by Rhea Regale
“The only difference between me and the rest of the female were population is the color of my coat and the level of danger that likes to tail me, no pun intended,” Kasa said. Talking Wolf and Number Three laughed. Silent Wolf remained exactly what his given nickname implied—silent and brooding. He was trying to pick her brain. With her guard up and her wolf on high alert, he wasn’t breaking through her barriers. “And the fact that I have two mates instead of one.”
Number Three whistled low. “Lucky lady. The spirits should appoint two females to some of us other male wolves. Give us a year and we’ll populate these packs no problem!”
The bellowing laughter erupted again. Kasa laughed along with them, empty-heartedly, and grabbed two bags of chips from the cupboard. She picked out three more beers on her way to the table and sat down. Talking Wolf eagerly opened the chips while Number Three cracked open the beers. He smirked when he handed one to Silent Wolf.
“Loosen up, will you? The lady ain’t goin’ nowhere. How can anyone resist our company?” He clinked the new bottle to the bottom of Silent Wolf’s half-empty one and slammed it on the table. Foam erupted over the lip and poured down the sides, pooling around the base. The usual men laughed. Kasa smiled on the outside while groaning inwardly. These two were definitely lacking in departments beyond muscle. Perhaps they were hyenas in disguise. Sure played the role.
She checked the clock on her oven and sighed. Twenty more minutes and she should be free.
Otherwise, she’d be suffering this indignity while her mates led a charge toward war.
* * * *
Slade tipped his nose to the sky and sniffed the air. With so many wolves around them, he had to concentrate on the scent Micah found. Good thing the sister decided to remain in human form, allowing her essence to linger above the snow. Over a foot of the white stuff layered the forest ground, hampering their hunt with uneven terrain. More energy was exerted on tracking rather than where it would be needed most: in the impending battle certainly close at hand.
The midnight black wolf approaching him melted and transformed into a tall, muscular man with long black hair. He trudged through the snow, his tan skin a stark contrast to the virgin white. Slade followed his actions, transforming from wolf to man, and nodded over his shoulder.
“Seems to head that way,” Slade offered. Coal’s dark eyes narrowed past him, nostrils flared.
“Sure smells that way to me. Any word from the scouts?”
“Nothing yet. Micah believes we’re still a mile or so out.”
Coal’s gaze focused on Micah, who had proceeded ahead without them. He was nothing more than a fleeting shadow against the wintry forest landscaping.
“He can’t blame himself for this,” Coal said, his voice lowering. “It’s not his fault your mate’s brother was taken.”
“He blames himself for much that he shouldn’t. That’s Micah.”
And that’s me, too. Slade sighed. Now wasn’t the time to analyze his brother’s guilt-ridden conscience, or his for that matter. Anyone who knew Micah knew he hid a soft heart beneath his impenetrable steel front. The fortress around his spirit, however, acted as an inescapable reinforced boxing ring for guilt. He continually beat himself up over anything that happened if he played even the smallest role in it.
Kasa was the light in their darkest days. She would save them both.
“Heard about Reiny. My condolences for your loss. Jacy tried to contact you after the news spread, but your pack said you both took off without a word.”
“Didn’t have much choice. We didn’t want them putting their lives on the line. Many have mates, pups.”
Coal looked over his shoulder. The first line of wolves came into view, specks of color and shadows weaving between trees. Their eyes glinted, beads of flashing lights. Slade groaned.
“They’re too close. They’re supposed to stay back at least five hundred yards.”
“That’s not the first line, Slade. That’s your pack,” Coal said. The corner of his mouth twitched then tugged upward. Slade snorted.
“They have no reason to be here after we abandoned them.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, brother. They have all the reason to stand behind their alphas when you put yourselves on the line to protect them.”
Coal’s penetrating gaze leveled on him once more. Slade felt the heat of his eyes on his face, but he couldn’t look away from the approaching wolves. Our pack. He and Micah had both been certain they’d split up and found other packs or reassigned leadership to another wolf.
