Chapter 136 The Body guard
Chapter 136 The Body guard
Kai POV
Damien’s warning was still hanging in the cold air when the first howl cut through the trees.
It was wrong. Flat, and empty....It wasn't the sound of a real wolf.
Move!!! I barked, shoving forward.
We didn’t make it far.
The ground vanished into a sudden, steep ravine. Wet rock walls hemmed us in on both sides, turning the narrow path into a perfect chokepoint—a textbook trap. From the ridges above, black-eyed wolves poured down like a wave of living shadows. Dozens of them. Their eyes were entirely dead no fear, no hesitation just a blank, terrifying drive to kill.
The fight started ugly.
I shifted mid-stride, Vai ripping free with a roar that vibrated right through my chest. My claws tore into the first wolf before it could reach Ophelia, hot blood spraying across my muzzle. The smell was chemical and sour, like the serum was literally rotting them from the inside out.
Left side! Seraphina shouted, her voice strained. They're coming down the ridge!
I see them! I snarled.
She was already in the thick of it, her white-blonde hair matted with dirt and dark blood. Her coastal power crackled around her hands, sending short, violent bursts of electricity through the air. The nearest puppets seized and dropped, but there were just too many.
Beside me, Ophelia shifted into her golden wolf. She was as fierce as ever, but I could feel the agonizing toll her side wound was taking. Every leap, every snap of her jaws was tighter and more guarded than it should have been.
Ophelia, stay close, I growled through the bond.
I am fine, she snapped back, though she was breathing too hard, even as she tore through two wolves in a heartbeat.
Damien stayed human, wielding a blade with his one good hand. He was slower than usual, his balance off, but his strikes were lethal and precise. Behind you, Kai!
I spun, catching the next attacker by the throat. Bones crunched under my jaws. In the periphery, another wolf launched itself at Ophelia's blind spot.
Don’t you dare.
Damien threw himself into the gap, taking a deep, ragged slash across his shoulder to shield her. He didn't scream. He just gritted his teeth, braced against the pain, and kept swinging.
The ravine devolved into pure chaos. Claws, teeth, and snarls that sounded more like grinding machinery than animals. My own blood began to mix with theirs in the mud.
Seraphina, drop left! I yelled, trying to clear a path.
Working on it she fired back, her voice tight.
Suddenly, a heavy body slammed into my ribs from the side. The impact sent me rolling hard into the rock wall, knocking the wind from my lungs. A sharp, white-hot pain flared through my chest.
Kai! Ophelia's frantic voice cut through the din. I lunged forward, ripping the wolf's throat out before shoving its dead weight off me. Keep moving!
That was when I saw it.
One of the black-eyed wolves locked eyes with Ophelia and froze.
Just for a fraction of a second, its head tilted. Something agonizingly human flickered behind those empty, dilated pupils. It violently whipped around and snarled at the wolf next to it, snapping its jaws at its own kind. For three chaotic heartbeats, it fought the horde.
Did you see that? I shouted over the noise.
See what? Seraphina yelled back, buried under two more attackers.
I didn't have time to explain. The blackness flooded back into the wolf's eyes, the foreign control snapping back into place like a leash. It lunged at Ophelia as if the lapse had never happened.
I threw myself between them and ended it.
The fight dragged on for what felt like hours. We were vastly outnumbered, exhausted, and already half-broken from the trek down the mountain. Seraphina took a deep, brutal slash across her ribs and went down hard.
Seraphina! Damien shouted, trying to reach her.
Still breathing, she wheezed, her hand pressed tightly against her side. Dark blood poured between her fingers. ... finish them.
By the time the last of the immediate threats dropped, Ophelia shifted back to her human form and instantly stumbled. Her legs simply buckled. I caught her before she hit the rocks, wrapping an arm around her waist.
She was trembling violently, fresh blood soaking rapidly through the makeshift bandage on her flank.
I am, she lied, her teeth chattering from shock.
You're not I said softly but firmly. Argue with me right now.
Damien leaned against the ravine wall, chest heaving, his face deathly pale. That was just the first wave. They know we're here. There will be more.
Seraphina forced herself to her feet, leaning heavily on a rock face. Then we dont stop. The airstrip has to be right through these trees.
We pushed on.
The rest of the night blurred into a miserable haze of freezing air, throbbing pain, and forced, suffocating silence. Every snap of a twig made my shoulders lock up. Ophelia was leaning on me heavily now, though she tried to mask it. Seraphina was limping, and Damien's broken arm hung useless at his side, yet he kept moving, guided by the residual, sickening pull of the serum in his system.
Dawn was just beginning to come a dull, cold gray in the sky when the treeline finally thinned.
The abandoned airstrip opened up ahead of us. It was a bleak stretch of cracked concrete and rusted hangars, but right in the center sat a small twin-engine plane, its props already spinning, warming up for takeoff.
But it wasn't an empty escape route.
Standing at the base of the plane's stairs was the Architect. He had the same ordinary brown hair, the same completely forgettable face, and that horribly calm expression head worn back in the fortress.
And standing right beside him was a man I would have trusted with my life.
Thoran.
The Alpha of one of the strongest packs in our alliance. The man who had sat at our council table, shared our food, and sworn a blood oath to fight with us against the First Light. He stood there protectively, positioning himself like a loyal bodyguard in front of the Architect.
My blood turned cold.
Thoran looked straight at me, his expression completely blank. He didnt even pretend to be surprised.