Chapter 24
Mariah
The air inside the base was cold. It carried that sterile, metallic tang that reminded me of a mixture of iron and blood.
Elsie led the way, crouched low, her movements confident and well practiced.
She seemed to know every turn, every shadow, every place where the lights flickered and the cameras didn’t quite reach.
I followed close behind her, my heart hammering, the echo of our footsteps swallowed by the hum of generators.
We moved through corridors that felt too familiar with walls painted the same washed-out gray as the compounds, reinforced glass windows darkened by grime. The deeper we went, the thicker the air grew with tension.
“You sure about this?” I whispered.
Elsie’s grin was quick, maybe even a little amused. “Sweetheart, I’m never sure about anything, but I know where we’re going.”
She pointed down a narrow service hall, where a half-open door glowed faintly red from the emergency lights inside. “That’s the auxiliary wing. Labs are two levels down. We’ll take the lift shaft. It’s faster and safer than the stairs.”
We slipped inside, the heavy door groaning faintly as it closed behind us. My pulse raced as I pressed my back against the wall, waiting for the footsteps of guards that never came. The silence was almost worse.
Elsie tugged open the access panel beside the elevator and pulled out a thin cable, hooking it to her belt. “Guess who used to run supplies through here before the Council wised up?”
I arched a brow. “You?”
She smirked. “I get around.”
She dropped into the shaft with a fluid motion, boots catching the maintenance ladder. “Come on, little wolf. Try to keep up. And pull that panel back over the opening before you start down.”
I followed her instructions, gripping the cold rungs, trying not to look down into the darkness yawning below.
The climb was shorter than I expected, and soon Elsie had her ear pressed up against another panel, listening for the sounds of movement on the other side.
She swung a little metal flap up and put her eye to a peephole drilled in the metal.
When she was certain there was no one on lurking beyond, she pried open the panel and slipped into a dimly lit hallway lined with sealed glass doors.
She ducked down and motioned for me to do the same. “There,” she whispered, pointing toward a reinforced door at the end of the corridor. “That’s the lab.”
The hall stretched long and quiet, lit only by a flickering strip of light that buzzed overhead. Every instinct in me screamed that something wasn’t right.
“Elsie,” I whispered. “It’s too empty.”
She frowned, but kept moving. “The Council’s not stupid. They don’t keep guards where they don’t need them. Trust me—”
The words died in her throat when the lights snapped off.
For a heartbeat, we were plunged into darkness. Then came the metallic click of locks sliding into place behind us.
Elsie swore under her breath. “Fuck. It’s a trap.”
The corridor exploded in white light, blinding and sudden. I threw up an arm to shield my eyes as the sound of boots thundered from the far end of the hallway. Wolves. A full patrol, rifles raised, their eyes cold and empty.
“Hands where I can see them!” one barked, his voice commanding.
Elsie’s rifle was in her hands before the words were done. She fired multiple times, the crack of the shots deafening in the narrow space. Two wolves went down, but the others responded fast. A second later, sparks rained down as bullets tore into the walls.
“Run!” she shouted, grabbing my arm. We sprinted down the corridor, the air burning with smoke and gunpowder.
We turned a corner and nearly collided with another squad.
Elsie swung her rifle up, fired once, twice.
A wolf went down hard, another screamed as a bullet caught his leg. She shoved me toward a side door. “Go!”
I yanked it open and stumbled inside, the room beyond lit only by emergency lights. It was a storage area full of rows of broken equipment and crates stamped with the Council’s seal.
Elsie kicked a spent casing away from her boot and reloaded with quick, steady hands. “Well,” she muttered, “so much for subtlety.”
“Are you okay?” I asked, my voice rough.
“I’m alive,” she said. “I’ll take it.”
“Come on. We need to move before someone notices we’re in here.”
Elsie reached into her pocket and pulled out some small cylindrical thing and threw it at the wall.
Suddenly, we were enveloped in smoke, and she grabbed my hand.
We slipped out another door and into a side passage.
The corridor was narrow, opening into a junction where the overhead pipes hissed faintly.
The hum of generators grew louder, vibrating through the walls.
Elsie slowed, pressing a hand against my arm. “Do you hear that?”
I tilted my head, hearing voices, quiet, urgent, distorted slightly by the hum of machinery. We edged closer, ducking behind a rusted ventilation console near the intersection.