“Each day you’re gone, you’re hunting down a threat to all of us. To our mates, our pups, our packs. Two sisters remain, and no one had luck tracing them until now. They never blamed you for leaving them, only wished they could’ve stayed behind you. That’s the dedication of a pack.”
The breeze shifted slightly, carrying long lost scents of his pack members. He inhaled deeply, the familiar essences soaking into his body. A cold, dark place that had opened inside his spirit suddenly filled with warmth and light at the awe-inspiring sight.
“Very well. We’re wasting time. We need to keep moving ahead if we want to get home before dawn,” Slade said. He tried to ignore the quiver in his voice and the small lump at the base of his throat. Shock and shame roiled inside him. He needed to extinguish it. There would be plenty of time to bow his head to the very weres who marched up to him, defiant and ready to fight.
“Stay here and wait for them. They’ll need instructions from you. Nox and Ayasha are briefing them on the initial plan. Riley’s taken a roundabout path with Jacy in hopes of finding another way into the cave. They have some of Jordan’s pack with them.” Coal scowled. “I can only hope that rebel-turned-good doesn’t fuck us over.” Then he lunged forward, fluidly changing back into his black coat before touching the ground. Within moments, he blended into the night.
Slade transformed into his wolf and trotted toward the oncoming pack. Two wolves broke away from the line, a dark gray-and-white followed closely by a pure white wolf. The only color on her form was the black nostrils that shimmered with moisture beneath the broken rays of moonlight. Bright blue eyes trained on him.
“Slade, they’re determined to follow you through with this, so I’d suggest you give them direction rather than discouragement,” Nox said. The white’s head nodded in agreement. “I asked that one of them return Aya to your mate’s home. I will not have her involved in this.”
“Which I don’t understand,” Ayasha growled. Her bitterness was almost palpable, a throbbing entity along their telepathic link. Nox’s wolf growled, pulling back lips from sharp white teeth.
“Don’t give these wolves any more reason to get riled up.” Slade stepped in. “Micah and I refused to allow Kasa on the hunt, and she’s been hunting these rebels for months. Having two whites in the same vicinity will only whet their palates to a maddening degree. We want to keep this as quick and simple as possible. Go in, get Jordan, release as many prisoners with as little bloodshed as possible, and get out. Our target is the sister, or sisters, and that’s all.”
“What about the rebels?” Ayasha asked.
“We want to rid them of their leader. We’ll take care of the reprogrammed dogs later.” Slade motioned to the pack with his front paw. “We’ll pull our pack close to us and we’ll invade the cave quietly. Blitzing is not an option, even with the additional strength. We can’t put the rebels in a position to kill Jordan without a second thought.”
“I hate to ask this, but are you certain he’s still alive?” Nox asked. Brown eyes narrowed on him. Slade nodded, hoping his assumption was right. He and Micah had nothing to go on, no word that Jordan was alive, except for what the sister said to Micah in her cryptic message before hauling him away. At the moment, they placed much of their hope, and trust, in the enemy. “Does your mate understand there’s a chance he may be dead before we even reach the perimeter of this cave?”
“Yes,” Slade said quickly. Nox’s ears twitched, shifting forwar
d at his snappy response. Ayasha snarled, stepping into Nox’s side. “I’m not about to bring back a corpse. Not my idea of a proper mating present.”
“As long as she knows there’s a chance this might all go to shit. We’ve no idea how many we’re facing until we’re inside. Even then, we’re at a disadvantage not knowing the structure of this cave.”
“True, but the only way of getting the queen is storming her castle on her grounds. She’ll keep sending her four-legged minions to do her biddings. She’ll never come to us on her own accord.”
“This is a smart sister. The other two led the sieges that ultimately cost them their lives.”
“And fed this one more reason to hate us,” Ayasha said.
Slade moved past Nox and Ayasha and faced the pack of wolves as they came to a pause a few feet away. He swallowed back the heavy joy that threatened to explode within his chest. Pride swelled. He and Micah had led these very wolves for decades. Despite the selfish reasons for leaving them behind, their loyalty continued to transcend any boundaries between alphas and pack.
