Lucien’s POV

    The weight pressed down until my bones screamed.

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    Mud, stone, broken branches-the mountain wanted to bury us, to grind us into nothing. My arms trembled, bent under the crushing force. But even as blood trickled hot down my back, I refused to let go.

    Riley was beneath me. Small. Fragile. Alive only because I was holding the storm back with my own body.

    My wolf roared inside my chest, wing against the confines of my skin. Enough. Enough of human fragility. Enough of bleeding and breaking. She is ours, and nothing will take her.

    I let go.

    The change ripped through me, spine snapping, muscles twisting, ws splitting from my hands. My body stretched and broke and rebuilt itself in fire and shadow. I threw my head back, jaws elongating, teeth piercing through gums, and I howled -the sound rising above the thunder, cutting through the storm like a de.

    The wolf took shape. My wolf. White as lightning, vast as the storm itself.

    The earth that had pinned me moments before now slid harmlessly down my shoulders, breaking over my fur and ws as if I were a boulder rooted into the mountain. I shook, spraying mud in every direction, and forced thendslide back with brute strength and fury.

    Rileyy beneath me, eyes wide, lips parted, rain streaking across her pale face. She whispered my name-my human name-but it didn’t matter. She knew it was olli/li/ol

    I bent down, nudging her with my muzzle, urging her close. She clutched my fur, burying her fingers deep, and I lifted her carefully onto my back.

    “Alpha!” Caelum’s voice broke through the storm, rough with relief and panic. He’d wed his way across the mudslide, his clothes torn, his face streaked with blood and dirt. “I thought-”

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    I cut him off with a growl, deep andmanding, and jerked my head toward the path. No time for words. We had to move.

    He understood at once. That was why he was my shield-brother. He turned, clearing a path ahead with the instinct of a wolf who had marched through war. I followed, every stride of my wolf-form deliberate, steady, Riley’s weight light against my back. She clung to me, her heartbeat fluttering like a wounded bird.

    We pushed through the storm, the mountain groaning behind us, until atst the mud gave way to gravel and the trail widened. My paws dug into the earth, throwing water and dirt behind me, carrying us down the slope with savage speed.

    The night blurred. The storm raged. And then-the faint glow of headlights.

    Our vehicle. The one Caelum had left at the mountain’s base.

    I bounded thest stretch,nding in the mud beside the car. Caelum wrenched the doors open, leaping into the driver’s seat, already starting the engine. I shifted back in a rush of snapping bones, cradling Riley against my chest as I slid into the backseat.

    Her lips were bloodless, her eyes half-lidded. I pressed my forehead to hers, my breath ragged. “Stay with me, Riley. Just a little longer. You’re not leaving me in this storm.”

    99

    The car lurched forward, tires skidding against wet rock. Caelum drove like the devil himself was chasing us, every second carved from fate’s knife edge.

    Riley’s pulse fluttered weakly beneath my fingers. Too weak. My wolf snarled, furious at the fragility of flesh, at the gods who would dare make her suffer.

    And then-through the thunder and rain-came a sound. Faint. Raw. Familiar.

    A voice.

    “…help…”

    Caelum’s knuckles tightened on the wheel. His gaze flicked to mine in the rearview mirror. He’d heard it too.

    The sound came again, weaker, as if carried on the wind itself. “… Lucien…”

    Scarlett.

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    I mmed a hand against the window, forcing Caelum to a halt. The tires shrieked in protest. Riley stirred faintly against my chest, whispering something I couldn’t hear.

    “Stay here,” I snarled,ying her gently on the seat. My wolf wed beneath my skin, restless, demanding action. I shoved the door open and leapt into the storm.

    The voice guided me-broken, faltering, but desperate enough to cut through the downpour. I found her slumped against a rock outcropping, her body broken, her breath shallow, eyes ssy with pain.

    Scarlett.

    Her scent was drenched with blood. Her hands wed weakly toward me as if even now she didn’t believe I woulde.

    I crouched beside her, the rain washing crimson from her skin, and pressed my palm to her cheek. “I won’t let you die.”

    Her lips trembled. “It’s toote…”

    “No.” My voice came out a growl, my wolf seething through every word. “You will live. I’ll drag you back from the grave itself if I have to.”

    She tried to shake her head, but I gripped her tighter, leaning close so she couldn’t look away. “Not until what was stolen from Riley is restored. Not until her kidney is returned to her body. Do you understand me? You don’t get to die until then.”

    For a moment, something sparked in her gaze-shame, despair, perhaps even the faintest ember of defiance. She breathed out a broken sound that might have been a sob.

    I lifted her into my arms, her weight barely more than Riley’s. My body ached, torn and battered, but strength surged anew. My wolf fed me its fury, its refusal to break.

    Back at the car, Caelum swung the door open, his face pale but resolute. “Hospitals are thirty minutes if we drive like hell.”

    “Then drive like hell,” I snapped, lowering Scarlett onto the seat beside Riley.

    I sat between them, one arm wrapped protectively around Riley, the other bracing Scarlett against me as the car tore down the mountain road.

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    14:

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    The storm still raged outside, lightning splitting the sky, thunder pounding the earth. But inside that car, I made my vow in silence, my wolf’s growl rumbling low in my chest.

    Riley would live. Scarlett would live—long enough to make things right.

    Because I was Lucien Duskgrave, Alpha Prince of the Stormridge Pack.

    And no storm, no mountain, no fate would take them from me.

    Or so I thought.

    We hadn’t driven a mile before the world itself split open.

    A roar like the sky copsing cracked through the night. The mountainside above us convulsed, stones tearing free, trees shattering as roots ripped from the soil. Caelum cursed, mming the wheel, tires shrieking as he tried to outpace the copse.

    But it was toote.

    A shadow darker than the storm fell over us, vast boulders tumbling like the fists of gods. I had one heartbeat to decide.

    My wolf surged, savage and absolute. No hesitation. No fear. Only instinct- protect.

    “Down!” I snarled, wrapping my arms around Riley, shoving her against the floor of the car, my body folding over hers. My bones shifted, half-shift dragging ws and fur from my skin as I braced myself between her and the roof. My back arched, muscles screaming as the first stone struck.

    Metal screamed. ss shattered.

    The roof caved inward.

    I roared, a sound torn from my chest, my wolf lending me strength no mortal body could hold. Every ounce of my being poured into holding the weight back, even as steel bent into my spine and the boulders hammered down.

    Pain split me open. Fire raced down my nerves. My vision blurred. But beneath me, Riley was untouched, her soft breath still rising and falling, fragile but alive.

    8:28 pm

    ED

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    Scarlett’s cry was faint, Caelum’s voice lost in the storm, but none of it mattered.

    Only Riley.

    Only her heartbeat.

    The car groaned onest time before the mountain’s wrath consumed it whole.

    And with myst strength, I swore again—this storm would not take her. Not while a single drop of blood still burned in my veins.

    8:28 pm E