Vanished Sisters: The Lycan King's Slave Island Chapter 29

Natasha's POV

We ran.

Lucy's hand was clamped around my wrist like an iron shackle, yanking me forward every time I stumbled. My lungs burned. My legs screamed. But we didn't stop.

Behind us, the roaring continued—closer now, echoing through the stone corridors with a fury that made my bones vibrate. The sound wasn't just noise. It was *rage*. Pure, animalistic rage that promised violence and death.

"Don't look back!" Lucy gasped, her voice breaking. "Don't—just keep running!"

But I couldn't help it. I glanced over my shoulder.

The corridor behind us was dark, lit only by the flickering blue torches. But in that darkness, something *moved*. Something massive. I caught a glimpse of black fur, of red eyes that burned like coals, of claws that tore grooves into the stone floor as it ran.

*Oh God. Oh God, he's gaining on us.*

We turned a corner and nearly collided with two guards.

"What the fuck—" one of them started, his hand going to the sword at his hip. He was young, maybe twenty, with a scar across his cheek. His eyes were wide with confusion. "You slaves aren't supposed to be—"

Then his gaze shifted past us. To the darkness beyond.

His face went white.

"*Holy Mother of—*" He drew his sword, stepping forward. "Sound the alarm! *Sound the fucking alarm!*"

The second guard—older, grizzled, missing two fingers on his left hand—grabbed a horn from his belt and brought it to his lips.

He never got the chance to blow it.

The hallway behind us *exploded*.

Stone and wood and mortar burst outward in a shower of debris. The blast knocked me and Lucy forward, sending us sprawling onto the floor. My palms scraped against stone, tearing skin. Lucy cried out beside me.

And then I heard it.

The wet *crunch* of bones breaking.

The gurgling scream of the young guard as something tore through his chest.

I rolled onto my back just in time to see the wolf—*massive, impossibly huge*—shake his head like a dog with a rag doll. The guard's body flew across the corridor and hit the wall with a sickening *thud*. Blood sprayed across the stones in a wide arc, painting the blue torchlight red.

The older guard with the missing fingers stood frozen, the horn still clutched in his remaining hand. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. Just a soft, broken wheeze.

The wolf's head snapped toward him.

"Run," the guard whispered. Not to us. To himself. "Run. *Run.*"

He turned and bolted down the corridor.

The wolf lunged.

It caught him in three strides. Its jaws closed around the man's torso—*all* of it—and there was a horrible *crack* as his spine snapped. The guard's legs kicked once, twice, then went still.

The wolf dropped the body and turned back toward us.

Those red eyes locked onto me.

"*Move!*" Lucy screamed, grabbing my arm and hauling me to my feet. "Natasha, *move!*"

We ran again.

My heart hammered so hard I thought it would burst through my ribs. Every breath felt like fire in my lungs. Behind us, I could hear the wolf's claws scraping against stone, the low rumble of its breath, the wet sounds of it stepping over the bodies it had just made.

*He's playing with us. He could catch us whenever he wants. He's just... playing.*

We turned another corner. Then another. The corridors blurred together—stone walls, blue torches, doors that all looked the same.

"Where—" I gasped. "Where are we—"

"I don't know!" Lucy sobbed. "I don't—I've never been this deep before—"

A guard appeared ahead of us, spear raised. He was tall, broad-shouldered, with tribal tattoos covering his arms. A Lesser Lycan, judging by the way his eyes reflected the torchlight. "Halt!" he barked. "You can't be—"

He saw the blood on our clothes.

He saw the way we were running.

And then he saw what was behind us.

His face went slack. The spear slipped from his fingers and clattered to the floor.

"Fuck," he whispered. "Fuck, fuck, *fuck*—"

Something massive and black blurred past us.

There was no time to scream. The wolf's jaws closed around the Lycan's head—*his entire head*—and ripped it clean off his shoulders. Blood fountained from the stump of his neck, spraying the ceiling, the walls, *us*.

I felt droplets hit my face, warm and sticky.

The headless body stood for a moment, swaying, before collapsing.

The wolf turned back toward us, the Lycan's head still in its mouth. It shook its head once—hard—and the skull *burst* like an overripe melon. Bone fragments and brain matter splattered across the floor.

Lucy made a sound that was half-sob, half-retch.

"In here!" she gasped, shoving me toward a narrow door. "In here, *now!*"

I didn't argue. I stumbled through the doorway into darkness. Lucy followed, slamming the door shut behind us and throwing the bolt.

The room was small—some kind of storage chamber. Shelves lined the walls, filled with dusty bottles and folded linens that smelled of lavender and mildew. A single narrow window near the ceiling let in a sliver of moonlight, just enough to see by.

Lucy and I collapsed against the door, our backs pressed to the wood, chests heaving as we tried desperately to breathe quietly.

Silence.

Just the sound of our ragged breathing and the distant, muffled thunder of drums from the feast somewhere far above. The Blood Moon Feast. They had no idea what was happening down here. No idea that death was stalking the corridors.

Lucy's fingers found mine in the dark and squeezed so hard it hurt. Her hand was slick with sweat—or blood, I couldn't tell.

We stayed like that, frozen, listening.

Nothing.

No footsteps. No breathing. No sounds of pursuit.

Just... silence.

"Maybe..." Lucy whispered, her voice barely audible, trembling. "Maybe we made it. Maybe we're—"

The wall beside us *exploded*.

Stone and mortar burst inward like a cannonball had struck. I screamed, throwing my arms up as chunks of rock rained down on us. Something sharp hit my shoulder, tearing through my shirt. Lucy was ripped away from me, thrown across the room by the force of the blast. She hit the far wall hard and crumpled to the floor, groaning.

And then he was there.

The wolf.