Epilogue
Elias
The command room smelled of sweat and nerves, thick with the stink of men who’d been waiting too long for a miracle that never came.
Screens flickered red, heat signatures crawling across the monitors like ants boiling out of a nest. Voices barked down comms.
“North ridge collapsing—” “South beach overrun—” “We can’t hold—”
And through it all, Dane’s voice, smooth and steady, a serpent coiled in the middle of ruin. “Hold your lines. Detonate on my mark. Remember your training. Remember who you are.”
As if training meant a damn thing against this.
I stood behind him, watching the island tear itself apart in pixels and sound. Watching men scream as their signals cut out. Watching yellow eyes bloom in squads that had been human only minutes ago.
The plan wasn’t working.
Hell, there had never been a plan. Just Dane’s obsession with control. He thought cliffs and charges and rifles could break the tide of lycans. He thought sacrificing one woman and a handful of wolves would buy humanity another century, but the tide didn’t break. It turned.
And the Watch—the men and women I’d trained and bled beside—were going to be devoured.
I’d known this was coming. I’d seen it in every order Dane had barked since Sera had arrived. The way he’d looked at her, not as a soldier, not even as a human, but as a problem to be solved. The malicious way he’d smiled when he thought no one was watching.
“You see?” Dane’s hand curled in a tight fist behind his back, knuckles white. “They’ll drown each other. Wolves, lycans, the British. You’ll see, we’ll be the only ones left standing. The Watch will endure.”
I stepped closer. My fingers brushed the inside pocket of my coat. The weight of the tranquilizer pistol was reassuring, cold and ready. I’d picked it up on a whim after Dane had insisted on being in the room with Sera all alone.
I didn’t trust him.
My throat burned. I remembered Sera’s face when she’d first come into my squad, all young bravery and anger, her eyes hollow from grief. I’d been the one to shape her into a weapon. I’d promised her once—quietly, in the barracks where no one else could hear—that I’d always have her back.
I didn’t break my promises.
Dane hadn’t heard the screaming on the comms the way I had. He didn’t hear the despair. He only heard opportunity.
Enough was enough.
I drew the pistol out of my pocket. The thwip of the dart cutting the air was barely louder than the static. Dane blinked once, turning toward me, disbelief flashing across his face. “Elias—what the—”
The tranq dart bit deep into his neck. Almost immediately, his words slurred. He staggered, catching the desk for balance.
I stepped in close, caught him as he sagged. “Your plan failed, Dane.” My voice was flat, stripped of everything but the truth. “I’m taking command.”
His eyes rolled back. His body went slack. I let him drop.
For a heartbeat, the room was silent except for the crackle of radios and the muffled thunder of battle outside. The other Watch officers stared, pale and wide-eyed.
I holstered the pistol and barked out an order, authority snapping into place like a blade into a sheath. “I’m in command. Get every able body to the front line. We fight or we’re finished.”
No one argued. Men just moved.
I turned for the door, grabbed my rifle, and went into battle with my soldiers.
The cliffs were worse up close. Smoke rolled across the ledges, acrid and choking. The air was thick with gunpowder and blood. Lycans sprawled in heaps, some still twitching, their yellow eyes fading.
I should have been afraid. The wolf inside me, the secret I’d carried all my life, howled at the sight, at the smell of it, but fear didn’t matter now.
Victory did.
I moved through the chaos, my rifle barking with every shot, the recoil snapping back into my shoulder. Men from the Watch looked at me once and then kept moving.
I saw them then.
Sera, alive but battered, her blade red to the hilt.
Logan, blood slick on his chest, his eyes bright.
Aidan limping, fur matted, still tearing through anything that came close.
Declan grinning like a lunatic through his own blood.
Edward, ever the soldier, every strike methodical and true.
Jamie was bloody and battered, but still moving faster than sense allowed.
They were still alive.
Zara’s pack crashed in from the ridge like a second storm—Magnus an avalanche, Thorne a storm, Killian fire and fury, Callum speed and agility with teeth, and the massive Tobias, inescapable doom to his enemies.
And then the Accord. Bishop barking orders that cut through the din, Griff pulling the limbs off a lycan with his bare hands, Nox sliding through shadows, Eamon dragging men back from death with his blood-soaked hands.
Then there was Tamsin at their head—until she wasn’t.
I saw it happen from my vantage point, too far away to stop it. She cut down one lycan, then another, but a third came low, clever, jaws locking deep into her ribs. Her knife found its eye, and it fell, but it left half her side torn open.
She staggered, fell to one knee, blood spilling fast and hot. Eamon was there in a blink, pressing down hard. Nox howled, rage tearing from his chest. Griff, his grin gone, and Bishop flanked them, furiously protective.
I swore under my breath and grabbed my rifle. Enough watching. Enough letting Dane’s madness play out.
“On me,” I snarled to the soldiers huddled at my side. Their eyes widened. They’d heard me speak like this before, back when I drilled them into something that could pass for a unit. They moved behind me without question.
We plunged down into the meat grinder, gunfire ripping into lycans, knives flashing when the guns clicked dry. The Watch was no longer holding a line. Now we were fragments, scattered men and women pulled into the lycans’ orbit, all of us just trying to survive another minute.
That was when I reached them.
Sera was on her knees, her blade still dripping, blue eyes wide and wild. Logan stood at her shoulder, human again, his bare chest slick with blood. The others hovered close, swaying with fatigue, smeared with gore. Zara’s pack was regrouping, breathing hard.
And then there was Tamsin.
She lay propped against the rock, skin pale, lips tinged blue.
Eamon pressed his whole weight into her side, blood pouring between his fingers.
Griff knelt so close to her, his enormous shoulders shaking with rage.
Bishop’s knife hung loose in his grip, his eyes wet though his face stayed set.
Nox stood with his head bowed, hissing breath between his clenched teeth.
Eamon’s voice was quiet, but even I could hear the futility in it.
“She’s slipping. The infection’s in the blood. It’s already spreading.”
“She’ll turn into a lycan,” Sera whispered. Her voice broke.
The packs stilled. Even in the wreckage, everyone understood what that meant.
Tamsin’s eyes found mine. Somehow, she smiled. “Don’t let me.”
“No.” Griff shook his head so hard that blood sprayed from his hair. “No! We’ll find a way.”
For a heartbeat, no one moved. I could almost hear their hearts beating.
Then I stepped forward.
“I’ll do it. I can save her.”
My words cut through the horror of the moment. Every head turned toward me. I vaguely noted narrowed eyes, confused faces, and the sound of low growls from deep in the chests of brave wolves. Tamsin just looked at me, calm and unafraid.
I crouched beside her, laid my hand gently on her shoulder.
“It’s time they knew the truth anyway. I’m one of them, a natural born wolf,” I said, my voice quiet, carrying through the silence.
Sera’s eyes filled with tears. “Elias…”
“I hid because I had to,” I said, my chest heavy with the weight of my lie. “The Watch would’ve killed me. But I’m done hiding.”
The packs bristled, torn between fury and disbelief. When Tamsin’s eyes found mine, I felt the bond root and bloom in my chest. The realization nearly dropped me to my knees.
My mate.
Tamsin’s bloody hand found mine. Her whisper was faint but firm.
“Do it.”
The End