เข้าสู่ระบบNo one spoke long after Damon's howl had stopped. Mara quietly knelt beside Jason’s body with her head bowed, and her hands pressed flat against the earth as if she was listening for any sign that he might still be alive. It was a futile hope, but she was in too much pain to care. Pascal stood a few steps away, scanning the perimeter on instinct even though he knew deep down that there was nothing left to defend anymore. The rogues were gone…All of them. Damon remained in the center of the devastation, too broken to move, but holding back so much grief that he felt like tearing apart anything that had life. His eyes burned with a hellish light, fixed on nothing and everything at once. The grief was there…hot and consuming, but there was something else that was slowly building underneath it. Something that was far more dangerous…The thirst for blood and revenge. Suddenly, there was the smallest sign of movement near the collapsed remains of the old stone hut at the edge of the cam
Damon felt that something was terribly wrong long before he saw it…before the wind carried the smell. His wolf felt it too, it was restless, pacing, snarling, and clawing at something unseen. The deeper they pushed through the trees, the heavier the feeling became. Pascal noticed it next. “Hey,” he muttered from the back seat, leaning forward. “You feel that?” Mara took her time to observe for herself, scanning the treeline with a very focused look on her face. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “This place feels… empty. Too empty.” Damon wasn't paying attention to them anymore. Not with all the fears that were piling up in his head. When the first curl of smoke rose above the trees in the distance as if they were fingers reaching for the sky, Mara gasped. “Damon…” “I see it,” he muttered slowly. The smoke thickened as they drove, dark and oily, drifting lazily upward as if the forest itself were exhaling something rotten and final. The smell followed soon after…burnt wood, scorched fle
Lucia laughed again, and it rang across the camp like the sound of a broken glass. It wasn’t the laughter of amusement…it was the sound of someone savoring the moment just before bloodshed.Jason stepped fully in front of Elena this time, with his body already tensing as his wolf surged close to the surface. His shoulders squared, as if daring Lucia to take another step closer.“You’ll never touch her,” he said boldly. “Not while I’m still breathing.”Lucia finally looked at Jason as if she was seeing him for the first time, then she turned her attention back to Elena.“Your little fornication partner really followed you this far? How sweet. Does Damon know that you two are still fucking?”Something inside Elena snapped at that moment, and her eyes flared with anger and hatred..“Shut your mouth,” Elena said coldly. “You and Nyla lied. Lied because you couldn’t stand that Damon never chose either of you.”Lucia scoffed.“You spread filth about Jason a
The rogue camp erupted into motion the instant the sentry’s warning echoed through the clearing…Weapons were grabbed by the non-shifters, while all the shifters quickly began to shift into their wolf forms as they assembled, snarling savagely. The calm of the morning was completely gone now, and it had been quickly replaced by the diligent, and disciplined chaos of a pack that had survived by never hesitating. The rogue leader came forward, with his powerful presence commanding silence even as adrenaline surged through the camp. “Details,” he snapped at the sentry. The sentry who was obviously still shaken by whatever horror he must have seen still bent as he fought to get his breath under control. “VORTEX,” he said hoarsely. “An entire force. Armored trucks. Soldiers. And…” His voice faltered. “And what?” the leader pressed. “They brought two beasts with them,” the sentry finished. “Two strange monsters that loo
The rogue camp was wrapped in a fragile calm as morning light came through the trees of the forest. Activities were already in full swing, and smoke was rising lazily from the cooking pit at the heart of the camp, carrying the scent of roasted meat and damp wood. It was peaceful enough that, for a little moment, Elena could almost believe they were safe.She was sitting on a low makeshift bench near the edge of the clearing, with her hands folded in her lap, with her nervous fingers worrying at each other as if something horrible would happen to them if she stopped. Her eyes occasionally drifted constantly toward the narrow trail that led out of the forest…the same trail Damon, Mara, and Pascal had taken a few days back. Every sound made her head snap up, while every rustle of leaves set her heart racing, only for disappointment to settle in when nothing happened.Jason stood a few feet away, pretending not to be watching her for a while now, and giving her space while still
When morning finally came, Damon stood a short distance away from the others, staring into the trees as if he was expecting them to move, and reveal more of Draco's men at any second. He had not slept the entire night because the rage that had fueled him through the ambush and the brutal fight was still burning in his body and refusing to cool. Mara sat on a fallen log near the fire, forcing her back to stay straight despite the pain she was clearly in. One leg was stretched out stiffly, the other bent, and her fingers were busy retightening a bandage around her thigh where shrapnel from the blast had injured her. Her face was pale, and her freckles stood out more than before, starkly but her eyes were alert and sharp, tracking Damon’s movements with quiet concern.Pascal leaned against a tree opposite her, keeping one shoulder braced against the trunk as if standing was the only thing that was actually keeping him awake. He hissed softly as he tried to adjust his position,







