Page 11 of Stolen By the Wraiths (Rift Wraiths #1)
T he word "Now" was not a command, but a release. I squeezed the trigger on the kinetic charge launcher, the small device bucking in my hand as the projectile shot, a silent, invisible streak across the cavernous hub. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the massive coolant pipe erupted.
A deafening roar shattered the air as pressurized gas and cryogenic fluid exploded outwards, instantly filling the space with a thick, white cloud of vapor that sent the temperature plummeting.
Alarms shrieked, adding to the cacophony, and the mercenaries at the checkpoint were thrown into confusion, their carefully prepared ambush dissolving into chaos.
"Go!" I grabbed Alix's hand, pulling her from the cover of the conduit. The physical contact was an anchor in the swirling whiteout.
We sprinted across the open floor while the freezing mist clung to our skin.
A stray plasma bolt sizzled past my head, the shot wild and unaimed.
The mercenaries were firing blind, and we used their panic, moving from one piece of machinery to the next as the roar of the ruptured pipe covered the sound of our movements.
Two soldiers emerged from the mist directly in front of us.
I saw Alix's sharp intake of breath, a flicker in her eyes, and didn't hesitate.
I shoved her behind a large generator stack and met them head-on.
My body moved with an efficiency that was pure instinct; I was faster, stronger, and fueled by a rage so profound it was a physical force.
One man's rifle was torn from his grasp and used to shatter the helmet of the other.
They fell without a sound, swallowed by the swirling vapor.
I pulled Alix forward, our hands clasped tight. "This way!"
We reached the exit corridor on the far side of the hub just as the emergency systems kicked in, powerful fans beginning to vent the cryogenic cloud. Visibility was returning, and we had only seconds.
We burst into the transit corridor, a wide, sterile tube that led directly to the commercial docking rings. It was empty, but the clang of magnetic boots approaching from both directions echoed down the hall, a clear sign they were cutting off our escape.
"They're boxing us in," Alix said, her breathing coming in sharp gasps as she pointed to a control panel on the wall. "That controls the blast doors for this entire sector. If I can slice into it, I can seal the corridor behind us, buy us some time."
"How long?" I asked, taking up a defensive position, my eyes scanning the long, empty stretch of the corridor.
"Ninety seconds. Maybe less if their network architecture is as sloppy as the rest of this station."
"You've got sixty," I said, my gaze locking onto the flicker of movement at the far end of the hall. "Company."
A squad of six elite guards appeared, moving in a tight, professional formation. They weren't the corporate mercs from before; these were Vain's personal enforcers, their armor a matte black, their weapons state-of-the-art.
"Work," I said, my voice a low growl. I didn't need to look at her. I could see her focus in the rigid line of her back, in the way her scent sharpened into the clean, metallic tang of pure concentration.
The first plasma bolts stitched a pattern across the wall where we had been moments before. I returned fire, not aiming to kill, but to force them into cover and give Alix the seconds she needed. The corridor offered no real protection, just the smooth, curved walls of the transit tube.
The sharp, triumphant scent of her success hit me a split second before she yelled, "Got it! Sealing now!"
Heavy blast doors began to descend from the ceiling a hundred meters down the corridor, cutting off the approaching squad. But another set of doors was closing ahead of us, boxing us in.
"Alix!"
"Working on it!" she yelled, her fingers flying across the panel. "They've got a secondary lockout! It's fighting me!"
The squad behind us was advancing, firing systematically.
I was pinned, forced to hug the wall as the air around me sizzled with plasma fire.
I saw the frustration in the tense line of her shoulders and the frantic, desperate movements of her hands as she fought the system.
Her scent soured with the chemical markers of fear—not for herself, but for me.
The knowledge that she was afraid for my safety unleashed something primal inside me, narrowing my mission parameters to a single, absolute imperative: protect my mate.
Abandoning cover, I charged directly at the advancing squad, a roar tearing from my throat.
It was not a sound of strategy, but of pure, Tsekai fury.
My speed was a blur, a predator unleashed.
They were trained, they were disciplined, but they had never faced a male fighting for the female he intended to claim.
Their momentary hesitation was a fatal mistake. I crashed into their line like a meteor, my fists and feet a whirlwind of destruction. I felt bones break and armor crack. I was not a soldier anymore; I was a force of nature.
Through the red haze of combat, I saw Alix turn from the panel, her eyes wide. The scent of her awe was a potent, intoxicating wave that fueled my strength. She was watching me, and her pride, her fierce joy in my power, made me invincible.
A plasma bolt grazed my side, the heat a searing caress, but the pain barely registered. I disarmed the man who fired it and used his own weapon to clear the remaining soldiers from my path.
In seconds, it was over. The corridor was littered with the groaning, broken bodies of Vain's elite. I stood, chest heaving, the scent of ozone and my own fury thick in the air.
The blast door in front of us hissed open.
Alix was standing there, her face pale but her eyes blazing. "You're hurt," she whispered, her gaze fixed on the burn on my side.
"It's nothing," I said, my voice rough. I stepped towards her, my hands coming up to frame her face. "Are you alright?"
"I am now," she said, her hands covering mine. "You magnificent, terrifying bastard."
The docking bay was just ahead. The familiar hum of the Raptor's engines was a song of home. We were almost there. But I knew, with a cold certainty, that Vain wouldn't make it that easy. The final stretch would be the most dangerous.