Marcus moved fast.
Cora struggled to keep up, her bandaged feet screaming with every step. The hallways blurred past — marble and wood and flickering lights, the power stuttering as something else exploded somewhere in the estate.
Shouts echoed from every direction. Snarls that were more animal than human.
"Where are we going?" Cora gasped.
"Panic room in East wing I had Reinforced walls, silver locks,Nothing's getting through."
"What about everyone else? The staff, the—"
"They know the protocols." Marcus's grip on her arm tightened as he pulled her around a corner. "Right now, my only job is keeping you alive."
"Why? I'm just—"
"You're not just anything." He shot her a look. "The Alpha gave me an order. I follow orders."
They reached a staircase. Marcus took the steps two at a time, practically dragging her along. Cora's lungs burned. Her feet were leaving smears of blood on the marble ,the bandages had torn, the wounds reopened.
She didn't stop even tho she was in lots of pain , this was nothing to what she had gone through at the orphanage.
A window shattered somewhere below them. More howls, it was getting Closer now.
"Almost there," Marcus said. "Just a little—"
He stopped.
Cora slammed into his back, barely catching herself. "What—"
Then she saw.
The hallway ahead was blocked. Three wolves — massive, grey-furred, lips pulled back to reveal teeth like knives. They weren't pack. She could tell immediately. Something about their stance, their eyes, the way they looked at Marcus like prey instead of kin.
"Get behind me," Marcus said quietly.
"Marcus—"
"Now."
She moved. Pressed her back against the wall, her heart slamming against her ribs.
Marcus shifted.
It happened in a heartbeat. One second he was a man — the next he was something else entirely. Bigger and Darker. A wolf that stood nearly as tall as her shoulder, with fur like midnight and eyes that glowed amber in the dim light.
He lunged.
The fight was brutal.
Cora had never seen anything like it. The wolves collided in a tangle of fur and teeth, snarling and snapping, blood spraying across the walls. Marcus was outnumbered , three to one but he fought like he didn't know it Or he just didn't care.
He took down the first wolf with a savage bite to the throat. The second caught him in the side, teeth sinking deep, and Marcus howled, a sound of pain and fury that made Cora's bones vibrate.
She should run. She knew she should run. Find another way to the panic room, get somewhere safe, let Marcus handle this.
But her feet wouldn't move.
The third wolf broke away from the fight. Its head swung toward her, yellow eyes locking onto her face. It moved slowly, deliberately, stalking toward her while Marcus was pinned beneath the second attacker.
Cora's back pressed harder against the wall. There was nowhere to go.
The wolf lunged.
She threw her hands up, instinct, useless, she knew it was useless and something cracked open inside her chest.
Light.
It exploded outward from her palms, white and blinding, slamming into the wolf mid-leap. The creature yelped, a high, pained sound and flew backward, hitting the far wall hard enough to crack the plaster.
It didn't get up.
Cora stared at her hands. They were glowing. Actually glowing. Pale silver light emanating from her skin, pulsing in time with her heartbeat.
Marcus finished off the second wolf. Shifted back to human form, naked and bleeding, his chest heaving.
He stared at her.
"What the hell was that?"
Cora didn't have an answer.
There was no time to process.
More sounds from below ,fighting, screaming, the crash of breaking furniture. The attack wasn't over. If anything, it was getting worse.
"Can you do that again?" Marcus demanded. He was already moving, grabbing a fallen tapestry to wrap around his waist.
"I don't know. I don't know how I did it the first time."
"Figure it out." He took her arm again, gentler this time, and pulled her forward. "We need to keep moving. The panic room's compromised — if they're this deep in the estate, nowhere's safe."
"Then where—"
"Damien. We find Damien."
They ran.
The estate was chaos. Cora caught glimpses as they moved, bodies on the floor, some wolf, some human. Furniture overturned. Paintings torn from walls. The smell of blood was everywhere, thick and metallic, coating the back of her throat.
She should have been terrified. She was terrified. But something else was rising underneath the fear , that warmth in her chest, that light waiting to break free again. It felt like a second heartbeat, growing stronger with each passing moment.
They rounded a corner and nearly collided with a group of people.
Staff members, by the look of them — kitchen workers, cleaners, a few faces Cora recognized from her exploration earlier. Mira was among them, her face pale, her eyes wide.
"Marcus!" One of the older women rushed forward. "Thank the gods. We didn't know where to go, the eastern corridor's overrun—"
"Stay together," Marcus ordered. "We're heading for the main hall. The Alpha's there."
"We can't." A man stepped forward, shaking his head. "There's wolves between us and the hall. At least six. We tried to get through and they nearly—" He stopped. Swallowed. "We lost three people."
Marcus cursed under his breath.
Cora looked at the huddled group.
