by Mila Young
Damn fucking brute swings around and throws her off with ease.
Her scream as she hits the floor burns in me like scalding acid. She’s mine… my mate, and I am livid with the hunger to kill the guard for defying our Alpha, for ambushing us, but most of all, I’m going to rip his head off for daring to touch what belongs to me.
“Get the fuck over here!” Lucien shouts, and I march over to the door as he backs away.
I kick my heel with all my strength into the bottom hinge. The door shudders, the metallic groan echoing across the room.
I don’t relent, don’t feel anything but madness in my veins.
Meira’s in the bastard’s clutches. He holds her by her throat, lifting her off her feet. Lucien is yelling at them, and I’m barely holding back my wolf, except there’s no use letting him free until I’m out of this cell. The more I watch her hurt, the more my head spins, and I’m breaking on the inside. It kills me to hear her cries, to do nothing.
I slam my heel again and again into the hinge, when finally, it gives a loud, metallic crack.
“Finish it!” Lucien commands.
I kick ferociously, my hands balled into fists and a growl in my throat as I put everything behind the thrust.
Metal warps, the bottom half of the door near the hinge buckles and snaps away from the bar.
Lucien lunges forward, shoving a shoulder into the door so it pushes away, offering a slight gap. I’m right there and shove my hands into the side of the door, pushing with all my might. Together, we bend the bar upward just enough for escape.
That’s all we fucking need.
Lucien slides out of the prison cell first.
But before he can pull the metal back, the guard appears suddenly from where he was beating up Meira at the other end of the room. He now crash-tackles Lucien to the ground. I didn’t even see him rush this way, too caught up in getting free. Lucien kicks him in the gut and scrambles back up while lunging at the bastard.
My gaze swings to Meira, who lies on the ground in a heap, blood on her face, nose, and jawline. On the ground near her lies a blade, and my heart plunges to my feet.
Did the asshole stab her?
Rage engulfs me, and I shove my shoulder into the bent door and squeeze out, bursting free. My wolf erupts out of me as I snatch the back of the guard’s neck, dragging him away from Lucien and hurling him into the wall.
I roar, my body pulsing, aching, burning with the change. Clothes rip off me, falling away in shreds. Seconds is all it takes, and I’m on all fours, covered in white fur, leaping at the man. His head twists around to see me charging.
His mouth falls open in a silent scream, and his fear taints the air. He took too long fighting to bother changing. Too late.
My wolf is right there, nudging me while the corners of my vision blur in blinding rage. All I can see is red, and this fuckwit is going to pay.
MEIRA
An agonizing sting flares along the side of my face. I groan, scrunching up the eye where I was hit and push myself to sit upright.
The prison cells surround me, metal bars, a terrible stench. But my attention swings to the explosion of growls and blood and cries from the opposite end of the room.
It takes me several seconds to clear my vision and work out what in the world is going on.
White fur, and the guard on the ground standing no chance, while Lucien stands in his path to ensure the asshole doesn’t go anywhere.
The growls, the shouts bounce off the walls, and when I push to my feet, the room tilts.
Then Bardhyl in his animal form charges. The guard screams, and I turn away, not wanting to see this attack. He deserves to pay, but right now from the way he hit me, nausea washes through me. It takes everything in me to not throw up. I’m aching all over from being the prick’s punching bag.
I hold on to the metal bars, taking deep breaths, while the savagery of growls and ripping and bellowing floods my ears.
“Hey, gorgeous, I got you.” Lucien is by my side, his arms looping around me, and I sweep around to face him. We’re pressed together, and I cling on to his shirt, needing closeness, needing him.
“I missed you,” I murmur, then glance over to the bloody assault, which will be over in seconds now. I’d seen the way Bardhyl fought back in the woods, remembered what I’d been told about his wild wolf. So I doubt this one guard stands any chance against him.
Lucien’s hand slides under my chin and turns my head toward him. “Focus on me, beautiful.” He leans in and steals a light kiss. It’s short and closed-mouthed, but the fire he ignites inside me awakens a storm of emotions. Desire. Sorrow. Anger. And a desperation to never lose what is mine ever again.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d see you again,” he whispers against my lips. “It would have killed me.”
His words pierce right through my heart. He mirrors my feelings exactly, and as ridiculous as it sounds, tears prick my eyes. There’s an asshole having the shit beat out of him, and I’m drowning in fear of losing my mates. I’ve never once imagined that finding my soulmate came with a savage torment if I lost them.
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 w
ith 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 from 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.
Bardhyl skids to a halt at our exit. Letting go of Meira, I shuffle past Bardhyl’s big ass and find no key. I try the handle. Locked.
“Stand back.” I kick the damn lock. A clang sounds.
