Maximus

They entered the facility swiftly, but once inside they slowed their pace dramatically, spreading out through the hallways and checking room after room. It didn’t take long for him to start to feel an itch on the back of his neck.

“Is anyone else feeling that?” he asked quietly as they regrouped at the center of the two-story building.

“Feeling what?” Kean asked.

“Like we’re being watched,” Gavin said softly, standing with his back to his brothers, as if he expected them to be rushed at any second now.

“Where is everyone?” Kassian muttered, his eyes darting left and right. “I know it’s later in the afternoon, but it’s a Tuesday. Shouldn’t there be plenty of people in here?”

“I don’t know,” Maximus said slowly. “But I get the feeling like this building isn’t perhaps what we thought it was. He eyed the stairs in front of them, his eyes narrowing. “Hey, has anyone been downstairs yet?”

Heads shook all around. They’d cleared out the top two floors swiftly, but nothing had been done about the basement. It looked dark and unused, but Maximus knew they had to check it all before they started tearing the building down from the inside out. He motioned for Gavin to take the rear while he took point, leading the quintet into the basement. This facility was small enough that they’d convinced the women to stay outside with the cars.

The stairs continued down, much to his surprise. Instead of opening up into a basement, they kept descending, until they were three, then four floors underground. The lights were dimmer and farther apart, but his night vision pierced the dark easily, much to his relief. Maximus had a bad feeling about the building.

“I thought this place was supposed to be a holding facility for women the Institute had recruited before they shipped them off to their main base?” Kean asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Me too,” Maximus said. “But I certainly can’t see them holding the women down here in a dungeon like this. Even upstairs looked more like offices and cubicles, no?”

The others agreed.

“Maybe it was repurposed after Mila last heard about it?” Kassian suggested.

Maximus shrugged. It didn’t really matter. Between Mila’s experience as a former team leader for one of the Institute’s “retrieval” squads—code name for kidnapping and general armed security—and Madison’s experience with fighting the Institute, they had put together quite a long list of facilities owned or operated by the Institute. Over the past two weeks, he and his brothers had demolished or shut down all but two of them.

This one, and the main facility out in the country, where they had been once before. Until now, everything had gone as planned. All the facilities had been what they were supposed to be, until they’d arrived here. Ever since he stepped foot inside, Maximus had felt on edge. Now it was getting worse.

“So what is down here?” Gavin asked, still facing behind them, looking up the stairs in case anyone was following them.

“I don’t know. Let’s find out,” he said, pushing past the others and opening the door.

The stench hit him immediately. It was overpowering beyond anything he’d really ever experienced before.

“Oh fuck, what is that?” Pierce complained, holding an arm to his face, as if breathing through his shirt might make it any better.

“Death,” Kassian said angrily. “It’s the stench of death.”

“And life.”

The voice came out of the darkness ahead of them. Instantly the five were on guard, eyes penetrating every shadow and nook, looking for the ambush that was about to be sprung.

A hacking cough echoed from farther down the blackened hallway. It sounded extremely unhealthy and debilitating, wet with a sort of thwack-like sound. Maximus figured whoever it came from wasn’t far from joining the other dead bodies that had to be down here.

“Hello?” the same voice called out, then was once more followed by the heavy coughing.

Maximus frowned. For a trap, it was incredibly well done. Almost too well done. Motioning to his brothers to stay behind, he eased forward. His eyes finally began to pick out details in the dark ahead of him, and he was surprised to see that the hallway was lined with what appeared to be jail cells.

What is this place?

“Hello,” he called cautiously. “Who’s there?”

“My name is Harden,” came the reply. This time it sounded just a bit stronger, and there was no cough, though he sensed the owner fought valiantly to prevent it, using up much-needed strength.

“Why are you here?” he asked, still easing forward with extreme caution. At least this way, if it was a trap, only he would be caught in it.

“Because I chose to resist the bastards that put me in here.”

“Who put you in here?” he asked, though he had a rather clear idea. He continued to come nearer to the cell that contained the speaker. In order to do so though, he had to move past several cells that contained others who were clearly dead, some of them having been so for some time.

“Our mutual friends,” came the wry reply.

Maximus finally arrived at the cell. On the floor was a wretched, pathetic excuse for a wolf shifter. At least, that’s what he thought the man had once been. The scent was vaguely there, but it appeared he’d been living in his own waste for some time, so it was tough to tell.

“They just left you down here to die?” he asked, staying clear of the bars, just in case.

The shifter looked up at the sound, fixating on Maximus’s voice. His eyes were covered in crusted blood, and it looked like they’d been that way for a while. From where he was standing, it looked like every bone in his body had been broken, and then allowed to heal back incorrectly. Maximus snarled silently. It was the most brutal punishment a person could inflict on a shifter. Their bones would heal in a matter of hours, but if one was feeling particularly cruel, they could break the bones over and over again, until they were warped in a parody of how they should be. Such as had been done to this particular shifter.

He heard more sounds from farther down the hallway. Sounds of more people alive.

“How many of you are there?”