Fifteen people, maybe more. Some of them were injured ,a woman clutching a bleeding arm, a man with a gash across his face. Mira had her arm around an older woman who was trembling so hard she could barely stand.
They were trapped.
"There has to be another way," Cora said. "A back route, a—"
"There isn't." Marcus's voice was tight. "Not one that doesn't take us through hostile territory."
"Then we fight through."
"With what? Half these people can't shift. The ones who can are barely trained. We'd be sending them to slaughter."
Cora's mind raced. The light in her chest pulsed, warm and insistent. She thought about the bird in the forest. The way it had come to her. The way they all had.
She thought about the wolf she'd thrown across the hallway.
"I can do it," she said.
Marcus stared at her. "What?"
"I can get them through. I don't know how, but I can feel it. There's something inside me, something—" She struggled for the words. "I can protect them."
"You don't even know what you are."
"I know I'm not useless." She met his gaze. Held it. "Let me try."
Silence. The sounds of fighting echoed from somewhere distant.
"Damien will kill me if anything happens to you," Marcus said.
"Then don't let anything happen to me."
He stared at her for a long moment. Then he exhaled. Nodded.
"Stay close," he said. "All of you. And when I say run, you run."
They moved as a group.
Marcus took point, his body coiled and ready to shift at any moment. Cora stayed in the middle, surrounded by the staff members, her hands tingling with that strange light she couldn't fully control.
The hallway ahead was dark. The lights had failed here, leaving only the pale glow of moonlight through shattered windows. Glass crunched under their feet. The smell of blood was stronger.
They found the wolves waiting for them.
Six of them, just like the man had said,Massive, Grey, brown and black. They blocked the corridor completely, their bodies a wall of muscle and teeth.
They didn't attack immediately. They watched. Waited. Like they knew help wasn't coming.
"Marcus," Cora whispered.
"I see them."
"I need you to trust me."
"Cora—"
"Trust me."
She stepped forward. Past Marcus. Past the front line of the group. Into the empty space between the staff and the wolves.
The wolves' attention shifted. Fixed on her. Six sets of eyes, gleaming in the darkness.
Cora raised her hands.
The light came easier this time. She didn't have to reach for it , it was already there, rising to meet her, flooding through her veins like liquid fire. It gathered in her palms, bright enough to make the wolves flinch, bright enough to cast shadows on the walls.
But it wasn't enough. She could feel that too. Whatever she'd done to the single wolf earlier, she couldn't replicate it six times. The power was there, but she didn't know how to shape it.
So she thought about the birds.
She thought about the forest. The way they'd come to her. The way they'd surrounded her like a living shield, like they were responding to something she couldn't see.
"Come"she thought. "Please. I need you."
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then she heard it.
Wings.
Hundreds of them. Thousands. A sound like thunder, building and building until it filled the corridor, until it drowned out everything else.
The birds came through the broken windows.
They poured in like a flood — sparrows and crows and hawks and things she couldn't name, a swirling mass of feathers and talons and sharp, piercing cries. They filled the air, blocking out the moonlight, turning the hallway into a storm of wings.
And they attacked,The wolves
The birds descended on them like a plague. Pecking, Scratching and Driving them back with sheer numbers, a relentless assault that gave no quarter. The wolves snapped and snarled, but there were too many — for every bird they caught, a dozen more took its place.
"Go!" Cora shouted. "Now! Run!"
Marcus didn't hesitate. He grabbed the nearest staff member and shoved them forward. "Move! All of you! Move!"
They ran.
Cora stayed where she was, her hands still raised, the light still pouring from her palms. She could feel the birds — feel them like extensions of her own body, like fingers reaching into the darkness. She held them together, directed them, kept them focused on the wolves while the staff escaped.
It was the hardest thing she'd ever done.
Her vision blurred. Her knees buckled. The light in her hands flickered, dimmed.
"Cora!" Mira's voice, somewhere behind her. "Cora, come on!"
She couldn't hold it. The connection was slipping, the birds scattering as her concentration failed. The wolves were recovering, shaking off the assault, turning their attention back to her.
Arms caught her as she fell.
Marcus. He lifted her like she weighed nothing, turning to run even as the wolves lunged.
They didn't make it.
A shape slammed into the lead wolf from the side, massive, black-furred, eyes blazing silver. It tore through the attackers with a savagery that made Marcus's earlier fight look gentle. One wolf down. Two. Three.
Damien.
The remaining wolves fled.
The birds dispersed, scattering through the broken windows, disappearing into the night.
Cora hung limp in Marcus's arms, her vision fading, her body completely spent.
The last thing she saw before darkness took her was Damien — shifting back to human form, naked and covered in blood, his eyes finding hers with an intensity that burned through the fog.
The last thing she heard was his voice.
"I've got you."