Chapter 52
Chapter 52
The ground kept shaking even after the last rogue fell.
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Smoke burned my throat. I clung to Damien’s arm while he shifted back into human form, blood streaking down his chest. His breathing was heavy, eyes scanning everywhere at once.
“Stay behind me,” he said, grabbing my hand.
Another explosion ripped through the air. Not close. Closer.
A section of the outer wall collapsed with a deafening crack. Wolves howled in pain. Someone screamed for a healer.
Damien pulled me toward the tree line. “We need distance from the main structure. They’re targeting load points.”
“Load points?” I coughed, stumbling as ash fell around us.
“The foundation beams,” he snapped. “This isn’t random.”
A rogue burst out of the smoke to our left, half shifted, jaw elongated, one arm still human. Damien shoved me behind him and shifted mid step. Fur ripped across his skin. Bones cracked. In a second he was a massive black wolf launching forward.
They collided hard.
I backed into a tree, heart slamming against my ribs. Claws flashed. Teeth sank. The rogue snapped at his throat but Damien twisted and crushed its windpipe.
More shapes moved through the smoke.
Too many.
“Damien!” I yelled.
He tore free and shifted back, grabbing my wrist. “Run. Now.”
We sprinted toward the back clearing. The ground trembled again, splitting open in jagged lines. I nearly lost my footing.
Behind us another building caved inward.
The infirmary.
“No!” I gasped. “Linda-”
“She’s out,” Damien said sharply. “Focus.”
A shadow dropped from above.
11:42 Thu, May 21 ♫ ·
Chapter 52
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I didn’t even see it fully shift before Damien tackled me sideways. We hit the dirt hard. Claws sliced through the space where my head had been.
The rogue landed, fully wolf now, ribs showing through patchy fur. Its eyes glowed unnatural red.
It lunged.
Damien rolled, shifting again, intercepting it mid air. They crashed into a fallen beam. Wood splintered. The beam rolled downhill toward the fractured ground.
I scrambled up, hands shaking. “Damien!”
He ripped the rogue’s shoulder open. It snapped at his neck and drew blood. My stomach flipped.
More howls answered from the smoke.
“They’re pushing us outward!” someone yelled from somewhere behind.
Damien tore the rogue’s throat out and staggered back into human form, chest heaving.
“We can’t outrun all of them,” I said, grabbing his arm. “There’s too many.”
He scanned the treeline, jaw tight. “They want separation.”
“What?”
Before he could answer, the earth under us bucked violently.
A massive crack tore straight through the clearing. The ground split in a jagged line between us and the remaining pack members.
I screamed as dirt collapsed inward.
Damien caught my waist and dragged me back just before the earth dropped away. A deep fissure yawned open, swallowing trees whole.
From the other side, wolves howled.
“We need to get around it!” I shouted.
“We don’t have time!”
Another rogue came charging straight through the smoke, this one massive, muscles twisted wrong, veins glowing faintly beneath its skin.
It didn’t attack Damien.
It came straight for me.
“Human Luna,” it hissed, voice distorted even in wolf form.
11:42 Thu, May 21
Chapter 52
Damien shifted instantly and launched at it. They collided inches from me.
I stumbled back toward the crack in the earth.
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The rogue fought dirty, biting low, clawing fast. Damien pinned it once but it twisted unnaturally and slammed him into a fallen tree.
I grabbed a broken branch and swung blindly when the rogue broke free and lunged toward me again.
The branch cracked against its skull. It barely flinched.
It swiped.
Claws tore across my arm. I screamed and fell back.
Damien roared, a sound so deep it shook my chest. He crashed into the rogue again, jaws locking around its throat. They rolled dangerously close to the fissure.
The ground shook again.
A second explosion detonated somewhere near the packhouse remains. The shockwave hit us seconds later.
The earth shifted.
The fissure widened.
“Damien!” I crawled toward him.
The rogue kicked hard and broke free. It leapt backward across the crack, landing on the other side.
Damien lunged after it without thinking.
The ground gave way under his hind legs.
He scrambled, claws digging into loose dirt.
“Don’t!” I screamed.
He barely made it across as the earth collapsed between us.
I lunged forward to grab him.
Too late.
The ground between us crumbled and fell in a roar of dirt and stone.
A wall of rubble and shattered earth crashed down into the widening gap.
Dust exploded upward, blinding me.
I coughed, waving my arms through the cloud. “Damien!”
11:42 Thu, May 21
Chapter 32
On the other side of the rubble, I heard him shift back.
“Sienna!”
“I’m here!”
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The fissure was now too wide to jump. Jagged stone and broken beams blocked the center, forming a steep unstable barrier.
He climbed up from his side, reaching toward me. “Climb up! We can cross higher!”
I scrambled up the broken pile of wood and dirt. It shifted under my weight.
Another tremor ripped through the ground.
The rubble between us shifted violently.
A section collapsed inward, sending more debris crashing down into the crack.
“Stop moving!” Damien shouted.
“I’m not!” I yelled back.
A flaming beam from the packhouse remains fell from above and slammed into the pile between us.
The impact knocked me backward.
I lost my footing.
The rubble slid under me.
I clawed at a jutting stone and barely held on.
“Sienna!”
Damien leapt toward the pile again.
Another aftershock hit.
The flaming beam shifted and rolled, wedging itself deeper into the gap and pushing more earth down
A final collapse roared through the space between us.
The pile split in half.
A solid wall of rubble, stone, and burning timber dropped straight down between us, sealing the gap with a choking cloud of dust.
When the shaking stopped, there was no clear path anymore.
Just a jagged, unstable wall of debris higher than both of us.
11:42 Thu, May 21
Chapter 52
I pushed myself up, coughing hard. “Damien!”
On the other side I heard movement. Then his voice.
“I’m here.”
Relief flooded me so fast my knees almost gave out.
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“I can’t see you,” I said, climbing higher onto the rubble, but loose stones slid down under my hands.
“Don’t climb it,” he said sharply. “It’s unstable.”
Another distant explosion echoed through the forest.
More howls.
“They’re regrouping,” he said. “They’re pulling back.”
“Why?” I asked, panic rising again.
A pause.
“They got what they wanted.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“Division.”
Dust drifted down between us.
“I’ll find a way around,” he said. “Stay where you are. Don’t move.”
“I’m not staying alone!” My voice cracked.
“You don’t have a choice,”
Another tremor shook the rubble lightly.
“Sienna,” he said, voice lower now, urgent. “If the ground shifts again, run toward the east ridge. Don’t want for
me.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You will if you have to.”
I pressed my forehead against the rough stone blocking my view of him. “Damien…”
Silence stretched between us, broken only by distant crackling fire and scattered howls.
“I’ll get to you,” he said finally.
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11:42 Thu, May 21
Chapter 52
…
“I know,” I whispered, even though fear twisted in my chest.
Smoke thickened again around my side of the clearing.
On the other side of the rubble, I heard movement.
Then nothing.
“Damien?” I called.
There was no answer, just the distant sound of wolves howling somewhere beyond the broken forest.
And the wall of rubble between us.
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11:42 Thu, May 21♫
