Page 95 of The Huntmaster

Blood.

Lyra’s blood. Fresh, blooming, and spilt somewhere deeper in the dark.

A violent, catastrophic heat erupted in my veins. The fragile thread of my control didn't just snap; it disintegrated into ash. The beast within me—the primal vanguard alpha that lived to tear apart anything that dared threaten its mate—roared to the surface, completely consuming my mind.

I didn't think. I didn't plan.

I threw my head back, and a massive, deafening roar tore from the depths of my chest. It was a sound born of pure, unadulterated fury and genocidal intent, a sonic shockwave that slammed against the stone walls and echoed violently through the weeping tunnels ahead. It shattered the quiet dark, a declaration of war that rumbled deep into the bedrock, letting every parasite in the caverns below know that their executioner had arrived.

"Kaelen, no!" Toren shouted, throwing his entire, massive frame forward.

Before I could leap into the dark of the archway, Toren’s arms wrapped around my torso from behind, his bare feet skidding against the slick metal floor as he tried to anchor my weight. Mara slammed into my side a second later, her hands locking around my wrists, trying to pin my weapons to my chest.

"Let go of me," I hissed, the sound coming out as a guttering, animal snarl. I thrashed against them, my muscles straining against the leather bindings of my armour, the sheer force of my frenzy nearly lifting both seasoned warriors off the ground. "She is bleeding! They are cutting her! Let me go or I will gut you where you stand!"

"Listen to me!" Toren roared in my ear, his voice strained as he fought to maintain his hold against my unnatural strength. "You cannot go storming in there blind! Geth has an entire legion down here, and if you rush the deeper halls alone, they will put a pike through Lyra's throat before you can even find where they are keeping her!"

"I do not care!" I roared, the words breaking apart into something more animal than speech. "Let the mountain bury us all! I will crawl through stone itself if it means reaching her!" A red haze clouded my vision as I wrenched my right arm free, the skymetal dagger flashing in the dim light. I didn't care about strategy. I didn't care about the numbers. The only thing that existed in the universe was the metallic sting of her blood trailing from the dark and the agonising image of her pain. "I will wade through a river of their severed limbs to get to her! Release me!"

"Kaelen, use your head!" Mara grunted, dodging a wild elbow as she threw her weight across my chest to block the corridor. "We strike together! Once the rest of the vanguard catches up, we execute a coordinated strike! We draw them away, then we secure her!"

"There is no time!" I drove my foot into the wall, using the leverage to hurl them both off me. They crashed against the opposite sides of the tunnel, gasping for air as my alpha aura flared, heavy and suffocating in the enclosed space.

I turned toward the archway, my eyes burning with a lethal, unnatural light, my heart hammering a frantic, bloody rhythm against my ribs. I could still smell it. It was dripping. She was hurting.

"If you want to plan, stay in the dirt," I spat over my shoulder, my voice dropping into a cold, terrifying promise as I sprinted headfirst into the gloom, following the scent of her blood into the depths. "But I am going to kill everything that stands between me and my mate."

The forest had made me its guardian.

Tonight, it had made me its executioner.

Chapter 62

Lyra

The agony had shifted from a dull ache to a broken, multi-layered nightmare.

They had dragged me right up to the edge of the primary control deck, but it wasn't just Sila's claws digging into my flesh anymore. Geth wanted a reaction from the system, and they were trying every brutal method they knew to force my compliance. One of the massive guards had a crude, heated iron rod pressed firmly against the meat of my thigh, the scent of my own scorched skin filling my nose, while Sila held my right arm out over the sleek, ancient interface. She was using a rusted Vakra blade to slowly peel away the skin over my knuckles, exposing the raw tissue beneath, trying to force my hand down.

But it wasn't about spilling my blood on the keys. It was about the physical contact. The console didn't want a sacrifice; it wanted a spark. It required the unbroken, somatic friction of my skin against the dormant metal to recognise the ancient inheritance buried in my cells.

"Now, star-meat," Sila whispered, her toxic breath hot against my ear as she dragged the flat of the blade across my raw fingers, keeping me on the precipice of screaming. "Touch the interface. Let us see if your lineage opens the sky or tears the heart from your chest."

I ground my teeth together, tears of pure blinding pain blurring my vision as I forced my knees not to buckle completely. "No," I choked out, staring defiantly at the sleek, unyielding console. "Never."

Suddenly, a frantic blur of movement disrupted the suffocating heat of the cavern.

A tiny, choked shriek echoed over the roar of the Vakra machinery. Before the guards could react, Sky came scurrying out from the shadow of a rusted support beam. The youngling was trembling violently, his skin covered in soot, wearing nothing but a tattered, dirt-streaked leather loincloth. He threw himself forward, his hands blindly reaching out, frantically trying to wedge himself between Sila and me.

"Stop! Stop hurting her!" Sky cried, his voice cracking with a terrifying bravery that fractured what was left of my heart. He grabbed Sila’s reinforced leather leg guards and hit them with his fists. "Leave Lyra alone! Don't hurt her!"

A hot tear slipped down my cheek, cutting through the sweat and grime on my face. The absolute selflessness of this boy—a kid who had known nothing but the dark and the cruelty of the dregs—trying to shield me from monsters broke something wide open inside me.

"Sky, no!" I yelled, my voice cracking with panic as I tried to shield him with my good arm. "Sky, get back! Don't worry about me, please, run!"

"Impertinent little rot-worm," Sila hissed.

With a sickening, fluid speed, her hand shot out from my arm and clamped directly around Sky’s neck. She hoisted the youngling completely off the ground with one arm, his bare feet dangling uselessly in the air as he choked, his hands instinctively grasping at her suffocating wrist. Sila shook him violently, her jaw opening to reveal rows of sharp, predatory teeth. "I should have fed you to the vertical wells moons ago."