Chapter 14 Zeke
Zeke
Roderick, Thane, and a myriad of the strongest fighters from Echo Ridge have been staying in the house with us. Kyran’s clan is close enough that they don’t have to sleep over, but they have come to visit every day at dawn to plan.
The past three days have been hectic. All of us have huddled together over our dining room table with papers and hand-drawn maps that Addison did her best to recreate for us sprawled out. We’ve gotten into arguments about plans, with egos constantly butting heads.
We finally came up with a plan we all agreed on. The best part of it is that Axiom has absolutely no idea we’re coming.
Our scouts have ensured that. We’ve had eyes on the facility this entire time to make sure we know what they’re planning. This place is highly militarized, yet we haven’t seen any more armored vans or increased security.
One of the most alarming instances reported back to us was a bus, almost resembling a prison bus, pulling into a garage. They couldn’t tell for certain, but they worried that other people might be on it.
That they’ve captured more shifters in the wake of Addison leaving.
We’re going to make sure they get out safely if they’re there. Every person in that facility who’s had a hand in harming Addison or any other shifters will feel the pain they’ve inflicted on others.
I’ll make damn sure of that.
The hours of the day tick by, and when the sun is beginning to set and night is upon us, we know it’s time to leave.
“Can’t I come with you?” Addison asks, holding a map. “I know I’m not an experienced fighter, but I know this building. I can lead you guys through like a tour guide.”
“That’s what this is for,” I remind her, holding up a scanned copy of the hand-drawn map she made for us all. “Besides, I wouldn’t be able to focus if you were there. And someone needs to stay here with Nora to keep an eye on her.”
“Okay, but I can’t even fight to protect her,” Addison argues, desperately trying to join us. She bites her lip and looks at me, her hazel eyes gleaming. “I can’t stand to be away from you. Especially when I know what could happen.”
I wrap my arms around her and hold her close.
I run my fingers through her hair to comfort her, feeling the warmth of her body spreading around me.
“I know you’re nervous. We all are. But right now, the most important thing to me is that you’re safe.
If they see you there, they’re going to be targeting you over everyone else. ”
“Okay,” Addison finally whispers, pulling away from me with moist eyes.
I know it’s a lot more than just being afraid for her. These people killed her parents. They took everything from her. She’s worried about losing me, too.
“Nothing will ever keep me away from you,” I tell her, leaning in and giving her a kiss. “Mark my words, I’ll be back here later tonight.”
That gets a smile out of her, and she nods her head, reluctantly heading back to the living room where Nora is saying goodbye to Cole.
We all pile into cars soon after. As we drive away, I look over my shoulder to see Nora and Addison standing in the window and watching us go.
This is going to be a ruthless, bloody fight. But knowing that I have Addison here waiting for me will carry me through it all. I have to come back to her. I can’t abandon her now and leave her all alone like she’s been her whole life. She needs me.
Normally, we would prefer to run through the woods, shifted for an ambush like this, but we have an armada of cars going instead. This way, we can carry some of the supplies we’ll need to destroy the building, and if there are any injured people, we can transport them to safety with ease.
In our car, Declan makes us go over the plan for the hundredth time. Every time we go over it, I try to pinpoint any holes in the plan I can so we can have all our bases covered. Thankfully, we’ve nailed it down to such an extreme measure that I don’t think there are any.
I’m confident this is going to work out. Axiom will be destroyed.
When we reach the dirt road leading to the facility, we stop our car alongside the other vehicles trailing in our caravan. All of us get out and prepare to take our positions.
The first group to go in is composed of the best scouts from the Wild Heart and Echo Ridge packs.
Their goal is to move through this place as quickly as possible, in and out of their wolf forms, and disable communication.
All comms will be jammed, and they’ll turn off surveillance so nobody else will see us coming.
When we’re ready, we give the first wave the go-ahead, and they run off in the directions we planned.
They’re all quick and nimble, sneaky enough to move through without detection.
It doesn’t hurt that the pictures Cole took the first time we came out here showed a very obvious placement of security cameras.
I watched through binoculars as Nick, one of ours, climbed the fence, unshifted with ease, and hid behind different obstacles to remain unseen. He eventually accesses one of the doors, using the security clearance we took from the man we interrogated in the basement.
The others file in right behind him, and we know it should only be a matter of minutes before they call us to let us know the job is done.
Those few minutes pass excruciatingly slowly.
My mind wanders to all of the things that could go wrong while they’re in there.
But eventually, Declan’s phone vibrates in his hand, and he answers, getting a call from Nick directly, who lets him know the cameras are down.
They’re replaying a loop of the courtyard while the security officer is dead in his chair.
“Wave two, you’re up,” Declan says. Kyran nods his head and assembles his group from the bear clan.
Guards in the courtyard are patrolling with weapons in hand, but we have the advantage of our heightened senses on our side. This is why we chose to fight under the cover of darkness. We can take away their light with ease.
All of the bears shift, surrounding us with oversized beasts. Kyran stands at the front of them, ready to lead the way.
He takes off, running over toward the barbed-wire fence and using his incredible strength to rip a hole right in it. All of them flood through the fence instantly, overwhelming the few guards running around.
“We’re under attack!” one of them shouts. I focus my binoculars on him, watching as he reaches for his comms device, tries to use it, then throws it to the ground in frustration.
A moment later, I hear a series of loud crashes, and darkness surrounds them. The bears have targeted the light poles in the courtyard. They’ve knocked them over and busted them out so the only light illuminating the battlefield is the moon.
