เข้าสู่ระบบPOV: Marcus Blackwood Thirty years. Thirty years, two months, and seventeen days since I'd last seen the sky. Now I was leading fifty-three prisoners through collapsing corridors toward freedom I wasn't sure any of us would survive to see. "Keep moving!" I shouted over the alarm. "Stay together!" Riley clung to my arm, her eyes wide with terror. My daughter. Sixteen years old and she'd never known anything but cells and experiments and pain. She was trembling so hard I could feel it through my entire body. "Dad, it's too loud," she whimpered. "Too many people. Too much space." "I know, baby. I know. But we have to keep going." Behind us, the other prisoners struggled forward. Some were strong enough to run. Others leaned on those with more strength. A few had to be carried. An older witch named Helena stumbled, catching herself on the wall. "I can't. I'm too old, too weak. Leave me." "No one gets left behind," I said firmly, helping her up. "You've survived this long. Don't
POV: Luna He helped me stand. My legs nearly buckled, but his arm around my waist kept me upright. Together, we moved toward the fight. "Thelma!" I called out. "Xavier! Fall back!" They glanced at me, confused, but they trusted me. They disengaged from Vex, creating space. Vex stood in the center of the corridor, breathing hard, black veins spreading further across her skin. She was losing control of her own body. "Stay back!" she screamed, but it wasn't a threat. It was fear. "I can't control it anymore! I don't know what I'll do!" "I know what you are," I said, walking toward her slowly. "You're terrified. You did this to protect humanity, to make yourself strong enough. And now you're not human anymore. Now you're the very thing you feared." "I did what I had to do!" Vex's voice cracked. "Someone had to be strong enough! Someone had to stand against all of you!" "And it's killing you," I said gently. "I can see it. The genetics are tearing you apart from the inside
POV: Luna Everything hurts. That was the first thing I became aware of as consciousness flickered in and out like a dying candle. Pain everywhere, deep in my bones, in my blood, in the empty space where my wolf should be. I could hear fighting. Shouting. The clash of bodies against concrete. But it all sounded distant, like I was underwater. Someone was carrying me. Marcus, I thought. The older wolf who'd been kind to me when we first met. His arms were gentle despite his urgency. "Stay with us," he murmured. "Just a little longer." But I was so tired. So empty. The mate bond with Theo was there, a golden thread connecting us, but it was fraying. I could feel it unraveling strand by strand, my life slipping away taking the bond with it. I should fight harder. I knew that. But without my wolf, I was just human. And humans weren't meant to survive what they'd done to me. Through the haze, I saw flashes of the battle. Xavier, magnificent even weakened, fighting with the
POV: Theo The explosion that disabled the locks felt like a gift from the gods. I slammed my shoulder into the cell door the moment I felt it give, bursting into the corridor to find complete chaos. Guards shouted orders that no one could hear over the alarms. Prisoners emerged from cells like ghosts rising from graves, some running, some fighting, some just standing there as if they'd forgotten what freedom looked like. "Theo!" Xavier's voice cut through the noise. I spun to see my brother-in-law leading a group of three other Alphas, all of them wearing collars but moving with purpose. Even weakened, Xavier radiated that True Alpha energy that made others want to follow. "Where's Thelma?" I demanded. "Above us. D-Block. I can feel her through the mate bond, it's faint but it's there." Xavier grabbed my arm. "And Luna?" Pain lanced through my chest at her name. "I don't know. I can feel her through the bond, but it's wrong. Something's wrong with her." The twin bond with Thel
The hallway beyond was long and gray, lined with doors. Through small windows in each door, I could see other prisoners. Wolves, vampires, witches, all wearing the same collars, all with the same hollow expressions. How many people were trapped down here? They threw me into a larger cell, maybe twenty by twenty feet. Three other men were already inside, all wearing collars. The door slammed shut behind me with a metallic clang. "Fresh meat," one of them said, a lean man with scars covering his arms. "I'm Dante. Eclipse pack. Former Alpha. Been here eight years." "Rook," said a younger guy, maybe twenty years old, with haunted eyes. "Shadow Creek pack. I don't remember how long I've been here. Maybe five years? Maybe ten?" The third man didn't introduce himself, just watched me with predatory intensity. Kieran, the True Alpha I'd met earlier. "Four Alphas in one cell," I observed. "That's either really stupid or really calculated." "Oh, it's calculated," Dante said bitterly
POV: Xavier Pain woke me. Sharp, throbbing pain in my temples that felt like someone was drilling into my skull. I groaned, trying to lift my hand to my head, but my arm wouldn't move. My eyes snapped open to harsh fluorescent lighting and the cold realization that I was restrained to a metal chair. The collar around my neck hummed with a frequency that made my teeth ache. I tested the restraints once, twice. Solid steel, bolted to the floor. The room was smaller than I expected, maybe ten by ten feet, with concrete walls painted sterile white. A single camera mounted in the corner tracked my every movement. "Subject Alpha-Seven is conscious," a mechanical voice announced from a hidden speaker. Alpha-Seven. Not Xavier. Not even a name. Just a number. Rage built in my chest, hot and fierce. I pulled against the restraints hard enough that the metal groaned, but the collar immediately sent a shock through my system that left me gasping. Every nerve in my body screamed. "I wo







