The hallway had barely emptied when my legs felt like lead. Drey's warning echoed in my head: "You better leave this city before it's too late." And the other twin's teasing voice, sharp and smooth, lingered too: "Blondie… you can come be with me instead." My stomach twisted with a combination of fear, anger, and…something else I didn't understand.
I hurried back, losing interest for the rest of the class. On my way out I saw some students making out, which irked me further.
I wanted to leave and run as far from Atlas City as I could, but I had called Nurse Sarah earlier to check up on Mother, and she wasn't getting better. I couldn't discharge her from the hospital; I needed money to keep her alive, even if it involved risk.
Every instinct screamed at me to flee, but responsibility and obligation held me in place.
Our boss had briefed us the other night that we'd be doing some other mission since a part of the group had been discovered and we had to take proper training to be able to protect ourselves.
This screamed danger, but I knew I had to survive, so I took my training seriously. I had never enjoyed an easy life; my mother and I kept running across cities and even changing countries, like someone was after my life. I spent the morning preparing, repeating every drill, and checking every piece of equipment. My gun felt heavy in my hands, familiar after so much training, yet I couldn't shake the tension. Today's mission wasn't routine. It was deadly. We were going to kidnap an old Alpha for the boss. A simple plan in theory, but nothing in Atlas was ever simple, not since I got here and the supernatural creatures I swore to take one down this time because I hated that such beasts exist. We moved out in the quiet pre-dawn, the forest stretching long shadows across our path. We had to take this route because our boss said it was the least guarded, but these werewolves.
For a heartbeat, I almost forgot the dangers, the wolves, and the deaths I'd seen. I had sworn to return today no matter how I had to go back to my mother. Then the first howl split the air, a chilling, guttural sound that ripped through the quiet, and my pulse jumped.
"Spread out," one of the men hissed. "Eyes sharp. Stay alert."
"What's happening?" I asked Bella, who was also kitted out like we were some sort of soldiers on a war front. I gripped my gun tighter, knuckles whitening. The air smelled of damp earth and something darker, metallic, like blood and fear. My breath came fast and shallow. Every step I took felt like moving through water, weighted by dread.
Then it happened.
The attack came unexpectedly. Werewolves erupted from the treeline, teeth bared, eyes glowing in unnatural hues. Chaos exploded around me. Screams, growls, and gunfire melded into a deafening roar. I fired instinctively. The first shot tore through the air, the werewolf closest staggering, then falling. But there were too many. Too fast. Too relentless.
Bodies fell around me. Men I had trained with, laughed with, now torn apart in seconds. My stomach lurched, bile rising, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't freeze. Survival was the only option.
And then I saw it.
The white werewolf.
The one I had shot before that bit my arms. I had a deep rooted hatred for this werewolf. Just then she attacked Bella, biting her neck as I screamed in shock. I had gotten close to her for some time now. Its eyes locked on me, licking its bloodied fur, unblinking as if challenging me. Malice filled its eyes, hunting instinct. My heart thudded so violently I felt it in my throat and was blinded. In a rage, I fired, screaming, while it stumbled, but it was not enough. As I was about to fire another shot, another wolf jumped out, taking three successive bullets from me as it fell covered in its pool of blood. "Stupid! So you know what loyalty is?" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Why did it take the bullet for this damn white werewolf? I had to kill it. Bella. Her lifeless face flashed in my mind. My hands shook, but I gritted my teeth. I wouldn't fail again.
The others were falling. The ambush had decimated my team, leaving me exposed, cornered. I darted between trees, rolling behind fallen logs, taking shots where I could. Every breath burned, lungs aching. My legs screamed, but adrenaline overrode exhaustion.
It was coming. Faster. Closer.
The forest blurred around me as I ran, branches clawing at my arms and face. Every step pounded like a drum in my skull, every breath burned my lungs. Behind me, the white werewolf moved like liquid death, eyes glowing, teeth bared, growls shaking the very air.
A sharp pain stabbed through my shoulder, hot and jagged, as if a knife had been driven straight into muscle and bone. I stumbled, nearly falling, but didn't stop. Couldn't stop. Adrenaline surged, forcing my legs to keep moving even as my vision swam. My blood mingled with the dirt underfoot, soaking my sleeve, and the metallic scent filled my nostrils, making my stomach churn.
It growled behind me, low and hungry. I could hear the ragged scrape of its claws against bark and stone, the snapping of branches under its weight. Panic clawed at me, cold and sharp, but I refused to fall. Not yet.
My foot caught a root, and I pitched forward, hitting the ground hard. Pain exploded through my shoulder, yet I forced myself up, teeth gritted, gun clutched in trembling hands. I could see the cliff ahead now, the jagged edge of the Cliff of Death rising out of the forest floor like a jagged scream of stone. The white werewolf closed in. Growl after growl rolled from its throat, relentless, echoing in my head. My mind spun, memories flashing in painful clarity: Bella's lifeless eyes, the men I'd lost today, every shot fired, every failure. Blood and grief, anger and fear, tangled together, sharpened by every ragged breath.
I ran the last few steps, tripping again, skidding toward the edge. Below, darkness yawned, endless and merciless. I turned, heart hammering, gun trembling in my hands. The werewolf crouched a few feet behind, its eyes locked on me, muscles tensed to strike.
Pain seared through my shoulder again, sharp and burning. My vision tunneled. Life the mission, my mother, the world I'd left behind in New York flashed before me. Faces, laughter, screams, blood. Everything I had fought to survive, everything I had ever lost, collided in a torrent of memory.
The white werewolf growled low guttural, and the sound vibrated through my chest. I was soaked in my blood, trembling, bleeding, yet still standing. The cliff loomed beneath me, death waiting. Behind me, the predator waited.
For a heartbeat, the world paused. Life and death balanced on the edge, wind whipping my hair, blood slicking my skin, heart hammering so violently I thought it might burst.
And in that instant, I knew I was completely, utterly exposed.
There was nowhere to run.
The white werewolf lunged at me with terrifying speed, claws raking through the air. I stumbled backward, tripping over loose rocks, and suddenly the ground gave way beneath my feet. I tumbled over the edge, my body twisting through the air, my heart hammering like a drum in my chest. I slammed against the jagged cliffside, pain exploding in my shoulder, blood slicking my hands and arms. My fingers scraped against the stone until I found a small rock at the other side of the cliff that held me from falling. I clutched it like my life depended on it because it did. I dangled, every inch of my body screaming in pain. The blood ran down my arms, soaking my clothes and pooling on the rocks below me. My vision blurred. Was this how it ended? Bleeding, broken, dangling over the edge of the Cliff of Death, hunted by a creature that seemed unstoppable?
I could feel the wolf retreating, thinking I had died after falling, but I was there, barely hanging. Then the forest shifted. Shadows thickened, swallowing the trees in darkness. The wind stilled, and a strange silence pressed down.
Above me, the moon rose, huge and blood-red, casting a crimson glow over everything. It looked alive, like it was crying for me. Its light reflected off my blood, blending into a terrifying feeling. I blinked, heart pounding, staring at the sky as if the red moon could somehow save me.
Was this it? Was this how my story ended, bleeding, terrified, with the edge of the world beneath me and a predator above? I dug my fingers deeper into the rock, every joint screaming in protest, and tried to lift myself. My body shook violently. Pain was everywhere. My mind raced through memories of and my mother. At that moment I don't understand why my mind drifted to the black wolf that had somehow helped me that day.