The warehouse had turned into absolute chaos, all blood and violence and the sounds of wolves dying, and Hart was pretty sure this was the worst rescue mission in the history of rescue missions.
He pressed Mira and Sera against the wall near the jammed elevator, using his body to shield them while Lewis frantically tried to pry the doors open with a piece of metal pipe.
"It's not working!" Lewis shouted over the sounds of combat. "The mechanism's completely destroyed!"
"Then we find another way out," Hart said, scanning the warehouse floor.
Cole and Liam were still fighting near the center, both in wolf form now, a blur of black fur and golden eyes and violence that made Hart's stomach turn.
Jethro and the strike team were holding off the BlackY Wolves, but they were outnumbered and losing ground fast.
Through the bond, Hart felt Cole's pain when Liam's claws raked across his shoulder, felt his rage when three BlackY Wolves tried to attack from behind.
The totem mark on Hart's wrist burned hot enough to make him gasp, and something inside him responded to Cole's need with a surge of power he didn't understand.
White light exploded from the mark, spreading across Hart's skin in patterns that looked like the symbols carved into the totem.
The nearest BlackY Wolf yelped and scrambled backward, and Hart stared at his glowing arm in shock.
"What the hell?" Lewis breathed.
"I have no idea," Hart said honestly, because apparently his body was just deciding to do supernatural things now without consulting him first.
A massive explosion shook the building, and Hart looked up to see part of the ceiling collapsing on the far side of the warehouse.
The explosives Mira had warned about were starting to detonate, which meant they had minutes at best before this whole place came down.
"Emergency stairs!" Jethro's voice cut through the chaos, still in that distorted wolf form. "Northeast corner, move now!"
Hart grabbed Mira's hand and pulled her toward where Jethro was pointing, Lewis half-carrying Sera who was limping badly on her injured leg.
They made it maybe twenty feet before two BlackY Wolves blocked their path, both shifting into human form with guns raised.
"Going somewhere?" one of them sneered.
Hart's body moved on instinct, the totem light flaring brighter, and he felt something surge through him that was definitely not human.
His hand shot out, and the light hit both wolves like a physical force, sending them flying backward into a support column hard enough to crack concrete.
"Okay, so apparently I can do that now," Hart said, staring at his still-glowing hand. "That's new and terrifying."
"Less talking, more running!" Lewis shouted, pulling Hart forward.
They reached the emergency stairs and started climbing, but another explosion rocked the building and the stairwell began to collapse behind them.
Hart pushed Mira up faster, feeling the heat of fire spreading below, hearing the screams of wolves who couldn't escape in time.
They burst onto the second floor landing, and Hart immediately wished they hadn't because Liam was standing there, covered in blood and smiling like this was the best day of his life.
Cole was behind him, badly wounded and struggling to stand.
"Leaving so soon?" Liam said, his golden eyes fixed on Hart. "We haven't even gotten to the fun part yet."
"The building is collapsing," Hart said, positioning himself between Liam and his sister. "If you don't get out now, you die too."
"Oh, I'm not planning to die," Liam said, and Hart saw the detonator in his hand. "But you and my dear brother? You're not leaving this building alive."
He pressed the button. And within seconds the explosions started on the ground floor, a chain reaction of fire and destruction climbing toward them.
Hart felt Cole's desperation through the bond, he felt him trying to reach them despite his injuries, and made a decision that was probably stupid but was also the only option.
"Get them out!" Hart shouted to Lewis, shoving Mira toward the stairs. "Now!"
"Hart, no!" Mira screamed, but Lewis was already pulling her up toward the third floor exit, Sera stumbling behind them.
Hart turned back to Liam, the totem mark blazing so bright it hurt to look at.
"You want the Original Bloodline power? Come and get it."
He ran at Liam, and honestly had no idea what he was planning to do beyond maybe tackle him and hope Cole recovered fast enough to help.
The totem light expanded around Hart like a shield, and when Liam's claws slashed at him, the light deflected them.
