Lilys Scream
SCARLETT
“Everyone on board! Let’s move!” Professor Ryan stood at the door of the large bus, waving students forward impatiently. Two big buses waited in the clearing, engines already rumbling. Most of the students were filing into them, tired but buzzing from the three days of chaos.
Ryan started shouting at a group of boys still joking around near the trees. “You three! Stop wasting time and get on the damn bus before I leave you here for the wildlife!”
Lily was already halfway up the steps of our bus, her ponytail bouncing as she turned to grin at me. “Come on, Scar. I call window seat.”
I nodded, adjusting the strap of my bag on my shoulder, and started climbing after her.
But halfway up the first step, I froze.
A strange, crawling sensation slithered down my spine. Not the warm, possessive weight of the Triumvirate’s stares I’d grown weirdly used to. This felt… wrong. Cold. Hungry. Like something unnatural was watching me from the tree line.
I stopped dead, one foot on the step, heart suddenly hammering.
“Scar, what’s the..” Lily started, looking back at me with a confused frown.
Before I could answer, a blood-curdling scream tore through the air.
Everyone froze.
From the edge of the woods, a thick, glistening tentacle—easily as wide as a tree trunk—shot out like a whip.
It was pale, veined with sickly purple, covered in pulsing suckers.
Before anyone could react, it wrapped around the entire bus with terrifying speed, metal groaning under the crushing pressure.
“Lily!” I screamed.
Powerful arms locked around my waist and yanked me backward violently. I was lifted off my feet and slammed against a massive chest as the tentacle tightened. The bus, full of screaming students lifted clean off the ground like it weighed nothing.
Lily was still clinging to the open doorway at the top, her face white with terror as she dangled. “Scarlett! Help..!”
The tentacle whipped back and hurled the entire bus like a toy. It smashed into the side of the old ranger building with a deafening crash of twisting metal and shattering glass. The bus crumpled on impact, then slid to the ground in a mangled heap, wheels still spinning uselessly.
“Lily!” I shrieked, struggling wildly against the iron grip holding me. “Let me go! Lily’s in there..!”
“Stay back, princess,” Kane’s voice growled low and deadly in my ear, his arms like steel bands around me. He wasn’t letting go.
More tentacles erupted from the woods—dozens of them—slamming into trees, ripping up tents, and smashing through equipment. Students scattered, screaming. Ryan was yelling orders, trying to get people to the second bus, but chaos had already swallowed everything.
Then came the roar.
A deep, guttural sound that vibrated through my bones and made the ground tremble. The trees at the edge of the forest parted with a violent crack as the creature attached to the tentacles finally revealed itself.
It was gigantic.
A nightmare of slick, mottled gray flesh, easily three stories tall, with a bulbous, pulsating body and too many eyes, glowing yellow and scattered across its head like festering sores.
Massive jaws unhinged, dripping acidic saliva that hissed where it hit the ground.
The tentacles extended from its back and sides like living weapons.
It wasn’t just a monster.
It was something far worse.
I stopped struggling for a second, frozen in pure horror as the creature let out another earth-shaking roar and began lumbering forward, tentacles thrashing wildly, destroying everything in its path.
Saint appeared beside us instantly, ice-blue eyes blazing with fury as he positioned his massive body protectively in front of me. Rhys was already moving with lethal grace, golden eyes narrowed, scanning the creature like he was calculating the fastest way to kill it.
Kane’s grip on me tightened, and my eyes stayed locked on the wrecked bus where Lily had been.
Tears burned down my cheeks.
“Lily…” I whispered brokenly.
The creature roared again, tentacles whipping toward the second bus.
And the real fight for survival began.
“Formation!” Rhys’s voice cut through the chaos like a blade, calm but carrying absolute authority. “All students shift! Do not run, fight! Protect the weak and flank the beast! NOW!”
Saint’s roar followed, deep and thunderous, shaking the ground. “SHIFT AND ATTACK!”
The effect was immediate.
Students who had been frozen in terror began shifting all around us.
Bones cracked, clothes tore, and dozens of wolves burst into existence, some large and powerful, others smaller but fierce.
Even Omegas shifted, their wolves smaller but determined.
The air filled with howls and snarls as the pack mentality took over.
Saint shifted in one explosive motion, his massive silver-black wolf exploding outward, towering and terrifying, red eyes blazing with rage.
Rhys didn’t shift. Instead, he leapt gracefully onto Saint’s back, using his powerful shoulders as a springboard.
With inhuman agility, Rhys launched himself high into the air and landed directly on the creature’s hulking body.
Many wolves followed his lead, leaping onto trees for momentum before launching themselves at the monster, fangs sinking into its flesh. Some stayed in human form, using speed and agility to dodge tentacles and strike at weaker points.
The creature roared in fury, thrashing wildly.
I screamed as I struggled against Kane’s iron grip. “Let me go! Lily’s in there! Kane, please!”
“Scarlett, stop!” Kane growled, arms locked around me like steel.
But then we saw it, movement from the crumpled bus. Some students were crawling out of the wreckage, bleeding and battered.
Kane cursed. “Fuck.”
He finally released me and we both sprinted toward the destroyed bus.
Kane’s claws exploded from his fingers as he reached the mangled metal. With a feral roar, he began tearing into the side of the bus with raw ferocity, ripping away twisted steel like it was paper. I extended my own small claws and pulled desperately at the wreckage, trying to help.
Students started stumbling out, some crying, some limping badly. Kane dragged them free one by one, his face twisted with focus.
But no Lily.
“Where is she?!” I cried, voice breaking.
“Breath, love,” Kane growled, ripping away another huge piece of metal. “Just breathe.”
With one final, violent yank, Kane tore a massive section of the bus open. The groan of metal filled the air, mixing with the roars and fighting in the background.
And there she was.
Lily was slumped inside, groaning weakly. A long, sharp metal rod had pierced straight through her shoulder, blood pouring heavily down her side.
“Lily!” I screamed.
Kane didn’t hesitate. He reached in, carefully but quickly lifting her out of the wreckage. Blood soaked his arms as he cradled her against his chest.
“She’s alive,” he said roughly. “But we need to get this out of her.”
Lily’s eyes fluttered open, dazed and pained. “Scar…?”
“I’m here,” I whispered, tears streaming down my face as I ran beside Kane. “I’m right here.”
Behind us, the battle raged. Rhys was still leaping across the creature’s body like a deadly shadow, slashing at its body. Saint’s massive wolf tore into its side with savage fury. Wolves swarmed the monster from all directions.
But right now, none of that mattered.
All I cared about was Lily’s blood soaking Kane’s shirt and the weak way she held onto my hand as we ran toward the remaining bus.
The Blackthorn Ridge retreat had just turned into a nightmare.