Chapter 25
Varek
The wind off the ridge smelled like oil and cold metal. Dawn hadn’t broken yet and the sky was a bruised gray, the kind of color that comes before something terrible happens. All around me, the Resistance waited in the shadows of the trees. The mountains themselves seemed to hold their breath.
Silas crouched beside me, eyes narrowed on the faint lights of the northwestern gate below. “Two squads,” he murmured. “Just like you said. They’re getting lazy.”
“They think they’re invincible,” I replied, adjusting the comm on my ear. “That’s their first mistake.”
Rowan adjusted the strap of his rifle. “Let’s hope it gives us the window we need.”
Commander Soren was already barking orders to the human squads, her voice clipped, precise. “Alpha team—flank left, take the western platform. Bravo—cover the breach point. Lia, Kendra—stay back until we confirm the grid’s down. No heroics.”
Kendra grinned at that. “You mean no fun.”
Lia elbowed her. “She means don’t get shot.”
“Exactly,” Soren said, glancing at me. “You ready, Varek?”
I rolled my shoulders, feeling the old ache of the scars there. “Always.”
Below us, the gate loomed, massive, fortified, and half-lit by flickering floodlights. I could see the guards at their posts, pacing with lazy confidence. They didn’t know yet that the world had already turned against them.
Everything was quiet, almost too quiet.
For a moment.
Then the explosion hit.
The ground shuddered under my boots. A bloom of fire lit the horizon, rising from deep inside the city. The sound followed a heartbeat later—a deep, terrible roar that seemed to pull the air from our lungs.
The Watch had made their first move.
Every head turned toward the plume of smoke curling up from the Council district. Even from here, I could smell the burning building and the tang of chemicals in the wind.
Soren’s voice cut through the silence.
“That’s our signal. Move!”
The humans and the wolves surged forward like a tsunami, silent until the first shots rang out.
The guards at the gate never had a chance.
Silas hit them first, his people shifting mid-stride, claws flashing in the floodlights.
The outer defenses collapsed under the weight of pure fury.
Humans followed close behind, rifles cracking, cutting down anything that moved. The air filled with smoke and shouting.
“Cover fire!” Rowan shouted, his wolves leaping to intercept the reinforcements scrambling down from the wall.
I saw him shift midair, his black fur catching the dawn light before he landed in the middle of the enemy line.
The rest of his pack hit right behind him, tearing through the ranks like lightning through dry wood.
Soren’s squads reached the gate controls, planting several explosives, and then fell back.
“Ready!” she called, once she and her people were a safe distance away.
“Detonate!” I yelled.
The blast tore the gate from its hinges.
Steel screamed as it folded, collapsing inward in a shower of fire and debris.
The city’s outer wall was open. The air singed red-hot.
Above it all, the distant fire from the first explosion blazed higher and wider, a mushrooming column of black smoke rising against the pale morning sky as the fire spread rapidly.
Humans and wolves stormed side by side through it. Kendra and Lia followed close behind, the rest of the Resistance spilling in with them. Gunfire echoed off the metal and concrete.
Soren caught up to me as we pushed forward. “That first explosion came from the upper facility, close to where the labs are,” she shouted over the noise.
“I know,” I said, my throat tight.
“Varek—”
“I know!”
There was no time for more. The Council’s inner guard had rallied just inside the gate, heavy weapons cutting through the road ahead in a storm of bullets and smoke.
Silas dove through it, ripping a gunner from his post, and tossing him aside like he weighed nothing.
The rest of us followed, pressing into the defending fire until the line broke.
The city gates fell behind us, and the streets opened ahead, full of bodies and smoke and the ringing clang of freedom finally taking shape. For all its chaos, for all its blood, our assault was going exactly as planned.
Still, as I cut down another soldier and pressed forward, my gaze kept flicking to the northern skyline, where that column of smoke still poured into the sky.
Somewhere in that fire, Mariah was still fighting.
And if the gods had any mercy left in them, she was still alive.
The city was mayhem.
The gates had fallen, but the battle had only just begun. Smoke and ash hung in the air, turning dawn into a dim red haze. The scent of blood and gunpowder hit like a physical thing, burning the back of my throat and coating my tongue in iron.
We poured into the streets in a surge of bodies and fury. Wolves shifted mid-charge, tearing through the ranks of Council soldiers, claws rending metal and flesh alike. Humans covered them from behind, rifles blazing in short, brutal bursts.
Rowan tore through the front line ahead of me, his wolf form a blur of black, bloody rage.
Silas’s pack followed close behind, their growls reverberating off the steel and concrete, forming a rhythm to kill by.
I moved beside Commander Soren and her soldiers, our boots crunching over broken glass and shell casings.
“We need to push toward the power station!” Soren shouted, cutting down a soldier before he could reach her.
“Keep the formation tight!” I called back. “If they take the streets between us, we’re finished!”
Kendra and Lia were behind us, helping to pick off stragglers and clear debris to create a path for the medics trailing behind. Their faces were streaked with grime, but they didn’t slow. Every bullet that whined past simply seemed to drive them faster.
The city itself fought back, deploying drones dropping explosives that rocked the ground beneath our feet.
“Down!” Silas barked.
