MAYA’S POV

The explosion left the world tilted.

For several seconds after Marcus’ device detonated, everything sounded muffled and distant, as if I were underwater.

The square around me had dissolved into smoke and shattered stone, and voices reached me in warped fragments through the ringing in my ears.

My vision swam as my stomach roiled with sudden nausea. I braced my hands on the heated ground and forced slow breaths through the ash coating my throat.

One.

Two—

Through the mate bond, I felt Logan’s presence surge through Ethan.

I snapped my head in his direction in time to see power roll through him with explosive urgency as fur erupted over skin and massive paws slammed against broken stone.

I knew instantly what was happening—he was going after Jack.

Nyra reacted before I could even think.

She rose beneath my skin in a violent rush that sent heat tearing through my veins.

A heartbeat later, I shifted too. The world sharpened, and scents crashed into me all at once.

Smoke. Blood. Fear. Burned magic.

Jack.

Logan had already started moving.

Nyra bounded after him immediately—

Then stopped so abruptly that gravel sprayed beneath my paws.

Sera.

She and Kieran had been closest to the blast, and they were still near the ruined platform.

I turned instantly. Nyra crossed the distance in seconds and skidded to a stop beside her.

My chest tightened. Sera lay half-curled on the stone, pale hair tangled with ash and dust.

Fine cuts marked her face and one shoulder where fragments of stone had struck her, and for a terrifying heartbeat, she seemed too still beneath the haze of drifting smoke.

Kieran was beside her, one knee braced against the fractured platform as he fought his way upright through sheer stubbornness alone.

Blood streaked his temple, dust clinging to his dark hair and clothes. His arm remained wrapped tightly around Sera like she was the only thing that mattered in the moment.

Nyra lowered her head and pressed firmly against Sera’s shoulder.

Sera blinked, her eyes unfocused, before recognition softened them.

One trembling hand lifted and slid through the fur at my neck.

"I’m okay," she whispered.

Behind her, Kieran groaned and pushed himself halfway upright.

"Don’t—" He hissed.

Nyra looked toward him.

Kieran gritted his teeth hard enough that I could hear it. "Don’t let Jack escape."

That was all I needed.

I spun. Logan was already disappearing into the trees.

Nyra launched after him.

Branches whipped past as we tore through the forest, sunlight flashing in golden fragments overhead.

The scent trail wasn’t difficult to follow. Jack practically bled corruption now.

Darkness. Blood. Something burned and rotten.

And beneath all of it, a deep, violent pain you didn’t need to be psychic to sense.

Logan stayed slightly ahead while Nyra matched him stride for stride.

We ran faster, the forest blurring around us in streaks of light and shadow.

Jack had not exactly been subtle in his escape. He’d left a trail that looked like destruction given direction.

Branches hung shattered overhead where something massive had torn straight through them. Tree trunks bore gouged claw marks, some fresh enough that splintered bark littered the ground. Bushes lay crushed, and more than once, I caught the metallic tang of blood staining leaves and earth.

Even wounded and half-mad, he forced through the forest, too unstable and violent to care what blocked him.

His scent got stronger, and hope flared inside me.

We were getting close. Maybe we’d corner him before—

Logan suddenly stopped. Nyra nearly collided with him before skidding sideways.

Someone stood ahead.

The dappled sunlight through the trees illuminated familiar dark hair and familiar dark blue eyes.

Every muscle locked, rage hitting so hard it nearly blinded me.

Lucian fucking Reed.

LUCIAN’S POV

Jack’s scent cut through the forest like rot spreading through clean water.

Blood. Corruption. Madness.

I stood in silence beneath the trees, staring at the spot where he had disappeared, my jaw tightening as the wind carried more of that foul scent toward me.

He was deteriorating faster than I’d feared.

Marcus’ little escape plan had pushed Jack far beyond instability and straight into collapse.

Whatever remained of the man beneath that corruption was being swallowed whole, piece by piece, by Catherine’s darkness.

I should have moved already. Every second mattered.

But I stayed where I was, because another scent had reached me.

Two scents.

And even though I recognized one, for one brief, stupid moment, I found myself hoping it would be patrol wolves or nameless guards sent after him.

But then the forest rustled, and Logan burst through the trees, Nyra beside him.

The disappointment that settled in my chest was sharp enough to almost make me laugh at myself.

Of course, it had to be people I knew.

Fate just had to keep putting familiar faces in front of me and asking how much more I was willing to lose.

Fury exploded out of Maya, so violently that I physically felt it.

I sighed inwardly. I knew exactly what she thought.

From her perspective, I had stood with Thomas, and now I was standing between them and Jack.

