Chapter 146: Chapter 146
Elara POV
My heart is pounding. I want to run in and grab Lanie and Isaac immediately, but I must do it the right way, or else everything will be lost.
I strain my ears for any sound from inside the room. In my own form, I could call on Lily’s wolf hearing to help me out, but somehow, she felt blocked off from me. A shudder of unease ripples through me. What if they found a way to disconnect us from our wolves, even without silver?
“Well, hi there,” a female voice bubbles into a giggle. “I didn’t know you were on duty today. Lucky me.”
The woman approaching me is wearing a set of neat scrubs with cartoon characters. It takes me a second to realise that she is flirting with me. Well, with Philips.
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” she continues. “I thought maybe you were blowing me off.”
“Never,” I say, giving her a big, broad grin. “As a matter of fact, I was hoping I’d see you today.”
Her entire face lights up, and I feel bad. Clearly, she is super into him, and he does not feel the same. She might be on the road to heartbreak, but she cannot be a good person if she is okay working in a place where terrible things are happening.
The door behind me opens, and a woman pokes her head out. She is wearing similar scrubs, but she looks tired.
“There you are,” she says, looking at the woman in front of me. “I’ve been waiting. I need to pee, so get in here.”
“I was going to grab a snack from my locker,” the new nurse makes a face.
“I need to go!” the other one hisses.
“Ladies, ladies,” I say in my best ‘I’m the man’ tone. “Why don’t you go ahead to the restroom, and you grab your snacks?”
“As long as you promise to share,” I add in a low voice as flirty as I can. “I’ll be right outside the door. Nobody’s going to get past me.”
“I can’t wait, and you’re late,” she scurries down the hall, calling over her shoulder. “So, if they write us up, I’m throwing you under the bus!”
“Go on,” I wink at the flirty nurse.
Blushing, she hurries to the end of the hall and turns the corner. The second she is out of sight, I run into the room. Oh, thank Goddess, there they are, both babies asleep in their cribs. I check as quickly as I can, but they both seem fine.
I yank a baby sling from the cabinet and manage to get both twins into it. It is not meant for two, but Philips’s chest is a lot broader than mine, so I am able to bind them both against me. His arms are longer, too, which is great since I can cradle them with one arm.
I open the door slightly, checking if the coast is clear. Nobody is in the hallway, and I hold the babies close to me. I take a deep breath and run.
Running with two babies strapped to my chest and feet four sizes bigger than I am used to is harder than I thought it would be. I catch myself as I stumble, muttering a curse, and my shoulder hits the wall, and I spin in a half-circle. Lanie shifts against my chest, letting out a muffled yelp.
“Shh, shh,” I soothe her. If she starts crying, this is going to get much harder.
Light shines into the corridor that does not look like it comes from overhead fluorescents, and when I turn the corner, I sigh in relief at the sight of a door to the outside.
Just as I pass one of the closed doors lining the corridor, one flies open. A guard comes out, looking as startled as I feel when I scream. Philips’s mouth lets out a high-pitched and shrill shriek that would have had me busting into hysterical laughter under any other circumstances.
“The fuck?” The guard reels back for a moment before getting himself under control.
“Out of my way!” I shout with as much authority as I can. “There’s been a breach in security! You got to ... get ... fuck!”
I kicked the door shut in his face. He shouts from behind the door, but I keep running toward the door and freedom. Behind me, I hear half a dozen voices and heavy boots as more guards spill out of the doorway.
“Philips, what the fuck are you doing?”
“Breach!” I shout over my shoulder. “The coup! They’re coming! You need to get to the armoury!”
I have no fucking clue what I am saying, but the raised voices tell me they are all confused. I am just a few feet from the door, and alarms start drowning out the screaming infants. Sheer terror threatens to overtake me, but there is no way I am going to let any one of those motherfuckers catch me and take away the twins again. I will protect what is mine.
I do not have time to think about that feeling, because the guards behind me are not going to stop.
Finally, I reached the door, and I banged it open. I stagger, holding the babies tight with one arm while the other grabs the railing of the short flight of concrete steps.
“No, idiot! Don’t shoot him!” A voice shouts behind me. “He’s got those kids with him!”
Any minute now, I think. Any minute, there will be a bullet between my shoulder blades. I leap off the steps, hitting the pavement beyond and rolling my ankle, but I keep the babies safe against me.
I can see the fence in the distance, and dread fills my gut. This is not where Mason parked! I do not have time to run around like a headless chicken in a parking lot, trying to find the right exit to Mason.
Philips is a heavy suit to carry, and he is slowing me down. I should shift, but I cannot reach Lily, and I have no idea how long this spell will last. Fuck, I do not know how I am going to do it, but I will have to climb the fence.
Like a rainbow on a rainy day, I see Mason speeding towards the fence. I want to cry out of relief, but fortunately, it gives me renewed energy.
Mason jumps out of the truck, shifts and rips a hole in the fence. Thank Goddess for fresh alpha power.
Mason shifts back, reaches through the fence, and his strong hands grab me by the front of Philips’s jacket, and pull me through.
Mason pulls me against his chest, holds up a leather pouch, and tugs open the top. He pulls out a handful of dust and blows it into the air all around us.
The babies instantly go quiet, eerily silent.
Everything, I realise, is quiet.
“What the fuck?” I whisper as four guards make it to the fence and push through the hole and keep on running right past us as though we do not even exist.
