RISE OF THE APOCALYPSE

AUTHOR’S POV 

Several men had gathered near the trading post. Their voices carried through the open window, tense and agitated.

“…I’m telling you, the hospitals are full.”

“Then they should send the sick somewhere else.”

“Somewhere else?” another man scoffed. “Where? Every city along the eastern road is reporting the same thing.”

Elena stopped wiping her instruments.

Cities. Hospitals.

The words were ordinary enough, but the urgency in the men’s voices made her uneasy.

She stepped outside.

“What is happening?” she asked.

The men turned toward her. One of them, a broad-shouldered hunter named Garrick, rubbed a hand over his beard.

“Travelers came through this morning,” he explained. “They were coming from the lowlands. They say some kind of illness is spreading through the human cities.”

“What kind of illness?”

“No one seems to know.”

“Are people dying?”

Garrick hesitated. “Apparently.”

A cold feeling settled in Elena’s stomach.

“How many?”

“Thousands, according to one of the travelers. Though I doubt anyone knows the exact number. Hospitals are overflowing, and the authorities have started restricting movement in some places.”

“Thousands?” she repeated.

“That’s what he said.”

Another man snorted. “Humans panic over everything. A bad fever spreads through a city, and suddenly everyone thinks the world is ending.”

“People don’t abandon their homes over an ordinary fever,” Elena replied.

The man shrugged. “They do when they listen to rumors.”

Elena looked from one face to another.

Most of the men appeared unconcerned. They had heard stories of illnesses before. Human cities were crowded. Disease was not unusual. As far as they were concerned, whatever was happening beyond the mountains was someone else’s problem.

But Elena had spent years studying illness. She knew how quickly a seemingly minor infection could become dangerous when it spread unchecked. She also knew that a disease capable of overwhelming several hospitals at once deserved more than a dismissive shrug.

“Did the travelers say what the symptoms were?” she asked.

“Fever, mostly,” Garrick replied. “Weakness. Some people apparently became confused.”

“Confused how?”

“Couldn’t recognize their families, according to the story.”

Elena frowned.

That was more troubling.

A high fever could cause delirium, but the details were too vague to tell her anything useful. She needed firsthand information.

“Where are the travelers now?”

“At the trading post. They wanted food and a place to rest before continuing north.”

“Did they come into contact with anyone who is sick?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then find out.”

Garrick blinked. “Why?”

“Because if an illness is spreading through several cities, we shouldn’t assume our settlement is beyond its reach.”

A few of the men exchanged amused glances.

“You think some human fever is going to climb a mountain and attack us?” one asked.

“No,” Elena replied. “I think a disease can travel with the people who carry it.”

Her answer silenced them for a moment.

She returned to her cottage, but the uneasy feeling followed her.

For the rest of the afternoon she listened more closely to every passing conversation. She questioned two traders who had recently arrived from the south and learned that several roads had become crowded with people trying to leave the cities. Some claimed authorities were closing public buildings. Others said entire neighborhoods had been placed under restrictions.

No one could agree on the details.

That was what frightened her most.

Fear and confusion spread quickly when people did not understand what was happening. And when information failed, rumors filled the silence.

By evening she had made her decision.

She took inventory of her supplies and wrote a list of everything she needed to replenish

She also separated her medicines into smaller, portable bundles.

If the situation worsened, she wanted to be ready to travel at a moment’s notice.

You think this illness will reach us? Luma asked.

Elena paused over the list.

I don’t know.

You are worried.

I would rather prepare for something that never happens than wait until it is too late.

Luma fell silent.

Elena reached for the silver pendant resting beneath the collar of her dress. It was the only keepsake she had from her mother, and she had worn it every day since leaving Blackthorn territory.

For one brief, unwelcome moment her thoughts drifted back to Kaiden.

She wondered whether Blackthorn had heard the reports. 

The question came without permission.

They always did.

Sometimes she could go for weeks without thinking of him. Then something small—a particular scent, the sight of a black wolf in the distance, the glow of the moon above the mountains—would bring the memory rushing back.

The pain was no longer sharp enough to bring her to her knees.

But it remained.

Elena released the pendant and returned to her list.

Kaiden belonged to another life.

Whatever was happening beyond the mountains, she would face it here, with the people who had accepted her when she had nowhere else to go.

She had survived losing her mate.

She could survive this too.

Outside, the wind began to rise, sweeping through the pine trees and rattling the shutters of her cottage. Beyond the mountains, far from the quiet settlement, hospitals were filled with frightened patients, emergency services were struggling to respond, and families were searching desperately for answers.

The illness had already begun its journey.

And Elena Voss, who had spent three years learning how to live without an Alpha, had no idea that the world she knew was about to disappear.