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On the bedside table, she scrawled a note that contained only two words. Ava said what he’d tried so hard to express but couldn’t say: I’m Sorry.
***
Two hours later, Ava was sprinting on four legs over icy land. Bits of frozen snow compacted between her paws, the chill radiating through her limbs, but she didn’t stop. She drew closer and closer to the plant where Remmus had been hit with the psychic poisoning.
Her path had become clear.
Riaz had dropped off several things for her while she’d stayed with her mate, including her laptop. Fortunately, Remmus had left an easy trail to follow. As he had showed her, she’d clicked into the ‘Espionage and Secret Documents’ folder and found that his protocol had finished.
The entire package, enough to bury Hannah Preston, was boxed up with a perfect bow. A quick call to her pack’s IT wizard made the process seamless. Once engaged, Remmus’ code had automatically sent Hannah a notice of investigation from Uncle Sam.
The ‘text’ that Hannah then sent from her phone told all employees, cleaners and production members alike, to go home. When the plant blew up tonight, it would frame Hannah as someone attempting to cover her own tracks. If video surveillance was recorded and survived the attack, it’d look like Hannah was the one planting the bomb.
Ava and Hannah were, after all, nearly twins.
It hadn’t been hard to convince Celeste to load her up with enough C4 to blow the plant. The other woman was just as bloodthirsty as she was for revenge.
When Celeste had offered the teleport, Ava had refused. She didn’t want anyone to compromise her position, and she wouldn’t allow anyone to be hurt in her stead. It’d taken her only an hour to get to the plant via car, and it’d been easy enough to shift from there.
The straps of the werewolf-designed pack she’d slung across her back would fit her both in her wolf and human shape. It was big enough to carry the explosives and detonator, but not large enough to be a nuisance.
If she stayed wolf, perhaps the Raeth wouldn’t notice her. And yet, maybe it would be better to draw him out, Ava amended, have him come looking for her.
Slowing to a trot, she crawled toward the outskirts of the building, her keen eyesight immediately detecting the two guards that patrolled the inner ring of fences.
Though Ava could shift, remove the C4 from her pack and lob it over the fence, that’d have the same effect of a mole trying to move a mountain. No, if she wanted to take out their entire operation, she’d have to make it inside.
She didn’t have the convenience of a short-range teleport but fortunately, she’d thought ahead and brought wire cutters. Ava shifted to cut through the chain-link fence and slipped inside. Then, it was a mad dash toward the inner sanctum.
Baring her teeth soundlessly at the cold, she slunk toward the wall of the building, camouflaged by night. She’d played the stealthy operator to Riaz’s blunt hammer too many times to count, and she was no stranger to this type of mission.
Low to the ground, she made no noise as she crept toward the door they’d used their first time penetrating the facility. Clearly seldom used, it made the most sense to infiltrate.
Shifting in a single stride, her booted feet crunched in the snow outside the door. Ava took a breath to steady herself, then listened for the sound of footsteps or signs of life on the other side of the door. Hearing none, her fingers glided over the cool metal of the door handle before turning it noiselessly. Ava peeked inside before she slipped into the warmth of the building.
Locating a remote space to plant the C4 was easy enough. Given ‘Hannah’s’ text to go home, no one remained in the building, and she’d only scented one person who’d come by this way in the last few hours. Silently, she crept into the abandoned women’s bathroom that was centrally located on the lowest floor. At this point, she didn’t care if this entire facility burned to the ground.
All she cared about was getting even, and though this was only one small step, at least it was movement forward. It meant destruction to the ones who’d harmed her mate.
Setting the detonator for a remote start, her lips pulled into a savage smile. Revenge would be hers—and she wouldn’t leave a body count behind. Now, she just needed to clear the area. Locking the stall door, she wiggled free from beneath the salmon-colored metal and into the bathroom that stunk of disuse and cleaning products. Shuddering, all she could think of was the poor souls who worked in this facility, the majority of whom had no idea they were in the business of killing innocent people.
She crept along the eerie, abandoned hallways as silently as she had before. Each sense she possessed was charged with the sweet energy of justice, the wolf pacing in her chest salivating for retaliation.
Ava was nearly home free when the predator beneath her skin prickled.
Immediately, she brushed up against a wall. Two more hallways would lead her to the exit, then it was a dead sprint to the fences that separated her from freedom.
Gaze slicing around the quiet corridor, she tried to get a read on what had set off her instincts. Nothing appeared within her immediate vicinity, but the primal urge to run wouldn’t abate. Wolf whining in her chest, Ava ceded to the impulse.
Though her feet were soundless upon the flooring, the sound of her panting echoed in her ears. Left. Sprint. Bank right. Sprint. The door was within sight, and her heart leapt. Freedom was so close she could taste it.
“Oh, little wolf, come back to taunt me?”
Ava stopped dead.
The voice, deep with a darkness that curled around her and left her wanting to retch, came from behind. It was close enough that she’d have jumped out of her skin if she hadn’t already been sprinting. Turning on her heel, she caught sight of the man who’d startled her.
No, not a man.
