Chapter 19
Mariah
The water lapped softly around us. Steam rose in thin ribbons, catching the sunlight that filtered through the trees above. I let myself drift, my head resting against Varek’s shoulder, our bodies weightless in the warmth of the spring.
We didn’t speak for a long while. There was no need. The silence wasn’t heavy; it was a rare kind of peace that came after too many days of blood and fear. His fingers traced small circles over the back of my hand beneath the surface, a rhythm that steadied my breathing until my pulse matched his.
“This feels almost normal,” I said quietly.
Varek’s voice was soft, roughened from exhaustion. “Normal might be too much to hope for. But this…” He glanced around at the water, the trees, then back to me. “This is close enough.”
We stayed that way a little longer, letting the heat soak through sore muscles and wash away the dirt and blood. It wasn’t the kind of luxury either of us had ever expected to find again, but in that moment, it felt earned.
Eventually, the air around us began to cool. Varek sighed and brushed a strand of wet hair from my face.
“We should get moving,” he said.
I nodded, reluctant but knowing he was right.
We climbed out of the spring together. The chilly air hit my skin, raising goosebumps along my arms. I dressed quickly, pulling on the flannel and jeans that had somehow survived the worst of the wilderness. Varek handed me my boots, then slung his pack over one shoulder.
When I looked at him in the morning light, water still glistening on his skin, I thought of how close I’d come to losing him. The scar that curved along his ribs caught the light, and for a heartbeat, I reached out, tracing it with my fingertips.
He caught my hand, pressing his palm over mine. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
“Good,” I whispered. “Because I’m not losing you again.”
He smiled then, the kind of smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, but was enough to warm the air between us.
We packed what little we had, shouldered our gear, and started north.
The trail wound through dense pines and steep inclines, each turn revealing higher peaks that pierced the clouds.
The air grew thinner, the light harsher.
But there was beauty in it too—the way the wind whispered through the trees, the glint of snow far above us.
The land felt alive, ancient and watching.
Sometimes Varek would point out old markers—a carved stone, a rusted sign half-swallowed by vines—that hinted at a civilization long gone. Other times, we simply walked in silence, saving our breath for the climb.
By afternoon, the forest began to thin. The path opened into a wide clearing framed by tall cliffs, and the smell of smoke drifted faintly on the air.
Varek stopped, lifting his head to test the wind. “Do you smell that?”
I nodded, my heart skipping. “Campfire.”
He gave a single, curt nod and motioned for me to stay close. We followed the scent through a narrow pass that cut between two ridges. The stone walls funneled the sound of distant voices, low and cautious. My pulse picked up.
When we rounded the final bend, the sight stopped me cold.
An encampment was waiting for me there, nestled against the cliff side, hidden from above by trees and stone. Makeshift tents and supply crates formed a rough circle around a central fire pit. And around that fire stood faces I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Kendra.
Lia.
My breath caught in my throat. They turned at the sound of our approach, disbelief giving way to wide smiles and watery eyes.
“Mariah!”
Kendra was the first to reach me, nearly knocking the wind out of me with the force of her hug. Lia wasn’t far behind, laughing and crying at once, clutching at my arms like she needed to make sure I was real.
“You’re alive,” Kendra said, her voice breaking.
“Barely,” I managed, laughing through my tears. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you both.”
“I thought you were gone,” Lia whispered against my shoulder. “After they took you…”
“I thought you were gone,” I said, pulling back to look at her. “Both of you. Every night I prayed you’d made it out.”
Kendra wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand, then grinned through her tears. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Varek had hung back, letting us have our reunion. He stood near the fire, arms crossed loosely, his expression soft in a way that made my chest ache.
“This is Varek,” I said. “He’s… he’s the reason I’m standing here.”
Kendra’s eyebrows arched, a grin tugging at her lips. “Oh, we know him. So, he’s the reason, huh?” She winked at me, and I blushed.
“Behave,” Lia said, swatting her arm, but she was smiling too.
Before I could answer, movement at the fire drew our attention.
Two tall men approached, their presence shifting the air in the clearing, and we moved closer to meet them near the warmth of the blaze.
