Rage bubbles through me. My wolf sits in my chest, pushing and pushing for release. But not yet. When the time is right, I will slaughter him.
Mad rolls his eyes at me, half-chortling. “Big words from someone who will soon be nothing but a rat in an experiment.”
I shudder at the thought, at the inferno burning through my veins at this asshole who doesn’t deserve to live.
“It’ll be all right,” Dušan reassures me. He always puts me first. Except today, that’s the last thing I want.
Death has walked into his cell to collect him, and all he cares about is my wellbeing. “Mad,” he says. “If you still retain a thread of brotherly love for me, then you will promise me to not hurt Meira. Give me that as my last wish.”
My knees buckle under me, my chest cleaving in half. This can’t be happening.
Mad responds to Dušan with a threatening growl. “Did you show me mercy when you tossed me into the dungeon, when you stripped my title in front of others? You deserve death, and I’m going to make sure you suffer while I watch. And as you take your last dying breath, it will be my face you see smiling.”
Dušan’s expression darkens, his shoulders curving forward, and his wolf growls through his chest.
“You fucking asshole!” I cry out.
Mad simply laughs, and he makes me so mad, I want to scream. Fury battles inside me, an explosion of heartache and frustration at the thought of being stuck in here.
They shove Dušan toward the door, and I rush to the front of my prison, sticking my arm out. “Please, don’t do this! I’ll do anything you want, Mad. I beg you.”
It’s Dušan who still looks at me, holding my gaze while my tears run rampant down my face.
He smiles, and I’m crying, unable to stop. “Our souls will always be united. I promise this won’t be the last time you see me. I love you, Meira.”
He’s forced out of the prison, with the guards and Mad following him. Before the main door is barely closed, Dušan turns ferociously onto two of the guards. Brutally, he slams into them, bringing them down to the ground.
The door claps shut.
I freeze.
I can’t breathe.
I’m falling apart.
Growls and thuds erupt, the banging and shuffling escalating. Kill them, Dušan.
I wait breathlessly for him to return. To find out that he finished them off. To take me away from here.
It takes moments for the blast of noises to flatline. Silence.
Anticipation coils around me, suffocating me.
The longer I wait, the more I deflate, and my insides incinerate with anguish.
Never had I dreamed that I’d fall in love, let alone with three men. But to have one ripped from me is like tearing my heart physically out of my chest.
I collapse to my knees, crying loudly in my hands, hissing my anger through clenched teeth.
Seconds pass.
Minutes.
He doesn’t come.
Dušan never returns.
He’s gone.
My world breaks into pieces that will never be put together again.
In my mind, all I see are his wolf-blue eyes, the softness of his lips cushioning against mine, the soft whispers in my ear of what he promised me. Everything we shared had been taken from me and I can’t bear to fathom a future without him.
A sob breaks through me.
Those memories sit inside me like horrible, jagged shards of glass.
Tearing me.
Shattering me.
Killing me.
Selfishly, all I can think is that I wish I’d never fallen in love with anyone.
Bardhyl
“Hurry the hell up,” I bark as Lucien lags behind me.
“Hold your fucking horses.”
Frustration crashes through me that we haven’t found Meira anywhere in the woods.
When we started to go north, we finally caught her scent. But it brought us right to the back entrance to the settlement. And that meant one thing.
She’s been captured. There’s little other reason she’d be using that entry when the woods are crawling with Ash Wolves.
I wipe the trickling blood from my busted lip with the back of my hand. Lucien and I took out a small group of Ash Wolves we found searching the woods, and in all honesty, we couldn’t resist. The idiots were men we knew. Lowest of the scum in our pack, easily manipulated into being loyal to that traitor, so that small service to clean out our tribe was the least we could do.
Now we burst through the tunnels in human form. We wedged several boulders at the cave’s entrance leading to these tunnels, just in case anyone finds it.
I glance back. Lucien finally catches up, bouncing in the dark. He’s a shadow I easily discern with my wolf eyes… Partial transformation has its benefits.
“Had to make sure it was securely in place,” he murmurs.
Both of us frantically bound forward in the narrow tunnel, darkness chasing after us, and all I can think of is Meira.
“We rescue Dušan first, then the three of us bombard Mad. I’m tearing his head off.” I growl.
“Fine, I’m laying a claim on ripping out his spine. But on one condition.” Lucien doesn’t wait for me to respond. “He’s alive so he can feel pain. I want him to fucking hurt so much, it burns inside me with urgency.”
“That assmuncher is going down,” I bark. “Then I’m dancing on his grave. Well, actually, you can do it with your cowboy boots, seeing as how he hated them.”
His brow bunches up, eyes widening. “What the fuck? He hated my boots?”
“Bruh, he laughed about you to others. When I heard him doing it, I hit him so hard, I knocked one of his back teeth out. Never heard a word after that about your boots.”
“You’re a good friend, you know that? If there’s anyone I’d share my soulmate with, it’s you and Dušan.”
“Don’t get all soppy on me.”
Lucien laughs and pats my shoulder as he shoves himself past me, nudging me into the wall on purpose. “Hurry the hell up,” he mocks, but he keeps laughing softly.
I burst after him. We both know these tunnels like the back of our hands, every turn and every dip.
Once we reach the end of our passage, we enter the small makeshift area with a ladder leading up to Kinley’s place.
Wasting no time, I race up the steps and pause just below the closed trap door.
Placing my ear as close as possible to the wooden panel, I listen. Nothing. Not even vibrations to imply Kinley has visitors and they’re walking around.
When I’m confident we’re clear, I bang my knuckles twice on the horizontal door.
I glance back down to Lucien and he just stares at me, shrugging. Kinley rarely goes out, and I doubt she would with the chaos in the settlement.
Unease hardens in my gut at the idea that something happened to her. I can easily break through, except I want to make sure before I destroy this entrance.
Swinging back to the wooden panel, I take hold of the metal latch, ready to rattle it in case Kinley has fallen asleep.
The creak of wood echoes down here, and I release the latch, rushing back down, just in case it’s someone else up there. Another creak.
Lucien and I slide into the shadows around us when a female voice calls out, “It’s unlocked.”
Kinley. Relief washes over me.