Fucking fantastic.

I raised my hands slowly. "Maya."

Nyra snarled. The sound held enough accusation that words weren’t necessary. I knew Maya well enough to hear every one of them anyway.

Traitor. Liar. Enemy.

“I’m not the enemy,” I said carefully, keeping my hands where they could see them.

The growl that ripped from Nyra’s throat vibrated through the clearing with enough fury that even the birds in the nearby trees scattered.

Her lips curled farther back over her teeth as she advanced another step, brown eyes fixed on me with such naked rage that I did not need a mind-link to understand exactly what Maya thought of my explanation.

She didn’t believe a single word, and honestly, after everything that had happened, I couldn’t blame her.

Logan shifted beside Nyra, his massive frame lowering slightly as his muscles tightened beneath fur.

Unlike Maya, Ethan was still thinking, still assessing the situation despite the hostility radiating through the clearing.

His eyes moved over me carefully, studying my stance, my expression, searching for something beneath the surface before deciding whether I truly belonged on the side he thought I did.

Maya wasn’t looking for answers; she had already decided.

I watched her carefully as she took another step toward me, her eyes never leaving my face.

“Maya,” I said quietly.

Nyra lowered herself, shoulders rolling as claws dug deep into the forest floor beneath her paws, pure murderous intent in her eyes.

I released a slow breath. “I swear it’s not what it looks like.”

The moment the words left my mouth, I knew I had made a mistake.

Because from Maya’s perspective, that sounded exactly like an excuse a traitor would make.

Nyra exploded toward me. She crossed the distance with terrifying speed, and I barely twisted aside before claws tore through my shoulder instead of my throat.

Fabric shredded instantly, and pain flared hot across my skin as her strike clipped flesh.

Behind me, bark exploded from a tree trunk.

Nyra landed smoothly, spun on her paws, and lunged again.

There was no strategy in her attack, no restraint, no attempt to test me or force information from me. There was only fury.

And beneath that was something far more difficult to look at: hurt.

Maya wasn’t attacking me simply because she thought I had chosen Marcus and Catherine.

Sera wasn’t the only one I had betrayed.

Maya had trusted me implicitly. For as long as I could remember, she’d always had my back. In many ways, she’d been like a sister to me.

And I broke her heart.

Logan moved then.

Not with Maya’s blind emotion, but with Ethan’s control.

He circled wide while Nyra drove me back, cutting off escape routes and forcing me into tighter ground.

I ducked beneath Logan’s jaws and threw myself backward as Nyra ripped through the space I’d occupied an instant earlier.

Dirt sprayed beneath my boots while shattered branches rained around us.

I still wasn’t fighting them.

I couldn’t.

I was redirecting strikes, avoiding claws, creating space where I could, and losing it almost immediately afterward.

But Maya was furious enough that I couldn’t keep treating this lightly.

Every time I gained distance, she erased it.

Every time I escaped one strike, another followed immediately behind it.

She drove me backward through trees and brush with relentless determination, and little by little, I realized I was running out of options.

Beyond us, Jack’s scent was growing fainter. More distant.

Damn it.

I sidestepped Logan’s claws and immediately caught Nyra’s shoulder as she crashed toward me, using her momentum to redirect her into the ground beside me.

She twisted instantly and nearly tore my arm off for the effort.

“Maya, stop!”

Nyra answered by slamming into me. The blow knocked air from my lungs as my back crashed through a tree. Wood cracked violently behind me before the entire thing groaned and toppled sideways.

Pain shot down my spine, and for a second, black spots flickered across my vision.

Okay. Enough.

I pushed myself upright slowly and looked at both of them.

Nyra stood several feet away with her lips peeled back over her teeth, chest rising and falling with sharp breaths, rage practically radiating from her body.

Logan circled beside her, lower and quieter, but no less dangerous.

And behind me, Jack’s scent had nearly disappeared.

I closed my eyes and sighed. “Sorry.”

Magic spread outward beneath my feet in glowing blue patterns that raced across roots and fallen leaves before sinking into the forest floor itself.

They both lunged.

Too late.

Symbols ignited beneath them with a blinding flash, and chains woven from smoke and light erupted upward around their limbs and bodies before detonating outward in a powerful wave of force.

The shockwave struck both wolves, hurling them backward through the clearing.

Not enough to hurt them, but enough to buy me a few seconds.

I looked at Maya one last time.

Even from this distance, I could still see the betrayal and hate burning in Nyra’s eyes.

It hurt more than the tree.

Then I looked toward the fading trail ahead. Toward Jack.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, unable to look back at them.

Then I disappeared deeper into the forest.