They carried themselves like leaders—powerful, their eyes intelligent and knowing, even in the half-light.
One had hair dark as obsidian. The other was broader, his jaw set, but his eyes warmer, flicking between Varek and me with a cautious curiosity.
“Commander,” the dark-haired one said, nodding toward Varek. “Didn’t expect to see you so soon.”
“Found what I was looking for much sooner than I expected,” Varek replied evenly. “Rowan.” He inclined his head to the other. “Silas.”
“Mariah,” Rowan said, extending a hand to me. His voice carried a trace of old military discipline. “I’m Rowan. Kendra’s told me a lot about you.”
“I’ve heard a few things about you too,” I said, shaking his hand. His grip was firm, but not overbearing. He smelled faintly of cold iron and cedar.
He smirked slightly. “All good things, I hope.”
“Mostly, if Varek was telling the truth,” Kendra teased, nudging him. “Depends on the day.”
A deep chuckle rumbled from Silas as he moved closer to Lia. “He’s just being modest.”
I turned my gaze on him. “And you?”
He tilted his head, his golden eyes catching the firelight. “Name’s Silas. Alpha of the Mountain Wolves.” He gestured toward the surrounding camp. “And currently, the one trying to keep this madhouse from collapsing before we take the fight to the city.”
He looked every inch the general, scarred, weary, but unbroken. Before I could respond, a new voice broke through the murmurs around the fire.
“Still talking about saving the world, gentlemen?”
A woman stepped into the firelight. The flickering glow caught on the streaks of silver braided through her dark hair and the polished plating of the scavenged military armor she wore.
Every movement she made radiated authority.
I could tell that she wasn’t a wolf, but the air around her bent with the sort of gravity that made everyone listen when she spoke.
“Commander Soren,” Silas said, inclining his head in greeting. “Didn’t realize you were still up.”
“I don’t sleep when there’s planning to be done,” she replied curtly, lowering herself to one knee beside the fire. “And from what I hear, there’s plenty to discuss.”
Kendra grinned at me. “Soren runs the joint,” she whispered. “Don’t let her size fool you. She could put half the wolves here through a wall.”
“I heard that,” Soren said dryly, arching a brow without even looking at her.
Rowan resumed his seat by the fire and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Before we plan anything, we need to know where we stand. Come. Sit down by the fire and talk.”
I sat down and Kendra and Lia sat on either side of me, close enough that our knees touched.
It still didn’t feel real, having them here, alive, laughing softly as if no time had passed at all.
Adjacent to us, Rowan and Silas sat, still looking like sentinels, their expressions guarded but curious, and Commander Soren joined us and leaned back, clasping her hands over her flat stomach, her eyes constantly assessing.
Varek stood behind me, his posture straight despite the exhaustion in his body. His silver eyes swept over the group.
Soren’s gaze flicked from him to me. “You’ve seen the Council’s operations firsthand,” she said, her voice carrying over the fire. “Tell us everything.”
Varek inclined his head, then gestured to me. “It’s not just the fertility drug anymore. There’s another weapon in the works.”
The word hung in the air like a curse.
Lia frowned. “What kind of weapon?”
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to look up. “A rage serum. I was injected with it.”
Silas stiffened. Rowan’s eyes narrowed. Kendra let out a small gasp.
I nodded, voice trembling just a little.
“I didn’t know it at the time. A woman hiding in the cells injected me with it—a human, not a wolf.
But whatever was in that serum, it stripped everything away.
My mind. My humanity. I became… something else.
Something monstrously strong and mindlessly vicious.
I killed a few wolves before Varek stopped me. ”
The memory rose like bile. I remembered the smell of blood, the sound of tearing flesh, the horror in my own screams.
Varek’s voice came quietly, grounding me. “She wasn’t herself. The serum induces a feral state—a rage that consumes the human body and mind until there’s nothing left to save. It originates from an organization called the Watch.”
“The Watch?” Rowan asked quietly.
Silas frowned. “The human militia?”
“Yes,” I said. “There’s this girl, a member of the Watch named Elsie.
She’s the one that was sneaking around injecting women.
She found us in the tunnels after we escaped.
