Rain came down in sheets, blurring the city lights into long, broken lines of gold and red.
The streets of Arclight were quiet this hour — too quiet. The kind of quiet that hides teeth behind it.
Kael crouched on the edge of an old overpass, his black gear soaked through, water dripping off his jaw. Below, three armored trucks rolled through the industrial zone, tires slicing through puddles. Each one bore the same crimson insignia — The Bloodshade Syndicate.
Lucien's people.
Rylan's voice crackled softly in Kael's earpiece. "Convoy confirmed. Heat signatures match hybrid containment units."
"Positions?" Kael asked.
"Jax and Mira on the west flank. I've got east. Waiting for your word, Alpha."
Kael's gaze swept the convoy. He could feel the wolves in position — every heartbeat, every twitch of muscle, every ounce of tension waiting for release.
Selene knelt beside him, rain dripping off her rifle. Her expression was calm, but her pulse wasn't. He could hear it — steady, strong, but a little too fast.
"You sure about this?" she asked quietly.
Kael didn't answer right away. He just watched the trucks, the way they moved like a chain of armored beasts. "Lucien's building an army," he said finally. "We cut off his supply lines tonight."
"And if those hybrids wake up mid-fight?"
Kael gave a half-smile. "Then it gets interesting."
Selene shook her head, muttering, "You're insane."
"Probably."
He tapped his comm. "All units — move."
---
The first explosion tore through the night.
Jax's grenade hit the lead truck dead-on, flipping it sideways in a flash of fire and steel. The second truck screeched to a stop, and that was all Kael needed.
He dropped from the overpass like a shadow falling. The ground cracked under his boots as he landed in front of the convoy.
Gunfire erupted instantly — bullets slicing through the rain, ricocheting off metal. Kael moved through it like he was born for this chaos. Bullets grazed, but none landed clean. His body shifted with each step, muscles tightening, bones ready to break and reform.
A guard raised his rifle. Kael caught his wrist, twisted, and threw him into the side of a truck. Bone cracked.
Selene slid down the embankment, hit the ground running, and took cover behind a wheel hub. She fired clean, precise shots — one in the chest, one in the throat. Her aim never wavered.
Rylan and Mira joined the fight from opposite sides, moving like predators through the smoke.
It was fast. Violent. Wet.
Kael ripped through two guards, claws half-shifted, eyes glowing silver through the dark. He kicked the truck door open and found what he'd expected — glass pods, three of them, each holding something half-alive. Wolves.
Or what used to be wolves.
Their eyes opened as the door swung wide.
"Selene," Kael barked. "We've got sleepers."
She ran over, eyes widening as she saw them. "Jesus…"
One of the hybrids twitched — muscle spasms under translucent skin. Then it roared, breaking through the restraints like wet paper.
Kael shoved Selene aside just as the creature lunged. Its claws tore into the truck wall where her head had been a second ago.
Kael hit it hard — shoulder first — driving it back into the mud. It fought like nothing natural, strength wild and unbalanced. Kael roared back, his voice deeper now, edged with something primal.
"Kael!" Selene shouted, tossing him a blade.
He caught it mid-air and plunged it deep into the hybrid's chest. The creature spasmed once, then went still.
Rain hissed against the hot metal. Steam rose from the wound.
Selene knelt beside him, panting. "You good?"
Kael nodded once. "Yeah."
Another growl — behind them.
Two more hybrids stumbled from the wreckage. Their bodies twitched with unstable energy, eyes glowing faint red.
Rylan was already moving in, claws out. "I got one!"
"Keep it alive!" Kael shouted.
"Alive? You're joking!"
"Lucien's mutating them faster. I need to know how."
Selene reloaded, shooting one in the knee. The hybrid dropped, howling, before Rylan slammed it into the pavement and pinned it down.
Kael tackled the other, locking its arms, forcing it against the truck frame. "Talk!" he snarled.
The creature just hissed — its voice distorted, more machine than beast. "The moon… will… favor… him…"
Then its pulse stopped.
Kael released it, breathing hard, blood dripping down his arm. He turned toward Selene. "We're running out of time."
She nodded. "Then we hit harder."
Before he could reply, Mira's voice came through the comm — panicked.
"Kael! We've got movement—north side! Two more trucks inbound!"
Kael looked up. Through the rain, headlights flared — two more armored transports barreling toward them.
"Everyone fall back!" Kael shouted. "Detonate and move!"
They ran. The ground shook as explosions ripped through the night. The sky turned orange for a split second, then black again.
They regrouped under an old bridge — soaked, bleeding, but alive.
Selene dropped beside Kael, catching her breath. "Well," she said, "that went to hell fast."
Kael gave a short, humorless laugh. "You did good."
"Good? I almost got ripped in half."
"Then you did better than most."
Rylan came limping over, wiping blood from his face. "We got one hybrid alive. Barely breathing, but alive."
Kael's eyes sharpened. "Take it back to base. We'll get answers."
Selene looked at him. "And if we don't?"
He stood, rain dripping from his hair. "Then we make sure Lucien gets our message loud and clear."
She frowned. "Which is?"
Kael turned toward the burning wrecks in the distance. His voice was quiet, but it cut through the rain like a blade.
"That the hunt has begun."