The tunnels beneath Ironhaven were a labyrinth of damp stone and rusted pipes, the air within it was thick with mildew and the faint echo of dripping water, or waters as some other places were leaking. Drew led the way, his amber eyes glowing faintly in the dark, the curse humming in his veins like a second heartbeat. Elena kept pace beside him, her dagger still clutched tight, while Rhona and Lena followed close behind. Matthias brought up the rear, his silence more unsettling than his usual barbs. The hunters' shouts had faded, but Drew knew better than to think they were safe. The masking done by Lena had succeeded in at least getting them away from the Mill without the hunters being able to find out where they had left or even scraps to trace them. But it had been done too slowly so there was a chance the hunters could still find something, somehow, someway to pick up their scent and continue the pursuit. Not to forget they didn't mask the dead bodies.
"Keep moving," Drew growled, his voice bouncing off the tunnel walls. The curse in his veins was getting restless, behaving as an animal, clawing at his control, and every step he took felt like a battle to stay human. Elena's scent—wildflowers and steel (something that he was now getting used to)—kept him grounded, but it also stirred something dangerous, a pull he couldn't afford to indulge at the moment. The curse was making him feel no guilt for the loss of two members of the pack. They had been quiet people, soldier-like and did whatever they were asked to do without question. Maybe it wasn't the curse. Maybe it was that they had lost other people so much that now it was just a way of life to them for a pack member to go down and they continue as if he or they went off for a journey and may come back later in the day. Or maybe he was the only one among the pack that just continues without remembering the lost.
Lena stumbled, her breath hitching. "I'm sorry," she whispered, clutching the last vial of their stolen supplies. "My masking… it didn't hold the way I wanted it to."
"You did enough," Drew said, softening his tone. To begin with the omega's gift was raw and untrained, but it had bought them time and space to escape. He ruffled her hair, ignoring Rhona's sharp look. "Focus, pup. We're not out yet."
Rhona's arm was still bleeding, the silver-inflicted wound was slow to heal. She would need some of this their new medication. She glanced at Elena, her eyes narrowing. "We wouldn't be running if you hadn't brought her," she muttered, loud enough for everyone of them there to hear.
Elena's jaw tightened, but she didn't take the bait. Rather she replied:"I told you, I came alone. My team tracked you because you hit their supplier. They're not after me—they're after *you*."
"That's convenient, real convenient" Rhona snapped, her claws flexing. "So how do we know you're not signaling them right now?"
"Enough!" Drew's brute voice cracked like a whip, the curse lacing it with a growl that made Lena flinch. He took a breath, forcing himself to calm down. "We don't have time for this. Elena's here, and she's helping, if you have noticed. Deal with it." If looks could be intepreted everytime, you would notice Elena had widened her eyes as if to say *really, why not signal them since when we were all together.* But from the point of view of the pack, who traces someone so quick? One point for Rhona.
Matthias chuckled from the shadows, the sound cold and deliberate. "Such faith in a hunter, my alpha. I believe that your father would be spinning in his grave right now."
Drew rounded on him, his claws itching to strike. "Keep talking, Matthias, and I'll send you to meet him, wherever he is. Or maybe some pieces of you." The elder's smirk didn't waver, but his eyes held something darker—a sort of careful calculation, maybe, or something worse. That tainted scent from the mill still clung to him, like rot beneath his usual musk. Drew didn't trust it and he didn't trust *him*.
The tunnel split ahead, one path leading toward the docks Elena had mentioned as they escaped, the other deeper into the city's underbelly. Drew hesitated, as the curse whispered again into his head: *Blood will bind.* He shook it off, but the words lingered, heavy as the prophecy Rhona had once found in an old pack record—a scrap of lore about a "cursed alpha" destined to break or save their kind. Why on this particular mission did this flair up so strongly.
"Which way?" Drew asked Elena, his voice low trying not to think of the issue. Her green eyes met his, steady despite the tension crackling between them.
"Docks," she said, pointing left. "The safehouse is an old warehouse, abandoned. No one checks it. But we need to move fast—my team's got trackers. And we can't be sure they wouldn't be checking the warehouse since I am involved."
"Your team," Rhona muttered, but Drew silenced her with a fierce look. Not a word. Not one word.
They pressed on, with the tunnel narrowing until they were forced to walk in a single file. Lena's breathing grew ragged, and Drew could smell her fear, sharp and sour. "Stay close, Lena," he said, glancing back. She nodded, but her eyes darted from one side to Matthias, who lingered too close to her. Not just too close, but too close for comfort.
"Poor little omega," Matthias said to Lena, his voice soft but cutting. "So much power, so little control. You could be more, you know."
"Leave her alone," Drew snarled, leaving Elena and stepping between them. Matthias raised his hands, mock-innocent, but the glint in his eyes said he was playing a longer game. You may win this round but the next is on me. His eyes seem to say.
A faint hum echoed through the tunnel—not water, not hunters, but something older, like the curse's whisper amplified. Drew's skin prickled, and Elena froze, her dagger half-raised. "You hear that?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Before Drew could answer, the tunnel shook, dust raining from the curved ceiling. A roar—not human, not wolf—rumbled from the shadows ahead. Lena whimpered, and Rhona's claws snapped out. Matthias's smirk vanished, replaced by something Drew had never seen inside the elder for a long time: fear.
"What the hell was that?" Drew demanded, his heart pounding. The curse screamed in his blood, sensing something ancient, something *wrong*.
Elena stepped closer, her eyes scanning the darkness. "It's not my team," she said, her voice tight. "It's something else."
The roar came again, closer, and the tunnel walls seemed to pulse with it. Drew's curse flared, his vision tinting red as a massive shape loomed at the tunnel's end—a creature neither wolf nor man, its eyes glowing with a hunger that mirrored his own.