The Alpha dragged her to another door. “Open it,” he ordered.
One of the guards smirked and took a set of keys from his belt. He unlocked the door and swung it open. Inside, Aiden sat on a bed. His knees were against his chest, his thin arms around his legs. Huge, terrified eyes peered out. When he saw Utopia, he leapt to his feet.
“Mommy!” he cried, but quickly shrank back under the Alpha’s glare.
“Please,” Utopia gasped out, not even fighting him, even though his grip in her hair felt like he was going to tear her scalp off. “Please, I can fix this—”
“It’s too late for that, Utopia.” The Alpha threw her into the room. He strode in after her and grabbed Aiden by the arm. “It’s time for you to serve your Pack, little one. Are you ready to become strong and mighty?”
Aiden whimpered.
Her snow leopard snarled. Utopia surged to her feet. She body-slammed into the Alpha, breaking him away from Aiden. Claws sprouted from her fingertips as she let out a screech of hatred. The Alpha blocked one of her hands, but the claws on her other tore open his face. Blood gushed out.
She had no time to revel in her victory, though. Because even as she struck out again, the Alpha dropped his jaw. Flames burned in his throat. They exploded outward, slamming into Utopia’s chest. She was thrown across the room and fell into a crumpled heap.
“Mommy!” Aiden tried to run to her, but the Alpha grabbed him and threw him out of the cell.
The Alpha laughed as he gazed at Utopia. She lay, paralyzed with pain and struggling to breathe.
“You see, Utopia,” he crowed, “I no longer need you.”
“They’re taking him up the elevator,” Evan’s voice hissed urgently in his ear. “The Alpha left two—”
Liam paused for a second as the sound from Evan cut out entirely. His flames roared, but he didn’t let himself think about what that meant. He barely had time to grab Eugene and fling him back before the door to the prison level was flung open. Several guards rushed into the stairwell, weapons blazing.
Chunks of stone and plaster rained down on them, punched out by bullets. Gunshots rang out in the small space, drumming into Liam’s skull. He dropped to one knee, laying down a spray of bullets toward the enemy while Eugene took cover in a small lip over the side of the stairs.
Liam threw himself in next to him. They both fired to keep the wolves from advancing, but they were pinned down. The sound of the stair doors opened above them and Liam cursed. If they ended up pincered between two groups of wolves, it was all over.
“I can’t raise Stephen and Adam,” Eugene shouted, adjusting his position so he could point his gun up the stairs. “Damn it! They must have set off an EMP.”
Liam didn’t care how they’d cut out their radios. The wolves tried to advance again, and he shot two of them, squeezing the trigger twice rather than waste more bullets. They slumped back, red staining the concrete around them.
A ball of fire dropped down the stairwell. In the next second, Stephen was there. He landed on the platform hard and let out a solid wall of fire even as the wolves fired at him. Liam shouted, jumping out of his hiding spot. He knocked the idiot over, keeping his brains from being shot out, and fired his gun. One of the wolves had already succumbed to the fire, and Liam was able to kill the other two quickly.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he roared as Stephen slumped. Multiple bullet wounds bled heavily. He cursed again. “Adam!”
Adam dropped down beside him, his face pale. “I didn’t know the bloody idiot was going to do that!”
“I don’t care. Get him out. Get him back to Evan.”
Stephen slumped. “Hey, I got you out from being pinned, didn’t I?”
“Oh, shut it.” Liam glared at him. Why the hell had he done something so foolhardy and reckless? Now half his team was going to be out of commission. Still, he watched worriedly as Adam slung Stephen over his shoulders and started upward.
“Cap,” Eugene said worriedly.
“Let’s go,” Liam breathed. Utopia, I’m coming. Hold on!
Her chest hurt too much to breathe. She kept choking on the pain, even as she dragged herself across the room. Adrenaline flooded through her, giving her the strength to get to her knees. She slammed her fist into the door, then fell over and leaned against the wall.
