Chapter 215 215.That is not ours

Chapter 215 215.That is not ours
Hope

The sound rips through the tunnels like something dragged straight out of hell.
It isn’t a howl.
It isn’t even a roar.
It’s a guttural, twisted call that scrapes against the concrete walls and claws its way into my bones.
My wolf jerks violently inside me. That is wrong. That is not ours.
My heart stutters.
Keith.
He’s out there.
Tirianna. Lina. All of them.
The security tunnel smells like metal and fear—oil from the generators, damp earth, sickness, antiseptic. Women huddle with their children. Elders sit on cots. A few of the sick are wrapped in blankets against the cold that always lives underground.
And that sound echoes again.
Closer.
Emma appears at my side, her face pale but steady. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Neither do I,” I whisper.
My wolf paces, hackles raised. It calls a challenge. It calls blood.
Elira
The ground trembles.
Dust sifts down from the ceiling.
Then—
A pounding.
Heavy. Deliberate.
Too close.
Too close.
An enforcer barrels down the corridor toward me, eyes wild. “Luna! They’re trying to break in!”
No.
My gaze snaps to the reinforced security doors at the main tunnel entrance. They were meant to hold. Meant to protect the vulnerable while the warriors fought above.
Another crash. The metal groans.
Emma and I look at each other.
There are no warriors down here.
Just women. Children. Elders. The sick.
My pack.
My responsibility.
My wolf rises inside me, no longer pacing—standing tall. Ours.
I straighten.
“Enforcers!” My voice cracks through the tunnel. Every head turns.
Three of them rush forward.
“Half of you secure the doors. Brace them. Reinforce the locks. Buy us as much time as you can.”
They nod and sprint.
“The rest of you—start moving everyone through the back escape route. Now. Take only who can walk first. Carry the children. Help the elders.”
A baby starts crying. A mother shushes him frantically.
Emma grabs my arm. “Hope… there won’t be enough time.”
I know that.
God, I know that.
Another slam hits the door. The hinges scream.
I swallow the terror clawing up my throat. “Then we take whatever time we can get.”
I promised Keith.
I promised him I would stay safe.
His face flashes in my mind—fierce, stubborn, golden eyes burning as he told me to stay in the tunnels if anything happened.
But Keith wouldn’t run.
He wouldn’t leave them.
And I am Luna.
This is my pack.
“I’m not abandoning them,” I say quietly.
Emma’s jaw tightens. She nods once. “Then I’m not either.”
The door buckles inward.
Metal splits with a shriek.
The first enemy shifter bursts through in partial shift—claws elongated, teeth bared, eyes feral and wrong.
Behind him, more shadows press forward. Fight.
The word isn’t a whisper.
It’s a command.
“Hold the line!” I shout.
The enforcers slam into the breach just as two more attackers force their way through. The clash of bodies echoes violently in the confined space.
I surge forward.
My bones crack as I partially shift—claws slicing through my fingers, fangs dropping into place.
I slam into the first attacker, driving him back against the wall. He snarls, swinging for my throat. I duck and rake my claws across his chest.
Blood sprays.
The tunnel erupts into chaos.
Screams.
Growls.
The metallic scent of blood mixing with fear.
Emma shifts beside me, her wolf bursting free in a powerful gray blur. She tackles another attacker, jaws snapping.
An elder cries out behind me.
I whirl.
A rogue lunges past the enforcers toward the civilians.
Rage detonates in my chest.
I meet him head-on, slamming him to the ground. My claws sink into his shoulder as I pin him.
“You do not touch them!” I roar.
He laughs—twisted, broken—and shoves me off with unnatural strength.
More pour through the broken doorway.
Too many. We are outnumbered.
“I know!” I snarl back internally.
One of our enforcers goes down with a scream.
Emma rips a throat out beside me.
“Hope!” she shouts. “We can’t hold this!”
She’s right.
The civilians are moving—slowly—down the back corridor.
But not fast enough.
“Fall back!” I yell. “All of you, fall back toward the escape tunnel!”
We retreat step by step, fighting for every inch.
Claw meets claw.
Fang meets flesh.
I feel every scrape, every blow.
A rogue slams into me from the side, and we crash into the wall. My head snaps back. Stars explode behind my eyes.
He goes for my throat.
My wolf surges forward, and I twist at the last second, his teeth sinking into my shoulder instead. Pain rips through me.
