True Traitor (First Wave Book 7) by Mikayla Lane

violently beneath her feet again, and she dropped to the floor and covered her stomach as she turned away.
    This time the cats also knew it was coming, and they piled themselves around her body to protect her as the wall exploded around them. Tricia looked up to check on Tristan and watched the debris part around him as if it knew better than to touch him. It was the only way she could describe it. Not even the dust touched him, and while she and the cats were covered in dust, not a pebble had touched them.
    When the violent shaking stopped, Tricia and the cats stood and walked to, Tristan who was now standing in a jagged hole that led to another tunnel. They stepped through into the new tunnel where Tristan led them down a few feet before placing his hands on the wall again.
    This time Tricia and the cats stayed back as Tristan’s hands glowed before the wall exploded outward and around him, debris raining down everywhere. There was another tunnel through the hole, and Tricia chuckled and patted Tristan’s hand.
    “Making a nice little shortcut through their tunnels, huh baby?” she asked while Gibly and the cats snickered.
    Tristan looked up and gave her a beautiful smile before his eyes turned dark. He jerked his hand out of hers and darted forward before throwing a golden barrier between them and a group of hybrids rounding a corner toward them with weapons drawn.
    One of the hybrid males stared at the heavily pregnant woman, small boy, and the cats. 
    “Uh . . . put your . . . uh . . . weapons down? Now!” he sputtered.
    He was nudged in the back by a smaller female.
    “What weapons you idiot? She’s holding her belly and the boy is holding nothing!” the woman said.
    The man turned to her, “What the hell do you want me to say then? Please stop blowing up my damn mountain? And, by the way, what the fuck kind of creature are you and that kid? Yeah, that sounds much better!” he spat at her.
    Another piped up, “They’re defenseless, damn it! What the hell are we doing here?”
    Tristan acted like they weren’t even there as he put his hands on the wall again. Within seconds, the tremors began and the hybrids shrieked in fear as the wall exploded around Tristan. He stepped into the hole and held his hand out for his mother while the cats all stuck their noses in the air as they passed the stunned hybrids who had been protected from the debris by the golden barrier Tristan had erected.
    “Damn it, stop blowing up my home!” the male hybrid yelled as he pounded on the golden barrier.
    Tricia stopped and turned to the young man, bravely facing him because she knew he couldn’t touch her with Tristan’s barrier between them.
    “Give us back his father and our people or we’ll take your home apart piece by piece until you do!” she said angrily, before climbing into the hole and following her son into the new tunnel.
    She almost cried in relief when she saw a much larger tunnel this time, with what looked like a modified four wheeled vehicle just sitting there. Tricia shuffled her feet as fast as she could to the vehicle, praying there were keys in it, while Tristan stepped into the very middle of the tunnel and looked both ways.
    Just as Tricia started the ignition, Tristan knelt on the ground and placed his hands down flat before rubbing them in circles. The rock floor looked like it had begun to smoke before several bowling ball sized, golden balls popped up through the rock and rolled down both sides of the tunnel, disappearing from sight. Tristan smiled as he stood and walked over to his mother and climbed into the vehicle with Gibly.
    Tricia was getting ready to ask which way to go, when Tristan held his hand up and pointed. “Good enough for me, baby,” Tricia said as she put the vehicle in gear and sped down the tunnel.
    *****
    Grai was so damn turned around he had no idea where he was. Every hallway looked the same, as did most of the rooms. There were no markings, no maps, nothing. And although