Chapter 100. Dangerous Proximity

Chapter 100. Dangerous Proximity
Lia

Before I could respond, Viktor's voice crackled through the comm. "We've got movement. Two sentries, fifty yards northeast."
Theron and I moved as one, rejoining the group. His warriors had already melted into the shadows, predators waiting for the signal to strike.
"Non-lethal if possible," Theron murmured. "We don't want to alert the camp yet."
Two Silvercrest wolves broke from the formation, moving with liquid grace. I watched them take down the sentries in seconds, one hand over the mouth, another around the throat, pressure applied until consciousness faded.
Efficient. Clean. Terrifying.
"Clear," came the whispered confirmation.
We continued forward, and I felt it the moment we crossed into enemy territory. The air changed, charged with foreign pack scent and aggression. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but I forced myself to keep moving.
The encampment appeared through the trees—twenty tents arranged in a defensive circle, campfire at the center, guards posted at regular intervals.
Too regular. Too organized for a temporary camp.
"They're expecting us," I breathed.
Theron saw it too. His hand signals brought the team to a halt, everyone dropping into combat-ready positions.
"Could be coincidence," Viktor suggested, but his tone said he didn't believe it.
"Or we've been betrayed." Theron's eyes swept the camp, calculating odds and angles. "Either way, we're committed now. Lia, can you sense anything through the bond? Any warning from Kai's side?"
I reached for the bond, found it muffled by distance and damage but still there. Kai was alive, focused, preparing for his own assault. No alarm, no warning.
"Nothing," I reported.
"Then we proceed as planned." Theron looked at his warriors. "Half of you circle west, half east. Wait for my signal, then hit them from both sides. Viktor, stay with Lia. If this goes sideways…"
"I know the drill," Viktor cut him off.
"Good." Theron met my eyes one last time. "Stay alive, Solnyshko. Kai would never forgive me if I got you killed."
Then he was gone, melting into the shadows with half the team.
Viktor and I waited in tense silence as the others positioned themselves. Through the trees, I could see the Eastern Pack guards changing shifts, laughing about something, completely unaware of the death creeping toward them.
Then Theron's howl split the night, the signal.
And all hell broke loose.
The attack was surgical.

Theron's wolves hit the camp from three sides simultaneously, and I watched centuries of Silvercrest training in action. They didn't just fight, they dismantled. Every move calculated, every kill efficient, no wasted motion or energy.
The Eastern Pack warriors scrambled, trying to form defensive positions, but they'd been caught flat-footed. Within minutes, half of them were dead or dying.
"Move!" Viktor grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the camp's edge where we could provide support without getting in the way of Silvercrest's killing machine.
But as we ran, something felt wrong.
The Eastern Pack was retreating too easily. Falling back in organized patterns rather than panicking. And their casualties, I looked closer at the bodies, were all younger wolves. Expendable.
"It's a trap," I gasped, realising hitting like ice water. "Viktor, they wanted us to attack…"
The forest behind us erupted with howls.
Reinforcements. At least thirty wolves, cutting off our escape route, driving us deeper into the camp where—
Oh god.
"THERON!" I screamed. "IT'S AN AMBUSH!"
But my warning came too late. The "retreating" Eastern Pack wolves suddenly pivoted, and from the largest tent emerged the massive black form of Alpha Ronan, flanked by his elite guard.
We were surrounded.
Theron's silver wolf burst through the melee, positioning himself between me and the closing trap. His warriors regrouped around us in a tight defensive circle, but I could see the math, we were outnumbered two to one, cut off from escape, and facing an Alpha who'd been planning this exact scenario.
Ronan shifted to human form, utterly unbothered by his nakedness or the blood splattered across his scarred chest. His smile was victorious, knowing.
"Alpha Theron. How generous of you to deliver the hybrid directly to me." His eyes found me through the press of bodies. "And injured, no less. The Circle will be pleased."
"You'll have to go through me first," Theron snarled, his wolf's voice distorted but clear.
"Gladly." Ronan cracked his neck. "I've been wanting to test myself against Silvercrest's legendary Alpha. Let's see if you're worth the reputation."
Viktor pressed a knife into my hand. "Stay behind me. No matter what happens, stay…"
Ronan moved like lightning, closing the distance between him and Theron in a blur of motion. They collided with a sound like thunder, two Alpha wolves locked in combat so brutal it made my earlier fight with Viktor look like sparring practice.
The rest of the Eastern Pack surged forward, and suddenly there was no defensive circle, just chaos and blood and desperate fighting.
A wolf lunged for me. Viktor intercepted, his knife finding its throat. Another came from the left,I twisted, my own blade catching it under the jaw. Pain exploded through my broken ribs but I couldn't stop moving, couldn't afford weakness.
Through the melee, I watched Theron and Ronan tear into each other. They were evenly matched, Ronan had raw power and viciousness, but Theron had technique and speed. Every time one gained the advantage, the other reversed it.
But Theron's warriors were falling. Outnumbered, caught in a trap, they were being picked off one by one.
"We need to break the encirclement!" I shouted to Viktor between strikes. "Get to that treeline…"
"Not without Theron," Viktor growled, his hands slick with blood.
"Then we're all going to die here!"
As if to prove my point, three Eastern wolves broke through and rushed me at once. Too many. Even with Viktor's help, we couldn't—
A blur of silver fur crashed into them from the side.
Not Theron. He was still locked with Ronan, both of them bleeding from dozens of wounds.
The newcomer was smaller, faster, and I recognized the fighting style even in wolf form.
Kira. One of Theron's senior warriors from Silvercrest.
She'd circled back, abandoning her position to save me. And now she was paying the price, surrounded, overwhelmed, taking injuries that should have been mine.
"NO!" I tried to reach her, but Viktor held me back.
"You can't help her!"
I watched helplessly as Kira went down under a mass of Eastern wolves. Watched her throat torn out, watched the life leave her eyes.
Because of me. Another death on my conscience.
Something inside me snapped.
The wolf I'd been suppressing with silver poisoning and injury and sheer willpower suddenly surged to the surface. Not the feral version from the cell, something else. Something colder. More focused.
My hybrid form emerged in a burst of silver light that sent wolves stumbling backward. The transformation hurt like nothing I'd ever experienced, bones shifting wrong, organs rearranging while damaged, every injury magnified tenfold.
But the power that came with it…