Chapter 15 · Marked Registry - Chapter 15: The White Room Calls

The alarm split the air like a knife.

Ella's name echoed through the White Room corridor, cold and mechanical. Subject Ella Gray detected. Purge protocol initiated.

She couldn't breathe.

Cain's hand closed around her wrist. Not rough. Not gentle either. Just fast.

"Move," he said.

She didn't. Her legs locked. Through the observation glass behind them, Mia's face pressed against the inside of her cell, mouth still shaped around that one word. Run.

"Ella." Cain's voice dropped. "Now."

The wolf in her chest surged up, hot and wild. Her gums ached. She could smell everything. The antiseptic burn of the White Room. The gun oil on the guards rushing toward them from the west checkpoint. Cain's scent, cedar and smoke and something else, something that didn't belong in a place like this.

"Let go," she said.

He didn't.

She twisted, fangs half-dropped, and snapped at his hand.

Cain jerked back. Not fast enough. Her teeth grazed his wrist, just barely. No blood. But close.

For one second they both froze.

Then he grabbed her again, harder this time, and dragged her through a side door she hadn't even seen. It slammed shut behind them. The alarm muffled. Didn't stop.