Chapter 2 - The Outbreak

~ Moxie ~

It grips me in the throat, a suffocatingly invisible hand squeezing tightly as I struggle to breathe.

The crowd is deadly silent, everyone gripped by the same sensation as heads turn to follow the alpha’s gaze.

The screams become louder, the crowd before me now gasping out, panic ensuing as mother’s pick up their children and father’s scurry them away.

“To the pack house, everyone!” Anton commands, his command roaring aloud and through the pack link.

I pull Chloe with me, helping drive the crowd toward the pack house.

“Mutants!” Screams tear through the air as my feet break into a sprint. I have to get Chloe to safety. I have to protect her unborn child.

This isn’t a fight. No wolf—Alpha, Luna, or warrior—has ever survived a direct clash with a mutated wolf. They are a plague, wiping out everything they bite.

Chloe and I are trapped in the stampeding crowd, the steel doors of the pack house already starting to descend. I am all but dragging Chloe at this point, Anton right on our heels as the mutants pick up speed on our flank.

Desperate cries echo behind us as the beasts tear through innocent pack members.

I push Chloe ahead of me just as a mutant wolf launches itself at Anton.

No… I cannot lose my mate.

I leap in front of my husband, blocking the attack. The force knocks us both to the ground. I scramble backward, blood dripping from the wolf’s foam-covered jaws.

I turn to look for Anton, expecting him to be knocked cold, but he is already back on his feet, blocking Chloe with his body. An enormous growl tears from his throat.

He put his differences aside to protect her when I couldn’t. I love him even more in this moment.

The mutant wheels back toward me, its eyes bloodshot and ravenous. I launch my leg out, kicking it squarely in the snout. The blow buys me just enough time to scramble up and run for the doors.

I make it to the pack house steps ahead of Anton and Chloe. My only thought is to hold the heavy steel shutters above my head, keeping the entryway open to save as many lives as I can until Anton can take the weight from me.

I brace myself, straining every muscle to hold the steel door lifted. Women and children surge past me into the hall while warriors fight off the beasts behind us. I feel the light extinguishing from so many pack bonds at once, each dying soul hitting my heart like a blade.

“Quickly!” I shout to those still outside, my lungs burning with adrenaline. Relief washes over me as Chloe and Anton scramble through the doors.

“It’s heavy…” I cry out, my knees buckling. I drop into a low crouch, using the last of my energy to keep the iron gap open so I can slip inside.

My body goes numb under the crushing mass. Every breath becomes harder to draw.

“Anton! Hurry, I can’t hold it!” I scream for him.

Anton takes one step toward me, reaching out his hand.

For a second, I think he is going to take the weight. But then Chloe gasps behind him, clutching her stomach. Anton stops dead.

My heart drops into my stomach as he takes a step back into the hall. He isn't reaching for the door. He reaches for my best friend, pulling her into his chest. That same protective, possessive Alpha growl rumbles in his throat.

Beyond the threshold, the last of our fighters fall. The mutant wolves race up the stone steps.

I am running out of time.

“Anton…” I gasp out my husband’s name as his eyes are filled with an indifference I have never experienced before.

“You need to stall them, Moxie; you are capable of fighting them.” Chloe shrieks out, covering her face as she looks at the gaining mutant wolves behind me. I can feel their paws vibrate against the ground as they race towards me.

“What…” I look to him, unable to comprehend what he just said to me.

He places his hands protectively over Chloe's swollen stomach.

“I will not risk Chloe or my child,” he says, his voice flat and void of remorse.

“Your child?” I choke out in disbelief, staring at his hands on her stomach.

“Tell her, Anton,” Chloe says, her hand resting over his. “She deserves to know.”

“Chloe is my fated mate,” Anton delivers the blow without blinking. “She is carrying my heir.”

Anton and Chloe…

My husband and my best friend…

All those arguments in the Alpha house, all those hostile looks between them… they had never hated each other. They had been hiding in plain sight.

“Anton, the door!” Chloe cries out as movement surges behind me.

Anton looks past my shoulder. He steps forward, and without a word, his foot slams hard into my stomach, shoving me backward onto the stone steps.

“Argh!” I crash onto the ground, the air knocked violently from my lungs.

“Anton… why?” I choke out, my voice breaking. “You said I was your everything…”

“I made my choice!” His voice trails off into nothing as the front door closes and the steel shutters lock.

Leaving me on the wrong side of survival.

His face is the last thing I see before the iron cuts off the light—cold, unmoved, and completely devoid of regret.

The first set of fangs sinks into my shoulder.

I scream as the beasts tear into my flesh, mauling me alive. Through the blur of blood and agony, one image burns into my mind.

Anton’s hands covering Chloe’s stomach.

I had protected her child. I had given up the hospital, my research, and the life I had built for myself to become the dutiful Luna he wanted.

And he had thrown me to the monsters.

If I had another life, I would never choose him again. Not in a thousand lifetimes.

But beneath the blinding rage, another regret cuts even deeper.

I should never have stopped looking for the cure.

Just as darkness surrounds me, a bright piercing white light forces its way to behind my eyes.

A sharp pain registers in my chest as my heart bursts back into life, my lungs now burning painfully as I suck in air.

“I am giving you a second chance to right the wrong against you.” A ghostly voice echoes out in my ears.

My eyes shoot open…steel shutters have morphed into a blank white ceiling. The cold blood-soaked ground is replaced with the comfort of my bed.

Gone are the mutant wolves trying to eat me alive.

And beside me, Anton's heavy arm rests across my waist.

I am back.….

I am reborn.