Chapter 1 #2
Muscles tense, Regan looked at the wolf again. I’m coming. I can’t rush this.
The wolf studied her, before flicking its silver stare to the left again.
A chill shot up Regan’s spine and the hair at the back of her neck stood on end. Fair dinkum, it was like the animal was trying to tell her something.
Yeah. To hurry up! Pull your finger out, Woman or you’re going to get caught!
Gnawing on her bottom lip, she turned back to the shepherd.
Hoping against hope the Rimadyl had started to take effect, she removed one tube.
The dog whimpered but didn’t flinch. “Good boy,” she murmured, giving it a soft smile.
Another tube followed. Another. Another.
The dog gazed up at her, the thumps of its tail growing weaker.
Regan’s throat constricted. It wasn’t going to last much longer.
“I need you to stay here for a moment, mate,” she whispered, scratching it behind the ear. “Just until I see to the other animals. Then we’re outta here, okay?”
Another tail wag, weaker this time. As if it knew what she wanted, the dog dropped into the down position and rested its muzzle on its extended front paws, liquid-brown eyes still locked on her. Trusting. Hopeful.
Tears burned at the back of Regan’s eyes. She placed her palm on the shepherd’s head…
And the wolf growled again.
“I’ll be back,” she said, knowing the high dose of painkiller would end the dog’s misery before she returned. Blinking, refusing to let the tears fall, she moved silently. Across the lab. To the wolf.
A flash of white in the dark told her its teeth were bared, but she continued forward. Pulling the bolt cutters from her backpack, she quickly severed a link in the chain wrapped around the cage’s locked door.
A soft growl emanated from behind the bars and she looked up, her breath catching at the silver eyes staring at her.
This close, the wolf’s power was almost suffocating, as was its pain.
“Not much longer,” she muttered around the barrel of the flashlight.
She slipped the bolt-cutter blades around one thick, shiny metal bar and—with considerable effort—managed to slice into the metal.
Half an inch. She tried again. Maybe a bit more this time, but not much.
Regan scowled. This was going to take longer than she thought.
The wolf watched her, silent, before its hackles rose and it swung its head to the left. Seconds later, the chimp burst into screeching wails and a concealed door in the far left wall flung open.
Three armed security guards barged into the lab, guns and flashlights aimed at her. “Hands up, missy!”
Ah, shit!
“Hands up, now!”
Shit! Shit!
A whine filled the air, followed by the acrid stench of urine as the shepherd emptied its bladder.
“C’mon, girly,” the largest of the three guards barked, something black and ominously shaped like a gun pointed straight at her chest. “Don’t be stupid.”
A wave of cold calm rolled through Regan. She gave the guards a slow smile, feeling the black paint smudged across her face stretch and crack. “Someone should tell Nathan Epoc his security sucks.” She pitched her flashlight at the largest guard’s head.
Twenty-six years being the baby sister to one hulking, older brother stood Regan in good stead. When it came to defending herself, she was an expert.
The flashlight cut across the dark lab like a lethal pinwheel, narrow, white beam turning the room into a crazy lightshow. There was a loud clunk—metal on bone—as the flashlight struck the largest guard’s forehead, followed by a bellowed, “Mother fucker!”
But Regan wasn’t listening. She ran straight at the stunned and indignant man, flinging herself into a reverse spinning kick and smashing her booted heel against his thick jaw.
The guard went down. With a solid and somehow wet thud.
Blue eyes wild, Glock raised, the guard to Regan’s left leapt at her. “Bitch!”
Without thought, she dropped into a crouch, taking out his legs with a tight, savage footsweep. She was up before he hit the floor, scooping up her torch and sprinting across the lab to the far door, the chimp’s screeching wails like a Klaxon alarm in her head.
“Freeze, bitch!”
Shit, shit, shit!
The third guard—the rookie, if she remembered the schedule correctly—began running after her, stumbling over one of his fallen partners as he did so. God help me if he remembers he has a—
A shot fired, shattering the grim thought, and the rack of glass test tubes on the counter to Regan’s immediate right.
SHIT!
“Shoot the fucking bitch!”
A metal chair flew through the air—Christ! They’re throwing furniture at me?—before something large and heavy smashed into her, driving her to the floor.
Hot, wet breath snorted in her ear. “Gotcha, cunt.” The largest guard—the one she’d hit with her flashlight—ground his flabby, sweaty bulk against her back, pinning her to the chilly, lab floor.
“I’m gonna show you who sucks around here,” he sneered.
He dug his fingers into the soft underside of her wrists, ramming his hips against her ass. “You. On my hard cock.”