I scream and drive my claws into his abdomen.
He collapses.
The pounding footsteps behind us grow louder.
They’re pouring in.
“Move!” I shout.
We break.
Running down the narrow tunnel, breath ragged, blood slick beneath our feet.
Behind us, they give chase.
The air grows colder as we near the exit shaft that leads to the forest beyond the settlement.
Children are being lifted through first. Elders helped up the ladder.
An enforcer shoves a trembling girl upward. “Go! Go!”
A rogue leaps onto his back, dragging him down.
Emma spins and slams into the attacker, but more flood the corridor.
“We’re not going to clear them all in time!” she yells.
I glance back.
The last of the civilians are nearly through.
Good.
Good.
“Once they’re up,” I say, breathless, “we make our stand.”
Emma bares her teeth. “With what?”
With whatever I have left.
The final child disappears up the shaft.
I turn.
The rogues spill into the wider exit chamber.
Emma takes position at my side.
My heart hammers so violently I think it might shatter my ribs.
Then—
It happens.
Power.
It wells up from deep inside me, hot and bright and terrifyingly familiar.
My breath catches.
Not just wolf.
More.
Elena.
The name echoes in my mind.
The ancient presence that once stirred within me.
The power I barely touched before.
It surges now like a storm breaking through my veins.
I close my eyes for half a second in the chaos.
Elena. Please. We need you.
The power answers—not fully, not completely—but enough.
Heat floods my limbs.
My vision sharpens.
The world slows.
I lift my head and shift fully.
Bone shatters and reforms.
Fur bursts from my skin.
I launch forward on a snarl.
My opponent and I circle each other, gauging weakness and opportunity for attack. He had a strong base, balanced. I will have to engage to see how he moves.
I feign hesitation, and it’s enough to spur him into action. He lunges, and I pivot. Moving him in a criss-cross of zig-zag actions. I use my speed to guide him and get a feel for his reactions. He had endurance and good reaction timing, but then I changed it up on him. I pressed forward, watching the break in my pattern cause the desired effect.
He faults, and I pounce.
I tear through him before the second attacker can react. My jaws crush his throat.
I spin, slamming another into the wall so hard the concrete fractures.
Emma fights beside me, but I am something else now.
Stronger.
Faster.
A Luna fighting for her pack. Fighting beyond all hope to protect as many as I can.
More, my wolf growls.
The power swells again.
I roar—an echoing sound that doesn’t feel entirely my own.
Several rogues hesitate.
Then a massive shape steps forward from their ranks.
Bigger than the others.
Eyes glowing with cruel intelligence.
The twisted call from earlier vibrates faintly in my memory.
Him.
He charges.
We collide like colliding trains.
The impact throws us both across the chamber.
He’s strong.
Stronger than the rest.
Claws rake across my side, slicing deep. I snap at his throat but he twists, slamming his weight into me.
We roll.
I claw for his eyes.
He bites down on my foreleg.
Pain explodes.
I howl and surge upward with a burst of that silver-lit power, throwing him off.
He crashes into the stone wall—but rises again.
Unnatural.
The other rogues circle, waiting.
Emma fights to keep them back, but she’s bleeding now.
My strength flickers.
“Elena!” I roar inside my mind. “Help me!”
For a heartbeat, warmth floods me.
Then—
It falters.
Like a flame starved of air.
The massive rogue lunges.
I meet him, but my movements are a fraction slower now.
He anticipates it.
His claws slam into my chest.
We crash to the ground.
Stone fractures beneath us.
He pins me.
His jaws snap inches from my throat.
I push with everything I have left.
Silver light flickers weakly around my paws.
Up! my wolf snarls.
I can’t—
His weight increases.
More rogues close in.
I see Emma break free and try to reach me.
“Hope!”
The massive rogue rears back and slams his forepaw into my skull.
The world tilts violently.
Sound dulls.
He bites into my shoulder, crushing bone.
Agony detonates through me.
Desperation becomes a second wind, and I scratch at any part of his body I can reach, keeping my snout tucked low so that my neck isn’t exposed.
He lifts me by my shoulder and slams me down again.
My power shatters like glass.
My limbs go weak.
I try to rise.
I try to fight.
But darkness edges my vision.
The rogues’ snarls fade into a distant hum.
My wolf whimpers.
Keith…
I promised I’d keep our pup safe.
I’m sorry.
The wolf lunges for my throat.