by Mila Young
Shadowlands Sector
Three
Mila Young
Shadowlands Sector Three © Copyright 2020 Mila Young
Cover art by TakeCover Designs
Editing by Amy McNulty
Proofreading by Nic Page and Robyn Mather
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Contents
Shadowlands Series
Shadowlands Sector Three
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
One Week Later
Savage Sector
Start Reading
Night Kissed
Books By Mila Young
About Mila Young
Shadowlands Series
Shadowlands Sector One
Shadowlands Sector Two
Shadowlands Sector Three
Shadowlands Sector Three
There is no more running…
...this time, I’m willing to fight to the death. Mine and theirs.
Because of me, my three mates have been captured by our enemy, and once again I am all alone.
But I can’t let the enemy’s treachery be their fate. Not for me, not for the future we thought we had.
My only option is to take this fight to him. Let embrace the monster inside me I have feared my whole life.
The enemy thinks I’m the key to his biggest problem...
The undead.
I can’t be that key. I must return. I must save my men. No matter the cost.
I’m running out of time. My life for the alphas.
I have one choice. That’s an easy decision. And my monster agrees. We’re out for blood, and this time I’m not leaving until the enemy pays.
Shadowlands Sector is the final book in this trilogy. The spin-off series, Savage Sector, is set in the same world and is coming out soon. Find an exclusive first look at chapter one at the end of this novel.
Chapter 1
Meira
Fear strangles my chest.
I step back, using all four paws easily, which is strange in itself.
I’m a freaking wolf with tawny, reddish fur. No longer the girl I was a year ago… or even the girl I was yesterday. We live in a brutal world and it changes you. Both mentally and physically in my case.
My gaze whips to my three men, three Alphas… three mates who’ve claimed me. And it kills me to see them lying on the ground, knocked out by Mad’s men to get to me. And all I can remember is them being attacked, the terror in Dušan’s eyes as he fell. Then I transformed.
These men who’ve attacked us inch toward me, a semi-circle of half a dozen.
I want them to pay with every fibre of my being, but I’m not even sure how to control my new wolf body.
My wolf is her own entity and it’s like there’s two of us in my body fighting for dominance. Is that how the other wolves feel?
She shoves against my insides, and I stumble on my feet to grasp onto any semblance of normality.
Involuntarily tilting my head back, I raise my chin and unleash a shattering howl.
A shiver flares over me, my mind fluttering between sanity and the savagery of my wolf. She’s so strong I can barely hold her back.
Hunger and revenge course through me, the emotions rip at me. She craves death, unlike anything I’ve ever imagined.
Pure addictive ferocity, and I’m salivating at the thought. Except that’s not me, is it?
Mad and his assholes approach me in slow motion in a semi-circle to trap me. Still, fear swims in their gazes and I smell it in their air like sour perspiration.
The syringe draws my attention to Mad’s fist.
A tall brute lunges toward me, roaring more like a bear than a wolf. Something flashes over my thoughts, like a spark of energy.
Next thing, I’m darting toward the man threatening me, my head in two places at once. I scream on the inside as I crash into his middle, and bring him down fast. While my wolf snarls with satisfaction, panic frantically chills my bones that she has control over me. That I am the one in the backseat of this relationship.
Faster than lightning, she snaps back to his face, teeth sinking into his neck. She rips out his throat so fast, the man has no chance to scream.
Terror latches onto me, and I’m backpedaling, grappling to draw her back. My mind drowns in images of her completely dominating me.
I cling onto that semblance of control as she pulls against me.
If I truly let go and my wolf were to take charge, will I ever find myself again?
Mad smirks, not even caring that his man is gurgling on his own blood at his feet.
I growl, lips peeled back, the back of my neck bristling with fur. The white haired Alpha had captured me in the woods so long ago to trade me. He’s going to pay for ambushing his true Alpha, Dušan, and betraying him.
One of his fighters, a barrel of a man, comes at me, a snarl on his lips. Another charges my way too, already in animal form. A gray wolf with a huge head.
Instinct jolts through me, and my wolf snaps into action, taking charge. Except, I hold on and am there with her, both of us pressed together in the driver’s seat. Shoulder to shoulder, we shove each other while battling the real enemy outside.
I leap at the first man, suddenly feeling like I’m flying from the strength in my body. I crash into him, headfirst into his gut. He groans, but still lands a punch to my back. My knees wobble, but I never cower away.
