The first body hit the window hard enough to crack the glass.Evelyn ducked back just as claws tore through the rotting wood panels. Holt fired once—silver-piercing round—then another. One figure dropped, gurgling. Another dragged it away screaming, snarling through a twisted jaw.“Mutts,” he spat. “No coordination. Julian’s castoffs.”Evelyn pressed her back to the wall, heart thudding. But her blood had already started humming, vibrating beneath her skin. Her senses were sharper. The dark was no longer dark.Outside, more shapes emerged from the trees. Lurching. Snarling.Then the sound changed—boots on leaves. Orders barked through comms.A second force.Evelyn peeked through the broken slats. Black gear. Armored vests. Tranquilizer rifles. Circle scouts.“Two groups?” she whispered.Holt’s jaw tightened. “They’re not working together. We’re caught between prey and predators.”The cabin shook as something massive slammed into it—splintering the wall behind them.“We go now,” Holt g
Evelyn stood over the woman in the pod.Her mother.Not dead. Not quite alive.Frozen between betrayal and science.She turned to Elara, voice shaking. “Why did you keep her like this?”“She asked me to,” Elara said. “She thought… maybe one day, you’d need her.”Evelyn stepped back. “Need her for what?”Damian answered instead. “To decide which side you belong to.”Silence.Then footsteps behind her. Heavy. Familiar.A door opened. Three figures entered. They weren’t soldiers. They didn’t need to be.They were wolves.Evelyn knew it instantly — the way their eyes moved, the quiet dominance in their gait.One of them stepped forward. Gray streaks in his beard, a burn mark across his throat.“I know who you are,” he said. “E-113. The Marked. Your bloodline carries the last true alpha strain.”Evelyn didn’t move.“I didn’t ask to carry anything,” she said.He smiled without warmth. “It doesn’t matter what you asked. The blood chooses. And now we need it back.”Elara stepped between them.
Mason hated this part.He preferred action—kick in the door, get the answers. But tonight, it was all silence and glow-screen tension, huddled in the back of a borrowed surveillance van with Anika.She scrolled through city ledgers faster than he could track, her eyes narrowed behind square glasses. “Governor Ashby funneled campaign donations through a shell nonprofit. Guess where the money ended up.”“Let me guess,” Mason said, rubbing the back of his neck, “a defunct medical research wing. Something with a nice name, like ‘Hope Sciences’ or ‘Ashgrove Wellness Initiative.’”“Try Lycanth Foundation,” she muttered. “Real subtle, right?”Mason leaned closer. “Is that tied to the Hollowmere records Evelyn found?”“Worse. This one’s active.”She tapped a name on the screen—Dr. Elara Voss.Mason blinked. “Voss? Damian’s bloodline?”Anika nodded grimly. “Sister. Former geneticist. Last seen before the Ashgrove site was scrubbed clean.”Mason sat back, pulse ticking up. “So he’s not the only
The sirens were already dying down when Evelyn arrived.An alley behind the governor’s private club—off-limits to press, cordoned off too neatly. The body was gone. Just blood left now, thick in the cracks of the pavement, and a smear on the stone wall like something had tried to climb it in the end.Evelyn crouched beside it, fingers brushing the edge of something small and gold.A cufflink. Insignia of the state.Her heart slowed. That symbol—it belonged to Governor Alistair Ward.Footsteps behind her, deliberate, too confident to be uniform.“I thought you quit caring.”She didn’t need to turn to know the voice.“Damian.”He stepped into view, dressed like power and pretending not to enjoy it.“You’re getting close, Evelyn. You always were good at bleeding for the truth.”She stood. “Did you kill him?”“Do I look sloppy enough to leave a cufflink behind?”Her eyes narrowed. “You’re here. That tells me all I need to know.”Damian stepped closer, and the air shifted—thick with the sc
Most of the others had drifted off—either into sleep or into the woods, lulled by the cool hush of night. The fire was low now, more glow than flame. Evelyn sat with her knees pulled to her chest, arms wrapped around them. She watched the slow dance of the coals, the way shadows flickered across the dirt.Brina settled beside her quietly, the scent of pine still clinging to her hair. Neither spoke at first. There wasn’t a need to.“I used to be afraid of silence,” Evelyn said after a while. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Back in the city, silence meant something was wrong. Meant I was alone. Or that something bad was about to happen.”Brina nodded, her gaze on the fire too. “It’s different out here,” she said softly. “Silence doesn’t mean danger. It just means peace. Or listening.”Evelyn looked over. “You really believe that? That I can find peace in this?”“I think,” Brina said, “you already have. You just don’t know it yet.”They were quiet again. A wind stirred the branche
Evelyn stood at the edge of a narrow ravine, boots sunk deep in mud, breath sharp with the scent of pine and earth. She could hear Mason’s footsteps behind her—slow, deliberate. They hadn't spoken since the sun rose. There was nothing left to say.They were different now. Changed. Not by science, not by needles—but by choice.By instinct.By blood."Where do we go from here?" Mason’s voice was low, rough from the cold and whatever he’d seen in his dreams.Evelyn didn’t turn. She scanned the treeline. The birds were too quiet. “Somewhere no one remembers our names,” she said. “Somewhere we stop pretending we’re still part of that world.”Mason exhaled slowly. “You think we can live like this? Running? Hiding?”“No,” Evelyn said. “I think we will stop running.”A branch snapped in the underbrush. Both of them turned, bodies taut, senses flaring. It wasn’t fear. Not anymore. It was instinct. Territory. Something moved beyond the trees—something fast, four-legged, the kind that didn't bel