Returning in Reverse After Betrayal
Stomach churned, but I needed the fuel to keep standing, let alone fighting.
The shelter sat deep underground, behind thick doors and layers of stone and packed earth. Twenty feet of barrier between the children and the chaos topside. Guards nodded us through every checkpoint. Helena ran it tight—shifts rotating, supplies stocked, escape tunnels mapped just in case.
We found Erica in the main chamber, cross-legged on blankets with a cluster of little ones. She read from a worn picture book, voice steady, about a brave wolf who outsmarted hunters to save her pack. The kids leaned in, wide-eyed, hanging on every word. She kept them calm, distracted.
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