The Alpha had used her research on himself. He’d spliced dragon genes into his own code. It was the only explanation. He’d given himself the ability to breathe fire, but what would the other effects be?
Utopia could only hope it would make him spontaneously combust.
She pounded her fist against the door as sobs got trapped in her chest. No. She didn’t want him to spontaneously combust. Because if he did, it meant there would be a chance Aiden would, too… The tears came thick and helpless as she struck the door again and again. Trying desperately to make enough noise to receive any notice.
Were they going to leave her here to die? Were they going to do those dreadful things to Aiden, then bring him back to stay in a cell with his dead mother? The thought hurt worse than the burning in her chest.
She hit the door again before slumping. Her clothes still smoldered from the Alpha’s blast of fire. Darkness was starting to pull in from the sides of her vision.
Then the door opened.
Utopia gasped, somehow managing to get to her knees again. She held her arms out in supplication as the faces swirled before her. “Don’t hurt him. Please. Please, I’ll do anything you want. Don’t hurt him.”
Arms wrapped around her. Arms that were strong, useless to resist. But she didn’t resist. If that was what the Alpha wanted…
But it wasn’t his voice that she heard. No, she heard something familiar. Something warm. Something that made her reach out. To touch a pair of lips she knew and loved. The pain seemed to diminish as finally the face came into focus. Liam’s face. Her heart swelled with relief. Her fingers pressed to his lips. A whimper came from her, the only noise she could make.
“Utopia,” he breathed as he picked her up in his strong arms. “It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m here. Don’t worry, I’m going to get you out.”
“Aiden,” she whispered.
“I’m going to get him, I promise.” His lips pressed to hers briefly. “I promise.”
Everything darkened again. She could sense herself being moved, but the noise around her didn’t make any sense. Then Liam was gone. She was being held by someone else. She whimpered in protest. She tried to push the stranger away from her, to go back to Liam. She wanted him. Needed him. Where was he?
“Liam,” she cried. “Liam…”
A strong, steady voice answered her. The voice of a friend. “He’s getting Aiden. He told me to get you out of here. You gotta stay awake, Utopia. Stay with me. Liam’ll have my hide if you end up dying.”
Eugene. That was Eugene’s voice.
“How’d you find me?” she mumbled.
“GPS tracker. We knew the Alpha would come back for you. It was the only way we’d be able to find out where Aiden was. For the record, Liam hated it. He wanted to tell you the truth.”
Liam. Truth.
Liam had lied to her?
They’d used her as bait. Gave her back to the Alpha so they could find where he was.
Something stirred in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t understand what it meant.
Cool air brushed against her face, and when she forced her eyes open, she saw darkness above her. There were bright lights from other angles. Shouting. Gunfire. Eugene shifted her and let out a shout. Utopia tried to push through the pain. Tried to push away the darkness. If she could help… if she could do anything…
But it was useless. The pain was too great. The darkness too strong.
Her head fell to Eugene’s shoulder again as everything pitched around her. The last she saw before she blacked out again was Liam, bursting from the compound doors.
A limp figure was in his arms.
Cha
pter Twenty-Three
After a battery of tests, it was determined that Aiden was under heavy sedation but that he would recover fine. He didn’t need to have constant supervision, but Liam pulled up a chair and sat next to his bed anyway. Utopia had passed out already from her injuries, and when she woke, he knew she’d want to know that Aiden was okay.
Stephen was in surgery. His injuries weren’t life-threatening but were serious. The idiot had gotten himself hurt bad. Utopia, the last Liam had heard, was still unconscious. She’d sustained serious burns on her chest, but Erica reassured him that she was going to heal up fine. It was an unusual burn, but Utopia was young, healthy and a shifter. She would heal.
Liam sighed as he rubbed his forehead. It had been a long day. A long week. Hell, a long month. How long had it been since he’d decided to go rushing off like an idiot and got himself caught by the Pack?
