Chapter 156- Shadowed Escape
Adrian
The air was thick with tension—I could taste it, metallic like blood in the back of my throat.
I sat at the edge of the cot in the small chamber that had become my prison for the last few days. My breathing was calm, controlled, but only because I forced it to be. I had been watched, humiliated, and now, finally, judged. Today, the alliance would arrive to take me to a neutral territory, where a tribunal of the packs would deliberate my fate.
Lexy had played the game well. Too well.
I had underestimated her.
The subtle poison, the silent severing of my communication lines, the manipulation of the elders. I still didn’t know how she'd done it all so cleanly. But what cut deepest wasn’t the loss of control. It was that Tarria had reemerged… and he had seen the truth in her eyes: victory. Cold, resolute victory.
I stood slowly, brushing imaginary dust off my shirt. No chains bound me, but the guards outside made sure I had nowhere to run. I’d been under heavy watch, my meals tasted, my every movement noted. But if my people were who he believed them to be—if loyalty meant more than politics—I wouldn’t be here much longer.
I paced to the narrow window slit, inhaling the early morning air. The distant forest line shimmered faintly in the rising sun. Somewhere beyond those trees, my soldiers still moved, still breathed, still believed in me.
A soft knock. The door opened.
Two guards—Lexy’s—entered. Not wolves from my territory. The taller one nodded curtly. “The alliance transport is ten minutes out. You’re to be ready.”
I smirked. “I’m always ready.”
They didn’t respond. The taller one cuffed me without ceremony. Even now, they avoided meeting my eyes, as if afraid I might reach into their heads with a look and twist their thoughts. They didn’t understand—I didn’t need magic or prophecy. I had men. I had will.
The hall was silent, unnervingly so. The tribal leaders must have already assembled at the front clearing, where the transport would land. Lexy, no doubt, would be standing tall, righteous, prepared to deliver me like a sacrificial offering to maintain her fragile alliance.
As they neared the double doors leading outside, my heartbeat slowed. I could feel it. That shift in the air. The buzz of expectation.
*They’re coming.*
A sharp whistle pierced the air. One of the guards stiffened. The other reached for his communicator—but it was too late.
The door to their left burst open with a flash of movement. Smoke—no, mist—rushed in, thick and fast, obscuring vision and clogging nostrils. I dropped instinctively, crouching low as the hallway erupted in chaos.
Shouts. Growls. Metal clashing against stone.
Then, from the smoke, a hand grabbed me. Firm. Familiar.
“Time to go, Alpha.”
It was Kael.
I didn’t need more. I moved.
Another figure appeared, cloaked and masked, flanking them as they rushed down a back corridor that hadn’t been open moments ago. The mist followed—engineered to stick, to give cover, to sow confusion. Screams echoed behind us, along with more howls—Lexy’s wolves, scrambling, realizing too late what was happening.
“Your men?” I asked as we sprinted through the service tunnel.
“Half. The rest are holding the perimeter. We have only minutes,” Kael replied tersely.
“I told you to wait until after they moved me.”
Kael shot me a sharp look. “And risk transport through neutral grounds? You’d be dead in an hour.”
Fair enough. I swallowed the bitterness. I hated being saved. Hated being the one pulled from the fire instead of the one throwing others into it. But now was not the time for pride.
We emerged from the back exit of the fortress, hidden by a cluster of thick pines. A low whine cut through the air—distant engines.
“The alliance is close,” I murmured.
Kael nodded. “We have two routes. The faster one will take us through the eastern ridge, but it’s exposed. The slower one stays low, underground path to the border.”
“The ridge,” I said instantly.
“You’ll be seen.”
“Let them see me. Let them know they failed.”
Kael’s eyes flicked toward me, unreadable under the dark hood, but nodded.
We ran. The earth sloped beneath our boots as we ascended the ridge, trees giving way to sparse rock. Below us, in the valley, the alliance delegation began to descend—sleek transports in formation, guarded, armored, pristine. I gritted my teeth. How many of them have come to gloat? To shake hands with Lexy and pat themselves on the back for “doing the right thing”?
A rumble cracked the sky—a signal blast.
*They know.*
Snipers opened fire.
I dropped to one knee behind a boulder. Kael and the other soldier moved in sync, returning fire with precision. They didn’t aim to kill, only to distract. This was a message, not a massacre.
I growled at the thought of not being able to give our everything and finish them once and for all.
A drone zipped too close—I stood, focused, and threw a small device Kael handed me. It detonated midair, scattering electromagnetic noise and cutting the drone’s surveillance feed instantly.
We kept moving. I wasn't going to get caught again.
By the time we reached the far edge of the ridge, more of my people emerged from the tree line—vehicles, wolves in human and shifted form, weapons ready. We didn’t cheer. No one celebrated. It wasn’t victory. It was retreat.
A female warrior approached, her hood pulled low.
“The alliance is regrouping. Lexy didn’t give chase,” she said.
I looked back once.
“Of course she didn’t. She wanted this spectacle. She’ll spin it as desperation. As proof of guilt.”
“Was it guilt?” Kael asked.
I met his gaze. “No. It was war.”
We loaded into the vehicle, the engine humming like a beast beneath us. As the convoy sped deeper into the territory I once ruled with shadow and strategy, I allowed myself a breath.
Not of relief.
But of resolve.
They thought imprisoning me would stop the storm.
They forgot I *was* the storm.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
