All Chapters of Another Chance : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Ashes Between UsRissa’s POVThe forest split open in chaos. Shadows surged like a tide, arrows slicing through the night. The metallic tang of blood filled the air before the first body hit the ground.And then I saw him.Josh.For a heartbeat, I thought my smoke-choked lungs had conjured him. The broad shoulders. The familiar gait. The wolf that once steadied me. But when he caught the arrow meant for my chest and snapped it in his fist, reality struck harder than the flames we had just escaped.“Rissa, move!” Mark shoved me aside as another volley hissed through the clearing. His blade cut the air, silver flashing in the dark. He didn’t look at Josh. He didn’t need to. The growl rumbling from his chest told me everything.Josh was real. And Mark hated it.Hunters poured from the trees, masked and fast, their weapons dripping wolfsbane. My power throbbed under my skin, eager and wild, but my lungs still burned from fire. Every breath tore me open.Josh lunged past me, his fist smash

The Pain of Seeing You with AnotherJosh’s POVThe forest pressed close as we moved, shadows swallowing what little light the moon offered. Every step felt like dragging myself through the ruins of more than just a battle. The clearing was behind us, but its weight clung to me—the blood, the smoke, the way Rissa had looked at me as if I were both a stranger and a ghost.She walked ahead, shoulders tense, her steps uneven. Mark stayed at her side, steady as a wall, his silence sharp enough to cut. I followed behind, too near to be dismissed, too far to reach her without tearing open every wound between us.I should have been used to this distance. I had created it myself, back when I convinced myself distance was safer for her. But watching her limp through the wreckage, with Mark holding the place I once claimed, burned in a way I could not disguise.We climbed through the dark. Branches snapped beneath our boots, leaves brushed our arms, and the cold air carried the faint metallic ta

The Wolves at the DoorRissa’s POVThe silence broke first.A low rustle outside the cabin walls, too heavy to be the wind, too careful to be human. My pulse drummed in my ears as I strained to listen. Every sound—the creak of the old wood, the soft crunch of pine needles outside—seemed louder, sharper.Mark moved first, his body a dark shadow against the faint starlight leaking through the gaps in the cabin walls. His blade gleamed briefly before vanishing into darkness. Josh stood beside the door, his breathing steady but quiet, his eyes fixed on the window as if he could see through the night.“They’re circling,” he whispered.My heart jumped. “How many?”He shook his head once. “Four. Maybe more. Not human.”The air grew heavier, thick with the scent of damp fur and something darker—wild, hungry, familiar. I’d known that smell my whole life, but now it carried something colder, something that made every muscle in my body tense.Mark moved closer to me, his voice low. “Stay behind

The Weight of the RiverJosh’s POVCold. That was the first thing I felt when I opened my eyes.The kind of cold that bites through bone, that makes every breath ache like broken glass. I was lying half submerged along the riverbank, soaked, bruised, and alive only by stubborn chance.The current still roared beside me, dragging broken branches and ash downstream. I could taste blood in my mouth, feel mud caked along my skin. The night sky above spun, fractured between patches of cloud. Somewhere in the distance, wolves howled too close, too hungry.I pushed myself upright, teeth chattering. My shoulder screamed in protest. Everything hurt, my ribs, my back, my legs. But none of it mattered. I wasn’t thinking about pain. I was thinking about her.“Rissa…” The name came out as a whisper, lost to the wind.The last thing I remembered was her falling, firelight flashing off her hair, Mark reaching for her before the blast swallowed everything. Then the water. Then nothing.I looked upriv

The Hollow Between Heartbeats Rissa’s POV The fog came without warning. One moment, the forest was just damp and quiet, the next, it swallowed us whole. The air thickened until I couldn’t see beyond the stretch of my hand. Every sound every crack of a branch, every rustle of leaves felt closer, heavier, wrong. Mark slowed, his blade already drawn. His silhouette shifted like a ghost beside me. “Stay close,” he whispered. I nodded, though he probably couldn’t see it. My pulse hammered so hard it hurt. Each breath scraped against the cold in my throat. The river’s roar had faded behind us, but I could still hear it in my mind the moment Josh fell, the way his name tore from my mouth before the current took him. He was gone. Or at least, that’s what I kept telling myself. Mark stopped suddenly, crouching low. “Something’s moving.” I froze, my senses sharpening despite the haze. I couldn’t smell blood, but there was a faint metallic tang in the air a scent that didn’t belong to t