Werewolf CEO 4, page 29
“Yeah, we wouldn’t want to turn into Mitch,” I grumbled. “So, it’s not one hundred percent guaranteed to work?”
“We’ve got some of the best wolf scientists in the country working here,” Victor said. “It’s not one hundred percent guaranteed, but they wouldn’t have sent out a faulty product. They’re confident this will be more than enough.”
“Okay,” I said. “That’s good.”
“We’re in the process of delivering batches to the treaty packs on watch,” Susan added.
“Great.” I sighed in relief. “I’m sure that’s a lot of pressure off them not to get stuck with anything Mitch has up his sleeve.”
“That’s just what we needed,” Mia agreed. “Eliminate the threat before it’s even there.”
“How do we administer it?” I asked.
“It’s not in needle form, but an auto-injector, just like the adrenaline pumps,” Victor explained. “They’re all preloaded. This is just an example of the vial.”
Victor slipped it back into the case and slid it down the length of the table. I caught it in my hands and flipped it around so I could see the contents inside, and there were enough auto-injectors for each member of my pack.
“Hey, Vic… we might need a few more to take back,” I said with a sheepish smile. “We had a lot of the wolves we rescued from the other night come to the den to help fight.”
“Is that so?” the gray-haired businessman hummed in surprise. “The more, the merrier, I suppose. Benjamin, would you be so kind as to head down to the lab and get a few more boxes brought down to Josh’s car?”
“Sure,” Benjamin said with a curt nod before he stood up from his chair and headed straight for the door.
A few weeks ago, he would have probably spat out some vitriol about how I could get it myself, but we had made some serious progress in our work relationship.
“Thanks, Ben,” I said as he passed me. “I appreciate it.”
“No worries, Alpha,” the Treasurer said with a small nod.
Even Victor had a surprised look on his face as Collins left, but he quickly masked it and cleared his throat.
“So, was there anything else you wanted to talk to us about, Josh?” he asked. “Or have we covered everything?”
“That’s everything.” I nodded. “The most important thing was Sam, and if Lexi’s going to help mentor her, I think we’ve got everything covered.”
“Then I suppose we’ll see you after you finish off Mitch,” Victor said. “Good hunting, and good luck.”
“Thanks, Victor,” I said with a fleeting smile.
As good as I felt about the fight and at the fact that we had an antidote now, I couldn’t help but feel like it might be too easy. After dealing with a ton of werewolf shit since becoming CEO, I knew better than to underestimate my enemy, and I knew Mitch was going to be no different than Arlo, Leon, or Drake.
We left Sam with Lexi while Mia and I returned to the office to do a bit of work before we decided to head back to the den. It was around midday when we got back to Hell’s Kitchen, and Sam had had plenty of time to settle in and get to know more about her new role.
Combat training was well under way when we returned, and I handed out an injector of the antidote to everyone inside. It was a ton of weight off my shoulders knowing they all had access to this in case they got injected with the Z-TECH serum, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was going to be more to it than just storming the sewers.
Eventually, the sun slipped down the sky, and New York was painted in a sheet of darkness. The city lights lit up the road, but we had the general cover of darkness to our advantage as me, my pack, and the wolves from the lab made our way to the closest manhole to the lab I’d mapped out in the sewers beneath the Upper West Side.
It was jarringly close to Arlo’s watch shop, which I supposed made sense, considering those two were working in cahoots. Mitch would have ample protection from Whitlock’s pack, which we’d finished off that night in Central Park. Now, he had no one but whoever he’d managed to turn.
I was just hoping there weren’t that many of them.
If this really was his home base, we could expect the brunt of the attacks. That’s why I was surprised to see Grizz standing in the alleyway leading to the manhole with a handful of his werebears.
“There he is,” the big hairy man said with a wide grin. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked with a confused smile. “I thought you were taking on one of the other labs in Harlem?”
“Me and the other packs thought you might need an extra hand taking on this one, just in case,” Grizz said before he peeked past my shoulder. “Seems you got a few more wolves to help out, though.”
“Yeah, these are the guys from the first lab we found,” I said as I gestured to my little party, who were lingering on the street behind me.
“Glad to see they rallied to the cause,” Grizz said with an approving nod. “Now, are we ready to kick some zombie ass? I’m getting real antsy just waiting out here.”
“Let’s do it.” I pulled out my phone to give Victor the go-ahead to let the other packs know to attack.
“Hope you’re ready for a hairy fight, pups,” Grizz said as he heaved up the manhole and rolled it into the side of a dumpster.
“Born ready,” Elliot said as he stepped out of the crowd and came to my side.
“Shame we’ve got to wade through New York’s shit river before the fun really starts,” Grizz said with an almost too wide grin. “See you on the other side.”
The werebear dropped down into the dark abyss, and his pack quickly followed. I rolled my eyes at his antics before I dropped down after him, and I grimaced as I splashed into the muck beneath.
The werebears were already fast walking down the left passage, and I was hot on their heels. My pack quickly jumped down behind me, and the wolves from the lab followed, too.
“Don’t forget about your antidotes,” I whispered as I knew they’d all still be able to hear me. “You feel anything that might be a needle, you use it, no hesitation.”
