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AVERY

T he clock on the wall refused to go faster, despite the number of times I’d begged it to. It was five minutes to midnight, but that might as well have been a hundred years away with how slow the hands ticked.

The night before, I’d managed a fitful, restless sleep filled with awful nightmares.

Everyone I loved, dead or dying. Two nightmares stood out and played through my mind the entire day.

In one, I dreamed that Kyle, in his wolf form, feasted on the bodies of Cole and Ashton.

The second was somehow worse and nauseatingly sexual in nature—Kyle tying me down and doing unspeakable things to me.

I’d woken with a shout at three in the morning and had been up ever since, not wanting to subject myself to more dreams like that.

Two men I didn’t recognize had brought me breakfast and lunch. Each time, I’d asked to see Ashton, but the guard ignored me. My appetite was nonexistent, but I forced myself to eat. If Sydney was right and we’d need to run tonight, I’d need my energy.

Kyle had brought my dinner—steak, salad, and a baked potato with all the fixings.

He’d set the silver tray down with reverence like I was a queen.

The worst part had been him sitting behind me and rubbing my shoulders as I ate.

I’d done my best not to show my dread. I’d anticipated him pulling his cock out and trying something.

Blessedly, he’d departed when my plate was empty, promising me that we’d have “fun” once Cole was out of the way.

I’d had to take a shower to get the greasy touch of his fingers off me.

Now that it was so close to midnight, I was getting nervous.

What if it had all been some long con of Kyle’s?

Could Sydney have lied about everything?

There was that possibility. I’d lied to Kyle.

My acting was good, but others might be better.

What happened if, at midnight, instead of Sydney swooping in to save us, Kyle walked in?

I could picture the sanctimonious grin on his face.

I could also picture the things he might do to me for my betrayal, and death was the least of my concerns.

When the door clicked open at 11:57, I jerked back, fully expecting Kyle or one of his minions. Instead, Ashton rushed in, his eyes bright with excitement.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“I think so. Are we…” I trailed off as I saw who stood at the door behind him. Dallas.

He frowned at me, but his eyes were mournful in a way I couldn’t quite describe. “I’ll make my apologies later,” he said. “Right now, we need to move.”

Son of a bitch. He really is helping us.

Dallas lifted his eyebrows expectantly. “Seriously, Avery, we need to go. Now .”

Rising, I walked over and took Ashton’s hand. In the hallway, Cole’s brother kept swiveling his head back and forth, searching the corridors as we went, looking for anyone who might raise the alarm.

He led us to a large bookshelf on the same floor and nudged it aside, revealing a hidden stairwell.

“Whoa. That’s cool,” Ashton whispered.

“Move,” Dallas hissed, ushering us through the door.

He pulled the bookshelf back into place behind us and started down the stairs. We’d only gone a few steps when a massive boom reverberated through the house, vibrating all the way into my bones. The fluorescent lights above the stairs went out, leaving us in pitch-black darkness.

“Hurry.” Dallas led us down the stairs with the faint light of his cell phone screen.

Through the walls beyond the stairwell, I heard men shouting and screaming commands. It sounded like full-blown chaos. Doors slammed, and booted feet thudded across the floor as men sprinted back and forth.

Doing my best to ignore the sounds, I tried to focus on following Dallas and Ashton. The light of Dallas’s phone was barely enough to see anything. I wasn’t sure why he wasn’t using a flashlight. Who the hell could have seen the light in here?

We descended two flights of stairs and came to a hallway. Toward the end, a sliver of light shone beneath a door. A safe room? Something with an alternate power source? That had to be it. Dallas led us in the opposite direction, deeper into the darkness.

Dallas lost his grip on the phone, and it crashed to the floor. “Shit.” He dropped to the floor to search for it.

Before his word could sink in, the door behind us swung open. A hand wound into my hair, yanking me backward, plunging me into bright light that blinded me momentarily.

Lips pressed to my ear, and hot, fetid breath washed across my face. “Why are you running? Why are you out of your room?” Kyle asked.

Terror spilled into my stomach as the heat of his body pressed into my back.

“Get your hands off her,” Ashton growled as he stepped into the room.

Kyle’s breath hissed out of him. “Ashton? What is this? What the fuck is this? Why are you all down here?” His confusion morphed into rage. “Are you trying to escape ?” He punctuated the last word by yanking my hair, and I yelped.

“Stop hurting my mother, you fucking asshole,” Ashton snarled, taking a threatening step toward us.

“Ashton, run!” I shouted.

But he stayed where he was, glaring at Kyle.

“Traitors,” Kyle growled. “You’re both traitors.”

His body thrummed against me. He was losing what little of his mind he had left.

