Chapter 125 Zephyra saving

Chapter 125 Not humans
"They’re not ordinary," Fineasta growls, his voice rumbling as he reverts to his human form, blood staining his white beard.
"They’re drugged. Witch-wood laced with something... darker."
"Human-Alphas," I breathe, the realization curdling in my gut. These are the wretched abominations we feared.
Before we can regroup, a second wave surges over the rubble. These creatures are faster than any man, stronger than any wolf. I shift, my golden fur bristling, my claws igniting with an internal, scorching heat that threatens to blister my own skin.
"FLANK!" Kade screams.
I see Naville in the distance, her hands wreathed in violet witch-fire, hurling blasts of kinetic energy that shatter the rock walls. But it isn't enough. For every one we fell, three more crawl over the broken bodies of their kin.
"They're not dying!" Naville screams, slashing a throat that simply knit itself back together.
We are forced back toward the cliff’s edge. I am surrounded by four of the creatures, their eyes burning like embers. My fire flickers, wavering. I am running on adrenaline and the raw, desperate need to survive, but our soldiers are falling in heaps.

"Back up!" I order, my voice a command that holds the line. We move as one, a formation of blades and bared teeth.
"We're losing them," Ronah gasps, his chest heaving. "They don't stay down."
"It’s the blood," I realize, the images from Zade’s memories flashing through my mind like a strobe light. "They’ve been injected with poison-laced Alpha blood."
Fineasta wipes blood from his eyes.
"It seems the nightmare you saw in those files is here."
"But Zade is dead! Morrigan is dead!" Naville counters, ducking a blade that whistles over her head.
"There were others," Kade says, his voice grim. "We aren't fighting a person. We're fighting a cult."
"Retreat the human soldiers, Ronah!" I shout. "Now!"
"I’m fighting, too!"
"We need to save as many as we can!"
We circle, a desperate knot of survivors. Suddenly, a massive creature: a giant of a man, his skin charred and smoking, leaps into the center of our circle. It opens its mouth, and a torrent of liquid flame erupts, turning the ground behind us into a furnace.
"Take them away, Ronah!" I scream.
"Everyone else, SHIFT!"
I drop the last shred of my human restraint. I am no longer a man; I am a storm. My golden fur glows with the heat of a furnace, my speed doubling, my strength surging. I tear into the monsters, my claws shearing through bone and muscle.
Fire, thunder, speed,I unleash every drop of power I possess. We fight until the yard is a graveyard of limbs and ash. There are three dozen left, their movements sluggish, controlled by some unseen hand.
"Someone is puppeteering them," Kade yells over the roar of the fire.
"How?"
"When I killed the leader, six of them dropped instantly!"
"Then we target the controllers!"
We split, moving through the carnage like ghosts. I face six of them. Every slash of my paw, every bite, should have been fatal, yet they rise again. A heavy, jagged blade digs into the back of my wolf’s neck, the cold steel biting deep.
"EVANDER!"
I hear Naville and Kade screaming my name, but the world is tilting. Another blade pierces my leg, and my wolf stumbles, crashing to his knees. The creatures descend upon me like a black tide.
My vision blurs. The pain is a white-hot spike behind my eyes, then nothing. Coldness creeps into my limbs.
I can’t die.
The thought isn't a prayer; it’s a command. I need to see Zephyra. I need to hold her one more time. I need to see our children.
But as the darkness swallows the battlefield, I am not sure if my heart is still beating, or if I am already fading into the long, final night.