LOGINZarah's POVOnce weāre 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 itās escaping through a crack somewhere I canāt see. From the looks of it, everyone has eaten something and had something to drink, and now theyāre either sleeping or sitting talking quietly. A few have dressed, but there probably wasnāt enough clothing for all of them, so they huddle closer to the fire.I catch Corrineās eye. She and the rest of my pack are sitting together on one side of the fire. Jen is lying in Corrineās lap and looks like sheās asleep.I approach, wiping my hands on the scraps of Samuelsā 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.āHere,ā she says.āThanks,ā Sally says quietly, and I nod and smile, too
Zarha's POVSamuels keeps slipping precariously from Zantheās shoulders as she runs. So far heās managed to right himself, but I can hear his laboured breathing and the pained wheezing whenever Zantheās movement jolts him too hard. My ears strain for the beat of his heart while Zantheās 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.Heās dead.Although losing anyone is never ideal, I canāt 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. Iām fairly sure heād convinced himself we were meant to be, or some bullshit. Frankly, I donāt have the time or the capacity to mourn someone who was working for the rogues. Iāve 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 weāre
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 thereās 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 fuckerās 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, weāre going to struggle. We donāt know what the fucker did to our stomach, but we keep feeling a weird tugging sensation, and weāre beginning to see black spots at the edge of our vision. The adrenaline keeps us moving, but somethingās wrong.We feel her before we see her. The Task Force bond thrums as Zah
Samuels's POVWe run, Onyx just on Zahraās wolfās 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 donāt have a choice right now. Weāve dispatched the patrols, but someone will have heard their howls, and weāre still too close.Then I hear it, Onyxās ears picking up a loud howl.Fuck.We put on a burst of speed, Zahraās 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.āWeāll have to leave him. Zahra and the girls are our mission.āOnyx is right, and I know it, but I still feel a flicker of guilt after all Leviās help. The truth of it is simple. I used him to get them out, but Iām 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.Iām 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 speedāthen 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 theyāre dead, every one of them cut down where they stood, but then I catch itāheartbeats. Slow and heavy. Not dead, then. Unconscious? I donāt 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 thereās no time to question it yet. I turn and drive forward into the woods, expecting to hear the crack of
Zahra's POVWhen my alarm wakes me, the light outside is still muted, the sun only just beginning to rise. It’s 4:30am and everything is quiet, the kind of silence that only exists before dawn.
Xander's POVZach looks about a million times better this afternoon than he did this morning. Heās sitting up, his leg in a cast but propped comfortably on pillows, smiling as we all walk in.Zahra heads straight to him, and I catch the tears in her eyes before she buries her face against his shoul
Zahra's POVHenryās hand shoots up again. I shoot him a death glare, but he grins and keeps going. āSirāmay I make a suggestion?ā His voice is polite; Thompsonās eyebrows go up.āYou may,ā Thompson says slowly, voice cold like a blade.āI recommend assessing Larkin before the other privates.āāAny r
Zahra's POVCaptain Thompson presses his lips together at my interruption but doesnāt comment further.āNathaniel Henry, Lieutenant,ā Henry says beside me, his tone even as Thompson and the rest of the table continue to stare at me.āTess Ward, Private,ā says the girl at the end of the table, her v







