Page 37 of His Claim

“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.

She was gone, overtaken again by the beast inside her.

Her body convulsed, muscles surging, sweat pouring down her face. The restraints strained, leather creaking, bolts groaning intheir sockets. Blood ran down her wrists where the straps cut too deep, but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t.

I jerked in my own bonds, terror clawing up my throat. If she got free, I was the only one left in here. I’d be first.

“Stop,” I begged, though I knew she couldn’t hear me anymore. “Please?—”

Her head snapped back, and she roared. With one violent wrench, the steel bolts anchoring her chair screeched loose from the floor. The entire frame tilted as she heaved against it, snapping leather with sheer brute force. One arm came free. Then the other. Then her legs. Then the straps around her waist broke, and she was completely free.

I froze, breath locked in my chest.

She staggered forward, bloody, wild, her chest heaving like she was being ripped apart from the inside out. Her eyes locked on me.

And then—for one impossible heartbeat—she was lucid.

The glow dimmed. Her gaze softened. The feral mask slipped, leaving just a girl: tired, broken, terrified.

She lurched toward me. I flinched, but instead of hurting me, her hands grabbed the straps pinning my wrists. With a snarl that was half pain, half purpose, she tore the leather loose. My arms sprang free. Then she yanked at my legs, ripping through the straps until I stumbled forward, almost falling into her.

Her breath was hot against my ear. Her voice cracked and slurred, but the word was clear.

“Run.”

I blinked, stunned. “What?—?”

“Run!” she screamed, and the glow flared back into her eyes, her face twisting, her body seizing as the beast surged up again to claim her.

She shoved me hard, sending me sprawling onto the cold tile. When I looked up, she was already gone, what little humanity she’d clung to drowned under the feral storm.

My heart pounded and my legs trembled as I scrambled to my feet.

I did exactly what she told me.

I ran.

My bare soles slapped against the cold tile, each step a jolt up my legs as I bolted out of that sterile chamber. My breath came too fast, and all I could hear was the pounding of my own heart.

Behind me, the girl screamed.

It wasn’t human.

It was torn and broken, all rage and no soul.

I sprinted past white doors and gleaming counters, past abandoned carts of syringes and instruments. The med wing stretched too long, too bright, with nowhere to hide.

Then the noise hit, metal shrieking, a body thudding against a wall. I glanced back and wished I hadn’t.

The girl barreled through the doorway behind me, tearing the frame apart as if it were cardboard. Her skin gleamed with sweat, her teeth red with blood. Two techs who’d lingered too long and then frozen with shock when I came careening through,screamed as she caught them. One swipe and a man’s throat opened, spraying across the sterile wall. She bit into the other’s face, tearing and snarling like an animal that hadn’t eaten in days.

I screamed, shoving myself forward harder.

Shift, my mind screamed back at me.Shift now or die.

But nothing happened.