MICAH’S POV “He lied to you,” I had told Koro before I left, and hoped he could cling to that and not get involved with Rujin.
I crawled through the ventilation veins of the High Spire, which was an exercise in systematic suffocation.
My ribs grooved with deep, purple bruises where Don Rujin’s powers had slammed me against the wall.
The heat had bypassed my tactical gear entirely, cooking the flesh beneath until it felt like raw leather.
Every time I reached forward to drag my weight through the dust, my vision blurred with numbing pain.
It took me three hours to drop through the vertical tiers and drop from an old drainage intake, landing on my hands and knees in Sector 9.
“Micah!” A shadow detached itself from the iron roof above, and I realized that was Jax, one of our scouts, his gray wolf fur bristling against the bitter wind.
He dropped down beside me, his nose twitching as he caught the scent of scorched flesh.
“By the Ancestors…
you smell like a burnt roast.
Did you find him?” “Where’s Vex?” I rasped, my hand clutching my side as I stumbled forward.
“In the office, the Vanguard Pack just tried to squeeze the eastern fuel lines, and she is in a mood.” I arrived at the office, and inside, the air was thick with the scent of pine, blood, and heavy, dominant pheromones, and at the center of the platform, standing over a rusted iron map table, was Alpha Vex Varr.
“If the Vanguard takes the refinery at the crossroads, we don’t have enough heat to keep the nursery blocks above freezing through the next season,” she growled, “We take it back, we don’t negotiate with scavengers.” “Vex,” I said, my voice cracking as I stepped into the perimeter of the light.
The entire room went silent.
Six Alpha-captains turned to look at me, but Vex’s gaze was the only one that mattered.
Her eyes narrowed, her nostrils flaring as she caught the cocktail of scents clinging to my skin: cat-sweat and the unmistakable, suffocating ozone of a High-Mountain Dragon.
“Clear the room,” she commanded.
“Alpha, the Eastern strategy, ” one of the captains interjected.
“Out!” she roared, her voice vibrated across the office.
The captains left the office urgently, and we were left alone with Alpha Vex.
“Tell me he’s alive,” she whispered, “Tell me they haven’t turned my boy into a corpse.” “He’s alive, Vex,” I gasped, the pain and pressure on my lungs making it hard to find air.
“He’s alive.
But…
he’s not the Koro we lost.” She let go of me, stepping back, her chest heaving beneath her.
“Don Rujin Marks did this to you?” “He didn’t even use a hand,” I said, sliding down the pillar until I sat on the cold concrete floor, and I let my head fall back against the iron.
“He just…
breathed, and the air turned into a solid wall of fire.
He’s a monster, Alpha Vex.” “And Koro?” She knelt in front of me.
I took a deep breath, the taste of copper flooding my mouth.
” Rujin’s Dragon is on dragon fire overload, and Koro is the only thing keeping him from exploding.
But it’s worse than that.
Don Rujin lied to him, Vex.
He told Koro that you sold him and made him believe the Iron-Paws Pack traded his life for Heat Credits to save the pack.” Vex’s jaw went slack, and the silver fur along her neck bristled until she looked twice her size.
A low, terrifying growl rattled from her chest.
“He…
he told him what?” “He told him he was abandoned,” I repeated, looking her dead in the eye.
“He isolated him and made him think he had nothing left in this world but the cage he was put in.
I tried to tell him the truth.
I told him you lost an eye trying to tear the transport apart and have been hunting for him since the day he vanished.” “Did he believe you?” “I don’t know,” I admitted, my voice dropping to a whisper.
“But Alpha Vex…
that’s not the most terrifying part.
I saw them together.
I saw them in the dark.
The Thermal Lock between them…
It’s not just a leash anymore.” Vex’s brow furrowed, her ears twitching.
“Speak plainly, Panther.” “Koro isn’t freezing up there,” I reported.
“He’s adapting, and his Varg-Kyrie blood is doing something impossible.
I suspect that it’s drinking the Dragon’s fire.” Vex stood up slowly, walked to the table, and stared down at the map.
“A hybrid should not be able to hold that much energy.” “The Vampire side is acting as a parasite.
The Dragon feeds the Vampire, the Vampire feeds the Wolf, and the Wolf keeps Koro alive.” “So, he’s safe?” “No,” I responded vehemently.
” We need to get him out.” I heaved as I struggled to stand up.
“I tried to get him out, but he refused.” Vex froze.
“He refused?
To come home?” “They have Nara,” I confessed to Vex.
Vex closed her eyes in anger, ” The cryo-pod.” “Rujin is funding the medical tier,” I said.
“If Koro attempts to escape, Rujin cuts the power.
Nara freezes to death in her sleep.” “He thinks he’s alone,” she whispered, “He thinks he’s the only one fighting.” “He’s not alone,” I said, stepping up to the table beside her.
“But Vex, there’s one more thing you need to know.
Something I didn’t want to admit even to myself while I was up there.” “What?” “The way Koro looked at Rujin when the Dragon threatened to kill me was not normal..
When Koro stopped him, he used his own body as a shield, and the Dragon Don, who never listens to anyone in this realm, stopped.
He looked at Koro like he was the only thing in the world that mattered.” Vex’s eyes snapped to mine.
“You’re saying that Don Rujin Marks has a weakness?” “I’m saying they’re infected with each other,” I said.
“Then we don’t pull him out,” she growled, her amber eyes flashing.
I stared at her, stunned.
“Vex?
He’s your brother.
Your pack.” She looked up at the ceiling, her jaw set, her fangs fully extended.
“Rujin Marks thinks he owns the sun,” she whispered, “But he’s about to find out what happens when the winter comes for the hearth.
Go and heal for now.
I will have a plan, and Koro has just become the weapon that we shall use to bring down Don Rujin.” She took her knife from her belt and drove it deep into the heart of the High Spire on the map.
“They underestimated us.”
Give me more motivation!