Chapter 10
1217 Words
The howls tore through the forest like a pack of ghosts.
They weren’t regular howls either—these were sharp, echoing, and rhythmic. A pattern. A message.
“They’re signaling each other,” Riven muttered beside me. “Council-trained trackers. They don’t just hunt—they flush.”
My blood ran cold. “What do we do?”
“We keep moving.”
Branches whipped at my arms and face as we ran deeper into the forest. The trees grew thicker, shadows overlapping until it felt like we were sprinting into a wall of night. I pushed down the burn in my legs and the tight knot in my chest. This wasn’t a drill. This was real. I was being hunted.
By wolves.
By my own kind.
“They’ll expect us to head north,” Riven said. “So we go west for now, circle back after sunrise.”
“Won’t that take longer?”
“Yes. But it’ll keep you alive.”
I bit down a curse and kept moving.
Leaves crunched underfoot. The howls shifted behind us, closer now—like they’d picked up a scent trail.
“Why are they after me this hard?” I gasped. “I’m just a girl who lied her way into a school.”
“You’re a symbol now,” Riven said. “And symbols are dangerous.”
We broke into a small clearing. Riven raised his hand, signaling for silence. I crouched low beside a mossy log, catching my breath. He scanned the trees, eyes narrowed.
“Do you hear that?” he asked.
“No.”
“Exactly. Too quiet.”
Then—
Snap.
A twig, behind us.
Riven grabbed my wrist and yanked me behind a tree just as a dart sliced through the air where I’d been crouched. It thudded into the log, hissing with silver mist.
“Tranquilizer,” Riven said. “Laced with wolfsbane.”
I swallowed hard.
A dark shape darted between the trees. Then another. They moved fast—too fast to track.
We ran.
Again.
Faster now, dodging roots and thorns, sliding down a slope slick with fallen leaves. My heart pounded so hard it drowned out everything else. Riven kept close, always between me and whatever moved in the dark.
Eventually, we reached the edge of a stream. The moonlight shimmered across the surface.
Riven pointed. “We cross.”
I hesitated. “Won’t they still smell us?”
“The water will buy us time.”
We waded in. It was freezing. I bit down a scream as the cold rushed up my legs, soaking through my boots and clothes. The current was strong, tugging at my legs, but I kept moving.
Halfway across, I heard a snarl.
From the trees behind us, three wolves emerged.
Not just any wolves.
Council wolves—sleek, silver-marked, eyes glowing with that eerie golden light. Their fur bristled, and one let out a low growl.
“Go!” Riven barked.
I lunged forward just as one of them leapt into the water.
Teeth snapped behind me.
A hand yanked me forward. Riven.
We scrambled up the far bank, soaked and shivering.
He shoved me behind a fallen tree. “Stay down.”
I watched in horror as Riven turned to face the wolf midstream. He didn’t shift. Didn’t back down. Just stood there, waiting.
The wolf hesitated.
Then the other two arrived, circling.
One shifted—a tall woman with ash-blonde hair and a scar down her face. “Give her up, Riven.”
“Not happening.”
“You’re risking your rank. Your life.”
“She’s not a threat.”
“She’s a challenge,” the woman growled. “To all of us.”
“I thought we were supposed to train leaders, not kill them.”
“She’s not a leader. She’s a mistake.”
That word burned through me.
Riven stepped forward. “Then you’ll have to get through me.”
The woman’s eyes flicked to the others. “Take him down.”
They lunged.
Riven met them head-on.
The fight was brutal. Claws and fists and snarls. I watched, helpless, as Riven fought three trained Council wolves alone. He held his own—fast, brutal, precise—but they were wearing him down.
I couldn’t just sit there.
I grabbed a sharp branch from the ground and crawled forward. One of the wolves lunged at Riven from the side. I threw the branch with all the strength I had.
It hit.
Not hard—but enough to distract him.
Riven ducked and slammed the wolf into a tree.
One down.
But the others weren’t stopping.
The scar-faced woman snarled and knocked Riven to the ground, claws at his throat.
I moved without thinking.
Launched myself at her.
She caught me mid-air and flung me aside like I weighed nothing.
I hit the ground hard, pain shooting through my side.
“Stay down,” she hissed.
But she hesitated—just long enough for Riven to flip her off and slam his elbow into her chest.
Another wolf growled, stepping between us.
Then—
A second howl.
Closer.
Then another—behind us.
But these weren’t Council howls.
They were different.
Low. Raw. Familiar.
From the north trees, three more wolves appeared.
I recognized one instantly.
Kael.
He shifted mid-leap, landed beside Riven, teeth bared.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I croaked.
“Saving you,” he growled. “Again.”
The other two wolves were unfamiliar—but they fought with Kael like they’d trained together for years.
Chaos erupted.
Wolves slammed into wolves.
Growls echoed through the forest.
I crawled behind a tree, heart hammering.
Kael’s pack fought like demons, pushing the Council wolves back. The scar-faced woman snarled something and retreated, limping, the others close behind.
Silence fell again.
Riven was bleeding. Kael was panting. The others—still wolves—watched the trees for more.
I stood shakily. “You followed me.”
Kael turned to me, shifting slowly back to human. “You thought I’d let you run off alone?”
“Honestly? Yeah.”
He gave me a half-smile. “I was worried you’d trip over a squirrel and die.”
“Wow. Romantic.”
He stepped forward, gently brushed mud from my cheek. “You’re okay?”
“I’m not dead. So… good enough.”
One of the other wolves shifted—a girl, maybe eighteen, wiry and fierce-looking. She nodded at me. “You’re the one, huh?”
“The one?”
“The girl who shook the system.”
I blinked. “Uh, I guess?”
Riven leaned against a tree. “Meet the resistance.”
I looked around.
This was it.
No more hiding.
No more running.
Just a war waiting to start.
Kael stepped closer. “You still want to fight?”
I met his gaze, my voice steady. “More than ever.”
But before anyone could speak again—
A deafening boom echoed through the trees.
We all froze.
A column of black smoke rose in the distance.
Riven went pale. “That’s the Academy.”
“They’re under attack?” I asked.
Kael’s eyes narrowed. “No.”
He looked at me.
“They’re burning it down.”
- Writer
