LOGINZarah's POVOnce we’re finished, I turn. The others are huddled around a fire, the flames reaching up and casting flickering shadows on the cave walls. The smoke curls towards the high roof, or maybe it’s escaping through a crack somewhere I can’t see. From the looks of it, everyone has eaten something and had something to drink, and now they’re either sleeping or sitting talking quietly. A few have dressed, but there probably wasn’t enough clothing for all of them, so they huddle closer to the fire.I catch Corrine’s eye. She and the rest of my pack are sitting together on one side of the fire. Jen is lying in Corrine’s lap and looks like she’s asleep.I approach, wiping my hands on the scraps of Samuels’ T-shirt.Sally follows behind me. I sit, and Corrine passes us both a bottle of water to share and a tin of what looks like soup each. The lids have been cut open with a knife, the jagged edges looking lethal.“Here,” she says.“Thanks,” Sally says quietly, and I nod and smile, too
Zarha's POVSamuels keeps slipping precariously from Zanthe’s shoulders as she runs. So far he’s managed to right himself, but I can hear his laboured breathing and the pained wheezing whenever Zanthe’s movement jolts him too hard. My ears strain for the beat of his heart while Zanthe’s swivel to pick up anything and everything around us.My mind wanders to what just happened. The fight between the Beta and Samuels, and Levi... it was all so sudden.He’s dead.Although losing anyone is never ideal, I can’t really bring myself to be sad about it. Yeah, he may have helped Samuels get us out, but I was only in there because of him. He was a dick, and way too clingy and intense. I’m fairly sure he’d convinced himself we were meant to be, or some bullshit. Frankly, I don’t have the time or the capacity to mourn someone who was working for the rogues. I’ve got fifty she-wolves with enough mental trauma to carry without adding him to the list.I feel my pack getting closer, and I know we’re
Samuels's POVHe presses us back again, and we grapple, teeth and paws everywhere, until we finally manage to get a proper bite, clamping down hard on his foreleg. The taste of blood floods our senses for a moment, and then we hear the satisfying crack.But a second later there’s an agonising burst of pain and then wetness between our legs, followed, strangely, by almost no pain at all. We stumble, our feet snagging on something, but we hold on, teeth biting deeper into the now-crushed leg. Onyx starts to shake, wanting to rip the fucker’s leg off.We sense movement around us, and in the edge of our vision we see a rank of warriors in human form surrounding us.Shit. If they engage, we’re going to struggle. We don’t know what the fucker did to our stomach, but we keep feeling a weird tugging sensation, and we’re beginning to see black spots at the edge of our vision. The adrenaline keeps us moving, but something’s wrong.We feel her before we see her. The Task Force bond thrums as Zah
Samuels's POVWe run, Onyx just on Zahra’s wolf’s tail, with Levi a few metres behind us. His small brown wolf is going to struggle to keep pace if we have to drive this hard for long, but we don’t have a choice right now. We’ve dispatched the patrols, but someone will have heard their howls, and we’re still too close.Then I hear it, Onyx’s ears picking up a loud howl.Fuck.We put on a burst of speed, Zahra’s wolf and Onyx lengthening their strides the way hours of endurance runs have taught them to do without conscious thought. But the small brown wolf behind us increases his pace instead, scrambling to compensate, and I can already hear his breathing sawing in and out as he starts to fall further back.Fuck.‘We’ll have to leave him. Zahra and the girls are our mission.’Onyx is right, and I know it, but I still feel a flicker of guilt after all Levi’s help. The truth of it is simple. I used him to get them out, but I’m not sacrificing Zahra for him.Another howl goes up, this one
Cole's POVBlood and fur fly as Ceraon spins to meet the other wolf's lunge, the two of them crashing together hard enough to shake the ground beneath us. He keeps us in close, where his heavier body gives him the advantage, his back legs raking viciously across the wolf's stomach as they grapple. Then the bastard clamps down on Ceraon's foreleg.I hear the crack a moment before agony rips through my leg, white-hot and instant, the kind of pain that wipes everything else out for a second.Ceraon snarls and twists, trying to rip free, but the wolf hangs on, teeth sunk deep, shaking his head as if he means to tear the whole limb off.A few of my warriors have caught up now, circling us in human form, staying out of range of the fight and making themselves entirely fucking useless. Honestly what is the fucking point of all that training?!Ceraon is snarling and whimpering all at once, and I can see blood gushing from the other wolf's open stomach where our claws tore through him.Before
Cole's POVAbout ten minutes pass before another howl goes up, then another, this time from the south-west.I’m already moving before the second one fully fades.Ceraon surges with me as I take off at a run, throwing back a howl of my own for any warriors in the vicinity to follow. I shift as I round the front of the castle, claws tearing into the earth as I hit the lawn at speed—then skid to a halt so hard the grass rips beneath my paws.Bodies.There are bodies sprawled across the grass. Warriors. My warriors.For one sharp, sickening second, I think they’re dead, every one of them cut down where they stood, but then I catch it—heartbeats. Slow and heavy. Not dead, then. Unconscious? I don’t have time to stop check on them.I howl again, louder this time, and a few warriors come running from the castle doors.In their human form.I stare at them for half a second, thrown, but there’s no time to question it yet. I turn and drive forward into the woods, expecting to hear the crack of
Zahra's POVA flicker of something—pain, maybe pride—crosses his face before he exhales and nods. “I guess you’re right. Henry, keep her out of trouble. And Zahra, don’t shift.”He turns back to the others before I can respond, already linking them as he heads into the night. Henry and I break into
Max's POVI sigh, rubbing my forehead. “It’s not just that though. They want me to take over Seb’s place. King James and Alpha Lucas enrolled me on the Alpha course at AC, I’m to co-alpha with Xander now that the packs have merged. How can I just take Seb’s place? How can I be co-alpha with Xander a
Zahra's POVA yelp cuts through the noise. My head snaps up just in time to see Zion go down, his massive grey form tumbling hard. He hits the dirt, rolling, jaws locked around another wolf’s muzzle. There’s a sickening crack as the rogue’s jaw breaks, but not before it sinks its teeth into Zion’s
Zahra's POVMy throat tightens as I go on, my words tumbling out, raw and broken. I tell Max how Eli taught me how to please him, how he hurt me when I spoke up—pinching, gripping my arms so hard he left bruises. How he’d humiliate me in front of others when I joined conversations, as if I had no r







