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Orion's shoulders remain squared in front of us, broad enough to block his father from view. The fur along his spine stands on end, claws curled and primed to slice. “You will not touch him again.”

A low rumble vibrates through the cavern. “You speak to me as though you are already alpha.”

“I speak as his mate.”

The larger creature's gaze drifts around Orion, settling on me for the briefest of seconds. “He carries your offspring, yet you have not taken my place. Your blood still answers to mine.”

The bond between us pulses so viscerally that my heart aches. Orion doesn't look at me, but I watch one of his ears twitch in my direction, as though reassuring himself that I'm still there. “Release him. Please.”

“Human words,” his father spits. “He has poisoned you with them. Just like your mother.”

“You will not speak of her,” Orion snarls, crouching low.

The temperature in the cave seems to plummet dangerously.

“I will speak of whatever I wish. I am alpha. Everything beneath this mountain belongs to me.”

A growl begins deep within Orion's chest, building until the very walls rumble around us. One moment he stands directly in front of me and the next, his claws are diving toward his father's throat.

The other monster meets him head-on with a roll of thunder that loosens dirt from the ceiling, their collision detonating through the cave like a landslide. Stone explodes around them.

The ground jolts hard enough to throw me sideways, and I scramble backward as two enormous bodies slam into one of the ancient wooden beams, splintering wood. My mate tears himself free from his father's grip long enough to lunge toward me, splitting the chain around my ankle in half with his claws.

“Go!” he roars before spinning just in time to catch his father's claws across his forearm. Blood splashes over the walls.

All I can do is stand there and stare at the chaos erupting around me, lost in a daze of realization.

Orion didn't come here to challenge his father. He came here to find me. But as another thunderous roar shakes the mountain and my monster launches himself at the alpha again, I begin to understand that those two things have just become indistinguishable from each other.

Only one of them is leaving this fight alive.

And I have no fucking idea if the mountain will still be standing when they do.

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

Benji

Rocks pummel down from the ceiling.

Orion and his father crash through another wall, their snarls reverberating through every tunnel branching off the chamber. I can barely keep my footing beneath the violent tremors shaking the mountain.

Another slash sends blood spraying over stone, and I stumble forward on instinct as my mate slams into one of the pillars hard enough to crack solid rock. “No! Orion!”

“You must go,” he growls through gritted teeth. “Run.”

“I won't leave you again!”

His terrified eyes finally meet mine over his father's shoulder. “Please.”

That word rips straight through me. My gaze flies toward the exit before Paula catches my attention, her chain stretched tight as she struggles to pull herself upright. Without thinking, I dart toward her and grab the chain with both hands.

“It won't break!” she cries, trying to shove me away. “Just go!”

“I'm not leaving either of you.” The rusted links dig into my palms, biting until warm blood slicks the metal, but it doesn't even budge an inch.

“Fuck,” I grunt, planting a boot against the wall for leverage. “Come on!”