All I can think about is Lucien’s first soulmate dying, and I can’t even begin to understand how he survived such a loss.
“You really think I’d let Mad get the better of me?” I answer as I press myself to Lucien’s chest, his heart pounding in my ear. I don’t want him to see the tears or how easily I fall apart because of them. He holds me tightly and kisses the top of my head.
Mama always told me life is hard. Don’t expect anything to be easy. You’ve got no one to count on but yourself. And those words kept me alive for so long. I am convinced they are the only reason I survived living in the woods. They helped numb the darkness in the hardest of times when I swore I was going mad.
That’s how fucked-up I was. Looking back, it’s so clear. But at the time, I held it together by holding on to my hardened life. Maybe I’ve softened since first coming into Dušan’s compound, or I found a new reason to fight for my life. More specifically three reasons.
I’ve searched for a purpose to life, and with the overwhelming sensation slamming into me at how much my soulmates mean to me, I feel weird. Though I know the truth. I finally fit in somewhere… with someone.
“Bardhyl, end this,” Lucien suddenly commands, then he lowers his hand to my cheek and his thumb wipes away my tears.
He doesn’t say anything, simply holds me. I glance up and look into those spectacular steel gray eyes, the smile on his lips, and my words tumble past my lips. “I think I love you.”
The moment they leave, my cheeks heat. What is wrong with me? Is this the place to confess to such feelings? In a prison?
“Baby girl.” He breathes heavily, his smile contagious and in every way captivating. “You are everything to me. My life. My future. My sun. I love you too.”
His kiss comes swift and covers me in goosebumps. More than anything, I want to be away from danger for a change. For so long, I’ve been running from everything and everyone.
And now for the first time, that is no longer me. A guttural growl has us pulling apart, and we both glance across the room.
The guard whimpers, curling in on himself, bleeding and battered. It surprises me that he still lives. Bardhyl stands near him in wolf form. He looks at us, a gleeful expression sweeping behind his eyes just as he lifts his back leg over the man and pees on him.
“For fuck’s sake, Bardhyl!” Lucien turns away from him, shaking his head.
I laugh, but it hurts my jawline from where I was punched. In fact, I want to cry out with excitement. I finally found Lucien and Bardhyl.
“Where did they take Dušan?” I ask.
“We don’t know. He wasn’t with us when we ended up here.” Lucien’s arm around my waist squeezes like he’s afraid I might go too far from him.
Bardhyl trots over and nudges his head into my side. I reach out, looping an arm over the back of his neck, drawing him to me. He’s burning hot against me, his fur splattered with blood.
Lucien pulls away first, breaking our embrace, and as much as I want to protest, I know we’re in danger the longer we remain here. “We need to go now,” he says.
Time with them is always too short, and my gut churns with concern. “We need to find Dušan first.”
“Down in the dungeon below us. Bet that prick Mad tossed him in there.” Lucien takes my hand and leads me to the door, Bardhyl at my back, and I take one last glance at the guard at the end of the room. He’s slumped against the wall, not making a sound, but his huge eyes are staring at us, his empty gaze haunting and terrified.
Bardhyl left him alive on purpose because he had to have known these Ash Wolves made a massive mistake in betraying Dušan, yet he believed this man could repent.
Fear makes people desperate, and that’s when shit goes sideways. But everyone fucks up sometimes. I misjudged all Alphas for so long, while Bardhyl lives with the agony of those he killed back in his home town in Denmark.
I glance back at my Viking mate still in wolf form, following close on my heels, and while everyone might see him as a terrifying warrior, I see someone else.
Someone who might be trying to atone for his past mistakes.
We all step out of the prison, my heartbeat quickly rising. Just as we swing toward the descending curving steps, a loud thud comes from down below.
Footfalls slap the stone floor, and panic races down my spine.
Lucien’s hold around my hand tightens, and he’s flying up the stairs, me in tow, and Bardhyl alongside us. He growls low to himself.
As we run away before detection, Dušan floods my mind, and I can’t stop the images of him lying down there being tortured from playing in my mind. And I hate myself for leaving him behind.
Chapter 6
Lucien
We force ourselves to run faster, me pulling Meira by the hand to keep up, while Bardhyl takes the lead. He sniffs the air to prevent us before running into anyone, taking us left and right down corridors. He knows this place inside out.
Voices and shouting booms from outside the building, coupled with the distant popping sound of guns going off. I don’t know what’s going on, but it sounds chaotic. Better for us to slip out of here undetected. Though leaving behind Dušan is a punch to the gut, and there’s only one place I can think of to hide to get my thoughts together on what to do next, which is where Bardhyl is headed. We discussed our escape plan to get out and go find Meira. Seems the little fox discovered us first.
When I glance over, there’s an innocence behind her pale bronze eyes, coupled with fierceness. She doesn’t whimper despite the guard having attacked her but steels herself against me as if ready to confront whatever danger emerges.
I fucking adore everything about her, and my heart clenches as her words back in the prison float in my head.
I love you.
Three words I never expected to ever hear again, and it plays heavily on my mind. I accepted my loss long ago, and that my future would be filled with women in my bed, not my heart. Until Meira. Except this isn’t the place to fall apart and get all mushy. I need to get my shit together.
We sprint down an empty corridor, my heart in my throat at the thought of being found, so I keep looking behind us.
Bardhyl careens left around a corner. He’s going for the side exit from the building and into the settlement grounds. Perfect.
“Quickly,” I whisper to Meira, who’s huffing but still keeping up with me.
My thoughts ping-pong in every direction. I will fight to the death to protect my soulmate. To defend our home. To safeguard those we consider family, currently living in fear within the pack. And then there’s Mad, the fucking prick. He is a certified psycho, and I told Dušan this long ago. But you can’t reason when it comes to family. I know this, but it doesn’t change my mind.
It sucks we had to devolve to this chaotic disaster for Dušan to finally open his eyes to who his stepbrother is: one twisted sonofabitch.
Everything about him is screwed, always has been. From the times I caught him assaulting two newly arrived Omegas in our woods, feigning he was helping them. To his constant goddamn spying on everyone. No one does that unless they are up to shit.
Meira’s hand slips in mine, but I hold on to her tighter as we dart down the darkened hallway. There are doors on either side of us. These are the staff quarters and our kitchen. Beyond lies a door leading outside, always locked from the inside.