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I growled, sinking my teeth deeper, and Theo whined.
“Alastor don't do something you’ll regret,” said Carlisle. “Sariel won’t understand if you kill him. If she’s his mate, it’ll break her.”
My eyes found Carlisle's, his gaze steady. "Enough," he repeated, his voice firm yet pleading. Beneath me, the fight drained out of Theo, and he lay still.
Slowly, I released him, retracting my jaws from his throat. The taste of his blood lingered on my tongue, a bitter reminder of what had happened. He stayed limp under me, panting heavily with eyes on me filled with rage and hurt.
I stood over him, panting, as the fury in my veins ebbing away to leave a hollow emptiness. I looked down at Theo. At my friend. Slowly, I retreated, stepping away from the subdued wolf, keeping my eyes locked on his. He rolled over onto his belly and got to his feet, but lowered his head, signalling his acceptance of defeat. His soft growl was filled with resentment but also understanding and pain.
Muscles contracted, bones realigned, my form shrinking back into something resembling a man. Theo followed suit, the transformation ripping through him violently as we both returned to our human shapes. We stood there, panting, skin marred with welts and scratches that slowly began to heal in front of each other's eyes.
"Lead by sheer fucking force," Theo spat out, his eyes burning. The rawness of his voice matched the intensity of his glare. "But you know I'm right, Alastor. You can't keep hating her for how she makes you feel."
I clenched my fists, ignoring the sting from fresh wounds. His words sliced through me sharper than any claw. Heat flushed over my body, the remnants of my hellhound form simmering just beneath the surface. The truth stung. Theo was pushing buttons he had no right to touch, but damn him, he wasn't wrong.
“Enough,” I growled, feeling the tightness in my chest, as anger gave way to pain. "Just... enough."
He gave a sharp nod, then turned and stalked away into the growing darkness. I watched his retreating back, deep claw marks marring his brown skin. My claw marks. Centuries of keeping my beast to heel, and two days with that woman had me nearly tearing out the throat of one of my best friends, who only wanted to love her. To care for her, protect her. I was a fucking monster. Sariel deserved better. She deserved someone who would take on a fucking hellhound for her. She deserved Theo.
Chapter Nineteen
SARIEL
The drone of pumps echoed off the cavern walls as I followed Alastor and Theo into the cave we’d reached a week ago on our first foray into the cave system. A thick pipe lay along the cavern floor, reminding me uncomfortably of the serpent tail that had wrapped around my waist, pulling me under the water to meet its pale, deathly eyes. I shivered as we approached the deep pool at the back of the cavern, but it had gone, reduced to only a few inches of water now.
"Watch your step," Alastor muttered, as he surveyed the area.
I nodded, my eyes landing on the colossal form of the salt serpent. It lay still and lifeless, but I couldn’t help but feel likeevery time I looked away, it moved in the corner of my eye. Crew members buzzed around it, snapping photos and collecting tissue samples with an efficiency that bordered on clinical. My stomach churned at the sight, images of thrashing tails and snapping jaws flashing through my mind. We had nearly died here, entwined in battle with this ancient devil from the depths.
"Can't believe they got all the water out so fast," Theo commented.
Alastor glanced back at him. “Cole sent a team down here shortly after I sent him the report I made. He thought it safer to ensure we weren’t attacked again, but no other creatures have turned up.” His tone was professional and matter of fact, and I was struggling to get my head around how he’d gone from utterly furious at me to calm and reserved. I’d stubbornly shown up with the rest of the team, bag packed and wetsuit on, determined not to let him bully me into staying behind, but he’d barely glanced in my direction and hadn’t mentioned me staying behind at all. I’d been elated, until the car journey and the dive back down here. He was barely speaking to me, and when he did, it was polite and to the point, like I was a complete stranger. At first, I'd thought it was preferable to being yelled at, but I was coming to realise that it actually felt worse. It hurt, and I wasn’t even sure why.
“That’s strange,” murmured Carlisle, stepping up and looking around. “The pool is big, but not that big, unless there’s a deeper pool through the tunnel that was its main home. And I would have thought there would be others.” I looked over at Carlisle, horror rising inside me at the thought of facing more of these creatures in the dark waters of the cave.
He saw me looking at him and smiled reassuringly, his blue eyes twinkling at me. “Of course, this time we’re prepared.”
“Don’t worry, Sariel,” grinned Theo. “I won't let any of these things eat you. We can feed Alastor to it instead.”
I glanced over at Alastor who huffed. “I believe I was the one who killed this thing,” he retorted.
“Don’t worry,” I said lightly. “I’m sure we can find something down here that’s big enough to eat you.”
Theo and Carlisle laughed, and something flickered in Alastor’s eyes, but he merely turned away and said nothing. My smile froze on my face at his lack of reaction. I still didn’t understand what I’d done to make him so incensed, but although I’d been allowed back on the team, he clearly hadn’t forgiven me, and that upset me more than I wanted to admit. I made up my mind to be the model team member, in the hope that easy mood would return.
The team that had drained the cave was starting to pack up their gear, having finished their job, but they’d brought more equipment down here for us to take through the tunnel and I retreated behind a thick salt column with my own supplies to change into the dry clothes they’d brought us. We would take our wetsuits with us, in case we needed them again, but I was hoping against hope that we didn’t. When I reemerged, Theo, Alastor and Carlisle had changed too. I had been surprised when Theo had told me Carlisle was coming, but apparently, he often came along as a member of the team to be on hand if there was an emergency. I supposed if something else went wrong, we would be a long way from the surface, but I’d assumed he’d be waiting in this cave for us, rather than coming with us.
I hoisted my bag onto my chest. Wetsuit, food, water, climbing gear, torch, and various other survival items made it quite heavy, but moments later, Theo lifted a double air tank onto my back, and clicked the BCD over my shoulders and round my waist under the backpack. I frowned at the large mask he hooked onto my belt.
“What’s that? It looks different to the one we used the other day.”
“It’s a rebreather,” explained Theo. “Regular scuba masks have you breathing in air and breathing out carbon dioxide, but rebreathers take the air you breathe out and convert it into oxygen. Means they last longer than normal air tanks, in case we’re down here for a while.”
He checked the straps to make sure they weren’t cutting in anywhere and stepped around to look down at me. “Everything good? Not too heavy?”
“No, it’s fine,” I said, trying to look him in the eyes without my mind immediately going to the memory of the last time he was this close to me, of how his lips had felt on mine. He hadn’t mentioned it since, or my hasty exit, and I had been worried it would be a thing, but he was acting as though it had never happened. I was relieved, but at the same time, I felt a strange sadness at the thought that he clearly regretted it. As though he could hear my thoughts, his gaze dropped briefly to my mouth, and my heart felt as though it skipped a beat, but then he was nodding.
“Great, you’re sorted.” He stepped back and surveyed me, then grinned. “You even make pack mule look sexy.”