“Wait.” Meira interrupts, and we both turn to her. “I entered the settlement from the rear fence, and they already know I’ve probably broken in, so there might be guards out there. I caused a diversion at the front gate, but I don’t know how long it will hold. Is there anywhere else we can go without going outside?” She glances back down the corridor. “Maybe we should return and find Dušan.”
“Hold on,” I start, trying to process everything she told me. “How did you escape Mad’s men in the woods?”
Even Bardhyl makes a rumbling sound in his chest.
She’s still breathing heavily. “Everything happened so fast, but I had my first transformation after they attacked and you two were knocked out.”
“Holy fuck!” I drag her into my arms. “You had your first shift… Hell, this is massive.” I look her over, and she’s not harmed. “You survived.” My heart beats so hard. Gone is the worry of how we were going to find a way to fix her. This is the best news, especially considering everything else is falling apart.
Bardhyl is right there, rubbing himself against Meira’s legs, letting her know he’s there for her.
She gives a small laugh as she pets Bardhyl behind the ears. “When they injected me, it must have triggered something in me and I changed.” A frown creases her perfect forehead. “It freaking hurts to transform.”
I chuckle and embrace her before lowering my face to her and kiss that sweet mouth. Short and sweet, and now I desperately long for time with her alone.
“So you ran from them?”
“Yes, and then let’s just say, the horde of zombies who showed up suddenly saved my ass.”
“You were damn lucky those things didn’t get you too.” She must have been fast in her wolf form.
She blinks at me, her mouth parting, like she’s going to say something, but she nods. Something swims behind her gaze, an unease, but we don’t have time for this now. She’ll tell me later what happened in the woods after I was knocked out.
Bardhyl groans and headbutts my leg, then looks at the exit. Yes, we need to get the hell out of here.
I turn to the door and steel my shoulder, then ram it into the wooden surface. It groans and splinters in response, rushing open in a wide swing.
A burst of rain and wind slams into me, blustering wildly, snatching at my clothes and hair, howling.
The storm booms overhead, darkening the world, as though night has arrived early to claim the land.
A small clearing of grass stands between us and the array of homes surrounding the large cobblestone courtyard where most of the pack lives.
Bardhyl growls and shoves past me, leaping into the field, sprinting toward the rear of the homes that back onto the woods. Exactly where we need to go.
Meira’s hand glides into mine. “Let’s go,” she says, determination fierce on her gorgeous face. Blood and dirt stain her cheeks and chin, her dark hair a mess, but to me, she is still beyond perfect.
We both rush outside into the wild weather battering into us, rains drenching us in seconds, icy cold against my skin. There’s no one around, the commotion from earlier coming from the front of the compound. As much as I want to explore and find out what the heck Meira did, I can’t risk being seen.
Gravel crunches under our feet as we hurry past the first few small houses and follow the narr
ow trail behind the homes to our right. Meira keeps up, her gaze sweeping over the woods to our left.
The alarm bell from the rear of the settlement is going off, and my skin crawls. They will definitely be scouring the area, and they aren’t stupid, so they’ll know it’s Meira. My mind strays to leaving Dušan behind, except I can’t risk Meira’s life.
Get her to safety, then I’ll return and find my Alpha.
Running, Bardhyl takes a sudden swing right into a small backyard with a tiny vegetable garden, and he charges up to the back door, where he turns. He waits for us, his ears pressed to his head with impatience.
“Is this Kinley’s place?” Meira asks. “Why are we here? We can’t endanger her. We can’t be here.”
“Trust me, gorgeous, Kinley’s got the best way out of here and only we know about it.”
She looks worried, but I don’t have time to explain this out here.
I step past Bardhyl and open the door. Kinley’s house is rarely locked.
We rush inside, where there’s heat in the house, coupled with a fire stove burning in the kitchen we just stepped into. I lock the door behind us.
“Who’s there?” Kinley’s soft voice calls out from the main room, and I go in first, scanning the dimly lit living room to ensure she’s alone, which she is. Curtains cover the windows, the small fireplace spitting embers against the metal grill in the fireplace. Kinley sits in her chair by a small table piled high with books, her teapot, and cup. She wears her hair short for convenience. She’s paralyzed from the legs down. Like Meira, she’s also half-human, half-wolf. A rogue wolf attacked her during her first change, and it was her fated mate’s wolf energy that saved her from dying when her own wolf broke out of her. The rogue wolf severed her nerves and she lost the feeling in her legs. It’s a fucking tragic story, but she’s alive and we’re grateful we still have her.
“It’s me, Lucien. I’ve got Bardhyl and Meira with me,” I say in a lowered voice, moving forward to collect several logs from the basket and toss them onto the dwindling flames.