Each set of wolves took out a guard; doing their best to be so silent that not even Charlotte could hear them work. The three of them took out the closest guard as a team. Though they’d never worked together like this, it was as if they had been born to do it.
Bram came up behind the man, covering his mouth with his hand while wrapping his arm around his neck. Charlotte took care of the man’s weapons before he could use them, and Shane tied the man up, even as Bram continued to hold him down, eventually causing the man to lose consciousness. They wouldn’t kill unless they had to. They weren’t on den lands or even near the wards, and the Alphas had wanted to make sure they didn’t leave a trail of bodies for the press to find.
They left the man alone, tied up, unconscious, and free of weapons and any way to communicate, and put him far enough away that it would be hard for anyone to see him—and where he’d be relatively safe from what they were about to do.
The wolves had plans tonight, and they weren’t going to let this guard get in the way.
Charlotte noted that the man hadn’t been military and frowned. Apparently, Shane had been correct, and Montag had officially gone off the rails. This wasn’t going to end well in the long run, she figured, but first, she had to see what was inside this building.
She still couldn’t sense anyone inside, and was afraid they might be too late for whoever had been imprisoned here as Shane was. They crept inside, on alert. They were armed with claws and guns, well trained in using both. Though the wolf inside sneered at the thought of using a weapon other than herself, Charlotte lived in the real world and would do what she needed to in order to protect her Pack.
The place was as silent as a tomb.
Empty.
She shook her head, sadness creeping up inside her as they viewed an empty cage.
“They kept wolves here,” Bram growled low. There was no one inside the building except for her people, so they were allowed to speak now. Bram had even swept the place for bugs, but even that had come up empty. Whoever had been in this place had truly left everything behind as they’d fled.
Well, not everything.
“I know,” she said finally. “I don’t scent any new blood.” She winced. “Only old.”
Shane frowned at Charlotte’s side. “Is that what I’m smelling?” He rubbed his temple. “Everything is so much stronger than it was before. Scents, sounds…everything. It wasn’t even this bad at the den.”
Charlotte turned to him, studying the lines that had formed on his brow. “We’re getting closer to the full moon. What you’re sensing is what we do every day. You’ll learn to live with it, I promise. And you’ll even learn to pick out different scents and sounds while drowning out the others like white noise. We’ll help you.” She paused. “If you want,” she added.
“I think that would be a good idea,” Shane said after a moment. He ran a hand over his muscled forearm and frowned. “My skin even hurts right now. Hell, this is going to take some getting used to.”
Bram snorted. “You can say that much. We’ll get you through, though. But first, let’s do another sweep because we need to find those vials.”
Charlotte cursed herself. Once again, she’d gotten stuck on other problems rather than the one at hand. She just couldn’t bear seeing Shane hurting, much like she couldn’t bear seeing Bram as frustrated as he was right then.
“The cages are empty,” she said again, her voice hollow. “Do you think they took whoever was in them when they left?”
Bram’s gaze went stony. “I don’t know, Char. I don’t even know which would be the better answer.”
“If Montag took them with him, they’re as good as dead,” Shane growled. “He was always a fierce leader, but I never knew he was a cruel one until it was too late.”
What would it feel like to know everything you’d fought for had been part of a lie? Charlotte wondered. Well, not everything for sure, but so many of Shane’s recent missions had been for Montag. And though she’d called him the enemy when she’d first found out about him, she knew she’d been wrong. There was no way a man could have that bleakness in his eyes at the sight of what his former commander had done and be part of the problem in the first place. Shane was the solution now, and Charlotte could only be grateful for that.
“We need to keep moving,” Bram said after a moment. If she hadn’t known him as long as she had, she’d have thought his words cold, but she could hear the underlying pain and rage warring within him. It did none of them any good to stand here and go through the thousands of different possibilities and outcomes of those within the cages. They had a job to do, and they needed to get on that.
The three of them met up with the others who had found more cages and exam rooms. Charlotte held back a shudder at the memories that came at her. She’d been in a building much like this one before, but she hadn’t been in the same position as she was now. She was far stronger now. She was free. She needed to remember that.