My body tingles, and I pivot around and lunge up to bite deep into his shoulder, ripping away flesh to the bone, blood gushing free, splattering the dead leaves around us. The coppery taste is like dirt across my tongue, my body trembling with uncontrollable fury. The need to rip them all apart soars through me.
Something white flashes behind my eyes, an unsatisfiable rage, blinding me.
Another attacker smacks into my side hard, throwing me off my feet and to the ground with a thud. I’m shaking violently, my head still spinning.
His weight presses down on me, and footfalls close in around me.
But I won’t be caught, not ever again.
I fucking won’t.
I buck against the idiot and snap my head around, ripping my teeth into his arm. Tearing away with skin and fabric, I don’t relent as he cries out.
Heat lashes over me, and I scramb
le to my feet, growling. I recoil from the four approaching monsters. Mad strides forward, his white hair blown off his face from the wind, the bastard looking older, more exhausted than when I last saw him. But a fuckhead is still a fuckhead. His twisted expression is one of a man who is disgusted by what he sees; me standing up for myself.
I can’t look away from the syringe he grasps. They already jabbed me once in the neck, and it forced me into a transformation. I somehow doubt that was their intention, or that they expected me to put up such a battle.
My legs tremble beneath me, and adrenaline pumps through my veins, keeping me going. Except, my wolf suddenly drives me aside, and I refuse to stop her. I’m stumbling on my feet, snarling at myself until I crash into a tree.
“What the fuck’s wrong with her?” someone asks.
“Stop fighting,” Mad’s voice cuts through the madness in my head. “I can take care of you. Protect you.”
I growl in response. Liar!
“Your choice, Meira.” He lifts the syringe. “Come with us calmly and I promise to release my stepbrother and his two men. Keep fighting and we’ll take you by force. And with that, I can guarantee I will kill them.”
He suddenly pauses as do his men, each of them glaring at me like I’m nothing but a means to an end. I know exactly what he wants from me… my blood. They think I am the cure to a zombie infection. Sad fucks have no idea how wrong they are.
My heart pounds in my ears, my wolf growling in my chest shuddering with violent need, but it’s four against one. Even I'm not that foolish to believe I’ll win. Another reason I need to pull back my wolf. Especially now that a wounded wolf is climbing to his feet.
I swallow hard as my breaths speed up.
Mad’s expression darkens, and underneath the storm in his eyes, there is desperation—one I’ve seen on power-hungry Alphas before. He’ll do anything, kill anyone to get what he wants.
Really, I have one option: get to Mad first and tear him apart while not losing myself to my wolf.
Easier said than done.
Electricity hums over my skin just as it had when my wolf first pushed out of me. She had my skin ripping, forcing herself to come out. The pain is gone now, knitting my wolf and me as one soul, one being, yet she fights me. This can’t be right.
I recoil, my sight never leaving Mad’s. This isn’t the time to stumble. I step back, bumping into a tree, and I shudder.
My wolf growls her threat at me. She doesn’t back away… well I fucking do.
They close in. All five of them. Three are in human form, and two have taken wolf form.
Dread taps fast in my chest. I frantically look around for a way out, for anything. Looking down to my men, they don’t stir, and worry sinks through me. What had been in the injections to knock them out so fast?
Tension leaks in the air, while rage bubbles to the surface inside me, bringing with it a lick of fire down my back.
I loathe Mad. Wrath rises through me at what these men deserve.
But pain stings my side from where the bastard slammed into me earlier, pulsing across my ribs.
“Get her!” Mad bellows, and my gut reaction kicks in this time.
I twist and lunge away, ignoring the sensation like I’m trying to turn back around. My wolf’s betraying me. Running isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s knowing when you’re outnumbered and working out a way to take out the leader.
I dodge trees and dart deeper into the dense forest, scrambling for escape. Shadows seem brighter now, my vision sharper and crisper. Glancing over my shoulder, the five of them give chase. But it’s Mad I need to get… chop off the head and the monster dies.
Swinging forward, I charge when an army of shadows emerge from the woods ahead of me.
Fear rattles me instantly. Have more Alphas surrounded me? I startle and skid to a stop by a massive pine tree, stiffening and swing my head in every direction for a way out.
A raspy groan comes from the woods, followed by more noises, and the clatter of teeth or bones follows.
My skin crawls as the first zombie emerges from the darkness.
I recoil. Will they attack me now that I’ve transformed? I step against the tree and glance back to the wolves’ fear-stricken expressions at seeing who’s arrived.
