The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 405

Chapter 405

Muscles twisted painfully beneath my skin as my body returned to human form.

The world dulled again-scents fading, sounds softening.

When the transformation finished I dropped to one knee beside the corpse, blood smeared across my hands and arms.

The ruined penthouse surrounded us.

Broken furniture.

Cracked marble.

Glass glittering across the floor like ice.

Behind me Viktor finally lowered his gun.

For a moment he said nothing.

2

Anastasia stared at the scene in stunned silence, her hands trembling as she pressed herself against the wall for support, her wide eyes fixed on the headless body lying in the center of the destroyed room.

Outside, the wind carried more snow through the shattered window.

My breathing was still heavy, chest rising and falling as the last of the fury drained from my system. The shift had taken everything with it when it receded-strength, instinct, the sharp clarity of the wolf-leaving behind only the dull ache of injuries and the quiet awareness of the destruction around me.

Cold air brushed against my skin.

That was when I remembered.

The shift had left me completely naked.

I pushed myself up slowly from the floor, muscles protesting as I straightened. My ribs still throbbed from the earlier blows Lazarus had landed, and dried blood streaked across my hands and arms, already beginning to darken against my skin.

Neither Viktor nor Anastasia said anything

Viktor simply looked away with the casual indifference of someone who had seen this exact situation far too many times to care

Anastasia, on the other hand, looked like she didn’t quite know where to put her eyes

།)

15:51 Wed, Apr 1

Chapter 405

I ignored both of them.

:

74

The penthouse was a wreck now-splintered furniture, shattered glass, and overturned pieces of expensive décor scattered across the room

like the aftermath of a storm.

But rich men always had closets.

I stepped over the broken remains of the table and crossed the room, opening the nearest wardrobe door. Inside hung a line of neatly

pressed shirts and dark trousers, untouched by the chaos that had destroyed the rest of the apartment.

I grabbed the first pair of pants that looked close enough to my size and pulled them on quickly, fastening them at the waist before

dragging a black shirt from a hanger and shrugging it over my shoulders.

The fabric smelled faintly of expensive cologne and stale air.

Better than nothing.

By the time I rolled the sleeves up my forearms had already stopped shaking.

The penthouse had grown eerily quiet again.

Behind me Viktor had moved toward the window, glancing down at the street below as if checking whether the fight had drawn any

unwanted attention.

Anastasia hadn’t moved from the wall.

She still stood there, pale and shaken, staring at the corpse lying in the middle of the floor.

Her eyes slowly lifted from Lazarus’s headless body to me.

For a moment she didn’t say anything.

Didn’t move.

Didn’t even seem to breathe.

I understood why.

A few minutes ago she had been chained to the wall of this room, sold like an object to a creature old enough to remember centuries

most people only read about in books.

Now that creature lay dead at her feet.

And the man who killed him stood across the room pulling on borrowed clothes like it was nothing more than a routine inconvenience.

2/4

15:51 Wed, Apr 1

Chapter 405

I stepped toward her.

Carefully this time.

Not threatening.

…

Just close enough that she could hear my voice without the wind stealing the words.

“Can you walk?” I asked.

Her throat moved as she swallowed.

“Yes,” she said quietly.

Her voice sounded rough, like she hadn’t spoken in hours.

Maybe she hadn’t.

Good.

That meant she still had enough strength left to get out of here.

Viktor turned away from the window.

“We should go,” he said.

74

I nodded once.

The city outside was still quiet, but that wouldn’t last forever. Lazarus had guards. Associates. People who would eventually come looking

for him.

And when they did, the last thing we wanted was to still be standing in the middle of his penthouse.

I walked past the body without looking down at it.

The vampire was nothing more than dead weight now,

An obstacle already behind us.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify