ARIA'S POV
I ran.
Down the medical facility hallway, past startled nurses and security guards, my bare feet slapping against cold tile. The doctor's words echoed in my head: They're coming for the enhanced Alpha and his mate.
Kael's room was three floors up. I took the stairs two at a time, my heart hammering so hard it hurt.
"Miss Sinclair!" A guard called after me. "You need to stay in your room—"
"Kael's in danger!" I shouted back without stopping. "We're all in danger!"
I burst through the stairwell door onto Kael's floor—and froze.
Blood. Everywhere.
Two guards lay unconscious on the floor. A third was pressed against the wall, held there by Kael's hand around his throat. Kael's eyes blazed with silver fire, his teeth bared in a snarl that looked more animal than human.
"Kael!" I screamed. "Let him go!"
Kael's head whipped toward me, and for one horrible second, I didn't recognize him. The predator wearing his face looked at me like I was prey.
Then recognition flickered. "Aria?"
"Let him go," I repeated, forcing my voice steady even though I was terrified. "He's on our side. He's trying to protect us."
Kael looked at the guard he was strangling, then at his own hand like he didn't understand how it got there. He released the man, who crumpled to the floor gasping.
"I didn't—" Kael's voice cracked. "I heard footsteps. Smelled weapons. I thought they were attacking. I didn't mean to—"
"It's okay," I said, moving closer carefully. Like approaching a wounded wolf. "You're okay. We're okay."
"I'm not okay!" Kael backed away from me, his whole body shaking. "I attacked security guards, Aria. Good people trying to do their job. I could have killed them."
"But you didn't. You stopped when I asked you to. That's what matters."
"For how long?" Kael's voice was raw with desperation. "How long before I can't stop? Before the serum takes over completely and I become the monster Kane wanted?"
I wanted to tell him he'd never become a monster. That he'd always be Kael, the person who'd risked everything to help me find Asher. But I could see the silver glow intensifying in his eyes, see the way his muscles tensed like coiled springs ready to explode.
The serum was winning.
"The doctor said it takes seventy-two hours to stabilize," I reminded him. "We just need to get through that. Then you'll have control again."
"And if I don't?" Kael's laugh was bitter. "What if this is who I am now? What if Kane's 'perfect predator' is all that's left?"
Before I could answer, alarms started blaring throughout the facility.
Red emergency lights flashed. A computerized voice announced: "Perimeter breach. All personnel to defensive positions. This is not a drill."
They were here. The other Legacy Program operatives. Coming for us just like the dying assassin had warned.
"We need to go," I said urgently. "Now."
"Where?" Kael demanded. "They'll track us anywhere we run."
"Then we don't run." I grabbed his hand, ignoring the dangerous heat radiating from his skin. "We fight. Together."
Agent Torres burst through the stairwell door, weapon drawn. "Both of you, with me. We're evacuating to the safe room in the basement."
"How many attackers?" Kael asked, his voice shifting to something cold and tactical.
"At least twenty. Maybe more. They hit all four perimeter walls simultaneously." Torres was already moving, and we followed. "Someone gave them the facility layout. This is a coordinated strike."
We ran down corridors filled with panicking staff and patients. Gunfire echoed from somewhere above us. Glass shattered. People screamed.
"They're inside already," Kael said, his enhanced senses picking up what we couldn't hear yet. "Third floor. Moving fast. They'll reach us in less than a minute."
"The basement's too far," Torres said grimly. She kicked open a door marked "Supply Closet" and shoved us inside. "Hide here. Don't come out until I give the all-clear."
"You can't fight twenty trained operatives alone—" I started.
"I'm not alone. I've got a team." Torres pressed something into my hand—a keycard. "If I don't come back in ten minutes, use this to access the emergency exit tunnel. It'll take you outside the compound. Run and don't look back."
She was gone before I could argue, the door slamming shut behind her.
The supply closet was tiny, dark, and smelled like disinfectant. Kael and I pressed against the back wall, barely breathing as footsteps thundered past in the hallway.
"Eight of them," Kael whispered, his glowing eyes the only light in the darkness. "Military trained. Heavily armed. They're searching every room."
"Can they smell us?" I asked.
"Not through the door. But when they open it..." He didn't finish the sentence.
We waited in tense silence. Thirty seconds. A minute. Two minutes.
Then the doorknob rattled.
Kael moved in front of me instantly, putting his body between me and the door. His shoulders were rigid, every muscle coiled and ready to fight.
The door burst open. A flashlight beam cut through the darkness.
