DOUBLE TROUBLE WITH THE TWIN WOLVES 20

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - - - - M A D D I S O N

Maddison had been dragged along hallway after corridor by callous arms while fighting and screaming the entire way down to the bottom floor. Other than the men in black who were armed and threatened to kill her immediately regardless of what she did, she saw no other people in the passageways. Duke had put a gag in her mouth about halfway to the cellar, but he didn't tie her up until they reached a big boiler room at the base of the structure.

Duke and the other man she had seen on the train had bound her to a chair with surprising efficiency, failing even to disguise their faces. They simply tied her up while giggling among themselves.

The other man obliged, stalking out as individuals who looked exactly like Duke hauled large boxes into the room and shattered the tops. Maddison gulped in a gasp as they extracted the hidden weaponry. She was aware of such facts. They were the same explosives Duke and his merry band of terrorist nut nuts had previously stolen.

"What are you planning to do?!?" she cried, horrified as they just placed the objects one on top of the other, like if they were creating some sort of twisted sandcastle.

"Aren't we curious?" Duke yelled as he walked across the room to a smaller black box and opened it.

Maddison was aware that she was looking at a bomb, remote detonation devices, and wire to connect them to explosives with a powerful enough charge to set them off without having to work in the explosives industry. The detonator was picked up by Duke and taken to Maddison, who was shown off to as though it were a valued item.

He mutely smirked, "Well, you see, I plan to murder you."

Since she had two little children at home to defend, Maddison felt much more defiant this time and scoffed, "I'm delighted you went through all this trouble." However, I don't believe you adore me as much as you do. Possibly a date first would be appropriate. then, let's see whether we want to murder one another. ”

Her head was skipping beats left and right, yet she continued speaking. To have any hope of escaping from the situation, she just knew that she had to keep him talking. She needed time, but there weren't many ways to obtain it without being irritating, and she didn't have a lot of alternatives for doing so.

Standing just a few feet away, Duke arched his brow at her. After what appeared to be some thought, he leaned in closer and gave her a strong blow to the face that caused her ears to ring.

Say nothing, princess. I don't need your snarky tongue in this situation.

“Yeah? I believed you enjoyed an audience! Devs enjoyed the fact that I was present when he passed away. Maddison spat back, "I bet I'll be here to watch your death too," spitting blood as he managed to tear her lip.

Even though she would have collapsed and started crying at this point in any other circumstance, it was the adrenaline that kept her talking.

"Maddison, I believe you are underestimating my degree of preparedness here. You see, I'm not rushing. I want this to be enjoyable for both of us. See all the good things I'm doing, like making a huge pile of explosives that will completely destroy this location? Do you see the explosives here? You're aware of their potential. He gingerly picked up one of the hefty objects and whirled it around in his hands for Maddison before asking.

She gritted her teeth and replied, "I know they make a crazy like you think he has some authority."

“True. But they can also make this building disappear. And when people come to gather around, lament the loss of such a great research center that did so much good for both humans and shifters, they’ll find traces of explosives only used by the US government. And you know how well the government gets along with shifters these days,” he mused idly, putting the bomb back down again.

His cold blue eyes flashed for a second as he looked at Maddison, and she swallowed heavily. There hadn’t been another person in the room for a few minutes now and being so close to him—this monster—all alone was unnerving her. But she had to keep talking.

“You’re a psycho. No one’s going to believe any of that stuff,” Maddison said, letting whatever came to her head first slip over her lips.

“Well, I bet they will, though,” Duke commented, crouching down by the armaments and starting the process of fastening the timer and some adhesive explosive putty in place, his back turned to Maddison. “We have a great PR department, after all.”

His chuckle was cold, menacing, and made Maddison wanted to sock him one. She struggled against her bindings, trying to see if she could make them budge, but the throbbing pain in her head and the tightness of the ropes combined together to assure her that she wasn’t going anywhere unless they allowed her to. It was exactly when Duke was done setting the timer—seven minutes, as Maddison could spy when he took a step away—that she heard the sound of shouting and then an explosion that sent plumes of smoke and debris billowing into the room.

“What the hell?” Duke growled, crossing through the room and looking out the door.

He pulled back when there was gunfire coming from the opposite end of the corridor, and Maddison could see what certainly looked like a dead body lying face-down somewhere in the hallway. Her heart rose into her throat and she gasped for air. This was all way, way too familiar to her and the panic was starting to crawl up her back like icy water.

