Page 46 of The Wolf and the Chimera (The Witch and the Cowboy #3)

Ryder

As I walked beside my brother through the brightly lit, narrow hall, the hazmat suit I wore crinkled with every step. The mask restricted my breathing, and the clear goggles forced me to use my human eyes to avoid being disoriented by every smudge.

How did Lyall’s wolves tolerate them?

Why?

When Kalli had led us into a connected storage room, I had been shocked by the number of strange clothes Lyall stored there for his closest underlings. Medical scrubs, white coats, and hazmat suits had lined the shelves and hangers.

I wondered how many wolves had been victimized by his experiments but shoved the thought aside. Any distraction could be deadly. Though the hazmat suit was stifling, it also concealed most of our faces and scents.

At a determined but unhurried pace, Kieran and I walked the path Kalli had instructed us to take. The hall twisted, and I hoped I wasn’t a fool for trusting her.

Though she had insisted splitting up was the safest option, I hoped I wasn’t a fool for leaving her behind.

Images of the brutal cuts down her face played in my mind. I had known Lyall was an asshole, but I hadn't realized he was an abomination .

I hadn’t realized he could hurt his mate.

I won’t leave the estate without Kalli, I promised myself.

I only needed to save Elle first.

Kieran and I didn’t dare pause at the many doors we passed, but around the bend in the hall, my steps stuttered.

On either side of the short stretch of hallway were glass walls and silver doors. A low curse escaped Kieran, and he paused. Even through the mask, the metallic tang in the air left a bad taste in my mouth.

“Keep walking,” I ordered Kieran in a low, muffled voice.

Together, we moved onward, though I drank in every detail of the strange rooms. As we walked, light hit the glass walls and revealed ancient, scrawling runes.

Beyond them, covering the rooms from floor to ceiling were hundreds of green and purple plants.

Their delicate, vibrantly purple petals promised death.

Though I couldn’t smell their spicy, earthy scent, I recognized them by appearance alone.

They flourished on the banks of a lake back home.

Wolfsbane.

“That’s what the suits are for,” Kieran whispered. “For going into these… cells.”

Right. These rooms were cells. If the locks on the outside of the doors weren’t proof enough, the silver shackles chained to the far wall made that abundantly clear.

As we approached the two gray doors at the end of the hall, I balked at their electronic locks and the keypad mounted beside them.

“Kalli didn’t mention this,” I muttered.

Abruptly, the doors were shoved open, and two wolves surged into the hall. The tall, slender male’s heavily gelled hair was askew, and something had tattered the smaller, blonde female’s otherwise pristine white jumpsuit. Upon the sight of us, their eyes rounded.

Though I tried to will my heartbeat to slow, it raced. Curses rang in my mind.

The suits don’t conceal our scents as well as we thought they do, and we're caught—

“Hurry!” the male wolf snapped. “Before she destroys everything!”

With that, the male and female raced past us. The doors drifted closed, but I caught one right before it snapped shut. Kieran released a low sigh and followed me into the narrow, concrete-walled stairway.

Above us, fighting clamored, but below…

Elle was there. Kalli had told me as much.

Kieran darted up the stairs.

“Kieran,” I snapped. “ Kieran!”

Already a landing above me, his reply was simple.

“Mel,” he said.

I called upon my wolf’s hearing and, sure enough, recognized a female voice.

“Is that all you have?” Melanie taunted breathlessly.

Something slammed against the wall and whimpered. Kieran raced faster toward it. Kalli’s words rang in my ears.

We can still save her.

If I went after my mate alone, I would be sealing both our fates. Besides, if Melanie fought the Sovereign’s forces, she was still pack.

My pack.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I followed my brother.

When I reached the top landing, a hazmat-wearing wolf tumbled out the door.

I barely lunged out of his path before he fell down the stairs.

Before me, Melanie crouched and snarled.

Her pink hair had partially escaped her ponytail, and a shallow gash bled on her thigh, staining her white jumpsuit, but she was otherwise whole.

And entirely prepared to lunge at me.

“It’s Ryder!” Kieran called.

Across the expansive, shadowy room, he fought a partially shifted wolf.

Melanie cocked her head, and I wrenched the mask off.

Recognition shined in her wolfish eyes. Behind her, a wolf slashed for her with wickedly sharp claws.

I intercepted the blow. Knocking his cheap swipe aside, I kicked his knee, and the joint buckled.

Seizing the moment, I brought him to the ground with a brutal punch to his back.

Hegroaned.

Melanie had already been engaged by yet another wolf. With a frenzied sweep of my gaze, I realized we stood in some sort of surveillance room. Across a huge, curved wall, screens poured out light and images. They shone brightly in the darkness. Half the many screens, however, were black.

More wolves poured from the depths of the room and launched themselves at my friends. Without another moment of hesitation, I jumped into the fray.