The tunnel groans like a dying beast. Rocks break loose from the ceiling, slamming into the ground, cracking the stone beneath our feet. A thick wall of dust rises, choking the air.
Rhea coughs beside me, pressing a hand against the tunnel wall for balance. Behind her, Soren shields a younger wolf from falling debris. The others scatter, their panicked movements kicking up more dust.
I turn, my muscles coiled. The tunnel behind us is completely sealed.
We're trapped.
"Shit," Rhea mutters, shaking dust from her hair. "They're burying us alive."
I press my palm against the nearest stone, feeling the vibrations. More explosions in the distance. Alric isn't just sealing us in—he's collapsing every tunnel we could use to escape.
"We need to move," I say, my voice sharp with urgency.
"There's nowhere to go!" One of the younger wolves, a brown-furred male named Lior, gestures wildly at the solid rock ahead of us. "We're dead! We're all dead!"
A growl rumbles in my throat. "Not yet."
The others fall silent, watching me. Waiting.
I scan the tunnel, forcing myself to breathe past the weight of dust and fear pressing on my chest. There has to be a way out.
Rhea moves beside me, her sharp eyes flicking over the collapsed tunnel wall. Then she stiffens, stepping forward. "There."
I follow her gaze to a narrow crevice on the side, barely wide enough for a human body. It wasn't there before. The explosion must have shifted the rock, creating an opening.
Soren steps closer, tilting his head. "Do you feel that?"
I still. There's a faint stir of air, cool against my skin. Fresh air.
A way out.
"It's tight," Rhea warns, running a hand over the jagged edges of the opening. "And unstable. We don't know how deep it goes or if it even leads outside."
"It's better than standing here waiting to be crushed." I turn to the others. "This is our only way out. We move, now."
No one argues. They trust me. Even after everything—after my capture, after my failures—they still look to me to lead them.
I step forward, pushing through the crevice first. It's tighter than I expected. The jagged rock scrapes against my shoulders as I squeeze through. The tunnel on the other side slopes downward, the ground uneven and slick.
Behind me, the others follow. One by one, they disappear into the darkness, their breathing harsh in the enclosed space.
Then suddenly—
A tremor.
The walls shudder violently, and a sharp crack echoes through the tunnel. I freeze as a chunk of rock splits from the ceiling, tumbling down.
"Move!" I roar.
The wolves scramble forward, some diving through the crevice just as a cascade of rock crashes behind us, sealing the tunnel completely.
No way back now.
Rhea exhales beside me, eyes scanning the darkness ahead. "We better hope this tunnel leads somewhere, Kade. Or we just walked straight into our own grave."
I clench my jaw and keep moving.
Because the only way out is forward.
***
The air grows colder. The tunnel floor slopes sharply upward, loose stones shifting beneath our feet. Every breath is filled with dust, and the weight of the underground presses against my senses.
But there's something else now.
The scent of earth. Of trees. Of the open air.
"We're close," I say, pushing forward. The others don't need to be told twice.
Rhea stays right beside me, her breathing steady but sharp with tension. Soren is just behind her, his ears twitching at every distant rumble of collapsing tunnels. The younger wolves stumble, exhausted, but they don't stop.
Then—
A gust of wind rushes through the passage ahead, carrying the crisp scent of pine. Fresh air.
Lior lets out a breathless laugh. "We made it."
Not yet. Not until we're out.
I push faster, my claws digging into the stone as I climb the last incline. The tunnel narrows one last time, then—
I burst through the exit, nearly tumbling forward as my boots hit soft, damp soil.
The forest.
The sky above is a deep, endless black, studded with stars. The trees stretch high, their branches whispering in the cold night breeze. And there, hanging like a silver blade in the sky—
The full moon.
The others stumble out after me, gasping in relief. Rhea falls to her knees, running a hand over the cool earth. Soren exhales slowly, his eyes scanning the towering trees around us.
"We're out," he says, as if he can't quite believe it.
But we don't have time to celebrate.
Because in the distance, the hunting horns sound.
Lord Alric's men are already searching.
I turn to the others. "We keep moving. We run until they can't find us."
No one argues.
And so we disappear into the dark, into the trees, into the unknown.
Hunted still—but no longer trapped.