The possessed humans rush forward with unnatural speed, moving faster than any ordinary human should be capable of. Demons surge alongside them, claws flashing as they close the distance.
The warehouse erupts into chaos.
Damian shifts beside me with a roar, his wolf tearing into the nearest demon as soldiers open fire. Sophie steps forward with blazing determination, her hands igniting with powerful flames that arc across the room and strike the advancing demons.
But there are too many.
A possessed human lunges at me with a blade, his movements quick and precise despite the unnatural darkness in his eyes. I knock the weapon aside and slam him into the concrete floor, but another attacker crashes into my side before I can recover.
Pain explodes through my ribs as a demon’s claws rake across my back. I spin, claws distended from my fingers, slashing at the creature and tearing open its throat. But another strike comes from my blind side.
A blade drives deep into my side. The force of the blow sends me stumbling backward as white-hot agony floods through my body, and I realize that the metal is pure silver—the only metal lethal to a werewolf.
My knees hit the ground hard, my voice crippled in my throat.
Across the warehouse, Sophie unleashes another burst of fire that engulfs several demons at once, but the battle rages around us with brutal intensity.
My vision begins to blur as blood spills onto the concrete beneath me. Through the ringing in my ears, one thought cuts through the chaos.
Annika.
I promised her I would come back safe.
But as darkness slowly begins to creep into the edges of my vision, I cling to that promise, while it feels like something I won’t be able to fulfill.
Chapter 21 - Annika
The tight, tugging sensation in my chest pulls my attention westwards through the kitchen window, breath escaping my lips in a gasp that leaves my throat feeling awfully dry. My eyes widen with horror, with the sudden realization that something is wrong, even though there’s nothing except a light snowfall whispering on the imposing mountains.
Beyond those mountains, Heinrich and the other wolves are after the humans and the demons, and I can feel it in my bones that something has gone wrong. The tight sensation hugging my chest releases, leaving me with an empty feeling that has me gasping for air, clawing my throat as if I can’t pull oxygen into my lungs.
It’s because I can’t.
I can’t feel the air going into my lungs, and it feels like my eyes are going to pop out of my sockets. Something is wrong, and every instinct is telling me that something happened to Heinrich.
I’ve felt this way before—when he was hurt fighting the demons—and that’s when my powers flared up uncontrollably. Now that I have control over my powers, I’m not bursting into flames or doing something reckless like rushing outside and risking falling into a trap.
But my body tingles like my powers are stirring, and I begin to pace the floor, waiting.
And waiting.
Until finally, I hear the commotion outside that has me rushing to the front door.
“Annika! Annika!” It’s Sophie's voice I hear through the ensuing chaos of thundering steps up the hill toward the cabin.
I race off the porch, only to come to a dead stop when my heart stops beating, and I see Dedrick carrying a lifeless Heinrich over, his friends marching beside him.
“No!” The word tears from my throat as if my lungs have been ripped out, and I fall to my knees, my jaw dropping nearly as far as tears spill from my eyes. “No!” I cry out again when I notice Heinrich’s eyes are closed.
Sophie charges toward me, one hand cradling her belly, the other reaching for my shoulder.
“He’s not dead, Anni!” she says, shaking my shoulder because I probably look as dead as I feel inside. “I tried to heal him, but it’s not working! He needsyou.He needs his fated mate to heal him.”
I blink in disbelief, looking up at her as Dedrick and the others pass me and advance to the cabin. She holds out a hand to me, and I take it, while wiping fervently at my tears and getting to my feet.
She goes on to explain that Heinrich was impaled in the stomach by a blade made of the only metal deadly to a werewolf—silver—and while the mere injury could have easily been healed, the silver acts as poison in his bloodstream, and his only hope is me.
She clutches my hand as she leads me inside after them, and Dedrick lays Heinrich on the couch, his arm flailing off the side with lifelessness that makes my heart lurch with dread.
