All Chapters of CHASING MONSTERS: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

They descended like thunder. Explosions punched holes in the dawn, choppers spat warriors into the air, and the hunter army rolled forward in a tide of steel. For a heartbeat it looked exactly like the plan: charges ripping open the outer wards, squads cutting through the smoke, hunters running on practiced lines. Sophie's boots bit into the churned earth and everything narrowed—tactics, breath, the bite of silver in her hands. Then the wolves answered. Not a scatter of rabid rogues but an army—organized, disciplined, and waiting. From the castle walls came not only snarls and teeth but a cold, ancient hum: low chanting, the kind of sound that scraped under Sophie’s ribs. Light braided in the air and warped the sky. Mages. The hunters had thought mages long extinct. They had been wrong. The first crack of magic slammed through their ranks like wind through bones. A squad pinned at the wall went rigid as invisible hands crushed at them; another group staggered and fell into smoke

 Two days blurred into one another in the darkness of the dungeon. Sophie counted time by the meager offerings of water and scraps that slid under her door. The chill of stone pressed against her skin, and the silence was broken only by distant howls or the shuffle of guards beyond the iron bars.Her body ached, her wrists were rubbed raw from chains, but none of it compared to the gnawing thought that ate at her: They hadn’t come for her. No word, no rescue, not even the echo of hope. Maybe Jax had buried himself in Pandora’s arms, maybe Shiloh was forbidden to move, maybe the Hunters had simply abandoned her.The door groaned open, iron scraping against stone. A figure stepped through, the torchlight painting familiar lines across his face.Samuel.He carried himself with a quiet authority, even here without a pack flanking him. The Alpha. The one she had once seen broken and bloodied i

Shiloh POVThe med bay smelled of iron, bleach, and loss. The kind of smell that crawled up the back of your throat and stayed there, sour and clinging. I lay flat on a cot, ribs bound so tightly I could hardly breathe. Every time I inhaled, pain lanced across my chest, sharp enough to make me dizzy. I focused on it. Welcomed it. Because pain meant I was alive. Pain meant I wasn’t Johnny, sprawled in the mud with his last laugh still echoing in our ears. Pain meant I wasn’t Sophie, dragged away by wolves.The silence was heavier than steel. Our squad had never been quiet before—not really. Johnny’s booming laugh had always filled the space, or Sophie’s clipped, calm voice cutting through arguments, or even Pandora’s shrill gossip needling at everyone’s patience. Now there was only the beep of the monitors and the sound of restrained breathing, like nobody dared exhale too loudly in case the world shattered completely.Jax couldn’t stay still. He paced the med bay in tight lines, boots

The training grounds were brittle with frost at dawn. My breath plumed in the air as I crossed my arms, ribs aching beneath the tight wraps. Every movement reminded me of bruises that hadn’t healed, but pain was nothing compared to the hollow ache of Johnny’s absence, the sting of Sophie’s loss.The squad gathered in silence, faces pale, eyes shadowed. No one cracked a joke, no one barked orders. Even Jax, who had been pacing like a storm about to break for days, stood rigid, a thundercloud contained in human skin.Harris loomed at the edge, scarred and steady, the way mountains stood after quakes. Marco kept close to Nina, his hand never leaving hers, her eyes red from crying but her chin set firm. Pandora was there too, arms folded, lips pursed as if she was the only one still trying to maintain her pride.And Ryder—pale, wiry, shaking with exhaustion—was hunched over his console, his fingers jittering across the keys. He hadn’t slept. Everyone could see it in the way his hands trem

The room seemed smaller when William entered, as though the air itself bent beneath his presence. He closed the door behind him, the sound heavy, final. His sharp eyes pinned me, not with malice but with a sort of measured curiosity—like a man holding puzzle pieces that didn’t yet fit.“Sit,” he said simply.I obeyed, perching on the edge of the bed, my hands folded tight in my lap. My pulse hammered, but I forced my face into the blank mask—the Ice Queen. He wasn’t going to see me falter.“You’re not like the others,” William said at last. “You don’t flinch like a captive. You hold yourself like a soldier. But I want to know about the girl beneath the hunter’s steel.”His words cut deeper than he knew. I shifted, unwilling to give him silence for too long. “What do you want to know?”“Your parents,” he said, tilting his head. “Tell me what you remember.”My throat tightened. I hadn’t thought about them in years, not really. Lucian had beaten memory out of me, replaced it with drills,