We dove behind a burned-out truck just as a grenade hit another car beside us. The blast lifted it off the ground and sent debris raining down. I felt the heat against my skin even as I rose again. There was no time to breathe. The next wave was already coming.
The city wolves came for us, fully armored, their eyes cold and empty. Behind them, human soldiers moved in step, their faces pale and emotionless. Rage burned through me to see humans fighting for the ones who had enslaved them and were raping their women.
Rowan was the first to meet them, hurling himself into the line like a bomb on four legs. He slammed one of the armored wolves into a wall so hard the concrete cracked, then tore into another before the first body hit the ground.
Silas was like an avalanche—unstoppable, lethal, methodical. Every time a blade found him, he gave it back twice over.
And still, the soldiers kept coming.
The narrow streets were slick with blood. I slammed into another soldier, feeling ribs crack beneath my grip. He fell, and another took his place.
Soren moved beside me, rifle blazing, eyes fierce. “We can’t hold them!” she yelled, slamming a fresh clip into her weapon. “They’ve got reinforcements moving in from the south!”
“Then we move faster!” I shouted.
Above us, one of the old towers groaned under the weight of the bombardment. The upper floors crumbled, spilling steel and glass into the street below. The blast wave knocked me to my knees. My ears rang, but I forced myself up, blinking dust from my eyes until I could see more clearly.
Kendra was dragging one of the wounded Resistance fighters back behind cover, and Lia was firing over her shoulder to keep the path clear. Soren’s people moved in tight formations, covering them, but it was utter chaos.
“Move!” I roared. “Get them out of the open!”
Silas and Rowan lunged past me, the two of them slamming into a soldier who’d broken through the line.
The fight was turning into a slaughter, the streets choked with corpses and ruin. If we weren’t careful, we were going to die here.
By the time we pushed three blocks past the fallen gate, the streets had turned into a death trap.
The city center rose ahead like a fortress, half-hidden by smoke and flame.
The air burned my lungs. Every surface stank of oil and scorched flesh and metal.
Sparks leapt from power lines overhead, cutting through the haze in staccato bursts.
“Keep the line moving!” Soren shouted, her clear voice cutting through the madness.
Her soldiers darted between collapsed storefronts and the bodies of the Council’s guard, firing in short, controlled bursts.
Above us, drones buzzed low, their rotors whining as they spat a few bullets into the streets.
Silas and his wolves tore one down in midair, but the next one dropped a firebomb that set the corner of the block ablaze.
The flames clawed up the sides of the buildings, sending thick black smoke rolling over us.
Then the turrets came alive.
They burst from concealed hatches in the pavement—black steel with red optics pulsing. Gunfire shredded the air. Wolves and humans dove for cover as chunks of concrete rained down.
I ducked behind an overturned truck, bullets sparking off steel. Kendra and Lia were crouched there, helping a wounded Resistance fighter. The woman’s leg was mangled, blood pooling fast.
“Med team!” Kendra screamed.
“Medics are gone!” Lia snapped. Her hands were shaking a bit as she wrapped a torn strip of cloth around the woman’s wound. “They didn’t make it through.”
The fighter’s eyes were glassy, her breath shallow. “Just—just leave me,” she whispered.
Kendra’s face twisted, a sound somewhere between a sob and a snarl ripping from her throat. “Not a chance.”
Another explosion hit nearby, the shockwave knocking us all sideways. I tasted blood. I rose, wiping grit from my eyes.
“We can’t stay here!” I shouted. “Get ready to follow our commands.”
I vaulted the truck, rifle raised. The world shrank to nothing more than motion and noise—the kick of recoil against my shoulder, the clang of bullets against metal, the howl of wolves too close to death. I fired at the turrets until one exploded, showering the street with sparks.
“Pull them back!” I shouted, turning back toward Soren.
“Negative!” Soren’s voice snarled back, full of fury. “We hold the line or everyone dies!”
In the chaos, I watched as a group of drones approached us in formation. They swooped low, spraying a fine mist into the air. I felt it hit my skin like acid, hot and sharp.
It burned, crawling under my skin, into my bones. My wolf stirred—and then faltered. I dropped to one knee. Around me, wolves screamed as the same thing hit them.
“Fuck!” Rowan shouted. “They’re using dampeners—can’t shift!”
Desperation clawed at me. Half our force was suddenly human, naked, vulnerable, unarmed.
“Hold formation!” Soren yelled, trying to keep the squads from scattering. “Focus on cover fire! Everyone, take your positions!”
Bullets tore through the air, cutting down both sides indiscriminately. I dragged myself behind a wall, chest heaving. My skin felt like it was on fire from the inside out, the wolf inside me thrashing against the chemical restraint.
I clenched my teeth, forcing my breath to stay steady. Somewhere above us, another explosion rocked the city, a jet of fire shooting upward from the northern sector somewhere near the lab district.
Mariah.
I grabbed Soren’s shoulder. “You hold the line here,” I said. “No matter what. I’ll take the north.”
“Varek—”
I pushed off the wall and sprinted through the smoke, past the wreckage and the dying, toward the fire blooming in the distance.
Every instinct told me she was there.
And if I didn’t reach her soon, I might be too late.