The momentous occasion was shortly lived when a burst of breath exploded in his mind. Slade grimaced, his ears ringing from the sharp noise.
“I’ve found the entrance. I’m going in.” Every muscle in his body stiffened. An eerie silence hung in the air. Dozens of eyes focused on him. That chilling silence spread over the numerous telepathic links he had established between new weres and packs. “I’ll keep you apprised of what I see.”
“Fuck!” Slade growled and spun to Nox. “Kasa’s at the cave. Fill them in. I’ve gotta go.”
He took off as fast as he could, snow spraying up around him like white waves of fluff. He dodged forward, pressing hard and fast. He sensed his brother’s rage and panic not far ahead. God, if anything happened to Kasa…If anything happened to their light.
“Kasa, don’t you dare go in there without us!”
Chapter Fourteen
Kasa’s ears perked up. Alien noises echoed down the long, dank corridors of the dark cave. A nauseating mixture of mold and moisture, dirt, feces and blood hit her mercilessly. She shook off the disgust and crept deeper into the cave’s belly, senses on high alert. Her claws tapped the broken pathway, the subtle click-click masked mostly by the trickling of water against the walls. Every few feet she paused, listening for anything that might indicate someone followed her. Even through the dense, sickening aroma of this hell, she couldn’t detect another living creature.
Anyone, or anything, would be crazy to come in here of its own free will, she thought sordidly. Her lips twitched, itching to pull back. The thought of tasting the scents around her stifled the motion. How many weres died in this place? How many teetered on the brink of death as she assessed her surroundings? How many had changed? How many were new captives?
Where were they all?
She pressed on, keeping her stark white self close to the ridged wall of the cave. The ground sloped downward and she followed the unmarked path. The stench intensified, making her dizzy. Decay filtered into the mix, a scent she couldn’t repel from her taste buds. The sour smell forced her to pause again. She swiped one paw across her nose and inhaled the potent scent of acrid blood instead.
She snorted, the sound echoing down the corridor. Her heart stammered. Fear threatened to spring up from her gut, but she forcefully suppressed it. Now wasn’t the time, and this wasn’t the place to cower. She was close, so close to Jordan it sent her adrenaline into full flow.
After tenuous minutes of listening for footsteps and hearing none, she picked up her pace and plunged forward along the tunnel into the depths of the prison.
“There is only one path upon entering the cave. I’m following it down. The smell here is rotten, so be prepared to want to vomit,” Kasa explained to Slade and Micah. Their lines had been tense since she informed them she’d reached the cave. She could almost see fire in Micah’s eyes and feel the heat of anger radiating from his body. Slade was most likely cursing up a storm, readying his packs to blitz the cave at her heels.
Something she couldn’t let him do. She had to work fast.
The path split. She gazed down each tunnel, tilting her head to better listen for any distinguishing noises. On one side, the maddening trickle of water persisted. On the other, a strange crackle that had no rhythm.
Deciding to follow the crackle, Kasa turned right and headed into the unknown. She threw glances over her shoulder every few steps, not trusting her open back to anything that might have been down tunnel number two.
A few minutes into her journey, she heard a faint wail, then silence. Her heart seized. God, Jordan. Please don’t let that be you. The crackling grew louder. The stench grew denser, thickened by the heavy addition of smoke. Something burned. The pungent scent of singed flesh mixed with sulfur and wood, an unsettling aroma. Someone, somewhere, was being subjected to flames.
A flicker up ahead brought her to pause. She watched the eerie light flutter over the damp, rocky walls that curved around a bend, then dim. A few seconds later, it came back to life then dimmed once more. Cautiously, Kasa crept closer to the light, closer to the bend. The light grew brighter.
“Kasa, where the fuck are you?” Micah snapped. The harsh tone caused her to jerk.
“I already told you where I was. Sorry, got caught up in the scenery here. When the cave forks, I took the tunnel to the right. I’m coming up on a bend and some kind of firelight. I’ll give you more in a few.”
Micah hissed, a noise so lethal and unlike him that it froze her blood in her veins. Damn, she was in for a lashing, and not in a good way.
