Page 77 of A Sunwoven Ascent

At the sound of her name, the woman lifted her head weakly. Dirt and dried blood streaked her face, but her eyes widened with recognition.

“Oh, Alaric,” she whispered, and tears broke free.

Kaldrek’s pulse jumped. Evelyne’s sister. He saw the resemblance at once, even through the grime and what this place had done to her.

“You stay with her,” he ordered sharply. “We will return.”

Alaric nodded once, already on his knees beside her.

Heidara looked to Kaldrek. They needed no words. In the next breath, the shift took them, bones snapping and fur rolling into place as their wolves surged free. They hit the two Noskari rounding the bend before either creature had time for more than a startled hiss.

Kaldrek tore into the first, jaws crushing down and ripping away gray skin. Heidara shredded the second with ruthless efficiency. They did not slow.

They sprinted faster.

Hold on for me, love. I’m coming. We’re coming.

The snarls rose louder, unmistakable now, the sound of wolves fighting for their lives. Kaldrek burst into a wider chamber, and the sight before him nearly stopped his heart.

Evelyne lay crumpled on the ground.

Blood marked her fur. One leg was twisted at a sickening angle. She was alive, he felt it through the bond, but only just. Around her, wolves he did not know battled beside Holden against a mass of Noskari. Teeth and claws flashed through the dark. Gray skin tore open. Black mist writhed violently through the chamber.

For one awful beat, Kaldrek stood frozen.

Then something inside him shattered loose.

His jaws locked around the nearest Noskari’s throat, and with one brutal twist, bone gave way. Its head tore free in a violent spray of dark blood. The taste hit him instantly, foul, corrupted, thick with rot, and it only fed the rage burning through him. He would rip apart every creature that dared come near him. Near her.

He swept the chamber in a single glance. The unknown wolves were fighting beside Holden with ruthless precision, forcing the remaining Noskari back. They had the advantage.

Evelyne.

He went straight to her, lowering his head and pressing his snout gently to her cheek.

Her eyes fluttered open and found his.

You came for me.

Her voice in his mind was strained, and the sound of it nearly broke him.

Always.

The word carried everything he could not say aloud.

The fighting slowed. One by one, the Noskari fell or retreated. And the echoes of violence faded into heavy breathing. Wolves shifted back into human form without ceremony, no one bothering to cover themselves; survival had stripped away such concerns.

Kaldrek remained in his wolf form, unwilling to surrender the strength of it just yet.

He scanned the tunnel carefully, ensuring no lingering shadow waited to strike again. When he was certain the chamber was secure, he sent a signal to his second-in-command.

Holden came immediately, dropping beside Evelyne to guard her.

Only then did Kaldrek allow the shift to take him. When the fur receded, he rose to his feet.

“Kaldrek,” Holden said in an exhausted rasp, “I’m going back to the girl. We can’t leave her.”

“I know,” he said, turning to secure the tunnel beyond them.