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To her credit, she doesn’t flinch or back away. She stares at me with uncertainty, her expression pained.

Jessamine drops to her knees. Her head bends, the long line of her neck bared to me.

“You’re broadcasting it,” she whispers. “It hurts.”

Fuck. It takes all my effort to staunch the flow of Astra’s pain across our bond. The bond I thought was gone for good. And I, like an idiot, sent it out to my entire pack.

I get myself back under control and apologize to everyone.

Jessamine sighs. Her expression immediately loses some tension, but the worried creases between her eyes don’t leave.

She sits back on her heels and cups her belly. It’s rounder now, protruding slightly. She had her twenty week checkup the other day. She won’t come with us when we enter Gage’s territory.

“What’s happening?” she asks. “What changed?”

War, my wolf says. It’s time.

And I can’t help but agree. I needed a sign from Astra, but I think my cousin is too smart for that. My hunters have patrolled the No-Man’s-Land between our territories, crept along the borders of his undetected and reported back. I’ve been charting his patrols, his numbers, for seven weeks.

And now, something new.

I think Gage is tired of my waiting.

If I knew Astra was being tortured–

I shift back as suddenly as I did in the first place. Bones snapping, muscles stretching, fur receding. It hurts, but I need the pain. I accept it for what it is, even though it’s over in a flash.

I accept the clothes she holds out, and she makes a face. “The pack will realize what happened. They know the pain we all felt wasn’t yours.”

The mate bond.

“I’m going to reject it.” I head for the lodge.

She trails after me. “Is that why you haven’t gone after her? You could’ve saved yourself the trouble and rejected it weeks ago. Found another witch to help with your plan.”

My wolf growls at the idea. He’s not on board with rejecting Astra. He wants her. He’s been the most difficult to control during this time, because if he had his way, we would’ve already stormed Gage’s territory.

“I’ve been trying to see if she’s even alive,” I mumble.

We knew, my wolf whispers. Just not where.

“And now?” Jessamine asks.

Now, we know where.

“Get the hunters together, as well as those willing to fight with me,” I tell her. “She’s being kept in the northernmost part of his territory.”

The pain has eased. Whatever was happening to Astra is over now, and the bond is as dormant as it was before.

It doesn’t matter. It was all I needed to bring her home.

Chapter 25

Astra

Gage storms into my cell. I barely lift my head, but it doesn’t matter. He picks me up like I weigh nothing.

The cuffs on my wrists cut into my skin, and blood smears across my shirt. The markings are in Latin, the same as what marks the door to the witches’ hallway. And above every door. They’re containment spells. I finally puzzled it out one morning, half asleep and trying to distract myself from the pain.