Chapter 0445

Relief floods through me when Victor announces he's heading to battle, instructing me to join after organizing evacuations. Pregnancy prevents me from shifting. I'll have to sprint there in human form. If Victor saw me now, he'd know something was off.

The battlefield feels miles away without Aurora's speed. Four legs always outpace two. The scent of blood and gunpowder hits me before the fighting comes into view. I'm mentally counting enemies when Victor's voice cuts through my thoughts. Opening the mind link, I update them on my position and the staggering number of hunters.

Their strategy shifts—spreading out means I won't fight beside Victor. My place is with my sisters. Only together can we turn this tide.

Kai's battle howl shatters the air before I arrive. Chaos erupts instantly. Pack bonds snap one after another like severed threads.

"Aurora, hurry. We're losing them."

Her grief mirrors mine, sharpened by Noah's death among the first. Sirona's anguish radiates through the pack link—her mate gone in an instant.

The scene confirms Victor's fears. It's not the numbers. Silver glints in fallen wolves, seeping from bullet wounds like poison. We're being slaughtered.

I crash into the fray, breaking my sisters' connection to grip their hands. As the conduit, I channel their strength—Seraphina and Valeria have been shielding Adrian's pack alone, exposed at the frontlines.

Our combined aura explodes outward, obliterating hunters by the hundreds. Yet they keep coming. Bullets outpace our kills. Every lost wolf reverberates through us.

Seraphina's aura feels foreign, her blue energy tangled with golden healing threads. Remembering Oberon's lessons, I seize both. The healing might be useless now, but I cling to it like a lifeline.

Purple energy swirls—the same force that won the Luna's Challenge. This time, it decimates even more hunters. But as we focus, Seraphina's protection over Valeria's pack wavers. Their bonds fracture. Tears streak Seraphina's face for each life lost.

No time for mourning. Our mates. Our packs. My child. All depend on this.

Another surge of power. Hundreds more hunters fall. Yet their numbers seem endless. We've killed thousands, but half our warriors litter the ground—dead or dying, their whimpers shredding my focus.

I'm drawing power again when the shot rings out. A hunter takes aim at Valeria. Theron lunges, intercepting the silver bullet meant for her heart.