The zombie leading the charge has one missing ear and only a thin layer of hair over a spotty, pale head. Torn clothes hang off his bony frame. Another that comes forward has a mangled arm, others broken limbs.
Then the mass follows like a broken dam. They spill out from the woods, staggering, lurching, groaning. Others are licking the air as if already tasting the blood from the earlier wolves I’ve bitten and killed. That’s what drew them here.
Even more undead stumble out of the woods. There has to be close to thirty.
The leader snaps its jaws and reels forward.
I hastily turn, needing to get out, except... fuck!
Dušan, Lucien, and Bardhyl are still on the ground, lying, waiting to be eaten. Are they covered in blood? I don't remember. Wracking my brain, I can't think straight when the undead approaches.
I dive away to escape, unsure if I'm their food or not.
Leukemia had made me immune to the zombies. A fact I learned recently, and everyone knows when a wolf transforms, all human illnesses heal. That means, I would be a meal for the undead now.
I sprint after Mad and his men who dart out of here, my wolf salivating as she thinks this is a chase. They are already so much farther ahead than me, having taken off the second they saw the Shadow Monsters.
Two more creatures suddenly appear at my right, so fast and unexpected, I do a double-take. My paw hooks under a tree root, and I'm tumbling forward and over my head before I can make sense of what just happened. I smack the ground hard and scramble to my feet.
Panic slams into me, feeling vulnerable and open.
Shadows crowd in around me, seeming to come from every direction.
Teeth gnashing, they close in, and I shuffle backward, ice filling my lungs that they’re coming for me.
The creatures stumble forward, and I shudder. But then they dart right past me without pause.
Startled, I can’t believe my eyes at first, and I study them flowing right past me. They don’t notice or touch me!
It takes me moments to come to terms that I’m safe… and it’s my wolf that takes charge and growls, warning them.
With their sloppy gait, they approach regardless.
One of them brushes right past me, and I flinch away. But they don’t stop. Moaning, they stumble after Mad and his men. These monsters that should attack me don't. Skin peeling away, jaws dislocated, dried blood around their faces, they don’t see me.
I'm invisible to them.
My head spins at first, trying to make sense of why they didn't attack me.
Am I still sick? I blink, watching them move away.
But reality catches up with me too, and I need to get my men to safety. I throw myself into the herd and shove them aside to get ahead.
Leaping over logs and dodging zombies, I burst out in front and into the small clearing where Mad and his men ambushed us.
Except, no one's there.
Not the wolves. Not Mad. And not my men.
Sickness churns in my gut that I’m too late. The bastard took them. I should be happy he saved them from the undead, but it doesn’t make my men safe for long.
I'm also livid that he took them from me to ensure he has a bargaining tool to get what he wants. Snarls roll over my chest, and I unleash a pent up howl, desperate to chase them down and take back my wolves.
Seething, I catapult toward the Ash Wolves pack compound to catch up to them. To stop them.
The Shadow Monsters hurry to the spots on the ground where the bloody corpses of my victims lie. Falling to their hands and knees, the disgusting things lick up the remains.
My stomach turns.
I keep going, only trees in my view, as Dušan had said earlier we weren't far fr
om his pack home.
It isn't long before I spot figures ahead, darting deeper in the forest, and a few look like they are carrying someone over their shoulders.
My pulse spikes, and I dart forward when a cry draws my attention to my left. My wolf seems to have pulled back. Did I just have to take control of her? Is that all it took?
I stop running and get a better look. A girl is tied to a tree, a gag over her mouth and she's thrashing for escape.
Jae!
What the heck is she doing here? I bumped into her in the woods days ago when she was like now, tied to a tree by a psycho Alpha. Perhaps Mad and his wolves caught her while they searched for us.
I glance back to Mad and his crew, almost vanishing in the woods from sight. My gut tightens.
Groans grow louder behind me, and I whip around.
Crap! Those damn zombies are making their way toward Jae.
Her eyes widen with fear and she cries frantically, writhing against the bonds keeping her tied to the tree. Mad and the others are moving further ahead, but how the hell am I meant to follow them now? If I do, I'm sending Jae to her death.
Frustration worms through me. But I can't waste time, so I throw myself toward her, scampering over the dried foliage and evergreens covering the land. Trampling anything in my way.
She squirms and draws away from me as much as she can, but I growl at her, then I swing to move behind the tree. Biting into the rope securing her to the trunk, I gnaw on them, tugging, and chewing.