Tanner had only taken half a dozen strides when another guard pushed his way through the crowd, knocking people aside with the butt of the assault rifle he carried. Tanner didn’t want to waste the time fighting with the guy, but he had little choice. The man was standing between him and where he needed to go.
He charged forward and met the guy just as he broke through the crowd. The man tried to get his weapon down and pointed in the right direction, but Tanner never gave him the chance. Closing his left hand around the gun, he shoved it up and away. The rifle shattered in his grip, the bullets clanging and pinging as they ricocheted around the room. At least one of them went through the glass window on the luxury boxes, shattering it into a million pieces. The already panicked people on the lower level scrambled for cover as glass rained down on them.
The man didn’t try to fight Tanner for control of the assault rifle. Instead, he let go and reached for his backup piece. Tanner wrapped his claw-tipped fingers around the man’s neck, gave a hard squeeze, then slung him across the room. He didn’t bother to see where the man landed, but from the thud he made when he finally hit the floor, Tanner knew he wouldn’t be getting up again.
Tanner had just turned and headed after Spencer when he caught a scent that stopped him cold and froze his heart.
Zarina.
What the hell was she doing here?
Chapter 18
Clayne skidded to a sudden stop a few feet ahead of her and Danica just as Zarina heard an undulating sound she could feel through the soles of her boots. She frowned and glanced over her shoulder at Cam, who was bringing up the tail end of their little team since they’d entered the tunnels. He looked as confused as she felt.
“What’s that noise?” she asked Clayne.
She kept her voice barely above a whisper, worried someone at the other end of this insane network of tunnels would hear them. If there was another end. Zarina wasn’t so sure, since it’d been nearly thirty minutes since they’d left Tate and his team, and the tunnel they were in now looked exactly like the tunnel they’d started in. They could have gone in one big circle for all she knew.
“I think it’s people shouting and cheering,” Clayne said. “And if the scents I’m picking up are any indication, it’s a lot of people.”
“Do you think we’ve gotten turned around in these caves and ended up on the club level somehow?” Danica asked as she surveyed the map in her hand.
Clayne scowled at his wife. Danica might have the map, but they’d mostly trusted the wolf shifter’s nose to lead them through the tunnel. “Are you asking if I got us lost?”
Danica lifted a brow. “Do you have another explanation for all the noise if it’s not the club?”
Clayne looked like he was more than ready to let Danica know what he thought of that question, but before he could get the words out, a rage-filled roar pierced the stale air in the tunnel, making the hair on Zarina’s arms stand on end and her heart seize up. She’d know that roar anywhere.
“Shit, that was Tanner,” Clayne muttered.
With a growl, he turned and sprinted down the tunnel in the direction they’d been heading. Zarina, Danica, and Cam followed, running after the wolf shifter as fast as they could, trying to keep up.
They hadn’t gone very far before Zarina heard screams of panic and fear. A few steps later, the claustrophobic darkness they’d been traveling through for half an hour brightened, then disappeared completely as they stepped out into a large, well-lit room the size of a large movie theater.
Going from the pitch-black tunnels to the bright lights of the open space was blinding, and all Zarina could do was blink through the stars as her eyes adjusted while she tried to guess what was happening based on nothing more than the screams of terror and the growls and roars of an angry hybrid. Then gunshots rang out, followed by the sound of breaking glass, and the screaming got even louder.
When her vision finally cleared, she realized the situation was even worse than her overactive imagination had come up with. The place was in total chaos. Men were running around waving guns while people in fancy clothes screamed and trampled each other as they tried to get away.
Tanner had just climbed out of what looked like some kind of metal-enclosed fighting ring, and while the men with guns were frightening, everyone was running from him.
Zarina had no idea what the cage was about, but she knew Tanner was in trouble. There were two dead men on the floor with their throats ripped out, and even as she watched, he wrapped his hands around the throat of another man holding a rifle and tossed him fifteen feet across the room. The man bounced off the cage like a rag doll, crumpling to the floor in an unmoving pile of arms and legs.
Blood covered the side of Tanner’s neck, his eyes were scarlet red, and his jaw had broadened to accommodate his teeth. The muscles of his arms and shoulders rippled as his body continued to shift, going further than she’d ever seen him go before.
“What the hell is happening to him?” Cam breathed in horror.
“He’s completely lost control,” she shouted.
Shoving her hand in the pocket of her jacket, she pulled out the auto-injector still safe in its plastic case. She popped the injector out then looked at Cam, who was still standing there, stunned by the intensity of Tanner’s rage.
“You have to help me get to Tanner before he kills someone he shouldn’t,” she said.
Cam looked at the injector in her hand, then back at Tanner. “We’ll lead
