Chapter 72 73
The air hummed. The fireflies around her burst into white-hot sparks, and the next thing I knew, Barbie lifted both hands and screamed something in a language older than dirt.
A wave of glowing light exploded outward—like a disco-ball nuke. Every ASA drone and camera fried instantly. Soldiers screamed as vines shot up from the earth, wrapping around their legs, thorns glowing blue.
Barbie floated higher, looking way too smug for someone the size of my boot. “No one touches my Barbie Dream Forest.”
“Hell yeah!” I yelled mid-swipe, decapitating a Black Fang wolf who lunged at me. “Go, Tinker Hell!”
“I told you not to call me that!”
“Then stop being awesome!”
One of the Black Fang wolves tackled me from behind, slamming me into a tree. Pain flared, but I kicked back, claws ripping into his chest, sent him flying into an ASA motorbike—which exploded.
The heat burst across my fur, and Barbie zipped in front of my snout, wings wild. “Are you done destroying the flora?”
“I’m saving your ancient glitter forest!” I barked, literally.
She rolled her eyes. “Unsubtle beast!”
“Says the walking glowstick!”
More bullets. More screams. Smoke and blood filled the air, and the whole clearing turned into a supernatural war zone.
Barbie spun, flicking her wrist, and a bolt of blue light struck a soldier’s gun, melting it. I launched at another, crushing his weapon in my jaws, and sent his body tumbling into the underbrush.
They tried to retreat—but the forest itself had turned against them. The vines had come alive, the roots moved, even the wind howled like wolves.
“Marigold!” Barbie shouted over the chaos. “More will come! They know you are here!”
I shifted back halfway—half-human, half-wolf, chest heaving, claws dripping with silver-tainted blood. “Let them come!” I growled. “I’m done running!”
Barbie hovered close, eyes fierce. “You cannot fight a war alone.”
I smirked. “Then it’s a good thing I’m not alone, huh?”
A howl echoed through the distance. Deep. Familiar.
My heart froze.
Gregor.
Holy hell!
It was him.
Deadly hot.
Barbie’s eyes widened. “Your mate—?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, breath catching, blood and rain on my lips. “The big bad wolf himself.”
And just like that, I grinned.
“Alright, Barbie. Guess it’s time to find my Alpha.”
Barbie sighed dramatically. “This is madness.”
“Welcome to my love life.”
Then I shifted back to my human form, so very naked. Went to the abandoned clothes, wore it with ease and picked up a fallen ASA gun, slung it over my shoulder, and started marching north through the smoking ruins of the forest—barefoot, half-dressed, smelling like blood and sass.
Because if they wanted a monster, I’d give them one.
Because I knew that howl.
You don’t forget a sound like that — it’s like thunder dipped in heartbreak and wrapped in pure testosterone.
Alpha Gregor.
And before my brain could even spell impulse control, my legs were moving.
I was sprinting through the forest like a caffeinated cheetah, barefoot, half-dressed, bleeding, and somehow managing to trip on every damn branch on the way.
“Marigold!” Barbie yelled behind me, her tiny voice echoing over the crashing rain. “Do you even know where you’re going?”
“Toward the sexy death roar, Barbie! Try to keep up!”
“I think I just ate a bug!”
“Protein!” I shouted back, leaping over a fallen log and sliding down a mud slope like a deranged Olympic contestant.
“Disgusting protein!” she wheezed, spitting. “Ugh, mortals are barbaric!”
“Then stop flying with your mouth open!”
Lightning tore across the sky, illuminating the chaos behind us—figures darting through the trees, black uniforms, glowing red eyes.
Black Fang.
Again.
Because apparently, I was the discount prize everyone wanted this season.
Bullets hissed through the rain, silver rounds whizzing past my ear. The ASA drones whirred overhead like demonic mosquitoes, their red lights sweeping the soaked forest.
I ducked under a branch, panting, mud splattering across my legs as the ground shook behind me. Wolves. Dozens of them.
Barbie zipped ahead, glowing like a neon sign in a haunted carnival. “You’re leading them right to him!”
“Good!” I yelled. “Let them meet my boyfriend-slash-apocalypse!”
She groaned. “You are insane!”
“Welcome to my trauma arc!”
Then, through the pouring rain, I saw it — the terrain breaking into a jagged drop-off, mist curling below. A ravine stretched wide, carved by an angry river. The cliffs were sharp, slick with moss, and lightning illuminated the other side where a figure stood — tall, bleeding, glorious, and radiating “do not mess with me” energy.
Gregor.
I nearly tripped.
No, correction: I did trip, face-first into a puddle.
So yes, my reunion started with me looking like a drowned raccoon.
“Smooth entrance,” Barbie muttered, wringing her hair like a soaked influencer.
I wiped the mud from my face, growled, and stood. “Shut it.”
And then I ran.
We met halfway at the edge of the ravine, the world howling around us — the wind, the wolves, the drones — all chaos and lightning.
He looked wrecked. Blood streaked down his jaw, his clothes torn, his eyes glowing that dangerous gold I’d dreamed about and feared in equal measure. His scent hit me like fire and smoke and home.
“Marigold,” he rasped, voice low, rough, almost disbelieving.
My heart punched my ribs. “You— you look like you went through a blender.”
“You’re not much better,” he said, eyes raking down my mud-smeared, half-dressed self. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Oh, you know. The usual. ASA tried to turn me into lab stew. Black Fang ambushed me twice. Fae Barbie saved me with glitter magic. Then I wrestled a drone with my bare hands.”
His brows shot up. “You wrestled a—”
“Don’t question my methods! Anyway, that is Barbie. Don't ask.”
He raised one brow.
Barbie fluttered between us, wings buzzing like she’d had too much caffeine. “Can we please discuss your mating rituals later? The fang freaks are three minutes behind!”
Gregor’s gaze snapped toward the treeline. I heard them too — growls, boots, mechanical hums.
“We have to move,” he said.
“Wait!” I grabbed his arm. “Leon and Sugar—”
“They’re alive,” he cut in, though his tone carried uncertainty. “I have people looking.”
I nodded, swallowing the storm inside me. “And you? You were supposed to be dead.”
He gave a low, humorless chuckle. “They tried.”
A drone zipped overhead. He threw a dagger without even looking — it struck the machine, sending it spiraling into the ravine with a flash of sparks.
I blinked. “Okay, that was hot.”
He smirked faintly. “You always did have questionable taste.”
“Excuse me?”
“Barbie was right,” he said, voice rough. “You’re insane.”
I stepped closer. “You love it.”
“You shouldn’t have come,” he said softly.
“You think I’d let them kill you?” I shot back. “Not when I just found out you’re still breathing. You’re stuck with me, Alpha. And thank you for the chocolate bar.”
His breath hitched. “Marigold—”
“Shut up,” I whispered. “No speeches. Just…”
He reached for my face, his thumb brushing the cut on my cheek. His hand trembled.