Page 121 of Wanted

It hurts like hell but I ignore the pain. I’m seething with anger and hostility.

“Dammit, I knew we should’ve used silver for those fucking cages,” Dr. Lee grits out to the men in hazmat suits.

“Then we all would’ve gotten burned.”

Their words barely register as I throw myself at the bars again. The door begins to fold underneath the impact of my wolf strength. I need to get to Chance and at the people who hurt my sister.

I growl and howl as I throw myself one final time at the bars. The door flies open from the broken lock and I spill out of the cage, sliding across the linoleum floors.

The strength of my paws brings the skidding to a stop.

“She’s free!” my mother shouts.

She runs across the room, my father directly behind her. I dart for the door, getting between it and their freedom.

A growl emanates from my throat as I bare my incisors at them. The horror on my mother’s face only encourages me. I want her to be afraid of me.

I sniff at the air, inhaling their fear. A howl rips from me as I go to leap at her throat. As soon as I do, pain explodes in my side and I’m sent spiraling sideways. My body slams into the far wall at the other side of the room.

Dazed and confused, my wolf whimpers from the pain.

We struggle as we attempt to rise to our paws once again. Though, I stumble a couple of times, once on my feet, I spot one of the men in the hazmat suit wielding a wooden baseball bat.

“Run!” he says over his shoulder.

The two people behind him—my parents—start for the door. I refuse to let them get away.

I lunge at the bastard with the baseball bat. He tries to swing, but my wolf speed gives me the advantage. I reach his throat before the bat makes contact with me. It falls from his hands, the loud sound ricocheting around the room as I clamp down on the vital organs of his neck.

He goes limp and falls to the ground. I don’t even think about the fact that I’ve killed someone, because I start for the two people who raised me.

Angela and Davide Clarke. The people I thought loved me.

Now I know Ashley and I were no more than a means to them. To get money. All while they loathed who we truly were.

The same people who made me feel ashamed and disgusted with who I was for years. The sick bastards who lied to me and made me believe I wasn’t fucking perfect the way I was born.

“Oh god!” my father yells as I bite his leg. “Angela, help me!” He reaches for my mother as I rip a piece of flesh out of his calf. He goes down to the floor.

“Get off of him!” the woman I called mother for years, shrieks while swatting at me. She doesn’t get near me though.

I leave her husband and slowly stalk toward her. When she realizes my attention is now on her, she freezes in place. Her bottom lip quivers in fear and tears begin to slide down her cheeks.

“No, please. Don’t come any closer,” she begs with a tremble in her voice. “Please, no!”

“Is that how my sister begged you for her life?” I ask, but in my wolf form it comes out as a growl and howl that she only interprets as malice.

I’m only a few feet from her. I recoil with the intention of leaping directly for her throat but pain rips through my side.

On instinct, I swat at whatever’s just attacked me with my paw. I pivot to find another wolf. This one is red and larger than me. He’s ready to attack.

With his teeth bared, he jumps in my direction, aiming directly for my neck. I tuck and roll, causing him to land on the floor, nearly colliding with the wall. He doesn’t stop his pursuit of me. I push a chair and then knock over one of the smaller metal tables to keep him from getting to me.

He’s not perturbed, though. It’s obvious this wolf is determined to kill me and I’m left with no other option but to engage with him.

As soon as I make this decision, I see Angela Clarke at the other side of the room, helping her husband to his feet and scurrying toward the door. I start for them, determined not to let either one of them get away.

Yet, the wolf stalking me snaps his jaws at me. Without thinking, I leap, using one of my paws to swat his face. It’s a direct hit and his head snaps sideways. The blow would only be enough to merely stun him for a second or two, however.