The alpine winds carried the stench of rot. Luca followed a trail of shattered branches and half-melted snow. He wasn’t hunting. He was being hunted.

  Sofia had gone quiet since Thiago’s death. Too quiet.

  She’d taken a long perimeter walk and returned with blood on her boots. Claimed it came from a rabbit. Luca didn’t believe in coincidences.

  He watched her from the trees for two days.

  Then the howls came.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Three tributes from Russia had entered their biome—pushed north by the brutal fighting in their own. One of them, Luka Vostrikov, was a mountain survivalist with eyes like broken glass and a taste for fear.

  Luca and Sofia found him over a corpse—Nandi’s, dismembered and strung between branches.

  Luca stepped forward, hands up. “We can share this zone.”

  Vostrikov grinned. “No. But I’ll share her.”

  He lunged.

  Luca drew Sofia’s blade—he had stolen it days ago—and flung it into Vostrikov’s thigh. The Russian fell, roaring. Sofia struck from the left, slashing his throat.

  The other two Russians charged, but Luca had set snares earlier that day. One went down in a pit. The other lost her leg to a bear trap.

  Sofia was stunned.

  “How did you know they were here?”

  “I didn’t,” Luca lied. “Just lucky.”