"Clear," a voice called. The flashlight swept across shelves of medical supplies, missing us pressed against the back corner by inches.
The door started to close—
My phone buzzed.
The sound was deafening in the silence. The flashlight beam swung back, pinning us in its glare.
"Found them!" the operative shouted.
Kael exploded forward with inhuman speed. The operative didn't even have time to raise his weapon before Kael disarmed him and threw him into the hallway with bone-breaking force.
"Run!" Kael shouted at me.
But more operatives were flooding the corridor. Six of them, guns raised, surrounding us.
"Stand down," their leader ordered. "We just want the enhanced Alpha. Surrender peacefully and the Omega goes free."
"Liar," Kael snarled. "You'll kill us both."
"Eventually," the leader agreed with a cold smile. "But we'll make it quick for her if you cooperate. Otherwise..." He aimed his gun at my head. "Otherwise, she watches while we dissect you alive. Your choice."
The mate bond pulsed with Kael's rage and protective fury. I could feel him preparing to attack, to take on six armed operatives in a suicidal attempt to save me.
"Don't," I whispered. "Kael, please don't—"
"I won't let them hurt you," Kael said quietly. "Whatever it costs."
"You're both coming with us," the leader said. "Dead or alive. Your choice which."
Kael's eyes blazed brighter. His body began to change—muscles swelling, movements becoming more fluid and predatory. The serum was taking over, turning him into the weapon Kane had designed.
The operatives saw it too. Their leader's eyes widened. "Take him down! Now!"
Six guns fired simultaneously.
Kael moved like liquid lightning, impossibly fast. He dodged four bullets, took two in the shoulder—and kept coming.
What happened next was carnage.
I'd seen Kael enhanced before, but this was different. This was the predator fully awakened. He moved through the operatives like they were standing still, disarming and disabling with brutal efficiency.
In fifteen seconds, all six were on the ground, groaning or unconscious.
Kael stood among them, breathing hard, eyes blazing, blood dripping from his wounds—but he was smiling. Actually smiling.
And that smile terrified me more than anything else.
"Kael?" I said carefully. "Are you... are you okay?"
He turned to me, and I saw it in his expression—the part of him that was still human wrestling with the part that wanted to hunt, hurt, kill.
"No," he whispered. "Aria, I'm not okay. I can feel myself slipping. The violence feels good. Natural. Right." His voice broke. "I'm losing myself."
I stepped closer despite every instinct screaming to run. "Then hold on to me. Use the mate bond. Let me anchor you."
"What if I hurt you?"
"You won't." I took his blood-covered hand in both of mine. "I trust you."
Through the mate bond, I pushed every positive emotion I had toward him—love, trust, hope, determination. Trying to remind him who he really was underneath Kane's monster.
For a moment, the silver glow in his eyes dimmed. Kael's expression softened.
"Thank you," he breathed.
Then new footsteps echoed in the hallway. Heavy boots. Dozens of them.
"More coming," Kael said, the predator surging back. "Too many. We can't fight them all."
"The emergency tunnel," I remembered, pulling out Torres's keycard. "This way!"
We ran through corridors filling with smoke and chaos. Behind us, the operatives gave chase. Ahead, the emergency exit door gleamed with a green light.
I swiped the keycard. The door hissed open.
We plunged into darkness, down a tunnel that stretched into blackness. Emergency lights flickered every twenty feet, barely illuminating the concrete passage.
"Keep running," Kael urged. "I'll hold them off—"
"No! We stay together!"
But the operatives were faster than expected. Flashlight beams bounced behind us. Shouts echoed off tunnel walls.
The tunnel ended at a ladder leading up to a heavy metal hatch. I climbed first, Kael right behind me, the operatives seconds away—
I threw open the hatch and we burst out into cool night air. We were in the woods a mile from the facility. In the distance, I could see smoke rising from the compound.
"This way," Kael said, pulling me deeper into the forest.
We ran until my lungs burned and my legs screamed. Finally, Kael stopped in a small clearing.
"We need a plan," I gasped. "We can't just keep running—"
My phone buzzed again. A text from an unknown number.
My blood turned to ice as I read it aloud:
"Run all you want. We have your brother. We have Luna. We have Marcus. Surrender in 24 hours or they die one by one. Starting with Asher. We'll send you pieces. —Project Legacy"
Below was a live video feed.
Asher, Luna, and Marcus—all three tied to chairs in a dark room, very much alive but terrified.
And standing behind them with a knife was someone I recognized.
Professor Cross.
Alive.