“You dare betray me? After everything I’ve done for you both? After the sacrifices I’ve made? The people I’ve killed ? You would rather be with that cockless bastard Cole Garrett?”

“What the hell is going on in here?” Dallas asked, striding in from the shadows, easy as you please, surveying the scene with a raised eyebrow.

“These—” Kyle yanked my hair again “—traitors were trying to get away. I heard them drop something and opened the safe room door. Goddammit, Dallas. Which of these fuckers let them out of their rooms? Someone on our team is in league with Cole and his people. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

Grab that little brat,” he said, spitting the word.

“We’ll get them back to their rooms and figure out what’s happening. ”

Dallas took Ashton by the arm, but even in my ever-increasing panic, I could see that he wasn’t holding him firmly, his fingers barely wrapped around his bicep.

“Got it. I bet it’s that fucker, Leo,” Dallas said. “Money-hungry bitch. Cole probably paid him off.”

“Yeah,” Kyle grunted, his voice rising in pitch. “You’re right. That little prick was always asking for a raise.”

Dallas took a few steps closer, then released Ashton’s arm. He swiveled his eyes to meet mine, winked once, and launched himself at Kyle. The sheer violence and speed of the attack caught Kyle off-guard, and he released my hair. I fell to my knees as Dallas and Kyle tumbled to the ground.

“Run!” Dallas screamed as Kyle began cursing.

I grabbed Ashton’s hand and dragged him to the exit.

Next to the door, a small red button read: “Lock.” Unsure what it would do, I slammed my palm against it as we rushed out of the room.

The door began to swing shut automatically, and before it latched shut, a single gunshot tore through the silence around us.

I screamed, but feeling no pain or blood, and seeing no injury on my son, I pushed Ashton forward.

If I’d been shot, I’d deal with it once we were out of here.

“Are you okay?” I shouted at Ashton as we ran.

“Fine,” he said, his voice tense.

The power had come back on, possibly from a backup generator.

Dim lights flickered above us, but it allowed us to see the rest of the corridor.

At the far end was a small hatch that looked like an old-fashioned coal chute.

It was large and ornate, more than big enough for a person even Ashton’s size to crawl through.

“Hurry,” I shouted, as I heard muffled sounds of screaming and pounding as Kyle beat at the door.

If Kyle was able to scream and pound his fist to get out, that meant he couldn’t be hurt badly. Was Dallas dead? Had Kyle killed him? I shook the thought away. There was nothing I could do about that now. All I could do was get my son to safety.

Ashton got to the chute, but it was locked with a large padlock.

“Fuck,” he muttered, then cast a sideways glance at me and winced.

I let the curse slide. This situation called for it.

To the right was an ancient set of metal shelves, random pieces of scrap wood, rusty nails, and a single ball-peen hammer scattered on it.

The wooden handle of the hammer looked to have been salvaged from Noah’s Ark, but it was our only choice.

I grabbed it, raised it over my head, and slammed it onto the padlock.

Sparks flew and the metal dented, but the lock remained intact.

“Let me,” Ashton said. “I’m stronger.”

I handed the hammer over, and he began to beat at the lock with far more force than I could. Risking a glance behind me, I watched in horror as the door to the safe room began to swing outward.

“Hurry, Ash,” I said, my throat dry as bone.

“Got it,” he said as the padlock dropped to the floor.

He yanked the door open and scurried through, moving with a frantic speed that could only come from panic. He turned around and grabbed my hand. “Here, I’ll help you.”

I climbed into the chute, but just before I could poke my head through, a vise-like set of fingers wrapped around my ankle, dragging me backward.

“Not so fast, bitch!”

Ashton’s muscles bunched and flexed as he tried to haul me up.

Kyle pulled me backward. With the strength of two shifters tugging on me from opposite ends, I feared my limbs would be ripped from their sockets.

I tried to kick back at Kyle’s face with my free foot and grabbed Ashton’s other hand.

My son groaned loudly as he yanked me harder.

My shoe slipped off, and my ankle slipped free of Kyle’s grip.

I tumbled to the grass on top of Ashton. Kyle’s scream of rage echoed up from the basement. In the distance, a familiar howl shattered the night. Cole. I’d know that sound anywhere. Hope surged through me, reducing me to tears. Ashton got to his knees and tried to help me up.

“I’m good. Right behind you,” I said.

Ashton turned in the direction of Cole’s howl. I made it ten steps when an arm wrapped around my neck, and the cold kiss of a gun barrel touched my temple.

“Gotcha, you traitorous cunt,” Kyle rasped, breathing heavily. “Gonna make you pay. Gonna make you all pay.”