3

I listened for his heartbeat: it was steady.

“He’ll be okay. I have to go,” I said, my voice thick with emotion. I wanted to stay and make sure he was okay, but I wanted Lorelai more.

Tabitha nodded her dismissal, whispering over Cain, pulling his head into her lap.

I ran. I left the house without a look back, my heart thundering in my chest as I leapt over the banister, bursting into my wolf form and taking off toward the city.

“She’s with the humans. Underground. A locked wooden door with a grate on it. There are lots of tunnels there.”  

“We know exactly where there are humans hanging out where they shouldn’t be,”  I growled in my mind, knowing Derik and Brax would do what they needed on their end and with the pack.  

I wasn’t stopping. My paws hit the ground heavily, the swamp and forest a blur as I ran with all the strength and muscle I had toward the men’s village in my area.

Those fuckers had been lying for too long, getting away with their bullshit because more humans meant more magic to draw on, but not anymore, not after this.

My mouth drooled, my snout sneering in the wind that whistled around me. I was hungry. I wanted blood.

They had taken her and expected to win. I wasn’t going to let them go, and I was not going to hold back.

They took the only thing I had, the only thing I had ever craved with every fiber of my being, and in doing so, had signed their own death warrants.

I’d squash their little bodies with a single paw and laugh while I did just to see her again, and I swore to the witches’ power that if she was hurt, nothing, not even begging, would save them.

2. The Damsel

LORELAI

I hugged the bucket in my cell, my gut tightening, retching as it tried to bring something up, but there was nothing in there.

I hadn’t eaten proper food in days. I had barely slept, my skin was clammy with a fever, my mouth dry. I was covered in dirt and scrapes from trying to dig, kick, and scream my way out, but nothing had worked.

I was fading.

For all my winter born powers, I couldn’t escape a simple human cell, and it was getting to me. I wanted to push out, use my shadows that swirled around me, but I knew they had the most important job of all—keeping my baby alive.

I clutched my stomach, tears stinging in my eyes as it ached. I needed to stay alive, I needed to for my baby, and yet each day got harder and harder to do so.

My shadows hugged my stomach, pumping a life force into it that I didn’t get the luxury of using, but it was getting harder for them too.

I had no sustenance, so they were running on empty.

I had no idea how much longer I could keep us alive. Especially when the humans were not being humane about any part of my capture.

I was a traitor to them. I had picked werewolves over my kind, and apparently that made me worse than them.

They didn’t care if my child survived, and if I didn’t have immense power writhing beneath my veins, I doubted they would have kept me barely alive for so long.

But I had hope. Hope that I would somehow get out, that my alphas would find me.

I hated relying on that. I hated facing the fact that I was a damsel in distress, a role I had never wanted to be in, but the humans were so damn good at making me feel helpless.

They’d get what was coming to them. I knew my alphas wouldn’t stop hunting until they found me, and if I was dead the humans were going to regret every decision that had led them to this point.

They thought the wolves were savages, beasts, and yet they gave us to them every year to take our virginity? Risked their anger by taking me from them?

They hadn’t seen savage yet, they hadn’t seen the true beasts that hid beneath the skin, but they were going to. They had just given the wolves every excuse to unleash it.

I hoped they did.

Assholes.

All my life, humans had treated me like shit because of when I was born, and they wanted loyalty? Fuck that and fuck them.

I pushed the bucket away and hauled myself up, my knees shaking as I used the stone wall as leverage. My head spun, and I grimaced. Even a few sips of that potion would be really nice right about now.

My stomach turned in agreement, and I winced at the pain that filled my abdomen.

I tightened my hold on the stone wall and cleared my throat, coughing up spatters of blood that had been coming out the last day or so.

It was hard to keep track of the days in my cell, but I was pretty sure it had been at least three. It felt like a year.

I shuffled closer to the tiny blanket in the corner, intent on trying to get more than a couple of hours sleep, when a rush of power filled me.

I gasped, my eyes going wide as I clutched my stomach. It was adrenaline, power, love all in one, and I knew in an instant what it was.

Kai.

I latched on to the feeling, chasing it, trying to catch more of it.

The link in my mind wavered. My head pulsed, aching, but I didn’t care, I wanted to feel it again.

I clenched my eyes shut to stop the dizziness, my heart racing as I forced my brain to feel the link deeper, connect with the strand of power it had found.

I passed out.

***

I woke with a headache that had me cursing out of a dry mouth.

I heard the clank of my door opening. I lifted an eyelid, peering out to see a man of thick stature coming in, wearing my father’s army uniform and a belt of weapons.

I quickly rustled through my brain to find the power or the link that had been there before, but there was nothing.

Dejected, I shuffled into a seated position against the concrete wall and watched the man put down a tray of food that looked about as food-like as the vomit I had been bringing up the last few days.

I grimaced, knowing I needed the energy whether I wanted to be picky or not. I went to shuffle forward, and he smirked.

I hesitated and inspected the food. “What is it?” I murmured, and he grinned.

“Does it matter?”

I rolled my eyes and inched closer.

“Any water?” I tried my luck, but I should have known I’d run out of that the second I had been captured.