Chapter 25 – My Four Legged Friends

The forest blurred around me, branches clawing at my face as I sprinted through the underbrush. My lungs burned, every breath like shards of glass in my chest. Nick yanked me forward, his grip iron-tight on my arm. Kimmy was right beside us, her face pale but determined.

Behind us, the black mist closed in.

"What the hell is chasing us?" I gasped, stumbling over a root.

"It's not Luca or Ethan," Kimmy panted, her voice cracking with raw fear. Her fingers dug into my hand. "It's something worse."

My stomach clenched. "Worse?"

She hesitated, eyes wide and desperate. "It's the Echo."

The name hung in the air like a curse.

And then I saw it.

A dark mass slithered through the trees, ancient and malevolent, moving with a speed that defied logic. My heart lurched. This wasn't just a creature—it was a living nightmare, the thing that had been hunting me since I arrived.

It had found me again.

Nick veered sharply, pulling us off the trail. We hurtled through a dense thicket, branches snapping around us. But it wasn't enough. The Echo's growl reverberated through the forest, low and guttural, vibrating through my bones.

It was gaining.

I didn't dare look back. I didn't need to. I could feel it breathing down my neck, cold and relentless.

The next second, it pounced.

The force of its weight knocked me off my feet. My body hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the air from my lungs. Pain exploded through my ribs. The world spun in a blur of green and black. Above me, the Echo loomed, its glowing eyes searing into mine—full of hunger and hostility.

"QUINN!" Kimmy screamed.

Claws slashed toward my throat.

Time slowed.

Just when I thought it was over, a blur of white and brown shot through the darkness. Kimmy and Nick. But they weren't just my friends anymore.

They were wolves.

Kimmy's white coat glinted under the faint sunlight, streaked with brown highlights as she snarled, her teeth bared. Nick's powerful form lunged at the Echo, muscles rippling beneath his brown fur.

I blinked, disbelief crashing over me. My friends weren't human. They never had been. Confusion tangled with terror, but there was no time to process it.

They howled, the sound slicing through the night.

The Echo twisted, dodging their attacks with unnatural fluidity. Shadows writhed around it like living things. Kimmy leaped, but the Echo swatted her aside with a brutal swipe. She hit a tree with a sickening crack and crumpled to the ground.

"KIMMY!" I screamed.

Nick roared, fury igniting his movements. He charged again, but the Echo was faster. Its claws slashed through the air, catching Nick across the side. He went down hard, blood pooling beneath him.

Panic gripped me. "NO!"

I scrambled toward Nick, but the Echo's eyes locked onto me. A chill wrapped around my body, freezing me in place. It moved toward me, shadows coiling around its form.

Luca. Ethan. Where were they?

Despair clawed at my throat.

Then a thunderous roar ripped through the forest.

A massive figure exploded from the darkness, charging straight at the Echo.

Lycan.

The huge wolf was a blur of motion, teeth flashing as he collided with the Echo. The impact shook the ground. Relief flooded through me—Lycan had come back to save me.

But then I saw him.

Ethan.

He was right behind Lycan, his expression fierce as he joined the fight. My breath caught. My heart stumbled.

Lycan wasn't real.

He was Luca.

The realization hit me like a sledgehammer. That feral energy, the dominance, the way Luca and Lycan always seemed to appear at the perfect moment—it all made sense now.

Luca had been protecting me all along.

The truth was almost too much to process, but I didn't have time to dwell on it. The fight raged on, savage and brutal. Luca was a storm unleashed, his growls shaking the air. He slammed into the Echo, teeth sinking into shadowy flesh.

The Echo shrieked, a sound that curdled my blood.

Ethan fought with precision, his movements calculated and deadly. But the Echo was relentless. Its claws raked across Luca's side, leaving deep gashes. Blood splattered the ground.

Luca didn't stop.

He was wild, reckless, driven by a fury that bordered on madness.

My heart pounded as I crouched beside Kimmy. Her eyes fluttered open, pain etched across her face.

"Stay with me," I whispered, my voice shaking. Tears stung my eyes.

Nick lay a few feet away, his fur matted with blood. His chest barely rose and fell. The sight gutted me.

And then it hit me.

The brown fur. The wolf Ethan had hit with his car the day I arrived. That had been Nick.

My friends had been watching me before I even knew them.

But now they were broken. Beaten.

And the Echo wasn't finished.

It broke free from Luca and Ethan's hold, its focus snapping back to me. It moved through the trees like a dark wave, its eyes glowing brighter with every step.

Luca snarled, desperate to stop it, but he was too slow.

The Echo was inches away from me.

Terror gripped me, my body frozen. I couldn't breathe. The Echo's power was suffocating.

And then—

Something ignited inside me.

A spark.

No, a flame.

It was small at first, flickering in my chest, but it grew, spreading through my veins like wildfire.

The Echo stopped, its eyes narrowing as if it sensed the change.

But it wasn't enough to stop it.

It lunged.