It took a moment for the prisoner to regain enough strength to speak. “Five, I believe. Out of the fifteen that were still alive as of two weeks ago.”

They’d been like this for two weeks? Maximus’s growls filled the hallway this time as he realized they had been left like this since he and his brothers started attacking. Left to die like animals, all because they wouldn’t work with the Institute.

“Who are you people?” he asked softly.

“We were the Kronum Resistance,” came the reply, the wolf shifter’s tone full of self-derision and defeat.

“What happened?” he asked, then shook his head. “Besides the obvious.”

“Magnus,” the man said almost instantly. “Magnus happened.”

Maximus frowned. “Who is that?” The name tickled the back of his mind, like he’d heard it before somewhere.

“The Institute’s newest pet. He was one of the best before he decided to betray us all.” The man paused to hack and wheeze for a bit.

By this point Maximus’s brothers had come down the hallway to see what was going on. Most of them just paused to pay attention and listen, but he saw shock play over Kassian’s face.

“I know you,” he said softly.

Harden looked up. “I recognize that voice.”

“You jumped me when I was with Gregory,” Kassian said.

“Who?”

“The gryphon shifter. We were at a refueling station for the human cars, and you and your friends attacked us. I defeated you, and told you to leave, because it wasn’t worth it.”

Harden nodded now. “Yes, yes I remember. It wasn’t long after that, that we were captured by Magnus.”

Maybe it was the repetition of the name. Maybe it was just his brain finally kicking into gear, but suddenly Maximus remembered where he’d heard the name before. He snapped his fingers. “Magnus…that’s the name of the person the police were supposed to take Haley to.”

The others just nodded. The name meant nothing to any of them, truth be told. Maximus had another thought. “What does he look like?”

“Tall sonofabitch,” Harden said. “Even for you bear shifters. Taller than you. Cool as ice too. I’ve never seen someone move so easily, as if he knew what you were going to do ahead of time. If you’ve ever seen him, you’d recognize him because of the eyes. They’re cold. Like that of a professional killer. You know the type.”

Maximus did. He also knew exactly who Magnus was. “Does he go around with a bald-headed second-in-command?”

Harden nodded. “Don’t know his name, but he’s a sadistic bastard. He’s the one who did this to us.” He looked down at his deformed body.

Maximus groaned.

“What?” Harden asked, looking around at the sound.

“We fought him several weeks ago.”

“You killed him?” Harden seemed to perk up at the idea.

“No, unfortunately not,” he replied, declining to explain why. His brothers would give him enough shit for it later. Maximus decided right then that Haley didn’t need to know. He admired her desire to avoid killing, and wanted to keep that intact within her. This would be a secret he’d take to his grave, because she would never forgive herself for it if anything happened because of her insistence on freeing Magnus.

“Damn.”

Maximus agreed. “Okay, well, let’s get you out of here,” he said, beginning to examine the bars. “The rest of you, go check the other cells. Harden thinks there are four others, so we should be able to all carry them out of here together.”

His brothers split up, finding the other survivors, and saying words of peace to those who hadn’t made it that far. While they did that, he looked at the bars of the cell holding Harden, wondering how he was going to open them. They didn’t seem to slide to the left or right like a normal door. It actually looked like they rose up from the floor.

“There must be a switch somewhere,” he said, trying to get Harden’s attention. The emaciated and mangled shifter had been fading in and out of lucidity.

When he didn’t reply, Maximus slammed a fist into one of the metal bars in frustration. He had no idea how much longer they had until the Institute got wind that they were here, and he didn’t want to waste it. Which is why he was surprised when his blow caved the metal in.

“The bars are weak,” he called, taking a hold of one and with a grunt, ripping it free from the floor. Two more quickly followed suit.

Of course the bars aren’t as strong as they need to be. Look at the broken wrecks that they’re designed to keep inside.

All around him his brothers were freeing the others. Once they’d verified there were only the five of them left, they prepared to go. Maximus bent down and scooped Harden up as gently as he could. The damage to his body was so great that the wolf shifter couldn’t do anything but howl in agony until the pain overwhelmed him and he passed out. Maximus sighed in relief. The noise had been grating on his soul.

“Let’s go,” he said stiffly, and the five of them carefully wound their way up the stairs back to the surface.

As they got closer, a noise reached his ear. Maximus paused, cocking his head.

“Anyone else hear that?” he asked so softly that only shifter-enhanced ears could pick it up.

“Sounds like footsteps,” Kean said from behind him.

That’s what he thought he’d heard too. Shit. They were out of time. The Institute had found them.

“We’re going to have to put them down and fight our way out,” he pronounced.

“Maximus?!”

His spine straightened as he recognized the voice.

“Haley,” he hissed, taking the stairs two at a time. “Sorry,” he muttered to the unconscious Harden, regretful of the extra strain he was putting on the poor shifter’s body.

There was no time to delay though. Leading the charge up the stairs, he quickly reached the main level, his head twisting this way and that as he looked for her. One reason, and only one reason would bring Haley into the building searching for him: The Institute was here.