Clinic of the Cursed

Chapter 9

The walls shook as the howl echoed again—low, guttural, and not fully of this world.

“Move!” Dr. Khan barked. “Back through the west wing—now!”

They bolted down the corridor, Gwen dragging Angie, still barely conscious. Lights above them shattered one by one as something huge charged through the facility behind them.

“She’s not alone,” Lexy panted, glancing back. “That’s more than one set of steps.”

“She brought her pack,” Dr. Dedeke growled. “She’s calling them home.”

They skidded into a stairwell just as something slammed against the door—bending it inward with a crack of metal. Abby turned, standing guard.

Gwen yelled, “What are you doing?!”

Abby’s eyes burned silver. “Buying time.”

She slapped a ward sigil onto the door as it burst open—and just before the beast lunged through, the rune lit up in a flare of light and threw it back like a ragdoll.

“GO!” Abby shouted.

Outside, the night had turned. Clouds boiled over the moon. Shadows slithered across the ground like living things.

They made it to the fence—Angie, finally awake, staggering between Lexy and Mariel—when Harper herself stepped from the tree line.

Her face was beautiful, unaged.

Her eyes were pure rage.

“I gave you a gift,” she said coldly. “I could’ve made you more. And you choose them?”

Angie, even weak, stood tall. “I chose me.”

Harper smiled.

And then she shifted.

Bones cracked. Her jaw unhinged. Fangs curled from her gums, fur sprouting across her skin in a blaze of black fire.

A full hybrid alpha.

Dr. Khan threw his hand up—chanting a protection spell so fast it blurred his voice.

“NOW!” Abby roared.

The team hurled everything they had—blessed salt, silver-laced charms, enchanted syringes.

It slowed her.

But didn’t stop her.

Then Angie stepped forward.

Still wobbly. Still weak.

But eyes clear.

She held up the necklace that was split down the middle that Harper had given her before the change. It glowed faint red.

“I broke your spell.”

She crushed it in her fist.

Harper howled like it ripped her soul.

And with that scream—she vanished in a burst of black flame, dragging her pack with her.

The building fell silent.

The team stood gasping, bloody, but whole.

“We won,” Lexy said, voice hoarse.

Dr. Dedeke looked toward the trees. “No… we survived.”