Chapter 15
Mariah
Every instinct screamed at me to turn back. To claw my way through the rock fall and find him. To throw myself at whatever nightmare was coming out of the deep and fight beside him, even if it killed me, but another voice rose in me.
The memory of Lia’s smile. Kendra’s laugh. The whispers in the cages, girls clutching each other’s hands in the dark, praying to see another sunrise.
All of them.
All the women who hadn’t made it this far. All the ones still trapped, waiting and hoping for rescue that might never come.
If I faltered now—if I threw myself back into the dark and let myself die beside Varek—then what had it all been for?
I pressed a hand to the mark on my shoulder. It pulsed with heat, with memory, with bond. He was still alive. I could feel it. But the weight of the war for humanity pressed down heavier than my heart could bear.
This wasn’t just about me.
It wasn’t even just about him.
This was survival.
For humans. For all the women still caged and used and abused. For every life the Council thought they could play God with.
I squeezed my eyes shut as fresh tears spilled down my cheeks. “I’m sorry,” I whispered into the wind. My voice cracked, breaking against the stone. “I’m so sorry.”
Then I stood up and took my first step away from the mines.
My legs felt like lead, each step a betrayal taking me farther from him. My chest ached so badly I thought it might split open, but I forced myself onward, the rough slope cutting through my soft boots, the trees looming closer with every staggering stride.
Every step forward was like a fresh wound, another tear in my heart.
But I kept moving, because if I didn’t—if I failed here—humanity would lose everything.
And the Council wolves would win.
I thought of Elsie, of the fire in her eyes when she spoke of the Watch.
I thought of Kendra and Lia, alive somewhere in the mountains, still fighting.
I thought of every girl who had been dragged from her cell and hadn’t come back, and of all the girls who had been bred and had their babies torn from their arms.
I couldn’t let their lives, their sacrifices, mean nothing.
I couldn’t let humanity fade into memory.
The wilderness swallowed me whole.
Varek’s map was clutched tight in my hands, the edges soft from his touch, the lines smudged where he’d marked safe routes and danger zones. I’d stared at it so hard my eyes ached, but it was the only anchor I had left.
So I kept walking.
The city of Denver was behind me, the outskirts beyond the Outer Guard’s base long abandoned.
What remained were stretches of jagged earth, the blackened bones of highways cracked and overgrown, and signs rusted into nonsense.
The air smelled cleaner here, thinner, biting at my lungs as I climbed higher.
Truth be told, I wasn’t built for this.
Back in the cages, hell, even a long time before that, I’d imagined escaping a hundred times, a thousand times.
In my wildest dreams, I always ran into the mountains, free and unencumbered, the wolves never able to catch me.
I pictured myself determined and unstoppable, darting through trees like some proud heroine in a book.
Reality was much different.
The Rocky Mountains weren’t forgiving. The terrain was brutal, with slopes of loose rock that sent me sliding, thickets of pine so dense I had to force my way through, and rivers that bit at my ankles with icy teeth.
My feet were raw, the thin boots Varek had found for me already fraying.
My clothes clung damp with sweat, dirt streaked across my skin.
And still, I climbed.
Every ridge I crested opened to another. Every valley was deeper, darker, more tangled with roots and underbrush. The horizon never stopped moving away from me, taunting me with peaks I couldn’t reach fast enough.
I stopped once on a rocky outcrop, dragging in a breath, my legs trembling. The wind tore at my hair, and for a moment I felt small. Too small.
The city girl inside me wanted to scream.
I didn’t know the woods. I didn’t know how to read tracks, or which berries wouldn’t kill me, or how to keep a fire burning when the wind hissed like it wanted everything gone, but at least I had the map, and I had Varek’s voice in my head telling me to put one foot in front of the other.
So I did.
I crossed a stream, the water so cold it made my bones ache, and scrambled up the far bank on my hands and knees.
My palms stung from the sharp stone, but I didn’t stop.
A hawk screamed overhead, circling, and I tilted my face to the sky.
The Rockies loomed above me, vast and merciless, but something in me stirred at the sight.
Fear. And awe.
I remembered the girl I had been back before Kendra, Lia, and I had been taken, back when we lived in our grimy apartment together. Sometimes we imagined running away, hiding in the wilderness, living free in the mountains. We made it sound like an adventure. Romantic, even.
