Chapter 479: Escaped.

Noah.

The heavy iron door of the subterranean prison slammed shut somewhere far behind me, the muffled shouts of Daniel’s mercenary guards dying out as I broke into the dense, dark thicket of the forest.

I did not look back, as I just couldn’t.

My lungs were burning, every ragged breath tasting like copper and ash as I dragged air into them. Each inhale scraped painfully down my throat and filled my chest with a sharp, searing ache that made it difficult to breathe properly. Still, I forced myself onward, refusing to slow down even when my body screamed for rest.

The damp pine needles beneath my boots yielded with every frantic stride, sinking softly beneath my weight before springing back behind me. Yet even the familiar forest floor felt strangely difficult to cross. My body felt wrong—heavy, sluggish, and violently out of sync, as though my mind was moving faster than my limbs could follow. Every step required more effort than it should have, and every movement felt delayed.

The wolfsbane Daniel’s men had pumped into my system was still sloshing through my blood, spreading its bitter poison through every part of me. It felt like a cold, sluggish sludge beneath my skin, creeping through my veins and starving my wolf of the strength it desperately needed. It weighed down every muscle, turning my limbs into lead and making even the simplest movement feel like a battle.

The suppression runes back in that cell had been broken when I ripped the iron anchor from the rotting wall, but the poison was far from gone. It still remained inside me, clawing relentlessly at my heart with every pounding beat. Each pulse carried another wave of weakness through my body, threatening to shut my organs down one by one.

I did not care, as I just couldn’t afford to care.

"Maria."

Her name was a constant, frantic chant beating inside my skull, loud enough to drown out the agonizing throb in my shattered wrists. I could still feel the raw, bloody gouges where the iron shackles had torn into my skin. Blood trickled down my forearms, dripping onto the forest floor as I pushed past tangled briars and sharp, low-hanging branches that whipped against my face.

I knew how Daniel worked. He was a spider, spinning his threads so quietly that you didn’t realize you were trapped until the venom hit your veins. He had removed me from the board first, dropping me into that hole so I couldn’t stop him. And now, while the quadruplets were blinded by their own grief and broken bonds, Daniel was closing the net around them. He was going to lead them—and Maria—straight into a slaughterhouse under the guise of a surrender.

"Hold on, sweetheart," I rasped into the dark, my voice a hollow, broken growl that barely carried over the howling wind. "Just hold on..."

I pressed forward, driving my boots deeper into the mud, forcing my failing body through the thick tree line toward the main estate. The distance felt endless. On a normal night, my wolf could have sprinted from the subterranean caverns to the house in less than ten minutes. But tonight, without my wolf’s speed, every step was an agonizing battle against gravity.

The forest seemed to twist around me. My vision blurred at the edges, dark blotches floating across my sight as the poison flared up again. A violent spasm ripped through my abdomen, doubling me over mid-stride. I stumbled, my boot catching on an exposed root, and crashed hard onto my shoulder against the trunk of an ancient pine.

I groaned, sliding down the rough bark into the cold dirt, my teeth grinding together so hard my jaw ached.

’Get up,’ my instinct screamed at me. ’Get up, Noah!’

I shoved my palms into the wet earth, fighting the heavy, suffocating paralysis settling over my limbs. The cold air rushed into my throat, but it did nothing to cool the fever burning behind my eyes. I pushed myself up onto my knees, my chest heaving, my whole body trembling uncontrollably.

And suddenly, I felt a strange wave wash through me, and I instantly knew It was Maria.

A sharp, cold shudder ran straight down my spine, a spiritual flare of pure distress that vibrated in the center of my chest. She was fading. Her wolf was suffocating, trapped in the same dark veil that was trying to drag me down into the dirt.

"No..." I choked out, a raw, desperate tear slipping down my dirt-streaked cheek. "No, no, no!"

The fear hit me harder than any physical pain. It ignited a brutal, frantic surge of pure adrenaline in my chest, forcing my stubborn heart to pump harder, driving the poison back just enough for me to find my footing. I grabbed onto a nearby branch, hauling myself back to my feet, and launched forward into a run once more.

I tore through the dark woods, ignoring the sharp rocks cutting through my boots, ignoring the tears in my clothes and the blood freezing against my skin. The scent of the pack—the faint smell of pine, old stone, and the familiar outer perimeter wards—was growing stronger. I was getting closer.

I could see the faint, dark silhouette of the outer stone boundary rising through the trees ahead. Just beyond those walls was the courtyard. Just beyond those walls was Maria’s room.

"Five hundred yards."

I pushed myself harder, throwing every remaining shred of my strength into my legs. My heart was hammering like a trapped bird against my ribs, irregular and frantic.

"Three hundred yards."

The treeline began to thin. I could see the soft, flickering torchlight mounted near the estate’s side gates. My breath came in shallow, wheezing gasps, a thick fog rising into the freezing night air with every exhalation.

"One hundred yards."

I broke through the final cluster of pine trees, stepping out onto the open, snow-dusted incline that led directly toward the Pack’s lower perimeter wall.

Then, my heart gave a violent, sickening stutter.

It felt as if a heavy steel door had slammed shut inside my chest. The world suddenly tilted sideways. The ground rushed up to meet me, but my legs completely gave out before I could even extend my hands to catch myself.

I hit the freezing dirt hard, the impact knocking the last remaining drop of air out of my lungs.

"Gah!" I gasped, rolling onto my side, my face pressed against the cold, wet mud.

My body refused to respond.

No matter how desperately I commanded it to move, my limbs remained stubbornly still. The wolfsbane had finally caught up to my heart, spreading through me with terrifying speed. A cold, icy numbness began crawling down my arms, stealing the sensation from my hands until my fingers became useless. I tried to curl them, but they barely twitched. My jaw locked painfully tight, making even the simple act of speaking feel almost impossible.

I lay there on the open slope, my body half-sunken into the cold, wet earth. I was so close. Just dozens of yards away from the boundary wall. Close enough that the illuminated windows of the main house were clearly visible through my blurred, tear-filled eyes.

I forced myself to keep looking.

My gaze settled on the window to Damien’s room. A faint, golden candlelight flickered behind the glass, its soft glow barely visible through my failing vision.

She was right there, I was sure of it, and the quadruplets were right there too.

Yet I was lying broken in the mud, completely helpless. I couldn’t move a single muscle. I couldn’t force my legs to carry me forward, couldn’t lift my head properly, couldn’t even raise my voice enough to scream the warning trapped inside my throat.

Desperation surged through me as I clawed at the frozen earth with my bloody fingertips. I dragged my heavy frame forward by sheer will, gaining barely an inch.

Then another inch.

The mud gathered beneath my fingernails, cold and wet against my skin, while the frozen ground scraped painfully beneath my palms. My legs remained completely dead behind me, refusing to obey even the smallest command.

Still, I tried.

"Davian..." I whispered into the dirt, my voice nothing more than a faint, dying, raspy breeze. "Aidan... Adrein... Damien..."

A dark wave of dizziness crashed over my mind, threatening to pull me under into total darkness. My eyelids grew impossibly heavy, dropping low as the freezing wind whipped around my trembling, paralyzed body.

I squeezed my eyes shut, digging my bloody nails deeper into the earth, refusing to let the darkness take me.

’I would not let you have her, Daniel,’ I swore silently, a single, fiery embers of Alpha rage burning stubbornly in the center of my freezing chest. ’I won’t let you touch her.’

I lay there in the dark, helpless against the cold stone of the earth, waiting for my heart to beat just one more time.