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Swift and silent.
But I won’t hide.
I’m running back down the stairs before I can stop myself and dart outside. The woods within the settlement are right at the doorway.
Shifters are scrambling for their lives amid the trees, wolves in animal form, and the settlement fence on my left is smashed open, as if something has driven through it.
The undead pour into the settlement with such speed, it leaves me dizzy—nothing stops the infected. Torn clothes, broken skin, mortal wounds, missing body parts—nothing stops the infected.
Ice cuts through me, and I can barely draw a breath. My hands tremble as I clasp my stomach, fisting the fabric of my shirt, twisting it with pure terror.
A woman falls to her knees in front of me, a lanky undead lunging for her.
My heart stammers, and instinct kicks in. I rush forward and snatch a branch from the ground, then swing it wildly at the creature’s face before it gets a chance to bite her.
The thing jerks backward, giving the woman time to scramble out of there. For good measure, I slam the stick into the creature’s face over and over before I jam the pointy end into his face, piercing the eye and driving the wood into its brain. It makes a splattering sound as the Shadow Monster silences and collapses. I stagger backward from the finally truly dead creature, swallowing past the boulder in my throat.
I sprint deeper into the forest, helping anyone I see in trouble the best way I can—with stones to smash in the undeads’ heads, branches—anything to fight this battle.
An ear-splitting howl splinters the air, and I flinch around to find Bardhyl ripping his shirt off, his body already transforming into the biggest wolf I’ve ever seen. With a white pelt and black-tipped ears, he is stunning as he lifts his head and unleashes a howl.
A man with a gangrene arm and no lips charges up behind him, but Bardhyl snaps around in a heartbeat and swipes his massive paw at the monster, shredding its chest down to the bone. Another swipe, and his head is ripped right off. The headless creature crumbles and twitches, half its ribcage sticking out and broken.
Another Shadow Monster, with the contents of its stomach trailing behind him, lunges toward the Alpha. I’m going to be sick, but I still dart forward to intercept the attack, shoving my hands into the bony chest just as it reaches for Bardhyl. I knock it to the ground with my momentum and smash the rock in my hand into his head, over and over, blood and innards spilling free.
I scramble off it, feeling sick to my stomach from the sight, and suck in harsh breaths. Bardhyl brushes past me, his eyes narrowing and there is acceptance in his gaze, the need to attack our enemy. Then he lunges toward a hoard of undead coming.
I don’t waste a moment and rush toward the gap in the fence, needing to somehow stop more from coming in.
I shove past the undead and dart around the trees, past shifters fighting.
The twisted and warped fence is bent forward clearly driven down by a vehicle.
Someone snatches my wrist and jerks me toward them aggressively, my heart blazing at the movement.
I grip the blood-stained rock over my head as I stumble to find my feet, then come face to face with the white-haired Alpha from the aircraft I’d escaped weeks before.
A gasp falls from my lips. “Mad!”
What’s he doing here?
He whacks the back of my hand, and my stone flings out of my grasp. “So Dušan found you after all.” He sniffs the air, then grins, sensing the Alphas’ scents on me. “You haven’t wasted your time, have you, bitch?”
I slam my fist into his chest, then slash my free hand at his face, nails scratching the side of his cheek, breaking skin.
Fury twists his expression into one of pure ugliness as his fist swings, then clips the side of my face.
My legs give out, and I drop to the ground, my face an explosion of pain that ripples over my skull. Holding the injured side of my head, I cry from the agony.
He grabs my hair, then hauls me to my feet, and I tug back on my hair to stop the pain. Tears thread down my face. Fisting my hair, he tilts my head back violently, his face in mine. Ice-blue eyes slice right through me with venom.
“I know what’s in your blood, why the infected don’t touch you. Your blood tests shows it all.” He spits the words at me. “But I can't have you ruin my plans, Meira. I can't have you ruin them at all.”
He seizes my jaw with his hand and squeezes. I whimper from the pain, from the fear of what this Alpha will do to me. The greedy look in his eyes is the reason I don’t want anyone to find out the truth. Why I tell no one that I’m immune to the undead.
Someone slams into my back, and I’m shoved against Mad. In that sliver of a moment, his grip slips. I drive my hands into his chest and send him reeling backward.
Pivoting on my heels, I catapult myself into the river of undead at my back. Spinning back, Mad rises from the ground, his eyes spewing hatred, his hands fisted, but as the infected turn toward him, he retreats and runs.
