Chapter 9
Mariah
The med wing smelled like bleach and a sort of chemical sweetness, the kind of smell that clung to your throat until you couldn’t swallow without tasting it. The lights overhead buzzed, too white, too bright, showing every corner of the room as if shadows themselves were forbidden.
At some point, I’d been given a fresh hospital gown, for which I was grateful.
I sat on the padded chair, arms bare, gauze taped to my elbow where the last vials of blood had been pulled.
They’d stuck sensors to my chest, my temples, my wrists, thin wires snaking back to a machine that beeped and hummed like it was whispering my secrets.
I hated how still I had to sit. I hated the way the straps hung limp from the chair arms, an ever-present threat of what could happen if I fought.
The med techs moved quietly around me, eyes down, never holding my gaze for more than a second.
It was easier for them that way, I suppose.
Pretend I wasn’t a girl who’d once had friends, a family, an independent life out in the world—such as it was.
They could just pretend I wasn’t a person at all. Just a subject. A specimen. A thing.
But I was listening.
“Bond resonance is higher than any ever recorded,” one murmured, scribbling a series of notes onto a small pad.
“The mark’s integration is complete,” another whispered back. “No rejection. She’s shifting already on a cellular level.”
My heart hammered against the monitors, the beeps spiking loud. I pressed my lips together, staring at the white wall in front of me, refusing to let them see fear, but it was still there, thick in my chest.
The med tech closest to me cleared his throat. “We’ll begin secondary tests soon. Imaging. Maybe tissue samples.”
I snapped my eyes open and my voice came out harsh and threatening. “You cut me, and I’ll show you just how feral I can be.”
The three of them froze, wide-eyed. One stammered, “No—just… scans. Noninvasive.”
The beeping spiked again.
One of the med techs moved toward me and murmured to another, “We should strap her down now that the commander is gone.”
My spine stiffened. “Don’t touch me.”
They froze again, but only for a beat. Then two stepped forward.
“I said—”
One caught my wrist, jerking it down against the armrest. The other looped the attached strap fast, leather biting my skin.
I jerked hard, but another hand clamped my shoulder.
Cold leather creaked, buckles sliding, and suddenly both arms were pinned, chest rising too fast as they cinched the restraints tight.
“You bastards—”
“It’s just protocol, miss,” the taller one said, her voice flat.
The straps dug into my skin, hard enough I could feel the pulse at my wrists throbbing against them. My legs went next, the leather locking around my ankles, bolted fast to the chair. I strained against them, teeth bared, heart hammering, but they held.
“Safer for everyone,” one muttered.
“For you,” I spat.
The door hissed open before he could answer.
The smell hit first, ripe with blood and sweat. Then came the sound of men grunting as they carried something inside the room.
And then I saw that they were carrying a girl.
She was barefoot, her hospital gown shredded at the seams, stained dark with dried blood. Her hair clung to her face in snarled tangles, but her eyes were bright, wild, almost glowing. Not exactly human, at least not anymore.
Four soldiers held her down, two on each side, their hands gripping her arms like they were wrestling a storm into submission.
Her body bucked against them with a strength that was unexpected for her small size.
A fifth had his arms locked around her throat and shoulders, his jaw clenched with effort.
She screamed, high and feral, a sound that scraped straight down my spine. Her teeth snapped, jaws clamping just inches from one soldier’s face. He jerked back, cursing, but didn’t let go.
“Move her!” Maelor barked from the doorway. His voice was loud and commanding, but even he kept his distance. “Strap her down. Immediately.”
The men shoved her forward, her heels skidding on the tile.
She twisted like an animal caught in a trap, her muscles corded, veins standing out dark under her skin.
They slammed her into the chair opposite mine, steel bolts screeching under the impact.
She thrashed so hard the frame groaned. They quickly lashed several leather straps over her wrists, her chest, her ankles, the men pulling hard to hold her down.
Even with six of them together, they shook with the strain.
She howled when the final buckle clicked, a sound that rattled the instruments on the counter. Her eyes rolled, then fixed on me—burning wild, animal bright.
In that moment, I wasn’t sure if she was going to break free and kill every wolf in the room including me… or if she was silently begging me to help her.
The tech closest to me swallowed, voice trembling. “Seven dead before we could take her down.”
“Eight,” another corrected. “The one she attacked on the stairs died just minutes ago. I heard it on the radio.”
The girl’s eyes never left me.
