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“Meira,” I call out, rushing to the corner of my cell, closest to her. Mad implied she’d escaped from him, but the bastard must have found her. To see her is like someone let the sun into the room. Her head turns in my direction, her eyes huge with the realization of finding me.
“Dušan.” Her soft voice cracks with emotion, her arm reaching out for me when she’s ripped away and forced into the last enclosure. The door shuts, and the guards leave us alone in the room.
I clench my jaw and focus on Meira stumbling to catch her balance.
My little wolf pauses and swings to the side of her cell facing me. She grips the metal bars, her knuckles white, her dark hair messy around her shoulders, dirt streaking her cheek like war paint. It suits her.
“Dušan,” she repeats. “We tried to come back to get you, but it’s madness out there.”
“Are you hurt?” I ask, scanning the long, black coat she wears. It’s two sizes too big for her. Her bare feet are filthy, and she reminds me so much of the wild girl I picked up in the woods when we first met. The only difference is that there is no hatred in her eyes when she stares at me, only painful longing. “You changed into your wolf.”
She nods enthusiastically, her smile forced at a time I would have thought she would be cheering.
“Something’s bothering you?” I ask, waiting for her to answer.
She pushes loose strands of hair from her face. “Despite transforming into my wolf, it seems I’m still invisible to the undead. I don’t understand what that means. Am I still sick?” Her tone softens, like it hurts her to admit that out loud.
“Are you vomiting blood like before?” My voice thickens at the notion. She was supposed to heal once she shifted, but if she still suffers from leukemia, does that mean the disease will take her from us? This isn’t what I want to hear when everything else is fucked-up.
She shakes her head. “I feel strong and like nothing can touch me.”
I huff and lick my dry lips, attempting to make sense of why she’s still immune. Was I wrong this whole time and maybe Mad is correct—she holds the key to our salvation? I seethe at the thought that he might be correct about anything. Just because immunity is in her blood doesn’t mean it’s a solution for the rest of us.
“I will do everything in my power to get you out of here so we can work out why you’re still resistant.” The swell of overwhelming admiration in my chest threatens to suffocate me at the thought of how much she’s grown on me, how much a part of me she has become, how I can’t bear to lose her. She looks at me, giving me that gorgeous, lopsided grin, and I want to bellow with frustration and rage.
There’s an empty cell between us, and more than anything, I wish I could hold her, kiss her, and tell her we will get out of this somehow. She breaks our gaze and lowers herself onto the cold floor, tucking her legs in beside her. It doesn’t take her long to get as comfortable as she can, while every fiber in my body is close to the breaking point at being so far from her.
She wipes at her glistening eyes. “I’m so angry. We ran from the Ash Wolves, and I got split up from Bardhyl and Lucien. Then I bumped into the girl I told you I met in the woods last time, Jae, except she was in the company of three northern Alphas. I’ve never seen anyone transform into such monstrous wolves before. Dušan, they were like Bardhyl, but bigger and scarier.”
My mind whirls with what she tells me, with the stranger who occupied her enclosure not long ago. Up north, there are many rogue wolves and packs, more akin to barbarians in their behavior. But that Alpha I saw today appeared calculating and not a rogue. Could he be from up in the Savage Sector?
“That northern asshole traded me for someone else Mad had kidnapped. And the worst part is that Jae is with them. Whoever they are, apparently, her sister hired these goons to come find her.”
That tells me Mad’s men intercepted the outsider pack and must have taken one of their own. That’s who the Alpha in here was before.
I grind my jaw at hearing how my fated mate has been used as a trading pawn. Fury bleeds through me that anyone dared lay a hand on her in the first place.
“Guards are all over the woods,” she says. “I just hope Bardhyl and Lucien are safe.”
With the Ash Wolves tracking the surrounding forest, my Second and Third will lie low until they get the chance to come in here through the tunnels. Unless the location has been compromised.
“What else is going on out there?” I ask. “Is Mad part of the search too?”
She leans in closer, pressing her face between two metal bars, and it kills me that there is an empty prison between us and I can’t hold her or brush away the terror painted on her face. “The man who negotiated with the northern wolf declared himself the Alpha of this sector. But he’s just a guard. And if Mad had been there at the time, he’d have rushed out the moment he saw me.”
I nod. “You’re right, which means he doesn’t yet know you’re in here or he’d be here in a flash.”
My chest tightens, but I refuse to voice my concerns to Meira. Mad’s plans are straightforward. Now that he has Meira captured, there’s no more need for me. My end is near. Sweat rolls down my spine, and I ought to be fearful, but what I worry about more is what the lunatic will do to my beautiful mate if I’m not here to stop him.
Lucien and Bardhyl are my last hope.
“We’ll get out of this,” she assures me, most likely picking up on the deepening of my concern.
I’ve fought my whole life for a better place for our pack. And the one person I protected all his life will now be my undoing.
I glance over to the door, my racing heartbeat sounding like a countdown until my stepbrother marches in here for Meira. I swallow the bile at the back of my throat. Anger echoes in the confines of my head, and I try to push away the mounting dread. I comb a hand through my hair, needing to shake the nerves away.
“Dušan, are you all right?” Meira interrupts my thoughts, and her singsong voice draws my attention to her. Her beautiful eyes study my every move, every reaction.
