Page 58 of The Purrfect Rival (Enchanted Falls #1)

FIFTY-EIGHT

K alyna ignored the murmurs, her entire focus narrowed to following Echo’s scent trail down a dimly lit corridor. The trail grew stronger near a reinforced door at the hallway’s end. She pressed her nose against the crack beneath it, inhaling deeply.

Echo’s inside.

Rust’s lion assessed the door, muscles bunching beneath golden fur as he prepared to breach it. The metal buckled under his weight, hinges tearing free as he forced his massive body through.

Echo sat huddled in the corner, wrists bound with enchanted cords that suppressed shifting abilities. His eyes widened at the sight of his sister in full fox form.

“Kal! You need to leave!” Despite the bruise darkening his jaw and the exhaustion evident in his posture, fear for her dominated his expression. “Boz planned for this. He wanted you to?—”

A metallic clang echoed through the room as hidden panels slid into place over the doorway and windows, sealing them inside. Red warning lights began flashing from recessed ceiling fixtures.

“—come,” Echo finished, his shoulders slumping.

The fox contingent spun in circles, searching for escape routes while the lions tested the sealed door with powerful shoulders. Kalyna shifted partially to human form, maintaining her enhanced senses while gaining the ability to free her brother.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, a hint of frustration in her voice.

“I didn’t know what he was doing,” Echo blurted. “He told me if I got the safe open in the library, he could make sure the mayor wouldn’t take you away. I?—”

“How touching.” Boz’s smooth voice interrupted over a speaker system. “The librarian and the mayor rushing to save a traitor.”

Rust shifted partially as well, maintaining his lion strength while gaining the ability to speak. “Show yourself, coward.”

“Oh, I don’t need to be present to enjoy the show,” Boz replied, his smirk audible in his tone. “You’ve performed beautifully—walking straight into position.”

Through a small observation window in one wall, Kalyna caught sight of him in an adjacent control room, fingers poised over a control panel.

“You have two minutes to decide,” he announced. “The north corridor leads to the fox family compound, which my men have surrounded. The south passage will take you to the Leonid estate, currently being infiltrated by another team.”

Ice spread through Kalyna’s veins. Her parents—Winston and Marisol—would be preparing for bed about now, perhaps reading in the living room with the windows open to the night air. Vulnerable.

Rust’s expression hardened into stone, the gold in his eyes intensifying as he processed the threat to his own family. His mother, Aurelia, alone in the Leonid mansion since his father’s death.

“You can’t save both,” Boz continued, pleasure evident in his voice. “And to make things interesting?—”

He pressed a button. The floor beneath them split open along the center line, creating a widening gap. Kalyna stumbled backward while Rust leaped to the opposite side. The chasm between them grew until it stretched ten feet across, too wide for most of them to jump.

More panels slid open along the walls, revealing armed guards who immediately began herding the separated shifters down different corridors. Kalyna found herself pushed away from Rust, the distance between them expanding with each step.

No magical shock accompanied the separation, but something deeper and more primal tore through her—her fox nature howling in protest as the bond stretched taut between them. She caught one last glimpse of Rust’s face—his expression mirroring the same visceral distress she felt as they were forced apart.

“This way!” Echo hissed, taking advantage of the guards’ momentary distraction to pull her toward a side passage. “I found maintenance tunnels during my captivity.”

Kalyna hesitated, her body physically resisting movement that took her farther from Rust. Her fox instincts warred with each other—pack loyalty versus mate bond. The cold calculation of Boz’s plan became clear: force them to choose between their families and each other, knowing their clan instincts might override even their connection to each other.

With a last, desperate glance over her shoulder, she followed Echo into the narrow passage.

They crawled through maintenance ducts, Echo leading with surprising confidence. “Boz likes to yap during interrogations,” he explained bitterly. “Gave me plenty of time to memorize the blueprint he kept in the main room.”

The ducts opened into a storage room. Kalyna shifted more fully to human form, though she maintained her fox ears and heightened senses.

“We need to warn Mother and Father,” she said, the words catching in her throat. “And find Rust.”

Echo nodded toward a metal stairwell. “Communications center one level down. We can send warnings from there.”