Shock widened his eyes.

“I know the risks of my job. I can handle them.” She kept her voice calm with an extreme effort of will.

“You have an alpha vampire who wants nothing more than to sink his teeth into your neck and a werewolf who nearly killed you.” Case put his hands on his hips. “You actually think you can ‘handle’ them? Because I sure as shit don’t believe you can. I don’t believe—”

A shrill alarm cut through his words.

“No,” Case whispered. He whirled for the door. “No!”

The alarm grew even louder.

“What’s happening?” Olivia asked as fear pumped through her.

He yanked open the door. A guard stood there. “Sir, the prisoners—”

“Someone’s trying to escape from the facility. We need to get this place locked down, now,” Case snapped back to the younger man. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Get her back to her quarters. Go via the south side of the facility—”

The guard’s blue eyes widened. “That’s where the werewolves are.”

“I damn well know where they are.” Case grabbed a weapon from the cabinet near the door. “Right now, we need to keep her away from a certain vampire, so that’s the safest course. Get her back to her quarters, now.”

The alarm was still shrieking.

Then Case was gone.

***

She could hear the growls. The corridor was dark, too dark, and it felt as if she were walking right into a cave. The growls echoed all around her. The alarm had finally stopped, and maybe that should have made Olivia feel better. It didn’t.

“Why did you want to talk to the monsters?” The guard asked, glancing back at her. Evan. He’d told her that his name was Evan Jurant.

“It’s my job.”

He grunted, then turned back around. He pulled out a keycard and unlocked a door with thick, steel bars. He opened that door, swinging it so that it opened back toward them. He raised his hand, indicating she should go through first, but she hesitated.

Evan frowned. “Doctor?”

“This route will take me to my quarters?”

“Of course.” He eased back, making even more room for her to go first.

She pushed back her shoulders and advanced. I need to find Shane. She’d taken about four steps when she heard the door shut behind her. The sound was overly loud. Strangely final.

“You’ll have plenty of time to talk with the monsters now.”

Olivia spun around. Evan hadn’t followed her—he’d closed that door and he was locking it again. “No!” Olivia grabbed for the bars, but it was too late.

Evan looked as if he were barely twenty years old, but his brown eyes were so cold as they stared at her. “You’re not gonna get out, doctor. They’re gonna want to keep you.”

The growls had died away. Goosebumps rose on her arms. She could almost…almost feel others closing in on her, but Olivia was afraid to look over her shoulder. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I was paid, very well, for you.” He took a few more steps away from the bars. “You’re in the maximum security area, Dr. Maddox. Locked in with the most dangerous werewolves. I hope you enjoy your talks with them.”

Then he turned. Started walking away.

“No!” She screamed after him as Olivia jerked on the bars. “You can’t do this! The cameras—”

“Have all been turned off.” He paused. Glanced back at her. The corridor was so dark around him that she could barely see his face. “An escape is in progress. The Paras have sabotaged some of our equipment, and by the time all of our machines are back online, well…it won’t matter for you.”

Footsteps rustled behind her.

“Don’t do this,” Olivia whispered. “Please.”

His voice was hard as Evan said, “It’s survival of the fittest here…sorry.”

Survival of the fittest.

Behind, those footsteps drew closer. And even before she turned to face those stalking her, Olivia knew who would be leading the pack.

“Hello, again, Dr. Maddox…”

David’s voice wrapped around her as a hand curled around her shoulder. She looked down and saw his claws.

Then she did the only thing she could. Olivia screamed, “Dragon!”

Because Pate had told her…If hell breaks loose, look for a dragon. He might be able get your ass to safety.

Hell had broken loose. And if help didn’t come, her ass would be dead.

***

Shane’s eyelids flew open. He was on a table—an operating room table, and some bastard in green scrubs was holding a bloody knife above him.

“He’s awake!” The words were a desperate gasp from behind the bastard’s facemask. “Dose him again, dose him—”

Shane grabbed the knife. Broke the fool’s wrist. Took the weapon and hurled it at the other idiot who was trying to come toward him with a tranq.

The knife sank into the man’s arm and he fell, screaming.

Humans…always so weak.

Just as I’m…weak…

Shane glanced down and saw the blood that soaked him. There were long slashes on his chest. His arms. Fury pumped through him. “What. The. Fuck?”

“I-I was just following orders,” his soon-to-be-snack stuttered. “Just—”

Shane sank his teeth into the man’s throat. Blood poured onto his tongue and some much needed power pulsed within Shane.

“Dragon!”

The cry reached him, so very faint, and he yanked his mouth away from his prey. Olivia?

He strained, but heard no more screams.

His prey whimpered within Shane’s grasp. “Give me weapons,” Shane growled at him. “Give me your access codes…”

The man stared at him, his eyes widening as the fellow seemed to go slack within Shane’s grasp.

I have his blood. I can control him. He’d been controlling humans for centuries. “Give me everything I need,” Shane commanded.

His prey nodded.

***

David laughed. “Dragons? You won’t find them here, pet, just wolves and bloodsuckers.”

Olivia could see at least six other men behind him, all crowding in on her. All wearing collars that should have controlled them, but their claws were out and their teeth had lengthened and seriously sharpened.

“I thought they were putting you in solitary,” Olivia whispered to David.

He smiled at her, and the sight made her stomach knot. “You also thought they were keeping you safe.” He leaned toward her. David trailed a claw down her cheek. “Are you tired of being wrong yet?”

She nodded. “I really am.”

He laughed. The claw scratched her skin, and blood dripped down her cheek. Her back was pressed to the bars, shoved hard against the door as if she could find escape that way.

