Chapter 43

The blinding lights seared their eyes, burning white-hot after the suffocating dark. A heartbeat of silence—then Elena's voice shattered it like breaking glass.

"Fuck! It's a trap—get out!"

The words barely left her lips before the air shifted.

They couldn't see their ambushers yet, but they felt them. A hundred unseen eyes boring into their backs—silent, patient, waiting. The kind of gaze that made the skin crawl, that whispered of wolves in the brush, of teeth bared just beyond sight.

Panic coiled tight in their chests.

The heroes bolted for the warehouse doors, boots pounding the dusty floor, lungs burning as they braced for the inevitable. Any second now—the building would slam shut, the exits cut off, the world set ablaze.

They spilled into the night, gasping, the sharp dock air biting their faces.

And froze.