Putting aside Micah’s anger, she pushed on, rounding the bend and coming upon a widening of the cavern. A crude-looking wall sconce held a torch, the large flames casting an orange glow over the walls. The crackling was burning wood and cloth. Here, the scent of death permeated the cavern. She came to a wooden door with iron bars above an ancient-looking latch. She lifted onto her hind legs and barely crested the viewing window. Torches burned around the small room. Two men hung from shackles hooked into the rocky ceiling, dead, skin mottled and discolored. A third man barely clung to consciousness, lifting his head from his chest to gaze around then dropping it down. Dried blood coated his chest and arms. His toes dangled inches from the ground.
The sight horrified her. She dropped back onto four paws only to realize she had begun to tremble. What type of beast was this woman? Who the hell could leave someone to die like that?
Kasa moved on, avoiding the scenes hidden behind doors that lined one side of the path. Soft wails and moans drifted from some rooms. Others, brash curses. Others still, silence. She kept her eyes peeled for rebels who might be hidden between tight crevices around sharp corners.
The pathway split once again, and this time she didn’t hesitate to follow the well lit path to the left. She quickly relayed the new direction to Slade and Micah, and received a dangerous growl in response. If her adrenaline didn’t pump so fiercely, if her muscles weren’t so taut with anxiety, if the threat of Dark Moon didn’t linger around every turn, if her brother wasn’t somewhere hidden in this place, she might’ve found humor in their displeasure.
Not now.
“Jordan, can you hear me?” Kasa whispered out, careful not to jolt any eavesdroppers. She turned a corner, rounded another bend, all the while trying to hold her breath to the stench of what she truly related to as Hell. “Jordan, I need your help. Where are you?”
“Kasa? Damn you, woman. What are you doing here?” Jordan’s reply came at her with a flood of relief. He was alive! Her pace automatically picked up, and she trotted ahead. She went to every door, peering inside, hoping to find Jordan and get them out of here. “Kasa, they know you’re here. Get out! Get out now!”
“There’s no one on this path. Only prisoners. Where are you? Which door are you behind?”
“Listen to me, you stubborn pup. They know you’re here. They know. Get out of the cave before they have you t
rapped. They’ve been waiting for this since last night. Don’t be a fool, Kasa. They’re watching you, and you haven’t a clue where they’re hiding.”
“Let them come at me. I’ll rip their throats out for taking you. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“Damn it! Kasa, please get the hell out of here!”
Kasa ignored his desperate pleas. She lifted her front paws onto another door and looked inside.
There, chained to a wall, arms and legs spread with silver cuffs bolting him a foot off the ground, a silver collar around his throat, Jordan hung. Blood caked the side of his face. One eye was a dark purple-black. Cuts marred his chest, his thighs, his arms. A painful device was clamped around his penis, another around his sac. His face twisted in agony, fresh blood streaming down his throat.
Without warning, the door swung in. Kasa stumbled, her claws scraping down the wood as she tumbled into the room. A force barreled into her from behind, knocking her onto her side and sending her skating a few dozen feet across the rocky ground. She clamored to her paws, spun around…
Something knocked her upside the head. The last thing she heard was Jordan’s piercing howl.
* * * *
Slade stopped as they crested the small hill. The reflective surface of the lake shimmered beneath the fragmented moonlight, ice crystal twinkling. Micah tipped his nose to the sky then proceeded to the left. Rock rose high above the lake a short distance away. According to Micah, this had to be where the entrance to the cave lay.
And time was running out. The longer Kasa remained in that cave alone, the higher the chances of her being captured. The odds were stacked against her.
“How the fuck did she get away from the guards?” Micah demanded for the third time. Slade scowled. He had no clue how she escaped them, nor did he care at the moment. All he cared about was getting her out of the cave in one piece, alive and well. “How the fuck did she get here so fast?”
“We’ll ask questions later. For now, we need to focus on getting inside that cave before they find out she’s in there,” Slade said. “In an ironic turn of events, Kasa’s getting to carry out her initial plan. She wanted to lead us into the cave, and she has.”