Page 52 of Glass

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FELIX

Poppy, what did you do?

Aside from the fact that she’s knocked herself unconscious and left a small gash on the edge of her forehead, she looks okay. But neither of us will be okay if I don’t get her the hell out of here. I had to grab the door before it locked behind Arnoult when he fled the lab. I let him go when I realized Poppy wasn’t right behind him. I barely made it in time to see a growing fire consuming the huge, sterile space.

Luckily for me, the doorman heard Poppy tell a cab driver where she wanted to go. If I hadn’t woken up when I did, I could have been too late. According to the security guards that I passed as they tried to flee the building, the sprinkler system here has been malfunctioning since the building was built. At some point the sprinklers were set off, but apparently they’re only putting off enough mist to make the smoke worse, which only made my frenzy to find my mate that much worse.

Security said they called for the fire department, but they’re taking too long.

Poppy’s head moves from one side to the other.Yes, wake up, Poppy. Come back to us.

She blinks up at me with her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. It takes a second for her focus to settle, but her pupils still look blown out. We have to get out of here, even if she is still hazy.

“Felix?” she whispers. She reaches up to touch my cheek and brushes her fingers over a handful of white fur.

I shifted to find her. The middle of a lab with a massive fire growing isn’t the kind of place I would normally risk shifting, but I wouldn’t have been able to find her quickly enough otherwise. I needed my best set of senses to lead me to her, and it worked. But now I’m in my wolf form for the first time with my mate.

Your eyes are really purple. The words come from her, but her lips don’t move.

I know what mind linking is between wolves. Families, mates, and packs—they speak to each other through a mental connection that joins groups of shifters together. I lost my mom before I ever had the chance to mind link with anyone else though, and I’m immediately overcome with the thought that it feelsstrange.

I wish Poppy and I could have mind linked for the first time under better circumstances, to work through the strangeness of it out of the way.

I need to get you out of here, I tell her, my wolf’s uneasiness heightening as another tall burst of flame starts to lick toward the lab’s ceiling. The roof could start to cave in at any minute. The lower floors were already being cleared by the time I got here, so there’s a good chance we’re the only two still inside.

Poppy’s hand falls away from my head as her eyes start to drift closed again.

No.

I nudge her harder than intended in my panic, but it’s effective. Her eyes pop open, wide and confused, and she pushes herself up on her elbows. I can tell the moment her eyes truly take in the fire raging around us, though she stays in the same dazed position. She has to know how dire this situation has become, though I have no idea how she even managed to build something so destructive in the first place.

I need to shift.Poppy winces as she sits up more. I move behind her, using my body to help support her back as she gets her bearings.

I’m not sure she can shift safely, and panic builds in my guy at the thought. At this point, I can’t give a damn about potentially exposing our kind; I only want us to get out safely. She’s clearly weak, and losing consciousness has made her movements sluggish. I’ll never be able to face her siblings or live with myself if I don’t get Poppy out of here.

My head swings around, eyes searching desperately for another solution, but I know from trying to move around in here myself that the safest place at the moment is low to the ground in wolf form.

Fuck. Are you sure?

She nods her head and leans away from me. Nothing happens for a moment, and then a painfully slow shift starts to morph her body. She twists unnaturally as her body struggles to make the shift, and I feel helpless, unable to help her.

I’m not confident she’s actually okay until she makes it fully to wolf form. She seems to get a better handle on herself once she’s fully shifted, and I find myself thinking, not for that first time, that it’s amazing how our wolf bodies can heal better than our human forms.

I don’t think we’ll get out unnoticed,I warn Poppy across our freshly opened mind link.

She prowls closer to me, her fur standing on end. My eyes latch onto the color of her fur, taking in the mix of barely noticeable purple strands with her otherwise normal fur. She’s the first shifter I’ve met with colored hair, and I have to tear my eyes away from my awe of her.

If we make it out of here alive, I hope to have more chances to appreciate the anomaly another time. Even if I have to start considering the Stockholm Syndrome plan yet again.

Poppy tilts her snout up.Don’t die on me, Felix.

I think that’s my line.I jerk my head for her to follow me. As I move, I keep one ear turned to listen for her to make sure she doesn’t fall behind. With the fire taking over the top floor of the building, the elevators are out of the question. We have no choice but to head for the emergency stairs.

I force my mind to go blank of any thoughts except making it out of this building before it potentially collapses. I can’t afford to worry about what kind of danger we’re putting ourselves in by leaving the building in the middle of New York City in wolf form.

Surviving. Both of us surviving. That’s the only thing that matters.