I tried to look away, to focus on the straps biting into my wrists, the antiseptic stench, anything but her stare, but it held me fast, as if she could see through my skin, into the bond humming under Varek’s mark.
Her lips peeled back, and her teeth clicked together.
Snap.
The sound cut through the steady beep of the monitors, and made every hair rise on my arms.
One of the med techs jolted. “Get another tranq in her, now! She burned through the last three in less than an hour.”
A soldier already had the rifle lifted. He squeezed the trigger, and a dart punched into her shoulder. She howled, twisting, eyes rolling. Another dart thudded into her thigh. Then another hit her in the belly.
She sagged, breath ragged, muscles trembling as the sedative bled into her system. For a moment, silence stretched thin. The straps creaked as her body slumped against them.
The tech closest to her exhaled, scribbling on his clipboard. “Finally.”
Another wiped sweat from his brow. “She’ll be out for only a little while. Get baseline vitals before—”
The overhead speaker crackled, static bursting into the room.
“All squads report to South Concourse. Repeat, all squads. Support personnel report for lockdown. Security breach in Sector Two.”
The soldiers stiffened. The techs exchanged a look.
“We need to clear out.”
“But the subjects—”
“Orders are orders. Let’s move.”
I struggled against the leather cutting into my wrists. “You can’t just—”
One of them shoved a pad onto my arm, checking vitals. The other darted to the door, already packing his notes into a briefcase.
“You’ll be fine,” the first muttered, though his eyes didn’t quite meet mine. “Stay calm.”
The doors clanged shut behind them, leaving only me, the beeping monitors, and the girl across the room.
For a while, nothing moved. Her head lolled against her shoulder, breath shallow, lips parted. I thought the drugs had won.
Then her eyes flicked open.
Not glowing, not feral, just clear and tired.
“Hey,” she rasped, her voice hoarse like she’d been screaming for days.
My throat tightened. “Hey.”
Her gaze slid to the straps binding her arms. She gave a weak, bitter laugh. “Guess we’re both in a bit of a predicament.”
I swallowed hard. “What did they do to you?”
Her gaze unfocused for a moment, then sharpened as though she were dragging the memory out from somewhere deep.
“Someone injected me with some sort of drug,” she whispered.
“It wasn’t a wolf. Not one of the med techs either.
Someone else. Small. With quick hands. Didn’t even see their face before the needle was in me. ”
My blood chilled.
She shuddered. “And then it started. The fire. The rage. The hunger. Couldn’t stop it once it hit.”
Her voice slurred at the edges. I wanted to tell her she wasn’t alone. That I knew what it felt like to lose yourself, to feel your body turn into a weapon you couldn’t control. My chest clenched as I replied.
“I was injected too.”
Her head snapped up, a broken kind of hope in her gaze.
“I don’t know who, but someone stuck me with something,” I said, my voice low and shaking.
“And then… I lost myself. I don’t remember every detail, but I know I killed.
At least two wolves. I tore right through them.
” My hands clenched against the restraints, shame twisting through me.
“I couldn’t stop it. Not until—” I gulped. “Not until someone saved me.”
Her lips trembled. “How?”
“His name’s Varek,” I said. Saying it steadied me. “He marked me. Bit me. His bite pulled me back from the madness. It cut through everything—rage, blood, all of it. When nothing else could, he did.”
Her breath hitched. Her eyes softened for just a second. “And now… you’re still you?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
She sagged against her restraints, trembling. Her voice cracked. “Then maybe… someone could save me too.”
“You’re not lost yet,” I said fiercely, leaning forward as far as the straps allowed. “You hear me? If it worked for me, it could work for you. You don’t have to stay like this.”
For a heartbeat, she just stared at me. Her lips parted as if she might cry, but no tears came.
“I don’t… want to be… this,” she whispered.
“Then hold on,” I urged. “Fight it. Remember there’s a way back.”
Her eyes fluttered half-shut, her voice slurring. “But it’s coming. I can feel it.”
Her muscles strained, the restraints biting deep into her wrists. She panted, chest heaving, her humanity slipping like sand through her fingers.
I tugged uselessly at my bonds, desperate. “Remember what I said! You can come back. Someone can bring you back.”
Her gaze met mine one last time, lucid for a fragile heartbeat.
“I hope you’re right,” she whispered.
And then her body arched, her scream ripping through the room, wild and animal. The glow devoured her eyes. Foam flecked her lips.