“Shit!” A high-pitched shout cut across the guard’s snarl. “She’s let the dog out!”
Regan twisted her head, in time to see the shepherd, weak and trembling, launch itself from the cage, teeth bared, hackles up. Oh, no!
A gunshot split the air. Blood spurted from the dog’s side, bright red and thick. Regan screamed, the anguished sound drowned out by loud, raucous laughter as the shepherd’s lifeless body thudded to the floor.
“Got the fucker!” the tallest of the guards smirked, re-holstering his gun. Piercing blue eyes fell on Regan and his grin stretched wider. “Now, back to the fun.”
Cold dread curdled in her throat. She bucked, trying to dislodge the guard pinning her to the floor. “Get off me, you fat fuck!”
He chuckled, dick grinding against her writhing butt.
“Only when I’m done, cunt. Then my partners are gonna have their go.
” He pressed his open mouth to her ear and shoved his tongue into its shallow shell.
“And you can scream all you want ’cause there ain’t nobody here to hear you except these dumb-fuck animals.
” With a grunt, he flipped her onto her back and shoved his engorged dick hard against her crotch.
“And they ain’t gonna help you one little bit. ”
Regan stared up into his red, pudgy face, her dread turning to fear. Oh please, no. Help me!
“Hurry up, mate,” the second guard said, stepping up beside his partner to leer down at her, depraved hunger burning in his blue eyes. “Shooting that mutt has made me hornier than—”
A low, savage growl cut him short.
“Aaah, Trev?” The rookie squeaked from across the lab, and even though Regan couldn’t see him she heard something close to confused terror in his voice. “Trev, the wolf’s gettin’ bigger!”
The guard grinding his dick between Regan’s thighs rolled his eyes. “It’s in a fucking cage, Hicks. What’s it gonna do? Join in?”
The wolf’s growl filled the air—louder, longer.
Two sets of flashlight beams fell on it immediately and, lying trapped under the grotesque and hideously aroused Trev, Regan watched the animal contort.
Twist. Somehow grow bigger. The tubes poking from its neck quivered as, with an audible pop, they tore free, spurting black liquid all over the wolf’s steel-grey fur. Regan’s heart stopped. Oh, my God…
There was a low snarl, a sharp creak and the leather straps imprisoning it in the cage snapped. Just like that.
The rookie let out a yelp.
Trev stared at the snarling wolf, too stunned to get to his feet. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” he whispered. With a howl of brutal rage, the wolf burst through the bars of its cage. As if they were made of tin foil.
The rookie screamed. Blue Eyes stumbled backward. “Fucking hell!”
“Shoot it, shoot it!” squealed Trev, trying to scramble upright and grab his gun at the same time.
He didn’t make it.
The wolf smashed into him, driving him across the floor of the lab in a screaming blur of flailing arms and legs.
Regan scurried backward and stumbled to her feet, Trev’s screams and the wolf’s low, savage growls punching at her ears.
“Trev! Oh, fuck, Trev!” The rookie continued to wail, Glock completely forgotten.
“Shoot the wolf, you dumb fuck!” Blue Eyes shouted, throwing the rookie a murderous glare.
For a split second, Regan stood frozen, staring at the chaos around her.
The smell of blood and piss stung her sinuses—What in the name of God is going on?
—before primitive self-preservation kicked in and she turned and bolted for the exit door.
Hot disgust rolled through her. She hadn’t saved one single animal tonight. Not one.
Trev’s screams, raw and wet and gurgling, rose above the rookie’s wails and the chimp’s screeching. Regan heard blood in the guard’s throat and an image of the wolf’s long teeth flashed through her head. Bloody hell, she’d caused this. Her feet faltered. She’d caused it all to—
A gun went off. Twice.
Trev howled. As did the wolf.
“Get the fucking bitch!” Blue Eyes screamed.
Regan didn’t need any further prompting. Guilt bubbling like acid in her gut, she fled the room, the image of the dead German Shepherd haunting her. I’m sorry, boy. I’m so sorry.
Another scream pierced the terrible cacophony and the chimp screeched, manic and insane. A third gunshot rang out, a fourth, and the wolf howled again—long, loud and deadly—as Epoc Industries’ high-tech security system finally activated, a shrieking Klaxon squeal shattered the chaos.
Regan tore along the corridor, bleached in flooding white light.
All around her, she heard the sound of metal cages rattling and shaking as the animals inside squealed and howled and tried to break free.
She ran, their terrified calls drilling into her head, her heart.
Another gunshot sounded behind her, a high-pitched scream rent the air, the wolf howled one more time…