Duke unslung his rifle, snarling, but there was still a smirk on his lips that was pure malevolence.

“Guess our playmates are early. Oh well. I wouldn’t mind taking out your boyfriends too while we’re at it. More blood for the grinder and all that,” he said, checking his ammo.

Maddison hated the sound of him slipping in another clip. He threw open the door, leaving Maddison in a situation where she could have gotten hit by a stray bullet if luck was not on her side, and Duke ducked out for a moment. She could hear muddled conversation and sporadic gunfire and she tried twice as hard to get out of her bindings, wriggling so desperately that she could feel skin chafing off.

When Duke returned, looking much more Mitchell, the timer had ticked down to five already.

“Hate to say it, princess, but I don’t think they can save you. I hope you said your goodbyes to your kids. They’re really cute. I’m sure we’ll recruit them when the time is right and make good little Arctic soldiers out of them. Mommy would be proud, right? Your little boys killing and conquering? Yeah, that sounds good,” he said, his voice tense as he checked the timer one more time and ran his fingers along the length of the wires sprouting out of it.

He seemed pleased with his handiwork. Suddenly, the door into the boiler room was thrown shut from the outside, causing him to take notice. Duke jumped up and Maddison had to suppress a gasp as she felt her hand coming free. He pushed open the door just in time to see two huge, white and black wolves barrel down the hallway through a thick fog of smoke, like they were more myth than beast, fangs bared and pings of gunfire shadowing them both front and back.

Maddison sucked in a breath, wrestling down her scream as she got her other hand free. She could see both of the wolves taking damage, one getting a deep gash in his side and the other’s step faltering but only for a minute when he got a bullet to the thigh. With the next leap, they were on the closest two men, strong paws bounding off their chests, fearsome maws ripping out their throats and sending blood and bullets flying everywhere as the men tried to claw them off of themselves.

But the wolves were too fast. Menacing growls marked their path, and as soon as they’d taken out the closest two, they piled on the last man outside the room, who was shooting at them wildly. Maddison ducked down in time to watch deep, arterial red gushing out of the guy’s neck, and then a bullet whiz through the air exactly where she had been sitting. Suddenly the wolves snapping and growling at Duke.

He held them both at bay, his rifle drawn, while the minutes and seconds ticked past mercilessly on the timer.

“No, no, you fuckers. If I go down, you do too,” he hissed, an almost deathly grin on his face.

I can’t die like this!

Maddison was still tied to the chair by her legs, but her arms were free now. She patted around herself, looking for something, anything to use to distract him. She almost squealed when she felt the reassuring weight of metal within reach. Grabbing a short length of pipe, she threw it blindly at Duke, the pipe colliding with the wall. But it was all the distraction the wolves needed.

Both bleeding and wounded, they pounced on Duke at the same time, and he only got out half a scream before he went down under their weight and the wolves ripped his face off with a few well-aimed chomps. Maddison’s eyes were wide with terror and she was raising her hands to shield herself when thudding footsteps came down the corridor and she heard one moan and then a shot behind the door before Jerome stepped in.

She was vaguely aware that there were tears streaming down her cheeks freely. Only when the twins were shifting back and Tim was pulling her into his arms, clearly favoring one side but very much there and present, did she understand what was really going on.

“Maddison, baby, are you okay?!” Tim asked, placing a kiss on her forehead.

Maddison could feel that her cheeks were damp with tears, but she didn’t remember crying. Tim undid the ropes holding her legs and Maddison scooted into a sitting position, wiping her face. Her hand came back bloody. It wasn’t hard to figure out why—Tim and Tom were both basically drenched in it, not only their own but the blood of the men they’d killed in their frenzied attack as well. For the first time, she’d seen their shifter side and it was as terrifying as it was awe-inspiring. Something told her that she was going to be looking at these two men a lot differently from now on, but that was a problem for future her, the one that hopefully still had problems to consider at all.

“I’m fine,” she rasped, looking Tim over and then Tom, who was limping heavily and had several deep gashes bubbling blood as he went to the makeshift, horrific bomb. “But you two are both injured!”

“Well, we have a minute before that will be a complete non-issue,” Tom growled, crouching down and taking one of his tool belts off and laying it down on the ground next to him.

Maddison’s heart skipped a beat as she felt the tension rising in the room.