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But he wasn’t fast enough to dodge the next one.

The humanoid Nyktos pounced, its claws raking across Silas’s side, cutting deep, his dark fur splitting open as blood poured from the wound. A snarl tore from my throat, raw and frantic, and I lunged before it could strike him again, my fangs sinking into the back of its skull, biting down until I felt bone give way.

Silas staggered, his eyes blazing with pain, but he didn’t fall.

The ground trembled.

A sound erupted from the cave, low andwrong, like the deep, guttural vibration of something enormous waking up. The air shifted, heavy with rot, and then… more of them came.

Not a handful. Not a dozen. Hundreds. A whole fucking swarm.

They poured from the cave in a wave, their distorted, writhing bodies surging forward like a flood of nightmares. They crawled and skittered into the shadowed daylight. The humanoids ran on disjointed legs. Others moved on all fours, their backs splitting open with wet, quivering wings that buzzed as they took to the air. Some scuttled about freakishly, their exoskeletons clicking as they climbed over the rocks, moving in sync with the rest like an alien army.

Silas roared, his massive wolf lunging for the first line, but for every one he tore apart, five more took its place. Rowan was a shadow, his black wolf a storm of fury, his fangs tearing through the thin, membranous wings of one of the flying ones, sending it crashing into the dirt.

Varek, still wounded, was fighting like a cornered animal, bloody and reckless, his snarls feral. Ryan was holding his ground, but he was surrounded as he tried to fend off the creatures crawling toward him from all sides.

There was just no way to adequately defend against this onslaught. The Nyktos didn’t fight—they swarmed. They moved with terrifying coordination, tearing through us with long, clawed fingers, their bulbous black eyes unblinking as they struck, feeding off the chaos, overwhelming us.

One leapt at me.

I barely managed to get away, my claws raking across its chest. Black ichor splattered against my fur, the stench so vile it made my stomach heave. Another latched onto my back, its thin, spider-like legs clamping around my shoulders. I bucked, snarling, twisting wildly as I ripped it off and snapped its neck between my jaws.

Still, more came.

I heard a loud cry and Ryan went down, a mass of them dragging his wolf toward the cave. He thrashed, howling, but there were too many, their limbs wrapping around him like snakes, their bodies piling over and under and around him until he was gone.

A claw slashed across Silas’s flank, cutting deep. His wolf staggered, blood streaming from the wound, but he kept fighting. Rowan roared, but even he was being forced back, his massive black wolf drowning in the wave of monsters. Varek was bleeding badly, his movements slowing, weakening.

Silas’s voice, anguished and exhausted, cut through the chaos.

“Lia, run!”

His voice echoed inside my skull, and I immediately realized that even though we were in wolf form, we could still communicate with each other. I turned my head and a bolt of panic tore through me as if I’d been struck by lightning.

Silas, Rowan, Varek—all of them, buried beneath a mass of Nyktos, claws and wings and teeth, dragging them toward the cave. They were being taken! And if I stayed?

I would be too.

“Go!”

Our eyes met through the chaos, his beautiful stare burning through me even as he fought, even as his body was pulled down, even when something hit him over the head, even as he went down.

“Go! Lia! Go! Please obey me. Just this once!”The frantic despair in his voice reached my very soul.

I hesitated for a heartbeat, and then I ran.

I tore through the trees, my wolf form pushing past its limits, my lungs burning, my legs aching. The forest was a blur, shadows whipping around me as I sprinted, my paws pounding against the ground. Behind me, the sounds of the fight faded.

They weren’t chasing me, but I kept running.

I didn’t stop, didn’t look back, not until my body collapsed beneath me, my wounds bleeding, my breath coming in wretched gasps.

Mercifully, darkness consumed me.

CHAPTER24

Silas