Chapter 57 — Bree

Emily-Rose gives the door of our cell one more futile kick, then groans at the impact. “We’ve got to get out of here. If Rainn’s out there, then Derek and the others are too. He’s going to kill them all, just like he killed their parents.”

“Stop kicking the door,” I say calmly, though I’m pacing the inside of the small cell. “You’re only hurting yourself. Even the shifters in the other cells can’t break out.”

Sheri glares at her healed hand, as if she hates the very idea of the medicine in her bloodstream, then she looks up at me. “So, we just stay here?”

“Not a chance.” I shake my head. “We’re getting out. I’m trying to come up with a plan.”

“We’re running out of time,” Emily-Rose reminds me.

“I know.” I move to the door and look around the lab. One of the lab-coated men is still moving around. “We’re going to pretend something’s wrong with your hand and you’re reacting to the medicine they gave you,” I say, turning back to Sheri. “If I’m right about these guys, that’ll get their attention.”

“Then when they come to check, we knock them out and run for it?”

I nod. “We’ll open the other cells. I’m still not strong enough to fight, but there must be others who can.”

Sheri looks worried. “Is it safe to let them out? What if Hugo gave them something to make them dangerous? What if they’re no longer themselves?”

Like my dad. I close my eyes against the image of my dad as that horrible creature. He killed Rainn’s mom, and if I stay here and do nothing, Hugo will use him to hurt Rainn and the rest of his pack.

I can’t let that happen.

“Hugo hasn’t made anybody else into a weapon,” I tell Sheri. “We can let them out.” I take a deep breath. “Now, scream like you’re dying.”

“Got it.”

The next moment, the cell fills with her bloodcurdling yells. She stares at her hand like it’s burning and melting. Her agony seems so real that I don’t have to fake my panic.

“Her hand!” I yell, banging at the door. The lab-coated man who injected her looks in our direction. “There’s something wrong with her hand.”

At first, he looks like he doesn’t care about just another prisoner in pain, but as Emily-Rose and I keep yelling, he comes to the door.

“What?” he spits.

I point to Sheri. “She’s reacting to the drug. Look! Her hand is burning.”

“Nonsense,” he says, but as Sheri keeps screaming, his curiosity brings him closer to the door. He gives me a considering look, then with a dismissive shrug, he beckons to the same guy who injected me at the bookstore and drove us here. He’s still wearing his jean jacket and a smirk as he saunters over. Together, they open the door and enter the cell.

We don’t have any hope of overpowering them. They know that. That’s why they’re so careless. But I’m not counting on power, I’m counting on speed. Sheri pounces on the man reaching for her hand and Emily-Rose lunges for jean-jacket goon. I run out of the cell, not looking to see how my friends are faring as I open every cell door I pass, yelling as I swing the doors open.

“Out. Out. Out.”

I’ve opened about eight doors when something heavy crashes into me from behind. I fall flat on my face, the wind knocked out of me. With a groan, I push myself up and turn to see the goon cracking his knuckles as he stares at me.

“Going somewhere?”

With dismay, I see that none of the prisoners have emerged from the cells I opened. Are they too scared?

The man in the lab-coat emerges from our cell and locks it behind him, then as he approaches, one by one, he locks all the doors I’ve opened, sealing all the prisoners back inside with heavy clicks. As each door closes, I feel all hope slipping away.

No. I have to help Rainn.

I yell, and it’s a sound of all my frustration and pain. The lab-coat pushes the last door, attempting to close it, but the person inside the cell pushes back, holding the door open.

“Get back-”

The words are interrupted by a blow that sounds like splitting flesh and crunching bone. The lab-coat goes flying. A huge man steps out of the cell as the door opens. I know him, and he’s the last person I expected to find here, as a prisoner.

“Luke?” My voice is shaking. Luke is one of Hugo’s men. Or was, when I still lived with the pack. “What are you doing here?”

With a growl, Luke rushes the goon and tosses him across the lab, then he turns to me, panting hard. “Bree Hawkins?”

I nod.

He looks around, then rushes across the lab to open a cell. The one with the young girls from my pack. He lets them out and they cling to him, shaking.

“We have to get out of here,” he says, pointing at the men on the floor. “There are more.”

“How did you end up here?” I ask.

“I tried to stop Hugo,” he replies. “What do you think?”

“We can still stop him,” I say. “Get the pack. Bring them to the forest. Once they see what he plans to do tonight, they’ll stop following him.”

“It’s too dangerous.” His eyes fill with regret as he looks at me. “Hugo has a weapon.”

“I know,” I reply. “But tonight, I’m going to take that weapon from him. Just do as I say. This is how we stop him.”

Luke nods, and with a look of surprise at me, as if he’s not quite sure what to make of my new confidence, he shifts and lets the little girls climb on his back. I open the rest of the cells. Sheri and Emily-Rose are fine, but a little bruised.

“Let’s go.”

“What about the others?” Sheri asks. Around us, most of the prisoners look shellshocked, like they’re not sure what to do with their newfound freedom.

I shake my head. I’ve done what I can for them. Right now, I need to find Rainn.

Inside me, something moves. A faint, familiar feeling. It’s my wolf, reawakening. I take a breath and search inside myself.

I can feel her, but not strong enough to shift yet.

We run out of the lab and back into the underground garage. We find the truck we came in, empty, but the keys are in the ignition. Emily-Rose climbs into the driver’s seat.

“Find a phone, call Professor Denton and tell him exactly what’s going on,” I instruct. “Tell him to come and get you and take you home.”

“What about you?” Emily-Rose asks me.

“I’m going to find Hugo and stop him from hurting anyone tonight.”

“Bree…” Emily-Rose eyes fill with tears. “If anyone can, it’s you.”

I nod, and with a squeal of tires, the truck lurches out of the garage. I follow behind, running as fast as I can on two legs. My wolf is awake enough now to follow Hugo's scent into the forest. I will find him. Before he uses my father to hurt Rainn, I'll stop him. I will end his plans.

There is no other option.