Chapter 79 Tracking the Shadow
Grayson POV
The air in the sewer main was thick with the smell of waste and damp concrete, and I had to keep a hand against the wall to steady myself because the silver poisoning was making my vision swim with every heavy pulse of my heart. I couldn't shift into the obsidian wolf to hunt her by scent because the grey veins on my arms were still throbbing with a dull heat, and every time I tried to reach for that inner power, it felt like someone was pouring molten lead into my joints. I kept my breathing shallow and my ears tuned to the drip of the pipes, and as I moved deeper into the tunnels, I found myself whispering to the empty darkness as if my father were standing right there in the shadows with me.
"You always told me that the crown of thorns was meant to be a symbol of our strength, but it feels more like a leash that the Syndicate is using to drag me into the dirt, and I'm not sure if there's enough of the Alpha left in me to pull us back out," I muttered, and I stopped for a second to lean my forehead against a cool pipe while I waited for the nausea to pass. "I'm tracking her like a common hunter instead of a mate, and the worst part is that I'm terrified of what I'll find at the end of this tunnel because I don't know if the girl I love is gone for good."
I heard a faint, electronic chirp coming from the intersection ahead and I immediately dropped into a crouch, pulling a serrated combat knife from the sheath on my thigh because I couldn't risk the sound of a gunshot echoing through the narrow masonry. I saw the green glow of a thermal scanner sweeping across the bricks, and I knew the Syndicate's specialized "Wolf-Hunters" were already closing the gap, likely using the same frequency trackers they had used to pin me down at the warehouse. There were three of them, dressed in matte-black tactical gear and carrying canisters of silver-gas that would turn my lungs to ash if they managed to pin me in a dead end, and I had to rely on the human military drills I had memorized years ago instead of the raw strength of the pack.
"Target has been moving west toward the old filtration plant, but we’re picking up a secondary heat signature that doesn't match the silver-black profile," one of the hunters whispered into his comms, and he moved with a professional caution that told me he wasn't just some street thug with a gun.
"It’s probably the Alpha, and the reports say he’s compromised by the silver-lace from the dock, so he should be an easy capture if we can hit him with the suppressant before he finds the girl," another voice replied, and I felt a surge of cold anger that cleared my head better than any medicine could.
I waited until the last hunter in the line passed the alcove where I was hiding, and then I stepped out and wrapped my arm around his throat, driving my knife into the gap in his armor with a precision that didn't require a single growl. He slumped against me without a sound, and I gently lowered him into the shallow water of the trench before moving toward the next man who was busy checking a handheld monitor. I didn't give him a chance to turn around, because I used the weight of my body to tackle him into the wall and followed up with a series of quick, brutal strikes to his temple until he went limp in my arms.
"Alpha to base, we’ve lost contact with unit three, and I think we’ve got a breach in the sector," the lead hunter said, and he started to swing his rifle toward my position, but I was already moving through the steam of a broken valve.
I came up behind him and kicked the back of his knee, forcing him down into the muck, and then I pressed the edge of my blade against his jugular while I grabbed the radio from his shoulder and crushed it under my boot.
"You're going to tell me exactly how many more of you are in these tunnels, and then you're going to tell me what kind of orders Sterling gave you regarding the woman you're hunting," I growled, and even without the wolf, I could see the man's eyes widening with a terror that made him tremble against the concrete.
"There are two more teams near the surface exit, but they don't want her dead, because they need her alive for the extraction process," he wheezed, and his hands were clawing at the air as if he could find a way to escape the grip of a dying man. "They said the silver-black form is unstable, and if we don't bag her within the hour, she’s going to go into a shock state that will kill every living thing in the district."
"Then you’d better hope I find her first, because I’m not in a talkative mood and your friends are going to find you exactly where you're sitting," I told him, and I knocked him unconscious with the butt of the knife before I turned and headed toward the sound of a low, rhythmic thumping that seemed to be coming from a crawlspace near the filtration vats.
The scent of the sewer was suddenly replaced by something that smelled like ozone and wildflowers, a smell so familiar it made my chest ache with a longing that was almost worse than the silver poisoning. I crawled through a small opening in the bricks and found myself in a dry, hidden chamber that was filled with scraps of old clothes, torn blankets, and pieces of industrial insulation that had been dragged into a pile to form a crude nest. I saw a small tuft of fur snagged on a rusted bolt, and when I picked it up, the silver and black hairs began to vibrate in my palm with a strange, humming energy that made the grey veins on my hand glow with a dull light.
"Aria, I'm here, and I'm not going to let them put you in a cage," I whispered to the empty room, and I held the fur against my cheek while I looked around at the small signs of her presence.
I saw a discarded wrapper from a bakery bun tucked into the corner of the nest, and the sight of it made me want to scream because it was a reminder of the simple world we had lost, but I knew I couldn't stay here and grieve. I could hear the heavy boots of the other hunter teams approaching from the upper level, and the sound of silver-gas canisters being primed made me realize that the hunt was far from over. I tucked the tuft of fur into my pocket and stood up, feeling a new kind of strength that didn't come from the wolf or the pack, but from the desperate need to find the girl who had built a home out of trash in the middle of a nightmare.
"I'm coming for you, Aria, and I don't care if the whole city tries to stand in my way," I said, and I stepped back into the shadows to wait for the next team of hunters to walk into the trap I was about to set.