Liam's eyes widened with something that looked like hunger. "Yes, that's it! That's the power I need!"
Cole slammed into Liam from the side, his wolf form smaller than usual because of his injuries but still moving with deadly purpose.
They went down in a tangle of fur and claws, and Hart felt every impact through the bond like it was happening to his own body.
Another explosion, this one close enough that Hart was thrown backward into the wall. His vision swam, and he tasted copper.
Through the bond, he felt Cole's terror, felt him trying to reach Hart while still fighting Liam.
"Hart!" Cole's voice, human again, desperate. "The building's coming down, you need to get out!"
"Not without you," Hart said, forcing himself to stand despite everything screaming in protest.
Jethro appeared through the smoke, still in wolf form, with two other Haanshil wolves.
They formed a protective circle around Hart, and Jethro's distorted voice cut through the chaos. "We've got him, Alpha! Get Liam and let's move!"
Cole and Liam were still fighting, both bleeding heavily, both refusing to back down.
The floor beneath them cracked, a support beam giving way, and Hart watched in horror as the section where they were fighting started to collapse.
"Cole!" Hart screamed, and the totem mark exploded with light so bright it turned the entire warehouse white.
Time seemed to slow. Hart felt power flowing through him that was ancient and vast and absolutely terrifying.
The light from the totem wrapped around Cole, pulling him backward away from the collapsing floor, away from Liam who was still reaching for him with murder in his eyes.
The floor gave way completely, and Liam fell through with a scream of rage that cut off abruptly when he hit the inferno below.
Cole slammed into Hart, both of them going down hard, and Hart felt the bond snap into sharp focus as Cole shifted back to human and grabbed him. "We need to move, now!"
They ran, Jethro and the other wolves clearing a path through smoke and fire and collapsing infrastructure.
Hart could barely breathe, his lungs burning, his body screaming in protest, but Cole's arm around him kept him moving.
They burst through a third floor window, hitting the fire escape as the building groaned behind them.
Hart scrambled down the metal stairs, Cole right behind him, and they dropped to the ground just as the entire factory collapsed inward with a sound like the world ending.
Hart hit the pavement and rolled, coming up gasping and covered in soot. Around him, wolves were staggering away from the destruction, some injured, some barely standing.
He found Mira and Lewis and Sera huddled together near an abandoned car, all three of them alive and that was all that mattered.
Cole pulled Hart against his chest, both of them shaking, and Hart buried his face in Cole's neck and tried very hard not to think about how close they'd all come to dying.
"Is Liam dead?" Hart asked quietly.
"I don't know," Cole said, his voice rough with smoke. "But if he survived that, I'm going to be very annoyed."
Jethro shifted back to human, accepting clothes from another wolf and looking grim.
"We lost eight wolves, three more critically injured. BlackY Wolves casualties are worse, at least twenty dead, and Jasmine says the rest scattered when the building started coming down."
Hart looked at the burning ruins of the factory and felt the weight of those deaths settle on his shoulders like concrete.
And now, eight wolves died because he'd been stupid enough to get captured. Because his sister and Sera had been used as bait. Because Liam wanted power and didn't care who died for it.
"Hey," Cole said, tilting Hart's face up to meet his eyes.
"This isn't your fault. You saved lives today, including mine. Don't forget that."
Hart nodded, though he wasn't sure he believed it. Through the smoke and sirens approaching in the distance, he watched Mira crying in Lewis's arms, watched Sera staring at the ruins with the thousand-yard stare of someone whose entire worldview had just shattered.
"What happens now?" Hart asked.
"Now we go home," Cole said. "And we figure out how to explain to the Council why we just destroyed half a city block and exposed werewolf existence to however many humans witnessed this disaster."
"That sounds fun," Hart said without any humor at all.
"It's going to be a nightmare," Cole agreed, and pulled Hart closer. "But we'll handle it together."
In the distance, Hart heard howling, and he couldn't tell if it was celebration or mourning.