The voices grew clearer. Two wolves in uniform stood near a doorway, their rifles slung casually, unaware of how close we were.
“…said the serum worked better than the original sample they collected from that one girl,” one was saying.
The other snorted. “That’s good. That was a fucking mess.”
My breath stuck in my throat. I glanced at Elsie, but she only pressed a finger to her lips and motioned for me to keep listening.
“The commander wants them to start field tests next week,” the first continued. “They’re calling it Rage Type Two. That it’s twice as strong. Even works on wolves, or so the rumors say.”
“Twice as strong?” The other wolf whistled low. “What’s the point? The test subjects already tear everything apart. You make it stronger, you’ll have nothing left to study.”
“Orders are orders,” the first said. “The Council wants an army that doesn’t think. Just kills. Effectively.”
Elsie muttered under her breath, barely audible. “Idiots. You can’t control madness.”
My stomach twisted. “They’ve developed a new version of the rage serum!” I whispered.
She nodded grimly. “Sounds like it.”
The wolves kept talking, oblivious to us.
“I hear the original formula came from an organization called the Watch, some human conglomeration fighting against us wolves or something like that,” the first said. “Council just refined it.”
Refined it.
The words turned my blood cold.
They started down the hall, their voices fading. Elsie waited until the sound of their boots disappeared completely before she stood.
Her face was tight, pale under the grime. “Well,” she said quietly, “that’s new. And by new, I mean catastrophic.”
I swallowed hard. “Type Two… if it’s stronger—”
“Come on, if we move fast, we can reach the lab before they find us,” Elsie interjected.
We followed the corridor toward the lab, the hum of machines vibrating up through the floor. The air reeked of antiseptic and ozone. I could taste it, that cold, clinical scent that always meant pain.
Elsie held up a fist, signaling for me to stop. We crouched behind a bulkhead door, listening. Voices drifted from inside, quiet murmurs punctuated by the hiss of vents and the click of metal on glass.
“Guards?” I whispered.
She tilted her head, listening. “At least a dozen.” Her eyes cut toward me. “We’ll never get a clean shot if they call for backup, so we go in loud. You shift; I cover you. No hesitations.”
My pulse quickened. “You sure?”
She grinned, cocky and wild. “Sweetheart, I was born to make bad decisions.”
And then she was moving.
Elsie slammed her shoulder into the door controls, sparks flying. The door screamed open. She burst through before the wolves inside could even look up, her rifle barking in tight bursts. The first two went down before they could even react.
I was right behind her, the scent of blood hitting me like lightning. My wolf howled to be let out, clawing under my skin until it hurt to breathe. I didn’t hold back.
I shifted.
The world cracked open into sound and scent from the burn of gunpowder, to the sharp tang of fear-sweat, to the heavy thump of boots against the floor. Every detail hit like a storm raging against the world. My claws raked the tile as I lunged forward.
The first wolf to reach me swung his rifle like a club. I ducked under the blow and slammed into him, my weight driving him to the floor. His bones crunched under my jaws. Blood sprayed hot across my muzzle.
“Mariah, on your left!” Elsie shouted, firing over my shoulder. A wolf dropped mid-charge, his chest exploding in red mist. She pivoted, her braid snapping behind her, and fired again, then dove for cover behind a metal console.
The lab was chaos, all flashing lights and screaming sirens as the alarms went off. Wolves poured through the side doors, shouting orders, their voices drowned by the roar of gunfire and the sound of my growls.
I tore through another, my claws ripping into his back. He howled and twisted, mid-shift, his teeth sinking into my shoulder. Pain flared white-hot. I ripped free and slammed him into the nearest wall hard enough to crack the plaster.
Elsie ducked under a spray of bullets, reloading on instinct. “You doing alright, sweetheart?” she yelled, firing again without looking.
I snarled in response, blood dripping from my muzzle.
“I’ll take that as a yes!” she shouted, rolling behind another overturned table.
The wolves were organized. For every one we dropped, two more seemed to take their place.
A rifle cracked close enough that I felt the wind of the bullet brush past my fur. I pivoted, claws scraping sparks off the tile, and lunged at the shooter. He barely had time to fire again before my weight hit him full force. We went down together, his scream lost in the chaos.