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His eyes are brimming with tears, too, as he draws his fingers over my cheek, his thumb across my lips. Jaw hardening, he seems to fight back the emotions inside of him. “You’re here.”

“I’m here,” I whisper.

His eyes focus on the path of his thumb as it brushes across my cheek. A hard blink confesses his disbelief, but the agony swirling in his stare says otherwise. “I never thought I’d touch your skin again. Or see these eyes.” He frowns, the distrust of what he’s seeing written in his expression. “This can’t be.”

“It is, Valdys. I’m here.” Nervous breath flutters in and out of my lungs, as I take in the feel of rough and calloused fingertips that dance over my face.

He leans forward, his coarse facial hair grazing across my cheek, and I shiver with the proximity, listening to him inhale, breathing in my scent, before he pulls away.

Gaze dawning with realization, he falls to his knees before me, and buries his face in my stomach, his arms wrapped tight around me, caging me in.

Running my fingers through his hair, I let out a tearful laugh, and bend forward to kiss the top of his head.

Dragging me to his lips, he rises to his feet, and I melt against him, feeling every muscle in his body tremble when he steals my breath in a kiss so filled with longing and passion, my knees turn weak. Air blasts from his nose, arms banding around my back, and he lifts me up off the floor. My mouth captures sounds of relief, or sadness, that rip from his throat--I can’t discern, which. Forehead pressed to mine, he grips the back of my neck with one hand, the other still holding me up, as our ragged breaths mingle between us.

“I never thought I’d taste these lips again.” He stares up at me, the scar at his eye twitching with the expression of incredulity on his face. “If this is another dream, if I’m still asleep in that chamber, and they’re tearing me apart as I speak, I pray they finish and I never wake.”

I run my trembling fingers down his stubbled cheek, the tears of joy blurring all his scars that pass beneath my skin. “I’m still trying to figure out whether, or not, you’re real.” Elation pulls at my chest, and I swear I can hear my own heart beat back to life. The air doesn’t feel as thick as before. The weight on my shoulders lighter. “I’ve waited so long for you.”

Lips stretching to a smile, he blinks out a tear and pulls me to his face again, as he lowers me back to my feet. The metallic flavor I’ve longed for fills my mouth, and I would sacrifice every ounce of breath inside of me to stay in this moment forever.

The growling of the dogs breaks my trance, and I turn to see Cadmus approaching, covered in blood and limping, his hand shielding what must be an injury at his side. “Cadmus!” My heart soars at the sight of him, but I don’t leave Valdys’s side, not ever again.

Brandon climbs out of the shelf where he’s remained hidden, and Cadmus gives him a nod.

Valdys snaps his fingers again, and the dogs growling ceases as before.

“Good to see you, Brother,” Cadmus says, his hand outstretched toward Valdys.

“Wish I could say the same.” Valdys pulls him in, patting him on the back as the two men embrace, but when he pulls away, his eyes are darker than before, brimming with fury. He slams a fist into Cadmus’s face, kicking him back a step. “What the fuck were you thinking bringing her here?”

Chuckling as he wipes the blood from his lip, Cadmus shakes his head. “Don’t act like you have no idea how fucking persuasive she is. There was no keeping her away from this place. From you.”

Valdys flicks his gaze to me and back to Cadmus. “You’re fools to come back here. Do you have any idea what runs through these halls? What lurks in the shadows?”

Cadmus nods toward the dogs standing behind Valdys. “Looks like you’ve made friends with a few.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I say flatly, interrupting the two. “It’s as Cadmus said. Nothing would’ve kept me from you. And we’re here now.”

“How? We’ve searched everywhere for a way out. Every hallway. Every door. Every point of entry is sealed.”

“Who’s we?”

“Atticus. He’s another Alpha who was sent to the chambers.” Valdys glances around the room. “The lights flicked on, and we thought something had glitched. That the place was about to blow, or something.”

“How …. How did you survive?”

“One of the Legion officers who escorted us down. When the alarms went off, he let us go. Just a kid.”

“What was his name?” Brandon asks from behind, his voice thick with curiosity.

“Everett.”

“And is he alive? Do you know if he’s alive?” The urgency in Brandon’s voice tells me it was his brother who saved Valdys.

Valdys lowers his gaze, brows flickering. “We found him about a month ago. He’d fallen into an elevator shaft and broken his neck.”

Rubbing his hands back and forth over his skull, Brandon whimpers and crouches to the ground.