We made it to the front entrance without running into anyone else, thankfully. Caleb kept scouting ahead, but his body language relaxed visibly when we hit the front.

“Looks like the cavalry is arriving.” He shoved the door wider for us to see several armored trucks pulling up to the gates.

We dashed across the open space to the gates as teams of heavily armed agents piled from the trucks and took out the gates. They rushed past us toward the building. When one group paused to possibly detain us, Caleb flashed an Omega Group ID badge to a helmeted man, and he waved us through to where Wesley’s van had just pulled up.

“Thank fuck for that!” Caleb exclaimed. “I was not looking forward to trooping back down to the rest stop again.”

The other guys piled out of the van, and Cole snatched me up into a tight hug, pressing on my still injured side, and I cried out sharply in pain. He released me so fast I staggered and nearly landed on my ass.

His sharp, dangerous eyes raked over me, taking in the tears, gashes in Austin’s T-shirt, and the blood now running down my thighs. He went to lift the shirt to check my wounds, but as soon as his hand slid underneath, he had to have noticed I was naked. When he went still, his frigid eyes turned murderous.

“Later,” I promised him and shook my head firmly. I was not reliving my nightmare out here.

His mouth tightened, and he considered me for a moment before barking at Wesley, “Wes! Do you have spare clothes in the van?”

“Uh, yeah? I think so?” he responded, digging around in the back of the van and then popping out with a zip-up hoody and sweatpants, which he tossed over to us. Cole caught them without taking his eyes off me, then held the pants out for me to step into, which I did gratefully, pushing them over my boots. Once I had them on and had tightened up the drawstring, Cole handed the hoody to River to hold up and shield me from other eyes before he carefully peeled Austin’s ruined T-shirt off me and tossed it aside. I shivered in the cold air and crossed my arms across my naked chest, but allowed him to inspect my bloodied torso. Caleb wordlessly handed him a bottle of water, which Cole used to wash some of the blood from my skin, exposing the almost healed gunshot wound and the still fresh gashes from that crazy bitch’s mutated claw-hands.

“Why aren’t these healing?” Cole asked gruffly, contradicting the soft caress of his fingers around the gaping cuts.

I shrugged, already noticing the rest of my bruises were virtually gone. “No idea, but some chick did it with her claws.” They all stared at me like I’d taken one too many knocks to the head, and I made an exasperated noise.

“I’m serious. The woman that shot me—somehow, and I don’t know how, she transformed her hands into, like, mutated werewolf claws. It was the weirdest shit. So maybe it has something to do with whatever gave her that ability?” I shivered again, and River took the hint to wrap Wesley’s hoody around me. Turning me to face him, he zipped it closed, then pulled me close for a hug, careful of my injured side.

“We will be discussing your insubordination when we get home, Kitten,” he murmured in my ear, then held my gaze long enough for me to see all the hurt and worry in his eyes.

I’d meant well, but I’d fucked up coming here. So, I nodded and whispered, “Yes, sir.”

Our emotionally charged moment was broken by the loud whirring of a helicopter taking off from the roof of the laboratories, and we all craned our necks as if we could see who was inside.

It wasn’t long until Austin stalked back over to us from where he had been speaking with one of the black armored men who looked to be in charge of things.

“It was the bitch and that skinny dick,” he snarled, but I’d already known it would have been. “Plus, a couple of her scientists and test subjects. Seems they had the heli camouflaged somehow so the recon team hadn’t picked up on it until it was too late. The rest of her staff have been detained, and the patients will be getting medical assistance shortly.”

I shuddered at the mention of Dupree’s patients and at how close I had come to being one of them.

“We need to get Kit seen to,” River announced. “If those gashes aren’t healing, then they need stitches.”

Austin looked surprised, but he’d missed our earlier discussion.

“I’m pretty sure they are healing. Just really, really slowly.” I fingered the edges of the wounds through the fabric of Wesley’s hoody, but the skin itched and pulled as it knit together. “Let’s just get out of here so I can shower.” I was desperate to wash the feeling of Simon’s hands off me.

River gave a sharp nod and waved everyone into motion. Without asking, I followed the twins to Caleb’s Mustang. To my surprise, Austin climbed into the backseat with me. I gave him a look, tilting my head as though to ask what the hell he was doing, but he just met my gaze with a steady stare, giving absolutely nothing away on his handsome face.

I was way too tired to pick a fight, so I just shrugged and got comfortable against the door, closing my eyes. As I drifted on the edge of sleep, a strong, calloused hand lifted one of mine and threaded our fingers together. But I must have been imagining it because it was only Austin in the back seat with me, and such a tender gesture of comfort would never come from him.