Long enough, he decided. And it had been long enough since he had had any rest, either. Utopia was back, Aiden was safe. He’d fulfilled his promise. At least that was enough for him to think about.
It wasn’t until he woke with a start, sensing another presence in the room, that Liam knew he’d fallen asleep. He jerked upright, adrenaline surging as he prepared to protect Aiden from whatever threat there was. He blinked rapidly, only to find that it was Utopia. She sat at the end of Aiden’s bed. Her face was pale, bruised in that pale purple-green color. She wore a hospital gown, but he could still see the bandages on her neck and chest.
“Utopia,” he breathed, relieved to see her awake. He reached for her, but she stopped him with an icy glare.
She didn’t say anything, though, as she turned back to Aiden. Her hand rested on his foot under the blankets. He slept soundly, peacefully.
“Should you be here?” Liam asked. “You should be lying down—”
“I’m not going anywhere. Not until my son is awake.”
“Then at least—”
“I’m not doing anything you tell me to do.” Her voice whipped out, low and harsh. Liam flinched back from her, startled by this sudden show of aggression.
He sat there for a moment, not certain what he was supposed to do. “I—”
“Don’t talk to me.”
He flinched back. Where was this coming from?
Utopia glanced at him and snorted. “Don’t give me that confused innocent look. I know what you did, Liam. I know that you used me as bait. You lied to me. You said you were going for food so that we could plan our next step, but the next step was already in motion. I was your bait and you… You lied to me.”
“Utopia, I—”
“You lied to me.”
He understood why she was so angry. If their places had been reversed, and she had lied to him about something like that, he’d be angry, too. Liam stood slowly, frowning. But even if she was angry, she had to see why he did it, didn’t she? “We had to do it that way. We didn’t know where the Alpha was holding Aiden. We knew that with the Blaze Ops leaving, he’d guess that they were after Aiden, too. We wouldn’t have been able to find him if—”
“You should have told me. I would have agreed to the plan. You know I would have. You shouldn’t have lied to me.” Her eyes were fiery, her hands clenched. “You shouldn’t have lied.”
“I’m sorry. But you had to believe it was real. We had to make sure that the Alpha had no idea that we’d put that GPS tracker on you. I know, I know that you would have gone with the plan. But the Alpha needed to be caught by surprise. And I’m sorry, I am so sorry—”
“Sorry doesn’t stop it.” Her lip trembled, and she turned back to her son. “But don’t pretend it was just about me and Aiden. You were going in to destroy the research too, weren’t you?”
“I…” Liam felt his heart hardening. What right did she have to be so angry with him? Yes, he had lied to her, but he had already said the reasons why. And she had gotten out. Aiden had gotten out. They were going to be okay. They were here. They were safe. “Yes. We were going to destroy the research. But we didn’t. Getting you and Aiden out were the top priorities.”
Utopia pressed a hand to her face, as though she was expecting to find something there. “You didn’t have to lie to me.”
“Yes, I did. I had to lie to you. You had to be afraid. You had to be alone. I’m sorry that I scared you, and I’m sorry that you got hurt. But the research—”
“Don’t talk to me about the research.” He could almost hear the cat in her growl with her words. She stood, shaking, but when he reached to steady her, she struck away his hands. “Your obsession with the research nearly got Aiden killed. Look at him! He nearly died because of you.”
“I got him out!”
Utopia opened her mouth, then closed it. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It was clear she was struggling to contain her anger and Liam couldn’t help but be angry right back at her. After everything he’d done, he understood her being upset. But this level of anger… this level of blame. When he had done so much to get Aiden out of there? He’d left the research behind, didn’t even try to look for it when it became clear they couldn’t destroy it and save her and Aiden.
“When I helped you escape the Pack the first time. You grabbed me and left. You didn’t even think about Aiden. You were so obsessed with me and stopping my research, you left him behind. Now I have no idea what they’ve done to him or what they told him.” She started to shake again, but this time Liam didn’t reach for her. He knew she wouldn’t want him to. “They had him in a prison cell. I don’t know if they started experimenting on him or what trauma he’s been through.”
