Chapter Seven: Blood on the Concrete
650 Words
We didn’t have time to plan.
The sound of glass shattering echoed through the warehouse as the first hunter crashed through a high window. More followed — dark figures dropping in from every side, silver weapons gleaming under the lantern light.
“Down!” Max shouted.
He shoved me behind a stack of old crates just as a blue dart whistled past my head and slammed into the wall.
Zara moved like smoke. She leaped onto a metal beam above us, her eyes glowing bright gold. “There are at least six of them!”
My heart hammered. The wolf inside me surged forward, flooding my body with heat. My veins started glowing again, orange-red lines spreading across my arms like fire under my skin.
This time, I didn’t fight it.
I ran out from behind the crates.
The first hunter swung a silver baton at my head. I caught it mid-air. The metal burned my palm, but the pain only made me stronger. I twisted hard and heard the man’s wrist snap. He screamed as I threw him into two others.
Max was a storm of power. Every punch landed like thunder. One hunter flew ten feet and crashed into a wall.
Zara dropped from above like a predator. She landed on a hunter’s back, claws out, and took him down in seconds.
But they kept coming.
A woman in black tactical gear aimed a strange rifle at Zara. “Target acquired — the female!”
“No!” I roared.
I charged across the warehouse floor. My sneakers slid on broken glass. The wolf gave me speed I’d never had before. I tackled the woman before she could fire. We crashed to the ground hard.
She tried to stab me with a silver knife. I grabbed her wrist. My glowing eyes met hers.
“You’re scared of us,” I growled, voice deeper than normal. “Good.”
I knocked her out with one strike.
Max yelled my name. “Arian — behind you!”
I spun around. Two hunters had cornered Zara. One pressed a silver collar toward her neck — the same kind that left the scar on her.
Rage exploded inside me.
I sprinted forward. My claws extended fully for the first time. I slashed across the first hunter’s back. He screamed and dropped. The second one turned his gun on me.
The shot hit my shoulder.
Pain like liquid fire exploded through my body. I staggered but didn’t fall. The wolf refused to let me.
Zara used the moment to break free. She and Max finished the last two hunters together.
Silence fell again. Only heavy breathing and the sound of rain leaking through the roof.
I dropped to one knee, hand pressed to my burning shoulder. Blood — my blood — seeped between my fingers.
Zara rushed over and knelt beside me. “Let me see.”
Max stood guard, eyes scanning the darkness. “We can’t stay here. That was just a scouting team. The real force will come next.”
Zara gently pulled my hand away. Her touch was soft. “The silver is burning him from the inside. We need to get it out.”
I looked up at both of them, pain making my vision blurry.
“I’m… tired of running,” I said through gritted teeth.
Max crouched down, his silver-gray eyes serious. “Then we stop running. But first, we need to get you healed. There’s an old contact on the east side of the city. A doctor who knows about our kind.”
Zara helped me stand. My legs felt weak, but the wolf kept me upright.
As we moved toward the back exit, I glanced at the bodies on the floor.
This was no longer just survival.
This was war.
And for the first time, I was ready to fight it.
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To be continued…
- Writer
