All Chapters of THE LAST SHIFT: A Werewolf without a Wolf : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

I sat in the snow, staring at the smoking mountain behind us.The explosion's light had faded, but its afterglow painted the sky gold and red, like the world itself was bleeding out.Kieran leaned against a rock beside me, breathing heavily. His shirt was torn, his face bloodied, but he hadn't let go of my hand since we ran.Null lay in the frost a few feet away, her body flickering as her energy restabilized. Subject 13 sat hunched over beside her, hands trembling, a thin line of blood running from his nose.None of us spoke.We had survived Sanctum. But survival didn't feel like victory."Is it really gone?" I asked quietly.Kieran glanced at the mountain. "Looks that way.""I thought I'd feel different. Lighter.""You just killed the place that tried to erase you. Maybe it takes time to settle."I nodded slowly. But it wasn't time I needed it. It was silent.The voice was still inside me. Not a scream. Not even a whisper. Just a presence. Like something ancient was now awake.I pul

We left the mountain before dawn.The light from the explosion had faded, but its afterglow painted the sky gold and red, like the world itself was bleeding out. The air still buzzed with static, the scent of scorched stone clinging to our clothes.Kieran walked beside me in silence. He didn’t ask about what happened in the chamber beneath the roots. Not yet. But I felt the questions in his gaze every time I looked away. There was something unspoken between us now, a thread pulled taut by what we saw down there. The second version of me. The echo.Subject 13 scouted ahead while Null floated behind us, flickering faintly. We kept our distance from the others, but I could feel their tension mirroring mine. No one dared speak it aloud, but we all felt it.Something had changed.“What now?” I finally asked.Kieran didn’t stop walking. “Now we survive. And we figure out what the hell that was inside you.”By midday, we reached the outpost where Subject One had sent supplies ahead. It wasn’

The Wastes looked like the end of the world. No trees, no grass, just cracked rock and broken glass stretching to the horizon. The wind didn't even smell like anything—just empty air that made my skin crawl. "Stay on the magnetic paths," Subject 13 warned, pointing to faint shimmers on the ground. "Step off them and you'll disappear into the unstable layers below." I swallowed hard. "Disappear how?" "You don't want to know." Great. Another cheerful thought to add to my growing collection. Kieran walked beside me, his hand never far from his weapon. "How much further?" "We'll know when we get there," Subject 13 said. "That's not an answer." "It's the only one I have." We'd been walking for hours through this dead landscape. The light never changed, just a sickly red glow that made everything look like it was bleeding. No sun, no shadows, no way to tell if time was even moving. "This place gives me the creeps," I muttered. "It should," Subject 13 replied. "The Council wiped

The words hit me like a punch to the gut."She let them take her," Subject 13 said again, staring right at me."What do you mean she let them?" My voice came out as a whisper.He limped closer, favoring his damaged leg. "When the enforcers surrounded her, she didn't fight. Just looked at their commander and said, 'I've been expecting you.' Then she put her hands up and walked onto their ship like it was her idea.""That makes no sense," Kieran said. "She's powerful enough to tear those machines apart. Why surrender now?"My stomach dropped as the pieces clicked together. "She wants to be inside their system again.""Why would she want that?" Subject 13 asked. "That's suicide.""No, it's access. She's letting them connect her to their main network."Kieran's eyes went wide. "The Core Grid.""She's going back in," I said, my heart racing. "And she's taking them with her."We took an old maintenance tunnel that led to a forgotten train station buried under the Wastes. The single railcar

The silence in the chamber felt heavy, like the moment before lightning strikes.Dozens of subjects surrounded me; children, teenagers, some barely older than myself. They all watched me with a mixture of hope and uncertainty. Not because of the power I'd gained, but because I'd chosen to use it for them.The Council Elder's face glared from the main screen, his cold blue eyes narrowed with anger."Subject Seven," he said, his voice clipped. "You have violated the terms of your creation."I stepped closer to the screen. "You broke those terms first when you treated us like disposable weapons. This isn't a violation, it's justice."The screen flickered, and another figure appeared beside him. Tall, dressed in black, their voice artificially distorted."You were not designed to lead others.""Then you failed at your job," I said calmly. "Because here I am, leading."Behind me, Subject 13 limped through the side entrance. His face was bloodied but his eyes were alert. He took in the crow