LOGINKade’s POVThe facility shook again, harder this time. Red emergency lights strobed across the hallway like blood pulsing through veins.Unit Prime’s grip on my throat loosened for a split second as it tilted its head, listening to something only it could hear. “Forsaken protocol, unauthorized.”I drove my knee into its gut and shoved it back. “Sounds like your masters are eating each other. How does that feel, you lab-grown freak?”Prime smiled, black blood dripping from its mouth. “It feels efficient. One problem takes the other one away.”Liora appeared at my side, breathing hard, knife still clenched in her fist. “Less philosophy, more dying, asshole.” She slashed at its face, opening a deep gash across its cheek.Sable fired three rounds into Prime’s back. “Kade, the override! Hit the self-destruct! We can still blow this place!”I ran towards the shattered control panel and started ripping wires, trying to trigger the manual sequence. Sparks flew everywhere like I was trying to
Kade’s POVUnit Prime stood at the bottom of the stairs like it owned death itself.It was bigger than the others, easily seven feet tall even in human form, with corded muscle and scars that looked like they’d been earned sometime it went hell. Its golden eyes shone with something that was almost personal. Like it had a vendetta against me.“I was created to kill you,” it said, its voice calm and deep. “Every simulation. Every training scenario. All of them ended with your spine in my hands.”I pushed Liora and Sable back a step. “Then come take it, big guy. I’ve had a long night.”Unit Prime smiled again. “This bravado of yours is expected, But it will be ineffective.”It moved.No blur, no warning, just pure explosive power. One second it was at the bottom of the stairs, the next it was slamming into me like a freight train. We crashed through the metal railing and hit the lower landing hard.“Kade!” Liora screamed.I tasted blood as Unit Prime pinned me, one massive hand around my
Kade’s POVHundreds. The floodlights on the ceiling shone down on us as the steel doors stood wide open, revealing row after perfect row of golden-eyed wolves standing in military formation. They didn’t move, I couldn't even hear them breathing. They just waited like machines ready to be switched on.Michelle stepped forward onto a raised stage, Ashram right beside her like the proud power couple from hell. She was smiling that same calm, satisfied smile from the conference room.“Well,” she called out, her voice amplified across the clearing. “You made it farther than I expected, Kade. I’m almost impressed.”I stepped in front of Liora, my claws already out and ready for defence. “Save the compliments. We’re here to end this.”Sable moved up on my left, rifle raised. “You should’ve stayed hidden, Michelle. Coming out to gloat is a rookie mistake.”Michelle laughed softly. “Gloat? No, dear. I’m simply here to offer you all one final chance. Look around you.” She gestured at the army
Kade’s POVThe cold river water went into every open wound in my body and stung like acid. We were halfway across when the golden eyes appeared on the opposite bank, dozens of them, silent and perfectly still.“Ambush!” Sable hissed, water splashing as she raised her rifle. “They knew exactly where we’d cross.”I kept one arm around Riley, who was barely conscious. “How the hell did they get ahead of us?”Liora treaded water beside me, her teeth chattering. “Does it matter? We’re screwed either way. Forward or back?”“Forward,” I said. Go back for what? “We fight through. No turning back now.”The leader of the enhanced wolves on the bank stepped forward, this one's eyes were quite brighter than the rest of them. “Alpha target acquired. Surrender or be neutralized.”Sable laughed as if it had just cracked a bitter joke. “Neutralized? That’s cute. You sound like a fucking robot.”The creature inclined its head to the right. “Resistance is inefficient. Michelle offers assimilation. Join
Kade’s POVThe leader of the Forsaken attacked before the last word left its mouth.And so did I. My shoulder still screaming but I could use it anyway. What other choice did I have? Our bodies collided like the thudding of dead meat, all of them heavy. It raked its claws across my chest while I drove my own into its side.“You smell like desperation, Thorn,” it hissed, breath hot and foul against my face. “Your mother begged us the same way.”“Shut the fuck up about my mother!” I snapped, and twisted my claws deeper.Beside me, Liora started shooting at the golden-eyed wolves, she was able to that drop two before they could close the distance. “Less talking, more killing!”Sable was a whirlwind on my other side, moving with the kind of brutal efficiency that only came from years of surviving alone. She jammed a combat knife into a Forsaken’s eye while shooting another golden wolf in the knee. “We don’t have time for your ancient grudge bullshit!”The second Forsaken laughed, as if i
Kade’s POV“Shit!” Sable rammed her fist into the console. “They’re hitting the main anchor point. We’ve got twenty minutes, maybe thirty if we’re lucky.”I stared at the screens. Golden eyes everywhere. The Forsaken moved between them like dark priests. Michelle and Ashram stood at the back behind a line of enhanced soldiers, calm as ever. Probably liking the side that they were on, because it was obviously not the losing side. Or the tormented one for that matter. Liora stepped closer to me, her shoulder brushing against mine. “So much for buying time. What’s the call, Kade?”Every eye in the command room turned to me. Now, just so so you, the weight of making a decision at this time was mush pressurizing than the silver collar ever put on me. I breathed out, as if what I was about to say was heavy. “We don’t wait for them to break in. We split the plan now. Sable, how many of your people can fight?”“Thirty-two healthy,” she answered. “The rest are tending wounded or running tech
KADE Just when Michelle was about telling me what she wanted, a call came in. She groaned at the intrusion and pulled her phone from her jacket pocket. "Oh, look who's calling," she said, and put the phone to her ear. "Yes?" Shouting. Someone on the other end of the call was definitely angr
KADE "Is this something kind of joke, Michelle?" I said. She smirked, but her grip in the gun betrayed the look of confidence she had on her face. Her hand shook a little and I guessed that she wasn't planning to shoot me down, or even point a gun right in my face."With all that has happened
KADE "Now, I'm going to give you two options, Mae. And you're going to pick one." I just watched. "First, you take this gun and shoot yourself in the leg, get to a hospital, and you don't come back here because of that." Mae started crying. I felt for her, I did. How the hell did Michelle exp
MICHELLE ONE MONTH AGO Getting married to Ashram Al Ali didn't feel like I had achieved much for myself. If marriage was an achievement, I had been married to Caine before and what the hell did that get me? Just a position in Thorn Industries and that was that all. Caine wasn't the man I tho







