Chapter 170 CHAPTER 170

Chapter 170 CHAPTER 170
It started as a dull ache behind my ribs, like a bruise being pressed. Then it sharpened.

It's been happening before but now that I took a second, it became sharper, more details pouring in.

Felix.

One of Stephan's trackers who always had a smile whenever I came around to their meeting. His thread snapped and I stumbled, catching myself before falling on a dead turned… thing.

It was still odd seeing them turning right before my eyes.

Then I felt another bond snap

Lorna.

A Blood Moon wolf who told me she'd joined Hunter's Pack after her own cast her out for having a stillborn. Like it was her fault. She survived years as a rogue only to die here, in a Pack she'd been part of for less than a week.

I screamed and pushed forward, my hands burning with light, hitting every beastly thing my eyes could see

But the threads kept snapping.

People kept dying.

David.

Twenty-two years old. He used to patrol the border where Hunter used to come see me after Stephan closed it. He'd smile at me and I wouldn't be able to return it and he never knew why.

Gone.

Each one felt like a finger being torn off my soul. Red absorbed what she could but we were both drowning in it.

"We need to stop counting," Red cautioned me. "Fight."

It's not like I wasn't fighting, but I was focusing more on the pain, going in different directions with the hope of saving the person before the bond cut completely but it was of no use.

I was always too late.

But my wolf's words set me straight, the quicker this war ends, the more lives would be saved.

So I fought.

I poured fire at everything that moved wrong, blasting through tens of turned wolves that had broken through the inner grounds. They crumbled easily under the light but there was no end to them. They kept pouring from the trees like the forest was birthing them.

It was difficult avoiding my own people but it was doable. My heart would definitely break if I hurt them.

Thankfully these turned things were dumb and while my wolves ran away from the fire in their direction, the other wolves didn't. Dying without much movement.

All they had were the insane numbers.

I burned through twenty near the training yard. Thirty more replaced them before the ash settled.

"Cassie! Get to the bunker now!" Stephan's voice crashed through the link, sharp and desperate.

"Hello to you too baby," I rolled my eyes, getting closer to the war now rather than at the edge of it.

"You're the target! She's here for you, if you go down we all go down!"

"And if I hide in a bunker while everyone fights for me, what kind of Moonborn am I?"

"A living one!"

"I said no!" I rolled my eyes, firing energy recklessly.

How did he expect me to have this ability and instead of using it, I'm supposed to go hide?

While people died?

Through the bond, I felt his fury, his terror, the overwhelming need to wrap his body around mine and drag me somewhere safe. It was so strong it nearly knocked me off my feet.

"Stephan, I love you but if you don't focus on your own fight right now, you're going to get killed worrying about me."

He didn't respond but I felt Thane roar through the bond, frustrated and scared. Then the link went quiet as he threw himself back into the battle on the western side, Caleb at his flank, both of them tearing through Council wolves who fought with precision rather than blind rage.

I could see them now, real wolves bearing Council markings, trained Alphas from Packs that had bent the knee to Zyrell. They fought with coordination, targeting our strongest, trying to cut the head off the snake while the turned wolves overwhelmed the body.

That was where the fight was tougher and my powers were of no use because I would kill my own people as well.

I blasted another cluster of creatures and turned to face the next wave when something hit me from behind. Claws raking down my back, teeth grazing my neck. I spun, light flaring in my palms, but before I could fire, the creature was ripped away from me.

In wolf form, massive and black, Ace's jaws clamped around the thing's skull. He crushed it, spat it out, and looked at me for one second.

One second of eye contact that said everything. I'm here. I've got your back. Keep going.

Then he was gone, back into the chaos, no lecture, no argument, no demand that I hide. Just protection and trust.

I read every message and it pumped me full of energy to continue fighting.

"Alpha!" Jason's voice cut through the link and I spun to see him charging across the compound in wolf form, blood on his fur, heading straight into a group of Council wolves.

"Jason?! Why are you out here?"

He shifted mid-stride to answer. "She's fine! Had the baby, Caly's got them. I'm not sitting underground while my Pack burns!"

He shifted back and slammed into a Council wolf twice his size before I could argue.

I didn't have time to argue anyway because five more of the turned creatures were coming at me from the left. I raised both hands and the light erupted, wider than before, sweeping across the ground like a wave of white fire. They disintegrated, shrieking, and I pushed the wave further, clearing a path through the compound.

But I felt it. The tremor in my chest. The well was deep but it wasn't bottomless and I'd been pouring from it nonstop since the evacuation. Each blast took more effort than the last. Each wave reached a little less far.

More threads snapping. Samuel. Petra. A wolf I didn't know by name but whose bond tasted like Blood Moon loyalty and fresh bread. All of them, gone.

I was losing people faster than I could save them and everything seemed pointless.

Then a loud horn sounded.

Deep, low, vibrating through the ground and up through my legs into my chest. A sound that didn't belong to any wolf.

Everything stopped.

The turned wolves froze mid-attack, every single one, like someone had cut their strings. Our wolves stumbled back, gasping, bleeding, using the sudden stillness to breathe.

Then the creatures parted.

They pulled away from the fighting, splitting down the middle, creating a corridor from the tree line straight to where I stood in the centre of the compound.

And through that corridor, she walked.

Zyrell.

The human disguise was gone. Her skin was pale, nearly translucent, glowing, silver veins crawling across her face and neck like roots under glass. Her eyes were solid black. No whites, no iris, just emptiness. The air bent around her and the grass beneath her feet greyed and died with each step.

She waved her hand, moving the turned wolves aside for her.

So I knew if this war had to end, she needed to die first.

She walked like she had nowhere to be. Like this was her territory and we were the intruders.

Her black eyes found mine and she smiled.

"You look tired, little Moon-Born. I was hoping you'd use up all that pretty light by now. The first time is always so exhilarating until poof! It's all gone."

My hands were shaking. My power was flickering like a candle fighting the wind.

She'd planned this. The thousands of turned wolves weren't meant to win. They were meant to drain me.

And it worked.