“Wave three, get ready,” Declan says. That’s us. I drop the binoculars on the ground, ready to take off at a moment’s notice. We hear screaming and crashing, electrical hissing, and a loud pop that signals that we’re ready. The bears have taken out the generators.
“Now!” Declan screams, and the rest of us run off, shifting immediately. It’s my brothers and I, as well as all the best fighters from both of the packs.
We burst through the opening in the barbed-wire fence, some even taking a risk and climbing up and over the top. We descend upon the guards quickly and efficiently, running to them before they even have a chance to raise their weapons at us and ripping them apart.
My feet pad across the concrete toward the door Nick entered. I scratch at it with Cole and Declan right behind me, and it’s open a moment later. Nick stands there, a nervous look in his eyes as he props the door open with a cinder block.
Everything moves so quickly that it’s almost hard to remember the map Addison drew for us. But I separate from my brothers, both of us leaving a smaller team behind as we search through the halls for anyone.
Our destination is the labs. Along the way, we are targeted by a few stray bullets from guards trying to fight us off.
We take some time with relative ease, scattering their guns and bullets all over the floor and tracking blood down the hall with our feet.
By the time we make it to the lab, I see doctors holed up inside for safety.
They have their phones open with the flashlights on, trying to get an emergency lighting system to operate.
I push the door open and howl, and all the others from my group run in around me.
Everyone in this room is a target. They’ve all done atrocious things and hurt innocent people.
But right now, there’s one person I want to contend with.
Dr. Hendricks. The only doctor Addison remembered was the man with the cruel smile.
The man who put his hands on her and tortured her for ten years of her life.
I find him huddled in a corner, cowering as the people he’s tried to capture and torture for years rush through the room and kill his coworkers.
Blood splatters against machinery. I leap from the door across a pile of writhing bodies and shifters sinking their teeth into them to stand in front of Dr. Hendricks.
I smell the fear wafting off him, and despite everything going on, I savor it. It tastes delicious on my tongue, and if I had my way, I would hurt him the way he hurt Addison.
Instead, I approach him slowly, watching as realization dawns on him. The shifter is what he wanted to emulate, to hold captive and experiment on our fighting back.
“Please, no,” he begs, his voice shaking. He mutters that over and over again before I raise my paw and slash it out against him. My nails cut into his abdomen, leaving three large gashes. His clothes are ripped, and I see the blood seeping from the wounds in an instant.
He reaches his fingers down and touches them to his chest to see the blood for himself, as if he couldn’t believe it before.
The look of terror in his eyes only grows as he realizes his entire life is over.
Everything he’s built, everything he’s worked for has been for nothing because in a moment, he’s going to be dead.
And if there is a hell, he’s going to meet the devil.
I rush forward, biting his arm and feeling the satisfaction in my limbs as he screams. I taste his blood, and it’s as vile as he is. But even through that, I enjoy this.
I toy with him, knocking him around and scratching him, making his face virtually unrecognizable by the time I’m done with him. He’s still alive when I sink my teeth into his throat and take a big bite, tossing him aside to leave him bleeding out on the ground.
I turn back around, and most of the other doctors are gone. I help a couple of others and lunge forward at a guard who tries to break through the room.
When we’re done here, we search the rest of the facility.
We look in every door and corridor for guards and doctors trying to hide.
We continue doing that until we run into Declan and Cole, who have both cleared their part of the facility.
Within an hour, every person who worked at the facility is dead.
We shift back into our human forms to fix the electricity and look through the computer systems and download any relevant documents. We need to know everything we can about Axiom to determine whether there is another facility or more information available.
We don’t have time to look through it yet, so Nick and the rest of wave one copy everything on the hard drives while Declan and Cole run back to the cars to get the C4. They set it up at strategic points throughout the facility, ensuring nothing is left behind.
I head to the basement of the facility, where Declan had searched previously and discovered that a few new shifters were being held in cells.
I recognize where I am because of the descriptions Addison gave, and I know this is where she was being held.
We free them all, thankful they’re not injured yet because they’ve only just arrived.
They’re a little sedated and exhausted, not to mention terrified.
We guide them back out of the facility toward the cars so we can take them home and get them fixed up before returning them to where they belong.
When everything is over, and all the hard drives are copied into our possession and destroyed, we all go to a safe distance and watch as Declan presses the button on the remote detonator, and the facility collapses.
We cheer. Knowing what was going on in there, this is a triumph. Not only are we avenging Addison and her family and everyone else who lost their life in that facility, but we are saving countless others from enduring the same.
Not long after, we drive home. We’re all buzzing with excitement from a successful win. In all of that, we didn’t lose anyone. We were strategic enough to annihilate everyone there. A few people have scrapes and cuts and were shot in non-fatal places, but we’re all used to battle scars.
The car pulls up outside, and before the engine turns off, Nora and Addison rush out of the house. Nora’s hand is on her belly, and as soon as she sees Cole, she nearly breaks down in tears.
Addison spots me getting out of the car and runs so fast toward me that she nearly knocks me over when she wraps her arms around me.
“I was so afraid I’d never see you again,” she whispers.
“I told you I’d come back.” I laugh, brushing her hair out of her face. She smiles up at me, raising an eyebrow to silently ask how it went. “It’s all gone now. It’s over.”
She smiles, and I see tears of happiness growing in her eyes before one spills over her cheek. I wipe it away and lean down to kiss her.
Kissing her feels lighter this time. I can feel the relief knowing the people who hurt her won’t ever hurt anyone else again, deep in her bones.
Addison wraps her arms around me and doesn’t let go. Now, she’ll never have to.