She told us everything. The Watch has been running its own experiments.
They were trying to make humans strong enough to fight wolves.
But the serum was too volatile. It created monsters—the Nyktos being a fine example. ”
Rowan’s brow furrowed. “Shit. So, what’s their plan?”
“Some members of the Watch want to give it to all the captive human women so that they can destroy the wolves from within. Not only that, but the Council must have gotten hold of part of the formula. They’ve modified it.
They tested it on one of my own men. His name was Gareth.
” His voice cracked, just slightly, before he forced it level again.
“They turned him into a creature the likes of which I’ve never seen before.
Not a wolf. Not a human either. They turned him into a huge, incredibly powerful, murderous…
thing. It was dark when I tried to fight him off, but it looked something like a bear,” Varek said.
Soren leaned forward, her voice low. “So, the Council has the fertility drug, and this new rage serum. And you’re saying the Watch—the humans who were supposed to fight for their own—are talking about using the same poison on every captive woman?”
“Yes,” I said. “Elsie told us herself. She doesn’t believe in it, but some of the radicals in her ranks do.
They think if they dose every human woman in captivity, it’ll wipe out the wolves once and for all.
They don’t care that it’ll kill the women too.
They’d rather burn the world than see humans wrapped up in chains under the control of wolves. ”
Kendra swore softly under her breath. “Fuck…”
Silas rubbed a hand across his jaw, the muscles ticking beneath the skin. “So, we’re staring down two sides of the same coin. The Council wants to breed human women to death, and the Watch wants to use them as weapons.”
“Exactly,” Varek said. “If either side wins, every human woman dies, and the wolves follow right after. There won’t be anyone left to rebuild anything, just a wasteland full of men clawing at each other.”
Soren looked around the circle. The firelight picked out the hard line of her jaw and caught the streaks of silver in her hair. “Then we can’t let either of the extreme sides win.”
“We have to work together to do that,” I said.
Rowan gave a slow nod. “If I understand the implications here, you’re proposing we pull the reasonable, un-crazy members of the Watch, the human Resistance, and the wolf Resistance together. One deadly coordinated strike against the insanity on both sides to save us all.”
“That’s the only way this ends,” I said. “Elsie’s gone to contact what’s left of the Watch that still listens to reason. If we can bring them here, we can make them see the truth. They’ll never get another chance to hit the Council from the inside and out.”
Silas’s golden eyes flicked to Soren. “You think that’ll give us the numbers to move on the city?”
Soren nodded. “Enough to cause trouble. Not enough to hold it. If we march down to the city from the north and the Watch comes through the tunnels, we can box the Council in. Cut off their supply lines, take the compounds, and free the breeding camps before they can dose anyone else.”
Lia leaned forward, her voice tight with anger. “We destroy the fertility drug, stop the serum, and get every woman out of those cages. Every single one.”
Rowan met Varek’s eyes across the fire. “If this works, we’ll save everyone. If it fails…”
Varek finished for him. “There won’t be anyone left.” He looked around the circle, at humans and wolves sitting shoulder to shoulder. “But this is what we’ve got. Three forces. One goal.”
Soren rose to her feet, the authority in her posture unmistakable.
“Then it’s settled. At first light, we start laying the groundwork.
I’ll send my scouts to find Elsie’s Watch contacts and bring them here.
Then I’ll get my fighters ready to move through the western passes.
Silas, gather your packs. When the Watch arrives, we’ll bring everyone up to speed and strike together. ”
She looked down at me, her eyes fierce but kind. “You said you were the first to take that serum and survive. You’ll be our proof that humans and wolves can fight side by side without losing themselves. The Council’s bred monsters out of all of us long enough.”
The fire flared as a gust of wind rolled through the camp, scattering sparks into the night. For the first time since the tunnels, I felt something larger than fear fill my chest: hope, thin but burning bright.
Varek reached down and set his hand on my shoulder. “We finish this,” he said. “Together.”
“Together,” I echoed, and around the circle heads began to nod—wolves and humans, soldiers and survivors, all bound together by the same fate.
Soren looked into the fire, her voice calm. “We’ve got one chance. Let’s make it count.”