The Last Mate on Earth

Part 1 - Chapter 14

* * * Hayden’s POV * * *

I’m running.

No, I’m sprinting. I’ve never moved so fast in my entire life. Joven could barely keep up as we flew through the corridor.

Sirens are screeching. Emergency lighting casts deep red streaks across the smooth walls as we round the corner towards the lift shaft. I can still see that last image of Hope reaching out to me, before the doors closed on her … on them.

She’s inside that tin can with that guard. That soldier. That man. Alone. All at once, I thought of every possibility. Every outcome. Every eventuality. I need to get to Hope. She is mine to protect. She is ours to cherish. Woah, what was that?

I feel a tidal wave of adrenalin rolling through my body. I must get to Hope. My eyes see only the lift. My body slams against the cold, metallic and glass doors, but I feel nothing. I push my fingers into the thinnest crack between them, the metal frame ripping through the pressure gloves still covering them.

These doors are designed not to be breached. “Hayden, stop. You won’t get them open like that,” Joven yells, as he arrives next to me. I ignored him and kept trying to prise the doors open with my fist. “Seriously, Hayden. They are magnetically sealed, Hayden!’ he continues, as he unravels wires from something small and electronic.

“Why don’t you do something useful and unscrew the cover …” He stops mid-sentence, interrupted by the sound of me tearing the metallic front panel off the wall like it’s made of cardboard. “And that will work too.” He begins to replace the wires with more from the device in his hands. As the last pieces click into place, he punches a button on the box in his hands and we hear the lift spring to life behind the thick, transparent doors.

Joven and I caught each other’s eyes, both trying not to think about what we might find when those doors opened. I bounce on the spot as my mind tries to analyse the situation. An armed soldier has kidnapped the most precious she-wolf on the planet, and is now trapped in a confined space with her – and we are about to confront him.

The very future of our race depends on what we do next. We are unarmed and I’m wearing a cotton and tweed suit. If he’s hostile, we’re screwed. “Where the hell is it?” I snap at Joven, looking through the sheets of glass, waiting for the spherical chamber to appear.

It’s taking forever. He looks at the display on the device he wired into the wall. “It’s coming. Three floors away. Two … one …” He stops as we hear the soft swish of the approaching lift.

Then we see it descend on the other side of the doors, its chromatic outer walls distorting our reflections as it halts in front of us. There are no voices inside. No screams. My heart stops as my brain flashes horrific images of the worst possible outcome. I shake them out of my head. The doors open and instinct takes over.