But then two of his .45-caliber rounds bounced off the creature charging his way, the heavy bullets not even making its large, luminous eyes do more than blink. If that wasn’t enough to push his already tenuous control further toward the edge of the cliff, the sight of three more of the fast-moving creatures rounding the corner definitely was.
The first creature closed the space between them in a heartbeat, ricocheting from floor to wall in a blur before launching straight at Caleb’s chest. Another round in the thing’s stomach did nothing to slow it, and then razor-sharp claws were ripping through the forearm Caleb lifted to protect his face. Pain seared through his arm, and he swore he could feel the creature’s claws grating on bone even as its fang-filled jaws opened to bite him.
Caleb reacted out of pure instinct, clubbing the creature to the ground with the butt of his weapon before emptying the rest of the magazine of ammo into the thing at point-blank range. The results were less than impressive, and the muscular creature sprang right back on its feet, ready to throw itself at him once more.
Then Jake, Forrest, and the soldiers were at his side, gunfire filling the tunnel from side to side, the noise of them all firing at once so loud that Caleb’s sensitive ears immediately shut down until everything was muted to a dull roar.
Unfortunately, the four creatures weren’t fazed by the hail of gunfire, bouncing right up and coming at them again. Caleb started reloading, but at the sight of all those fangs and claws, he knew his handgun wouldn’t do a damn thing to slow them down. His inner omega decided to take over, and he dropped his weapon to take them on in hand-to-hand combat instead.
He vaguely heard Jake shouting at him to stop, but he was too far gone by then. That’s how it was to be an omega. When his inner wolf took over, he was essentially shoved into the back seat and granted a fuzzy view of what was happening around him but given little control over his actions. It was both terrifying and exhilarating all at once.
Caleb wasn’t aware he’d closed the distance between himself and the creatures until he found one of his hands wrapped around a squirming muscular neck, his fist coming down over and over to pummel it until something gave. He felt the smaller bones in his hand cracking, a minor inconvenience of pain far away in the background, barely a nuisance.
He wasn’t sure when he lost his grip on the thing’s neck, but the next thing he knew, he was holding its leg instead and smashing the creature onto the rough stone floor again and again. Another one of the creatures leaped on his back, slashing and hacking at him, but he ignored the pain to continue trying to kill the one in his hands.
Shouting somewhere nearby distracted him for a moment, though he wasn’t sure which of his teammates was warning that there were more creatures coming at them from behind, slipping out of those smaller holes in the walls he’d seen earlier. The intensity of gunfire increased, and some part of his mind knew his friends were in trouble.
The distraction allowed the creature in his hand to get away, its blood making it too hard to hold. Caleb’s inner omega didn’t care. He simply growled and reached up to grab the one still on his back. With a roar that echoed through the tunnels, Caleb got a grip on the thing’s head and bashed it against the wall. When it stopped resisting and went still in his arms, he reached for the next closest one he could find—the one slashing at Colonel Vinson, who was doing everything he could to fend it off.
Everything was a blur, like it always was when his omega took over. He attacked, smashing, punching, clawing, even biting. He had no idea if he was killing the creatures. Something inside him suggested he wasn’t, but he kept at it anyway. At some point, his other teammates arrived, his fellow werewolves fighting to protect those without any supernatural abilities. Math wasn’t something he was capable of at the moment, but part of him knew there weren’t as many soldiers fighting now as there should be.
When he found his hands empty of a target for his uncontrolled aggression, Caleb turned to see one of the creatures racing away down the tunnel. Like a predator chasing fleeing prey, his inner wolf forced him to follow. Jake and the others yelled at him to stop, but that wasn’t really a possibility.
The creature ran—he chased.
Caleb had no idea how far he went, but the rational part of his mind—the part that was merely along for the ride—noticed that the floor of the tunnel had angled upward, heading for the surface. Was the creature trying to escape out of the tunnels? His inner omega growled in delight, knowing the thing would never get away on open ground.
He caught up with the creature as it disappeared into one of the smaller side holes, slowed somewhat by the object it was attempting to take into the hole with it. Caleb grabbed the bulky thing and dragged it back, only realizing it was the remains of one of the soldiers when he saw the camo material and shreds of tactical gear.
The creature fought him for the prize, its lips peeling back to show bloodstained fangs. That image, along with the ravaged body, jarred him enough to finally comprehend what he was seeing, even through the omega mist shrouding his mind.
The creatures were eating the soldier’s bodies. It’s why they’d come back so many hours after the initial attack. To recover the meal left behind.
Caleb wasn’t sure how long he stood there, his hands clenching hard on the remains of the soldier, but at some point, the creature finally gave up and left. Then Forrest was there at his side, softly saying words that were probably meant to be calming. It wasn’t necessary, though. His inner omega had finally let go and given up the control it had usurped from him.
After telling him that all of their people were okay, Forrest led him away from the body on the floor of the tunnel. Caleb assumed they were going back to the weapons vault, so he was a little surprised when they headed the other direction, ultimately ending up outside, in a tree-shrouded area that was well outside the air base perimeter. Breathing the fresh air went a long way to clearing his mind. He replayed the previous few minutes, hoping he hadn’t hurt any of their own people. He didn’t remember doing that, but then again, it wasn’t like he’d know.
Jake, Jestina, Colonel Vinson, and one of his soldiers were standing in a loose circle about ten or fifteen feet from where the tunnel opened up on the surface. There were all looking intently at the ground. All four looked up as Caleb and Forrest joined them, the colonel and his soldier staring at Caleb like they were waiting for him to attack. He couldn’t blame them. They’d seen him lose control—anyone would be scared of him after that. There was also the blood on his arms and shirt from all the slashes he’d gotten from those creatures.
“They had a vehicle waiting for them,” Jes said, studying the heavy tread impressions in the soft ground. “A large truck, based on the tire and axle width.”
Caleb stood there trying to wrap his head around the idea that someone had apparently hired those vicious creatures to help steal a large number of nuclear weapons right out from under the control of the U.S. military—literally. The things had been so insanely aggressive, it was difficult to comprehend they could be trusted to handle a theft like that. Unless there had been humans working with them.