Page 97 of His Claim

I shifted back to a human and crawled through the wreckage toward where Elsie had fallen. Her body was sprawled against the far wall, blood streaking the metal behind her like brushstrokes.

Her eyelids fluttered as I knelt beside her. “Hey,” I whispered, my throat tight. “Hey, don’t you dare leave me yet.”

Her lips moved, the barest ghost of a smile curving them. “Told you… quiet exit,” she murmured, her voice rough and small.

“Don’t talk,” I said quickly. “Save your strength.”

She gave a faint laugh that turned into a cough. “Strength’s overrated.” Her eyes opened halfway, glinting faintly in the flickering light. “Did we… get them?”

I glanced around at the carnage—the broken walls, the bodies, the sheer devastation. “Yeah,” I said softly. “You got them all.”

Her gaze drifted to the ceiling. “Good,” she whispered. “Someone had to.”

The air was thick with the smell of blood and smoke, and my heart felt too big for my chest. I pressed a hand over hers, sticky and warm. “You saved me,” I said.

She blinked slowly, her breathing shallow. “You keep going, sweetheart. You finish it.”

“I will,” I promised, my voice beginning to tremble as tears formed in my eyes.

Her eyes found mine one last time, a spark of mischief still hiding behind the pain. “Knew you’d say that.”

I brushed a hand over her hair, smoothing it away from her face.

Sirens blared in the distance, the floor under us trembling with the echo of an explosion somewhere deep in the base.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “For everything.”

And then, with a final breath that sounded almost like a laugh, she closed her eyes and went still.

CHAPTER 25

Varek

The wind off the ridge smelled like oil and cold metal. Dawn hadn’t broken yet and the sky was a bruised gray, the kind of color that comes before something terrible happens. All around me, the Resistance waited in the shadows of the trees. The mountains themselves seemed to hold their breath.

Silas crouched beside me, eyes narrowed on the faint lights of the northwestern gate below. “Two squads,” he murmured. “Just like you said. They’re getting lazy.”

“They think they’re invincible,” I replied, adjusting the comm on my ear. “That’s their first mistake.”

Rowan adjusted the strap of his rifle. “Let’s hope it gives us the window we need.”

Commander Soren was already barking orders to the human squads, her voice clipped, precise. “Alpha team—flank left, take the western platform. Bravo—cover the breach point.Lia, Kendra—stay back until we confirm the grid’s down. No heroics.”

Kendra grinned at that. “You mean no fun.”

Lia elbowed her. “She means don’t get shot.”

“Exactly,” Soren said, glancing at me. “You ready, Varek?”

I rolled my shoulders, feeling the old ache of the scars there. “Always.”

Below us, the gate loomed, massive, fortified, and half-lit by flickering floodlights. I could see the guards at their posts, pacing with lazy confidence. They didn’t know yet that the world had already turned against them.

Everything was quiet, almost too quiet.

For a moment.

Then the explosion hit.