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“Boys, get up here!” Raul’s voice slices through the stillness, echoing against the hollow bones of the building.

The urgency in his tone hits me like a jolt of electricity. Sammy and I glance at each other, then we’re sprinting. Our boots pound across the dusty floor. We take the stairs two at a time. I grip the railing, and swing around the final landing. My lungs burn with every breath.

Raul stands in the center of a wide room, frozen. Eyes locked on something beyond our view.

My stomach knots as I step beside him and follow his gaze.

Three side by side, towering cages line the far wall. Bars as thick as my wrist gleam under a layer of construction dust and grime. Above each one, a sign hangs from steel chains.

Test Subject 1

Test Subject 2

Test Subject 3

“What the hell is this?” Sam mutters, voice cracking at the end.

“They’re going to run experiments,” Raul answers flatly. His hand closes around one of the bars. “But the question is—on what? Wolves? Grizzlies? Feel this. You know it.”

I walk closer and reach out. The metal hums with a strange, too-familiar chill. My fingers brush the bar. Then recognition hits like a blow to the ribs.

“Titanium,” Sam blurts before I can. “No way. Steel cages could hold anything. Why would they need titanium?”

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be in here!” someone shouts.

A flashlight explodes against my cheek—blinding and hot. I don’t think. I move.

Adrenaline floods my veins. Instincts take over, muscles tighten, and my feet are hitting the ground. I lock eyes with the human. He fumbles at his belt—his hand dips—gun.

My wolf surges in my mind.

Unleash!

My blood howls for the shift. Muscles coil, claws itch beneath my skin—but I choke it back. Not now. Not here. One death brings a dozen more. They’ll ask questions. They’ll dig deeper. I clamp down hard on the beast.

I do roar as I lunge. I drive my palms into his ribs, full force. A bullet cracks past my ear, shattering tile as it embeds in the floor.

He grunts as I drive into him and we both go down. My head crashes into his gut. I pin him beneath me, fists clenched tight around his wrists, snarling in his face.

Then with a thud, a boot crashes into the side of the guy’s head, snapping it to the side. Raul drops to one knee and seizes him by the throat.

“Alright, asshole,” Raul growls, voice low and lethal. “Five seconds. Tell us what this place is.”

The guy’s terrified. Ifeelit. His heart is galloping like a scared rabbit’s, loud in my hypersensitive ears.

“I don’t know, man!” he chokes, voice cracking. “I’m security! They tell me shit.”

“Anyone else coming?” I press, my voice flat, eyes narrowing to slits.

“Yeah! The other guy’s not due for ten minutes!”

“That’s not long enough,” Sam grunts.

His fist flies and the man’s head jerks back with the impact, blood spilling from his lip.

“We were never here,” Sam snarls. “Say a word, and I’ll come back. You won’t walk away next time.”

He punches the guy one more time and something cracks. The guard slumps.