Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 160

Chapter 160

ARIA

39

Finisher

Damon’s hand was inches from where I was hiding. I could see his fingers extending toward the gap beneath the vehicle, reaching for me with that same possessive certainty he’d always had. As if I was an object he’d misplaced and was simply reclaiming.

I was going to do it. Going to give myself up. The decision crystallized in that suspended moment-if I surrendered, Damon would take me and leave. Kael and Nina would survive. The fighting would stop. No more pack members would die because of me, because of the chaos that seemed to follow me everywhere I

went.

It was the logical choice. The selfless choice. The choice that would save everyone except myself.

My muscles tensed, preparing to crawl out from my hiding place. Preparing to sacrifice myself to end this nightmare.

But before I could move, before Damon’s fingers could close around my arm, the forest erupted with

sound.

Howls. Multiple howls, coming from every direction, echoing through the trees with such force that the air itself seemed to vibrate. Not the scattered howls of rogues or individual wolves, but coordinated pack calls. A hunting song that spoke of numbers and organization and lethal intent.

Then they emerged from the tree line.

Wolves. Easily twenty of them, maybe more. Moving impossibly fast-faster than I’d ever seen wolves move, faster than should have been physically possible. They were blurs of fur and muscle and teeth, covering ground with supernatural speed that made them look almost like they were teleporting between positions.

They hit Damon’s forces like a tidal wave.

The rogues who’d been steadily overwhelming us suddenly found themselves on the defensive. The wolves moved with devastating efficiency, working in coordinated groups, taking down targets with brutal precision. I saw one rogue fall before he could even raise his weapon, his throat torn out by a wolf that had closed the distance in the blink of an eye. Saw another try to shift but get dragged down by three wolves working in perfect synchronization.

It was carnage. Beautiful, terrible, methodical carnage.

Damon stumbled backward from the vehicle, his attention torn from me to the new threat. His expression shifted from obsessive determination to shock to calculation as he assessed the changed battlefield.

“Fall back!” he shouted to his remaining forces. “Retreat! Now!”

But falling back wasn’t easy when you were surrounded by wolves that moved faster than you could track. I saw several rogues try to run, only to be cut off and brought down before they’d made it three steps. The wolves were everywhere, moving with such speed that it seemed like there were twice as many as there actually were.

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Chapter 160

finished

Kael, still in his wolf form, had pulled back to defensive position near the vehicle- near me. I could see him watching the newcomers, trying to identify them, trying to determine if these were allies or just different

enemies.

Then one of the wolves shifted. The transformation was fluid, practiced, revealing a familiar figure.

Jordan. Kael’s assistant. The one who’d called with news of Damon’s escape. He stood there in human form. breathing heavily but grinning fiercely, covered in blood that probably wasn’t his own.

“Sorry we’re late, Alpha,” he called out. “Traffic was hell.”

The joke was so absurdly normal in the midst of this chaos that I almost laughed. Almost. If I hadn’t been paralyzed with shock and relief and residual terror.

Kael shifted back to human form, his body language still tense despite the arrival of reinforcements. “Report. How did you get here so fast?”

“Split the force,” Jordan explained, even as the battle continued around us. “One team went back for the security detail you had to leave behind. This team came straight for you. And we had help from an unexpected source.”

He held up a small vial, empty now but marked with symbols I recognized. Ivory’s handwriting. Her careful notation system.

“Healer Ivory provided accelerants,” Jordan continued. “Some kind of enhancement drug she’d been working on. Pushes us beyond our normal limits-increased speed, heightened reflexes, enhanced strength. The effects are temporary but powerful. We drank them before shifting and it let us cover the distance in half the time it should have taken.”

Accelerants. Drugs that enhanced wolf abilities beyond their natural capabilities. I’d heard Ivory mention her research into performance enhancement compounds before, but I’d never imagined the results would be this dramatic.

The remaining rogues were being systematically eliminated. Damon had managed to escape into the forest with maybe five or six survivors, but the rest of his force was either dead or dying. The wolves pursued, their enhanced speed allowing them to keep pressure on the retreating enemy.

“Let them go,” Kael ordered. “Don’t pursue beyond visual range. We need to secure this position and get medical attention for the injured.”

The wolves obeyed immediately, breaking off pursuit and returning to the clearing. Several were wounded -bullet grazes, claw marks, signs of the brutal fighting they’d engaged in. But they were alive. Functional. Victory showing in every line of their bodies despite the injuries.

Nina had collapsed against the vehicle, her shoulder bleeding heavily from the gunshot wound. The driver was checking on her, applying pressure to slow the bleeding. Other pack members were doing rapid triage, assessing injuries, determining who needed immediate medical attention.

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