“Trust me, I won’t be taking any risks,” Sam grumbled as she gripped the wall to help her wade through the water.
This was the moment of truth. The moment when we could potentially finish off Mitch, once and for all.
Grizz and his pack had paused at the manhole a little further down, and I could see bright white light funneling through the holes like it had done in the other lab we’d found.
“Honor’s yours, Alpha,” Grizz said and gestured to the ladder, which was considerably taller than the one we’d used to enter the first lab.
“Not too scared are you, Grizz?” I teased as I started to climb.
“Me? Never.” The hairy werebear grunted out a laugh. “I just don’t want to steal the limelight from you.”
“Always the gentleman,” I joked as I reached the top and lifted the cool metal of the manhole cover blocking the exit.
I silently slid it to the side, and I quickly pulled myself out onto cool white tiles. The first thing I noticed as I walked forward to allow space for the others to climb out was that we were in one huge white room.
And there were around twenty zombie wolves lurking like the gormless husks they were.
Their huge muscular arms sagged at their sides, and their bright green eyes scanned the white walls looking for anything they could tear apart that wasn’t each other.
Thankfully, there was enough space between us and them that they didn’t notice as the others quietly climbed out of the manhole behind me, and I quickly started to shift into my wolf form as I prepared to fight.
There were enough of us here that we could take them on with no problem. Not to mention, the state some of the zombified wolves were in was close to rotting. Their skin was green and sallow, and chunks of hairy flesh were hanging from their grossly large bodies.
Suddenly, someone’s shoe squeaked against the white-tiled floor, and I felt all our breaths hitch in our throat. One by one, the zombified wolves paused in their mindless trances and slowly turned their slack-jawed heads toward us.
Their bright neon eyes blazed with hunger as their sights settled on us. They roared like the feral beasts they were at new prey, but before I could even give the order, the lab wolves, the werebears, and my pack rushed past me and charged at them with pure rage in their eyes.
I felt like Moses when he parted the Red Sea as they charged in either side of me, and for a moment, I couldn’t help but admire the sheer power behind their attacks as they reached the off guard mutants.
The room filled with a mixture of roars and shouts as bodies clambered and thrashed against one another, and it was hard to pick apart the zombies from my own pack.
All I could see was a rush of mottled green flesh paired with the stark white and ashen skin of those who had been kidnapped by Mitch. Not to mention a few incredibly hairy arms coming from the werebears.
Even though there were a number of zombies, there was no Mitch. My eyes darted around the chaos in a weak attempt to pinpoint him, but he wasn’t here. It wasn’t his style to get his hands dirty, but there was nowhere for him to watch the chaos unfold. The room was stark and barren, and it looked more like a lobby than a lab.
I could see a set of metal doors in the distance with some fluorescent light bursting in through the two small glass windows at the top of it, but other than that, there was nothing.
No other doors, no other windows, and no Mitch.
The likelihood of him being at another base seemed slim, especially considering this was the one focal point that suggested this was his base. If he wasn’t here, he was somewhere else, and I had a sickening feeling that wasn’t in the sewers.
“Shit,” I hissed out as I realized he’d duped us.
What is it, Alpha? Elliot asked as he tackled one of the zombie wolves’ legs and tore at the peeling flesh of his ankles.
I rushed over and throttled the mutant before he could take a swipe at the Beta, and I squeezed my clawed hand around his neck until the flesh squelched beneath my fingers.
Mitch isn’t here, I said as I pulled the zombie’s throat out with one harsh tug and threw the green, dripping flesh to the other side of the room.
What? He’s not? Elliot asked as he rushed up from the floor and swung for another wolf who was charging at us.
No, and I’m sure the other treaty members would have let us know if they had found him by now, I growled in agitation before I slammed my shoulder into another mutant who was trying to clamp his jaws around Emily.
These guys were juiced up to hell, and they were in the same state Arlo had been. They were completely mindless, but we could use that to our advantage.
The wolf flung his body around and roared at me with feral, neon-green eyes, but I just stared him blank in the face. I wasn’t fazed, and I’d dealt with enough of these fuckers to not be afraid anymore.
Green goo flew out of his mouth as he snapped his dislocated jaw, and he stumbled forward in a heaping mess of muscle and sinew as he tried to reach me.
“Pathetic,” I spat as I dodged his flailing arms. “This is Mitch’s super army, huh?”
I ducked under his arm as he took another swipe, and I swiveled around so I was behind him. Then I leaped up onto his large, rippling back and dug my claws in the space between his shoulder and his neck.
The wolf roared and threw his arms back in an attempt to rip me off him, but I leaned back far enough that I was out of reach. I kept my legs tightly wrapped around his waist as I pushed my hands further into the hard flesh of his neck, and I finally felt cold blood start to drip past my fingers.
The sounds he made were hellish, but they blended into the other roars and screeches of the other zombie wolves we were all attacking. I could feel my legs slipping as the skin on his waist started to peel off like a piece of rotten fruit, and I grunted as I tried to keep my balance.
“Goddamn you,” I hissed as I dug my hands in even deeper until I felt bone, and I managed to tear through the muscle inside until I wrapped my fingers around his collarbone.