Now I knew the truth. It was a fight. Every mile was a test. The mountains weren’t here to welcome me. They were here to break me.
I wasn’t going to break. Fuck you, mountain.
I set my jaw, folded the map carefully, and pressed forward into the trees.
The map said I was close to one of the old mountain passes. Close was relative, though. My calves burned from the climb, every breath scraped my throat raw and sweat plastered my shirt to my back despite the cool chill of the air.
I stopped on a narrow ledge, leaning a hand against the rock face. The drop yawned beside me, dizzying, jagged boulders waiting below. I sucked in the cold air and forced myself to keep going.
That’s when I heard a sound. It carried on the wind. It was low, guttural, and far too close to mistake for anything else.
A growl.
My blood iced.
I froze, knife already in my hand, my wolf prowling just under my skin. I turned slowly, eyes scanning the tree line above the ledge. The pines swayed, branches creaking, and then something moved between them.
A wolf shifter.
This one was ragged, feral, his eyes glowing faintly red, his mouth pulled into a snarl that showed too many teeth. His clothes hung shredded from his body, his hands tipped with claws that glistened in the half-light.
My stomach twisted. He wasn’t fully gone—there was still a man somewhere under that beast—but he was close. Too close.
He shifted and dropped to all fours with an animal shriek, the sound bouncing through the valley, and launched himself down the slope toward me.
I spun, sprinting along the ledge, rocks skittering out from under my feet. My lungs burned, and my heart pounded as every step threatened to send me careening down the steep mountainside.
The growl grew louder, closer.
I risked a glance back. He was fast, claws digging into the stone as he ran, eyes locked on me with a hunger that turned my blood cold.
Shift, my wolf screamed inside me. Shift now!
But panic clawed tighter. My body hesitated, human fear drowning out instinct, and the path narrowed ahead.
I had no choice.
The rogue lunged, his claws slashing against the stone where I’d been a heartbeat before. I stumbled, falling to my knees, the knife clattering from my hand. He loomed over me, mouth open, teeth bared for my throat.
My scream caught in my chest.
And then fire ripped through me.
The change surged fast and violent, fur tearing through skin, bones cracking as they reshaped, clothes ripping as my body transformed.
My vision blurred, then sharpened, every detail burning into focus, the flecks of blood on his claws, the sour reek of his breath, the tremor of the earth beneath his weight.
I snarled, a sound that split the air, and lunged.
Wolf met wolf.
My jaws snapped around his shoulder, tearing deep. Hot blood filled my mouth, copper thick on my tongue. He howled, thrashing, his claws ripping furrows down my side. Pain burned, but my wolf reveled in it.
We tumbled across the ledge, claws and teeth flashing, the world spinning around us. Rocks crumbled under our weight, clattering down into the abyss.
I dug my claws into the ground, anchoring myself, and slammed him against the cliff face with my shoulder. He snarled, snapping at my muzzle, but I shoved harder, sinking my teeth deep into the side of his neck, deeper still, until his blood spattered the rock.
He twisted, his claws raking my flank again, hot pain lancing through me. I yelped, my grip loosening, and he wrenched free, hurling himself at me with a feral scream.
The impact knocked us both sideways. My paws scrabbled against the edge, stones tumbling over and clattering down the side. The drop yawned under me, sickening and endless.
Adrenaline screamed through me. I shoved upward with everything I had, slamming him down hard. His body hit the ledge, his head snapping back, dazed for a heartbeat too long.
That heartbeat was mine.
I pounced, sinking my jaws into his throat, deeper, harder, until the fight bled out of him. His claws scraped weakly at my side, then fell still. His eyes glazed, the glow dimming, and his body went limp beneath me.
I released him, my chest heaving, blood dripping from my muzzle. My whole body trembled, fur bristling, pain burning hot where his claws had torn through my flesh.
But I was still alive, and he wasn’t.
The mountains loomed above and the valleys below, vast and merciless, and for the first time, I realized just how fragile I was out here.
I shifted back to my human form, collapsing against the cliff wall, naked, injured, and shaking, the knife lying useless a few feet away, the tatters of my clothes scattered across the ledge. My breath came ragged, my pulse hammering so loud it drowned out everything else.
I couldn’t rest here. It was too dangerous.
So I forced myself up, blood still dripping from my wounds, and picked up the knife and my discarded pack with trembling fingers. I needed to find clothes. Shelter. Food. Supplies.
I closed my eyes.