recognize the billionaire chairman of Wolfe Industries.
That was exactly the point.
The guard approached casually.
“Evening.”
Nathan handed over the forged maintenance authorization.
“Emergency generator inspection.”
“The northern unit reported voltage fluctuations.”
The guard frowned.
“We weren’t informed.”
Nathan shrugged naturally.
“We weren’t informed either.”
“Apparently someone forgot the paperwork.”
The guard muttered something under his breath before scanning the authorization.
After several tense moments, the security gate slowly opened.
“Be quick.”
“We will.”
The vehicles continued through the entrance without attracting further attention.
Only after the checkpoint disappeared behind them did Damien quietly exhale.
The first obstacle had fallen.
Now came the difficult part.
Inside, the facility looked nothing like an abandoned communications station.
Modern security cameras covered every corridor.
Electronic access systems protected reinforced steel doors.
Researchers wearing white laboratory coats moved between departments carrying encrypted tablets instead of clipboards.
The operation had never stopped.
It had simply gone underground.
Nathan quietly disconnected the nearest surveillance camera while another former operative disabled the alarm network.
They moved through the corridors with practiced efficiency.
No unnecessary conversation.
No wasted movement.
Every step brought Damien closer to Ethan.
As they reached the central laboratory wing, familiar memories returned with startling clarity.
The polished floors.
The identical overhead lighting.
The antiseptic smell.
For years those memories had existed only as disconnected fragments.
Now they surrounded him.
He stopped outside one particular doorway.
“I’ve been here.”
Nathan looked toward him.
“You remember?”
“I remember this corridor.”
Damien closed his eyes briefly.
“They brought me through here after surgery.”
“They wanted me awake for the evaluations.”
The memory sharpened.
Not complete.
Enough.
He looked toward the reinforced door ahead.
“Detention is below us.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t.”
“I remember elevators.”
“And...”
He looked toward the emergency stairwell.
“...that staircase.”
Without another word he changed direction.
Nathan immediately followed.
The lower level felt colder than the rest of the facility.
Fewer laboratories.
More security.
The atmosphere carried the unmistakable weight of secrecy.
Halfway down the corridor, several armed officers appeared.
One stepped forward.
“You aren’t authorized—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
Recognition slowly spread across his face.
“...Captain Wolfe.”
Damien met the older man’s eyes.
“Colonel Harris.”
The man’s expression shifted uneasily.
“I heard you resigned.”
“I did.”
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“You shouldn’t have continued.”
For several seconds neither moved.
Finally Harris lowered his weapon slightly.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
“We believed we were protecting the country.”
“You experimented on wounded soldiers.”
“We followed orders.”
“You ignored consent.”
“We were told volunteers had been approved.”
Damien’s voice remained calm.
“I wasn’t.”
Harris couldn’t answer.
Silence became its own confession.
Nathan quietly stepped forward.
“Where is Ethan Brooks?”
The colonel looked away.
“I can’t tell you.”
“You can.”
Damien’s eyes never left him.
“And you will.”
Something inside the older officer seemed to break.
He slowly reached into his pocket and removed a security access card.
“Lower detention.”
“Third corridor.”
“Last room.”
He held out the card.
“I should have stopped it years ago.”
Damien accepted it.
“It’s not too late to do one decent thing.”
The colonel stepped aside.
No one spoke as they continued deeper into the underground level.
The third corridor contained only reinforced doors.
Each carried numerical designations instead of names.
Observation Room.
Medical Isolation.
Behavioral Assessment.
The labels alone told a terrible story.
At the final door, Damien stopped.
A narrow observation window looked into a small, plainly furnished room.
Ethan sat on a simple bed, wrists no longer restrained but clearly exhausted after hours of questioning.
He looked thinner already.
Tired.
Yet unbroken.
As though sensing someone nearby, Ethan slowly raised his head.
Their eyes met through the glass.
Relief flooded Ethan’s face.
For the first time since his capture, he smiled.
Damien activated the access card.
The heavy lock disengaged.
The door swung inward.
Neither man spoke immediately.
Words suddenly felt unnecessary.
Damien crossed the room in three quick strides.
“Are you hurt?”
Ethan shook his head.
“No.”
“They wanted information.”
“They kept asking about the files.”
“They never touched me after I refused.”
Damien searched Ethan carefully for injuries anyway.
Only after convincing himself Ethan was physically safe did he finally allow himself to breathe.
“I came.”
“I knew you would.”
Ethan smiled faintly.
“You found the pen.”
“I did.”
“I hoped you would.”
Before either could say anything more, alarms suddenly echoed throughout the underground level.
Red emergency lights flashed across the corridor outside.
Nathan’s voice crackled through Damien’s communication earpiece.
“They know you’re inside.”
“Every exit is locking down.”
Heavy steel doors began sliding into place throughout the facility.
Automated security systems awakened one after another.
Escape routes disappeared on the digital map faster than Nathan could identify alternatives.
Damien instinctively reached for Ethan’s hand.
“We’re leaving.”
Ethan squeezed it once.
“I didn’t think getting in would be the easy part.”
Damien looked toward the corridor where reinforced barriers continued sealing every path to the surface.
“No.”
His expression hardened with quiet determination.
“It wasn’t.”
Behind them, another security door slammed shut with a deafening metallic crash.
The rescue had succeeded.
Now they had to survive long enough to make it home.
Love Over Biology
The emergency alarms echoed relentlessly through the underground corridors.
Red warning lights pulsed across the concrete walls, casting long shadows as Damien and Ethan followed Nathan through a maze of service passages that had not appeared on any official blueprint.
Somewhere above them, security personnel shouted orders while heavy blast doors sealed one section of the facility after another.
Their carefully planned rescue had become a race against time.
Nathan checked the digital map on his tablet before shaking his head.
“They’ve locked the eastern exit.”
“What about the loading tunnel?” Damien asked.
“Blocked.”
“The ventilation route?”
“They’re flooding it with security teams.”
Damien looked ahead, calculating every possibility with practiced precision.
“We’ll use the emergency transport shaft.”
Nathan hesitated.
“That’s a dangerous climb.”
“It’s our only option.”
The team changed direction, moving through a narrow maintenance corridor lined with old electrical conduits. Ethan stayed close behind Damien, his heartbeat still racing from the hours spent imprisoned inside the research facility.
He had expected fear.
Instead, what he felt most was relief.
Damien had come.
Not because instinct demanded it.
Not because an Alpha was biologically compelled to protect an omega.
He had come because he had made a choice.
That knowledge gave Ethan strength he hadn’t known he possessed.
They reached the transport shaft moments later.
A metal ladder disappeared into darkness above them.
Nathan looked upward.
“Three levels.”
“Once we’re outside, extraction vehicles will meet us in the forest.”
Before anyone could begin climbing, footsteps echoed through the corridor behind them.
“They’re here,” one of the former soldiers warned.
Damien immediately stepped forward.
“I’ll hold them.”
“No.”
Ethan’s answer came instantly.
Damien looked at him.
“You have to climb.”
“So do you.”
“They’re after me.”
“They’re after both of us.”
Damien shook his head.
“If I slow them down—"
“You’ll be captured again.”