She couldn’t.

And she couldn’t get through the pack of werewolves in front of her.

“Most of the guards are on the north end of the prison. They think vamps are trying to escape.” David shook his head. “But there’s no need to escape, not when the thing we need is right…” His claw slid down her throat. Paused over her frantically racing pulse point. “Here.”

What he was saying made no sense to her. Why would he possibly need her?

“I’ll find out how to use you,” David promised her, “even if I have to slice you open to find out your secrets.”

This couldn’t be happening.

“You’re mine, djinn. Mine.”

What the hell had he just called her? She pushed harder against those bars, wishing with all of her might that the door would open and—

The door opened. She fell back, heading right for the floor, but strong arms caught her before she slammed down. Those arms lifted her up—and against a powerful body.

“Got you,” Shane whispered.

Then the werewolves attacked.

Chapter Four

Shane shoved Olivia behind him even as he jumped forward and rammed the door back into place. He pushed hard, using his enhanced strength, because those dick werewolves were trying to keep that door open.

But the silver bars were burning them. The silver didn’t burn him. With a ferocious roar, Shane slammed that door back into place.

David’s claws flew out at him, fitting between the bars as the werewolf tried to go for Shane’s throat. “You’re dead!” David shouted.

Shane backed up, just one step, so that his jugular wouldn’t get sliced by those swinging claws. “Undead is the correct term, jackass. Get it right.” He bared his fangs at the wolves. “Guess who gets to stay in a cage?”

“Give her to me!” David’s fury had darkened his face and made his eyes flash.

“Sorry, but I think I’m keeping her.” And why the hell did the werewolf want her so badly?

Olivia grabbed Shane’s arm. “We have to get out of here. The guard—Evan—brought me to them. Just locked me inside with them and left me.”

Sonofabitch. He needed to get her off the island. If the guards were selling her out, there would be no safe place for her there.

I warned Pate. Did he listen to me? Hell, no.

Pate never listened to anyone.

His fingers locked with Olivia’s. David began to laugh then.

“You know,” David said, “you know…and you think you can control her? I saw her first.”

He didn’t know anything right then—well, anything except the fact that he and Olivia were screwed. “The f**k you saw her first.” He pulled Olivia back down the corridor. He had all of the infirmary doctor’s keycards and access codes. He’d find a place to hide Olivia, then he’d make sure he got her off that island.

Somehow.

“I want her magic!” David bellowed. “I’ll have it—even if I have to claw through you to get her, vampire!”

Those claws weren’t hurting anyone right then. Shane’s hold tightened on Olivia. What kind of magic did the woman have? This whole situation was one serious screw-up after another.

He took off running with her then because he didn’t know how long he’d have before the guards closed in or before the werewolves got out.

Pate had thought that he’d taken out all of the corrupt staff members at Purgatory. Talk about thinking wrong.

But at least Shane knew the layout of the place. He’d studied maps of the prison for days before he’d gone in undercover. He’d looked for places to hide. Ways to escape.

Because he’d been aware that the mission could go to shit at any moment.

Guess what? That moment happened. He swiped the keycard at another turn, rushed through the door that opened, then he went left, nearly flying down a flight of stairs and—

He yanked Olivia closer. Pinned her to the wall, and put his hand over her mouth. “Not a sound,” he ordered because he could hear the others…coming toward them.

Two guards, running fast, both armed with tranqs. He could kill them, quickly and efficiently, but Pate had ordered him to keep the human body count down as much as possible.

But if Olivia alerted those guards, the option of life for those two would be out of his hands.

Olivia had frozen against him. They were in the dark shadows underneath the stairs. To her, he was probably just a big, heavy shadow, but he could see her completely. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him. Her hair was a wild tumble around her shoulders and—

Her lips had just moved against his palm. His c**k stiffened because he was pretty damn sure he felt the lick of her tongue.

He yanked his hand away from her mouth.

Her breath rushed out. “Are we—” Olivia began, her voice the faintest whisper.

But he covered her mouth with his because he wanted that tongue of hers against his. He kissed her deep and hard, and he loved the feel of her body crushed against his. Lust rose within him. Physical lust because he’d wanted her from the first moment he saw her. Bloodlust because the fool doctors had taken too much of his blood and he hadn’t taken enough from them.

He remembered the taste of her blood, such a delicious sample he’d had. Her blood had given him a rush of power unlike anything he’d felt before.

He needed more of that power.

He also needed her, na**d and moaning, beneath him.

But not there. Not then. Shane forced his head to lift. “The guards are gone.” Time for him and Olivia to haul ass. He still had her right hand in his grasp, and he started pulling her again, leading her down into the underbelly of the prison. If they were going to get out, then first they’d have to go down…and straight into the dark.

Behind him, her breath came in quick pants as she tried to keep up with him. Slowing down wasn’t an option, so when he hit another flight of stairs, he just picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.

“Shane!”

He ignored her struggles and moved as fast as he could. The warden and the others would realize he was gone soon. The alarm from earlier would prove true. Someone was about to escape from Purgatory.

Me.

He hit the bottom floor, and saw the grate to the right. A grate that was supposed to be reinforced with silver to keep the werewolves from ever trying this particular escape route… provided that the wolves even realized it existed.

No one else is supposed to know about it.

Carefully, he put Olivia back on her feet.

“I’m not a sack of potatoes!” she snapped at him.

Really? Shit, like he didn’t know that. “You’re welcome for the ride and the rescue.” He curled his fingers in that grate and heaved. The grate popped free—hell, yes! “Get in,” he ordered her.