Beyond Beast Rank

An Unexpected Discovery

Heavy footsteps slammed against the concrete floor just a few yards away, threatening to shatter the fragile silence of the back room.

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped animal, screaming at me to run away while I still had the chance. Every logical voice in my head warned me that staying here was absolute suicide. I was an ordinary delivery rider with no combat training, no powerful beast to protect me, and no idea how to fight men who wore tactical gear and carried heavy weapons. If they caught me tampering with their cages, they would not listen to any excuses. They would throw me into a cell, lock the door, and let me rot away in the dark where nobody would ever find me.

Yet my feet refused to turn around toward the service door.

I looked down through the reinforced glass panel at the small black puppy. Its glowing blue eyes stared up at me with quiet suffering, showing no trace of anger or hostility, only a desperate plea for survival. It reminded me too much of Lily lying on her thin mattress back home, gasping for breath while the world ignored our existence. I knew what it felt like to be treated as worthless by society, and I could not walk away and leave another helpless soul to suffer the same fate.

Time seemed to freeze as the heavy footsteps grew louder, echoing off the metal beams overhead.

I dropped to my knees in the cold dust, sliding my fingers along the edge of the glass casing to find the mechanical latch.

There was no electronic keypad or digital unlock button. The cage relied on a heavy manual lever designed to withstand immense physical force from large beasts trying to break out. My palms slicked with cold sweat as I gripped the iron handle, pulling upward with all the strength in my arms.

The mechanism stuck tight, jammed by years of accumulated grime and rust.

A sharp metallic screech echoed through the quiet aisle as the latch resisted my pull. My breath caught in my throat. I glanced back over my shoulder into the dark shadows, expecting a flashlight beam to cut across the floor at any second. The voices of the warehouse workers grew closer, sounding like they were only two rows of storage containers away.

I let out a low gasp, repositioned my grip on the rusted iron bar, and threw my entire body weight downward.

With a loud click that sounded like a gunshot in the silent room, the internal locking pins snapped back. The heavy glass door swung open, releasing a stale wave of trapped air and chemical odors directly into my face.

Without wasting a fraction of a second, I slid my hands under the small, trembling body of the puppy.

I tried to be as gentle as possible, but my fingers brushed against the raw gasps on its hind legs. The puppy let out a faint, pitiful whimper that broke my heart, its small head dropping weakly against my arm. I pulled it close to my chest, tucking its fragile frame safely inside the front of my heavy delivery jacket.

Then my fingers caught on the thick metal collar locked around its neck.

The wires were still pulsing with faint red electricity, connected by a thin tracking cable to the wall monitor. If I tried to pull the puppy away without disconnecting the cable, the sudden jolt would trigger an automated shock or set off a local alarm.

Footsteps rounded the corner of the metal storage racks directly across from my aisle.

"Hey! Who is back there by the holding units!" a harsh, angry voice shouted through the dim light.

Panic surged through my veins like liquid fire. I did not have time to figure out the complex wiring of the monitoring system. I grabbed the thin tracking cable with my bare hand, planted my boot against the metal frame of the cage, and yanked upward with a sharp, desperate jerk.

Sparks flew into the air with a bright blue flash as the wires snapped cleanly in two.

The monitor on the wall let out a shrill, deafening beep, signaling a breach in the security grid. The sudden noise shattered the quiet atmosphere of the warehouse instantly, echoing off the high steel ceiling and alerting every single person inside the building.

"Intruder in the back sector!" the man yelled, his voice rising in volume and anger. "Stop right there or we will open fire!"

I did not wait to see who was standing in the aisle. I spun around on my heel, clutching the injured puppy tightly against my chest inside my jacket, and bolted down the narrow gap between two high stacks of wooden crates.

My scuffed boots slipped slightly on the damp concrete floor, but I forced my legs to move faster, dodging around heavy metal tables and discarded equipment. The layout of the warehouse was a maze of shadows, and I used every blind corner and stacked container to break their line of sight.

Heavy boots pounded against the floor behind me, closing the distance at an alarming speed. A bright flashlight beam cut through the darkness, sweeping wildly across the wall just inches above my head and casting long, distorted shadows against the corrugated metal siding.

"Get him! Do not let him take that specimen!" another voice roared loudly from the darkness ahead, blocking the direct path toward the main service door.

My stomach dropped into a bottomless pit. They were not chasing me just because I was an intruder trespassing in a restricted building. They were chasing me because the small creature hidden inside my jacket was valuable to them, and they were willing to kill anyone who tried to take it away.

I veered sharply to the left, ducking beneath a hanging industrial chain and sliding behind a rusted shipping container that offered a narrow escape route toward the darker side of the facility.

The pursuit had begun, and every instinct told me that if I stopped running now, I would never see the light of day again.