“I did what I had to. My duty is to the greater good. And sometimes, individuals must be sacrificed. That includes my life, too, Utopia. I’d have died to stop your research.”
Utopia shrugged. “I know. And I know you’d do anything for the greater good. That doesn’t mean that I have to forgive you for putting my son in danger. I told you I’d burn down the world for him. It’s as true now as it was then. I guess we’re just too different.”
Liam brushed his hand over his buzz cut. It suddenly clicked what she was talking about. The lie he stood accused of wasn’t just him neglecting to tell her the plan. No. It was what he said before he left. And here she was, thinking that it was a lie. And even if it wasn’t a lie, they were just too different for it to ever work between the two of them.
Maybe it was true. If she was willing to burn the world down for Aiden’s sake… Maybe they stood on opposite sides of morality and there was no middle ground to be seen.
He couldn’t leave her thinking that he had lied to her about loving her, though. He headed for the door so he wouldn’t have to look at her, but called over his shoulder, “Not everything was a lie, Utopia.”
Even though he would have liked to slam the door behind himself, he shut it gently. He didn’t want to startle anybody else on the floor, after all. Erica gave him a stressed, questioning look as he passed her. He shrugged, not knowing what she was asking, and continued on.
With the time that had passed, there was something he had to do, though. He was actually surprised that Fiona and Patrick hadn’t already called him to see them. Although, technically, it was Maura he should be reporting to. When he got to her office, though, there was a note on the door telling him to find Patrick.
A smile crossed his face briefly. This was the best thing about the Academy. Just how informal they were. It made the whole place feel more like family.
His smile disappeared with a sigh as he headed to Patrick’s office. Luckily for him, Fiona was already there. They welcomed him in—not screaming like the last time he saw them—and told him to take a seat. Fiona sat on the desk, an arm around Patrick’s shoulder. Both looked exhausted.
“Things are going that good, are they?”
Patrick shook his head. “No. It’s not good.”
“I take it the others told you what we were doing while you took care of gathering Aiden?” Fiona rose a slender brow at hi
m.
Liam nodded. “Did you find the leak?”
“We found proof,” Fiona replied. “It’s Clementine. Now that I think about it, it’s all so obvious. And I hate that I didn’t see it before. I liked her. I really liked her.”
Patrick took her hand and kissed it. “We all did.”
A spike of jealousy went through Liam as he looked at the two of them. They were so happy together. So perfect. They were true mates. The kind that he only thought existed in fairy tales. How different would his life have been if his parents had been true mates like this?
Was he ever going to have the chance to build a life with his true mate? Or was Utopia never going to forgive him?
“So, what happens now?” he asked, trying to pull his thoughts from that place.
“Now?” Patrick looked grim. “Now Erica takes over as head doctor and we get as much information as we can from Clementine.”
Liam smirked, though there was no humor in it. “I didn’t mean with her.”
“You mean what happens with you? With all your insubordination and running off when you were ordered not to?” Fiona’s smirk was likewise without humor. “Well, you’ll face a disciplinary hearing. But we are going to reinstate you to the Blaze Ops in an official capacity. No longer suspended. However,” she continued, holding up her hand as Liam opened his mouth, “you are on medical leave. We have to keep an eye on you for a while longer. Those hormonal imbalances Clementine found? Your latest bloodwork shows that they’ve gotten worse.”
Liam frowned. “But Utopia said nothing in her experiments would explain that.”
“When we talked to her, she also said that the Alpha had other people doing the same work. And that he’s done things that weren’t in her experiments. So, we don’t know what might have been done to you.”
“I… I understand. But this imbalance, what could it be doing?”
“We’re not sure,” Patrick replied. “And that’s why you’re not going to be on active duty. You don’t have to stay in the hospital, but we need to keep an eye on you. Okay?”
Dragon's Frenemy (Dragon Blaze Ops Book 2) Page 14