I pulled with a yell until I felt the bone start to give way, and with a sickening crack, they snapped. I pulled them out of him like something out of an Arthurian tale and managed to tighten my legs around his waist enough that I didn’t go flying back from the sudden tug.
The wolf’s arms dropped from the sudden lack of bone in his chest, and I took his momentarily disablement as the prime opportunity to slam the sharp ends of bone into the side of his neck.
He roared through a gargle of black and green blood, which spurted out of his mouth and the sides of his neck simultaneously, but I didn’t stop there. I drove the ivory stakes in as far as they could go until the bones poked out of the opposite sides.
He spluttered and staggered to his knees, and I ended up rolling off his back and onto the now sticky tiled floor that was covered in black gunk.
Even with two bones sticking out of his neck, the feral beast still tried to take a swipe at me, and part of me pitied whoever this had once been. But there was no time for mercy. Even with the antidotes, I didn’t think it would cut it. These guys were too far gone and were literally rotting. They had clearly been under Mitch’s control for way too long, and there was nothing we could do for them now.
I swung my foot around and booted him in the face, which knocked his already loose jaw clean off. It skidded across the floor, where another mutant stepped on it and instantly crushed it beneath his large foot, but I returned my focus to the beast in front of me.
His black tongue lolled out, and it flicked up as he started to crawl toward me. I grimaced as a black tar-like liquid poured out of his gaping mouth, and I decided to make this quick so I didn’t need to look at such a gruesome sight anymore.
I put my fists together and raised them above my head before I brought them down onto the mutant wolf. He collapsed onto the ground with a crater in the back of his head. Black bits of brain stuck out of the collapsed skull, but I didn’t stop there. I brought my fists down, over and over again, until his head became nothing but black mush against the floor.
As his limbs stopped twitching at his side, I took a step back and overlooked the chaos still unfolding. The lab wolves were using the auto-injectors and inhalers like I’d shown them, and they were fighting with a ferocity I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Even as they took down the rotting wolves, I couldn’t completely bask in our victory, because it wasn’t a complete one. Mitch wasn’t here. And we hadn’t won until he was dead and in the ground.
My feet were taking me through the carnage before I could even process it, and I dodged and ducked out of the way of blows as I beelined for the metal doors directly in front of me.
Josh, where are you going? Mia asked down the bond.
I’m finding Mitch, I managed to growl back as I pushed myself to move faster.
My shoes slid on the gore on the floor, but I eventually made it to the metal doors. There were numerous locks on the inside, which I quickly unlatched, and once I’d opened them all, I pushed hard.
The night air hit me like a ton of bricks, and I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. I staggered out onto the pavement, and I didn’t recognize where I was at first.
But then I saw the trees of Central Park peeking above cement buildings. We weren’t far from Arlo’s watch shop, but this place had been hidden in plain sight. I heaved as I tried to catch my breath, but then I spotted something out of the corner of my eye.
A green flare.
And it was coming from the top of the Empire State Building.
Chapter Twenty
All of the files Hallie and I had found in the first lab came rushing back to me, and I felt the breath get knocked out of my lungs in one fell swoop.
The gas. The gaseous form of the serum. The one he was going to release from one of the tallest buildings in New York City. The one he was going to release from the Empire State Building.
That’s where he was. And I didn’t know whether his flare was a call to arms, a lure to get me to go there, or just a way to rub it in my face that I’d missed him and he had escaped our clutches.
Either way, I didn’t care. I had to stop him. And there was no way I was going to let him get away with doing this.
His master plan was on the brink of coming to fruition, and I was the only one who could stop it before it was too late. Before he completely transformed every wolf in New York into his own personal meat puppets.
I didn’t know whether or not the gas would work on humans, or what it would do to those without wolf genes, but what I did know was that Manhattan wasn’t a safe place for anyone. Especially humans.
“Josh!” Mia cried out as she rushed from the building and straight into my arms. “What’s going on?”
Hallie, Emily, and Samantha all rushed out seconds later, and they were completely covered in black blood.
I shakily pointed up to the Empire State Building, which still had the green flare burning in the dark sky above it.
“No,” Samantha mumbled under her breath, and her eyes widened in horror. “He’s doing it.”
“He’s going to try,” I said in a raspy voice. “I’m going to stop him.”
“You can’t go on your own,” Mia immediately protested and wrapped her arms tighter around my waist.
“It’s too dangerous,” I said. “I can’t be distracted by looking out for you, Mia. I just can’t.”
With how amped up I was right now, my Alpha instincts would go berserk over trying to protect Mia.
“Take me with you,” Emily suggested. “I can handle it. I’m nimble, and I’m strong.”
“And you’re saying I’m not, Red?” the blonde Omega asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I’m more nimble than you, Blondie.” Emily winked before she turned back to me. “Mia’s right. You can’t go up there alone, Josh. At least take me with you.”
I tossed the idea over in my head, and a little bit of backup would be better than going there on my own. Numbers weren’t the problem, it was getting there fast enough and undetected that mattered. But I was still concerned I’d be too wrapped up thinking about her wellbeing rather than focusing on Mitch.
