Fatal Temptation: Between Two Alphas
Chapter 59

Chapter Fifty-Nine

JACE

The tractor trailer backs into the loading bay. There is a subtle rocking as it butts against the giant rubber pads at the dock. We wait in the dark.

Our wolf eyes let us see clearly, but Morgan keeps her hand in front of her with a small flame glowing.

It flickers, casting shadows around her face.

Jacob and Michail are standing near the roll up door. Declan is driving.

There's a knock against the container door, it's soft but tells us the shipping official at the labs will be opening the bay.

Morgan moves to intercept them.

As the back opens, she's already murmuring a spell.

The young guy stands frozen.

He holds a clipboard in one hand and a lollipop hangs out of his open mouth. It falls in slow motion and cracks against the concrete floor. "What did you do to him?" I ask her.

"Nothing permanent," she assures me. "His mind and body are suspended in time. In a few hours, he'll wake up and be fine."

Michail lifts him up-the guy is like a statue, unmoving and unblinking-and sets him in the back of the semi.

"One sec," Jacob says.

He check's the guy's pockets and pulls out an employee key card. Then he rolls the back shut.

"Hope he isn't afraid of the dark."

Morgan shrugs. "His thoughts are frozen too. I'm not cruel. I wouldn't trap a person in their own mind."

Jacob has heavy bags of computer gear in each hand. Declan carries an assault rifle. But he slings it behind his shoulder. He drags a jacket on next. That'll cost time if he needs to use that gun, but for now, I agree with his choice.

"This way," Morgan says. "But first..."

She mutters a spell and I watch as Michail's features are transformed. He looks like the young guard. Exactly like him.

"This better not be permanent, witch."

She smirks. Then she changes her own features. Her hair shortening in length and darkening to black in color. Her eyes and skin darken too. She somehow adds several inches to her height. "There," she says. "We're even."

Morgan leads us into what appears to be a warehouse portion of the building. Giant pallets are stacked against walls and in rows.

There are a few workers on forklifts at the opposite end of the room and they move like worker bees, stacking crates and disappearing into another section that's marked by dropped down plastic strands, the kind you might see in a refrigerator or controlled-temperature storage area.

We wolves don't deal in magic so seeing what all is possible...it's eye opening.

She walks with purpose. Not too fast and with an easy confidence.

Maybe it's because she understands that the less attention we garner, the better, and with her new glamour she won't get caught on surveillance. Or maybe it's because her grandmother's power has imbued her with enough magic to face anything.

"Two o'clock," she says.

There they are. Another set of closed-circuit cameras.

We keep our heads slightly angled away and our eyes down. It won't matter if we're recognized. Not in the aftermath, anyway. But it'd be great if we could avoid at least the initial onset of enemy personnel. We move into a long hallway. There are doors on either side and ahead I see a bay of windows.

"Security office in forty feet," she says.

Ahead of that is a door, and a very sophisticated keypad beside it.

Morgan is building her magic again.

I can sense it now, it gives a hint of spark to the air, a current that is almost indistinguishable. Maybe it's because we've been intimate, or because I'm a wolf, but I detect the minute changes. There is even the slightest smell-like ozone after a storm.

She casts her hands out and tendrils of smoke extend. The bluish white smoke moves quickly, slithering down the remainder of the hall and beneath the door into the security room.

There is a startled noise and the clang of something shattering, and then...nothing.

We collectively hold our breath, waiting for an alarm to blare.

I count each step as we approach. Each one bolsters the hope that whoever was in that room was intercepted before they could trigger anything.

The door is locked and though Morgan pulls on the handle, it doesn't budge.

I don't like that we're bottlenecked in this corridor. I don't like it one bit.

Michail steps up and swipes the card he'd taken from the guy who greeted us in the loading bay. "Not working."

Damn.

"Jacob?"

"On it, boss." He slides up to the key card reader beside the door. In under ten seconds, he has unscrewed the panel and exposed the wires for the touchpad and card reader.

He pulls a set of wire cutters from his pocket and shoves needle nose pliers into his mouth to hold while he starts teasing away the many multi-colored feeds.

I don't know shit about this kind of electronics.

Jacob's skillset was perfected

during a long tenure at MIT and with four years in the military. He stays up on emerging tech...but who can tell if he'll encounter something he can't hack. Or...if these instruments are bewitched in some way.

I mean, Morgan warded houses against those who would do harm. Who is to say there isn't some similar spell in place here?

There is a click and a few seconds later, we're all moving into the security bay.

Jacob gets to work immediately, moving to the monitors and familiarizing himself with the technology. I stand by the door, protecting our backs. "Move them," Morgan says.

Michail grabs the first person, who is middle-aged and sitting in a rolling. chair with a cup of coffee halfway to his mouth. He pries the coffee mug out of the guy's hand and sets it on the desk. Then he rolls the man to the opposite corner of the room.

"There's a storage closet,” Morgan says. “Put them in there." Michail pauses and then does as she says.

Kof

For the remaining two employees, Morgan maneuvers one-also in a rolling office chair-so that he faces. the bank of windows on the opposite wall. That guy, for anyone glancing through the windows from the hall, would appear to be working. His arms rest on the keyboard and anyone passing by wouldbjust see the back of his head and assume he was glued to his computer screen.

The last guy is tall and his brows are drawn together. He had one hand on a red, old school telephone. No doubt he was going to make a call to alert... "Who would he be calling, Morgan?"

She shrugs. "Probably security. They patrol the outside grounds and walk the main buildings, ensuring everything is locked up this time of the day." "Any of your coven on site?"

"Not normally, no." She frowns. "At least not at this time of day."

But we're all thinking the same thing.

Everything could be different now since she went rogue and absconded with Jacelyn and Aaron.

They might not anticipate her coming back for the samples. But that's not to say they wouldn't have have stepped up their security anyway.

"I'm in!" Jacob proclaims.

I move beside him and stare at the screen. It's just lines and lines of code. "I've accessed the mainframe and I can program a jump to loop the digital camera feeds so we remove your fingerprints as you move through the building."

"Good job."

He calls up all the cameras on the big monitors where the last security person was previously standing.

Michail grabs that frozen guy beneath the arms and carries him away.

"I'll monitor the vicinity." A timer set at six minutes appears in the corner of the screen. "Starting countdown now."

"Let's move!" I say.

But Morgan doesn't. She squints at the guardhouse where a car has rolled up. Her eyes flare. Whatever she sees...she doesn't like it.

A sinking feeling settles in my gut.

"Jace," she whispers. "We really need to hurry."

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