The world around Lily was a blur of chaos and destruction. The deafening roar of the onslaught reverberated in her ears as she fought to regain her bearings. The blast had launched her, and she wasn't sure where she was right now.
Her vision blurred, and she could taste the metallic tang of blood in her mouth and smell the poisonous wolfsbane in the air. With every labored breath, she tried to push through the pain and disorientation. 'Move. We have to move, Lily,' Dina said within her. 'Get up or let me take control.'
Lily forced her eyes open, her heart sinking at the nightmarish scene that unfolded before her. Rubble and debris were strewn about, limbs were strewn everywhere, and bodies lay motionless in the rubble. The sanctum, once a place of council meetings and decisions, had been transformed into a battlefield.
'Was there a bomb? How could this have happened?' Lily thought.
'This was a planned attack in case Kenneth didn't get his way. We have to keep moving and find the others,' Dina answered.
Lily's ankle throbbed painfully, and a trickle of blood ran down the side of her head. Desperation clawed at her as she realized the gravity of the situation. Without the mate link to Garrett, she couldn't locate him. Panic threatened to overwhelm her, but she swallowed it down.
Through the pride link, she reached out to Tiffany. "Tiffany, where are you? I need help. I don't know where Garrett is, and I'm hurt."
Tiffany's voice flooded Lily's mind. Her breathing was labored, which let Lily know she was fighting. "Lily, I can't get to you now. Try to find safety. We're doing our best to repel the hunters. We'll come for you."
Hunters? Did she say hunters? Hunters were supposed to be a thing of the past, but smelling the wolf's bane and seeing the carnage meant there was a traitor in the community. They should not have known about this place.
"Be safe, Tiffany," Lily said before breaking the link. She needed to find shelter, but everything was toppled, including pillars and crumbling walls. If she could make it out into the forest, Lily could outrun any human and any car. With gritted teeth, she began to crawl over the rubble, pain shooting through her injured ankle with each movement.
'Why am I not healing? This should have healed by now,' Lily thought.
'The bomb had small amounts of wolfsbane in it. It is in the air. It is hampering our healing ability,' Dina explained.
"There's the girl!" a voice rang out. Two hunters, clad in dark attire and armed with tranquilizer darts, spotted her amidst the chaos. Panic surged within Lily as one of them took aim and fired. The dart struck her side, and a rush of cold numbness coursed through her veins. Instinct and survival overrode her pain, and she lunged at them with a feral growl.
The two men were clearly surprised by her sudden show of strength, but they were quick to recover. One hunter grabbed Lily's arm while the other pinned her back against the wall. Despite her struggles, they managed to secure a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.
"Now, calm down. We have orders not to hurt you, but we will if you leave us with no choice," one of the hunters said as he pulled out a taser.
'We can't let them take us, Lily. Give me control now!' Dina pleaded desperately within her and Lily quickly gave Dina control. The silver handcuffs burned her skin, but did nothing to restrain her as they tore from her wrists as she shifted into her wolf. Dina snarled at them, trying to get them to back off, but they pulled out batons to strike her.
With her claws extended, Dina lunged forward. She took one of the hunters down easily. Her mouth clamped down on his neck, ripping his throat out.
"You bitch, you killed my brother!" the other hunter yelled, pulling out a gun. He shot Dina in the back twice. Dina shrugged off the pain, turning around, her muzzle clamping down on the hunter's wrist, and tearing the hand holding the gun right off.
The hunter collapsed to his knees, clutching the bloody stump that was now his hand. Dina couldn't hear his pleadings for mercy. She pounced on him, mauling him with frenzied desperation. His startled cries were drowned out by her snarls.
As the tranquilizer's effects began to take hold, Lily's body involuntarily shifted back. Her vision became blurry, and her movements grew sluggish. She stumbled forward, leaving the two injured hunters behind. Her limbs felt heavy, but she couldn't afford to stop. She needed to find safety, find Garrett, find Tiffany, and find someone who could help her.
In her haze, she spotted a figure trapped underneath a fallen wall. It was Elder Richard, the same man whose treacherous actions had brought about this catastrophe. Part of her wanted to leave him there, to let him bear the consequences of his betrayal.
But another part of Lily knew that she wouldn't be conscious for long and that she could save his life. Even if he betrayed them all, he didn't deserve to die like this. Lily stumbled toward him, her weakened body trembling as she began to remove the heavy rocks that pinned him down.
Elder Richard's voice was filled with disbelief as he watched her efforts. He attempted to help her but he could barely move. "You need to escape, Lily. They are coming for you!"
Lily didn't say anything as she continued to remove the heavy rocks. "Why... why are you helping me? After everything I've done..." Elder Richard asked.
Lily's voice was a strained whisper as she fought to free him. "You have a chance to make this right. You need to live to tell everyone who took me."
Before she could say anything more, the tranquilizer's grip tightened around her, and her vision faded into darkness.