Thornhill

She pursed her lips and handed Kyle and me each a clipboard. “Fill out these admission forms in the waiting room.”

The guards ushered us through the door, down a hall, and into a long, narrow space that looked more like a holding pen than a waiting room. There were three doors—the one we had just come through and two at the far end—and the ceiling was so low that I could have touched it had I reached up and stretched.

Every surface was painted a dull gray; the only color came from the teens who were sitting on the floor, their backs resting against the walls as they filled out admission forms.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Serena, but she looked less than thrilled to see me. “Tell me she didn’t do what I think she did,” she said as the wolves next to her slid down to make room for Kyle and me.

“Don’t get him started,” I said, eyeing the guards as they took up positions across the room. I lowered myself to the ground and dropped my gaze to the admission form. Seriously? I thought as I reached for a pen that had been tied to the clipboard. They kidnapped us and they’re worried we’re going to steal office supplies?

I shook my head and focused on the questions.

Full Name? Mackenzie . . . I racked my brain for a fake last name and somehow found myself writing down Walsh. Amy’s last name.

Age? Seventeen.

How old were you when you became infected? Did you have any health conditions prior to infection? Do you often feel weak and dizzy outside of shifts? How many times a month, on average, do you involuntarily shift?

For most of the questions, I snuck glances at Kyle’s and Serena’s answers and just put down something in the middle.

Just as I reached the last question, the woman with the glasses reappeared with the man who had collected our blood samples. They began taking clipboards, pausing a moment to scan each set of answers before moving to the next wolf.

The woman’s brow creased in a frown as she glanced over Serena’s form.

Apprehension fluttered in my stomach as she pulled one of the two guards—the man with the red hair—out into the hall.

A moment later, they were back.

The woman cleared her throat. “Serena, I need you to come with me.”

Serena reached for my hand and squeezed so hard it was all I could do not to flinch. “Mac . . .” Her voice was a strained whisper.

When she didn’t move right away, the guards started forward.

Kyle pushed himself to his feet and stepped in front of us. “What do you want with her?”

“We just need to ask her a few more questions,” said the woman with the glasses.

I peered around Kyle’s legs. The woman’s tone had been reassuring, but her eyes were dead. Hank always said there was a world of difference between lying well and being able to lie with your eyes.

Kyle caught it, too. “Why can’t she answer them here?”

In response, the guards drew their Tasers. The wolves to either side of us parted like the Red Sea, and my pulse pounded so loudly that the blowback rang in my ears.

All Kyle had done was ask a question.

I waited for them to order him to sit or move, but there were no commands and no warnings. In the space between heartbeats, the female guard squeezed the trigger.

I screamed Kyle’s name as he fell to the ground. I tried to reach for him but Serena held me back as he was hit by another Taser.

Kyle’s spine bowed and I thought I heard something crack before he fell horribly still. Other than the rise and fall of his chest, he looked dead.

Without giving either Serena or me a chance to fully absorb what had just happened, the male guard started toward us.

Serena panicked. Her hand shattered around mine, and I pulled free of her grip just in time to avoid being scratched. I scurried back on my butt as her body tore itself apart. Fur flowed over skin and then a coal-black wolf rose shakily to its feet.

My gaze darted to Kyle. He had recovered enough to push himself to his hands and knees. He was trying to force himself back up, to reach us.

Suddenly, he collapsed.

He and every other wolf in the room.

They slumped to the floor with their hands clasped to their heads. The bones and muscle in Serena’s body snapped and tore as she shifted back. The only people unaffected were the woman in the blazer, the man in white, and the two guards.

And me.

Unsure what was going on, I huddled on the floor like the other teens and watched the room from under my lashes.

“We had it under control,” muttered the female guard, holstering her Taser.

“Of course,” said the woman in the glasses as she slipped something into her pants pocket. “This was simply . . . neater.”

The door behind her opened and two men dressed like hospital orderlies stepped into the room.

The redheaded guard walked around us. I heard a sharp exhalation of breath and a small grunt as he lifted Serena. Every instinct I had screamed at me to do something, anything, as he carried Serena across the room, but if I moved, they would know I wasn’t like the others. They’d know I was a reg; I’d get kicked out and wouldn’t be any help to anyone.

There was nothing I could do but watch.

In a gesture that surprised me, the woman in the glasses shrugged off her jacket and draped it over Serena, partially covering her nudity as the guard eased her into the arms of the orderlies. Serena was too out of it to notice. She looked small and helpless and broken.

They carried her through the door. The sound of the latch catching slammed through me like a bullet.

Around me, the wolves began to stir.

Eve met my gaze from halfway across the room. A thoughtful expression crossed her face as she pressed the heel of one hand to her temple, but I didn’t have the energy or the interest to puzzle out what the look meant.

I crawled to Kyle as he sat up. His skin was ashen and his face was covered in sweat. “Are you okay?” I whispered.

“Think so. It felt like someone was driving an ice pick into my brain.” His voice was raw and his chest heaved as he pulled in a deep breath. “Serena?”

“They took her.”

“Where?”

I shook my head as I helped him to his feet. “I don’t know.” Saying the words made it hard to breathe.

“It’ll be all right,” said Kyle as he wrapped his arms around me. “You heard what they said. It’s just some questions. She’ll be okay.” The words were reassuring, but unease colored each syllable.

The voice of the male guard rang across the room. “Girls through the door on the left. Boys through the right.”

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We weren’t supposed to be separated. I had conned my way into staying with Kyle and Serena and they were both being taken from me.

I pulled back. “Kyle, I . . .” I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but the words felt too much like good- bye.

He pressed his forehead to mine and let out a deep breath. “Me too,” he said, echoing the response I had given in the truck.

His hands ran over my shoulders and slipped down my back and then, suddenly, his lips were on mine, delivering a crushing kiss that tasted like honey and copper. My lips parted under his as he pulled me so close that I wasn’t sure where my body left off and his began.