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CHAPTER 60: Mirror to the Flame

Author: Myra TUC
last update Last Updated: 2025-08-18 09:44:10

The Wastes were quiet again.

Not the peaceful kind of quiet. The kind that coils around you before a storm breaks. The kind that warns you: danger hasn’t passed. It’s only watching.

Inside the cradle, the air was tight. We had survived the first wave, the Council’s warships. The shield held. But something in my bones told me it wasn’t over.

Kieran stood near the eastern entrance, arms crossed, jaw tight. Subject 13 was pacing, running a blade over a whetstone, not really sharpening it. He was just moving, like a lion trapped in a cage.

The rest of the subjects; children, teens, and even the strongest of them were resting in small clusters. Some were curled into themselves. Some were pretending to sleep. But none of us were truly at ease.

Something was coming.

And I felt it before the alarms did.

It was like a string inside me was being pulled, not pain, not fear. Something colder, deeper, like a tether to a shadow I thought I’d left behind.

The control panel buzzed once. Then again.

I
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  • THE LAST SHIFT: A Werewolf without a Wolf    CHAPTER 73: Shards and Shadows

    Stone dust smacked me in the face before I understood what was happening. The sound was like the whole world cracking in half. It went so deep my teeth rattled and my skull felt like it might split open. I stumbled backward, choking on grit, throwing my hands up to protect my eyes.When I could see again, the black ring was gone. Not broken. Not even shattered. Completely destroyed.What used to be our protection was now just rubble scattered everywhere like broken bones. Each sharp piece caught the pale light still coming up from the cracked ground.And that thing was inside with us.Kieran didn't hesitate. His sword was already moving, silver cutting through air toward it. But the creature was never where it should be. It moved sideways without stepping, just closer somehow, sliding so smooth it made my stomach flip.That grin got wider, showing those rows of little smiles stacked inside its mouth. My chest got tight like someone wrapped rope around my ribs."Get back!" Kieran shout

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  • THE LAST SHIFT: A Werewolf without a Wolf    CHAPTER 71:The Forest That Breathes

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  • THE LAST SHIFT: A Werewolf without a Wolf    CHAPTER 68: The Ghost that Breathes

    For a second, I forgot how to breathe.She shouldn't have been here. Shouldn't have been anywhere. My brain couldn't process it. Seeing her carved a hole straight through me, so deep I almost missed the thing crouched on top of her.Her face was paler than I remembered. Lips cracked, hair tangled and matted with dirt. Dried blood streaked across her jaw. But her eyes still had something sharp behind the fear, a spark that wouldn't die. Even that felt wrong, because last time I saw her, there hadn't been anything left to fight with.The thing on top of her growled low and deep. It vibrated through the frozen air and down my spine. Too big to be human, too wrong to be a wolf. Its back arched weird, shoulders rolling forward like it could barely hold its shape. Thick muscle shifted under patchy, mottled fur. Claws long enough to scratch dirt from where it stood. The stink of rot rolled off it in waves, sour and heavy, like the air around it was already rotting.Kieran's hand left my arm

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