Chapter 13

“Then let’s see if she snaps,” the scarred man growled, his breath hot and rancid against her skin as he leaned down, forcing his weight over her.

Lydia closed her eyes, her teeth grinding together so hard her jaw ached. A single, silent tear cut a track through the grime on her cheek, but she refused to give them the satisfaction of hearing her scream.

Suddenly, a violent thud echoed through the stone ceiling above, followed by the muffled, frantic shouts of dying men.

The man pinning her shoulders froze, his head snapping toward the dark doorway of the cellar. “What the hell was that?”

Before Jax could answer, a sickening crack of splintering timber rattled the foundation of the old packhouse. The stone walls vibrated with the roar of feral, bloodthirsty snarls—sounds of an Alpha’s war party tearing through the upper floors.

“They found us!” Jax hissed, dropping his hold on her arm and scrambling backward, his silver dagger dropping to the concrete floor with a metallic clatter. “How did they find us?!”

“Shut up and grab her!” the scarred rogue yelled, panic lacing his voice as he reached down to yank Lydia up by her hair, intending to use her frail body as a human shield.

He never got the chance.

The heavy reinforced cellar door didn’t just open—it blew off its iron hinges, hurtling across the room and shattering against the far stone wall. A wave of suffocating, lethal pressure flooded the dungeon, so thick and terrifying that the air instantly grew cold enough to freeze the breath in their lungs.

Asher Frost stood in the jagged doorway, his towering frame silhouetted by the flickering lanterns. His icy blue eyes were entirely gone, replaced by a blinding, murderous gold that burned through the dark. Beside him, Gamma Liam slipped into the room like a shadow, his claws extended, his teeth bared in a silent promise of absolute slaughter.

In less than a heartbeat, Liam slammed Jax into the concrete floor, snapping his wrist with a brutal twist before the rogue could even scream. Asher moved like lightning, his large, clawed hand closing around the scarred man’s throat, lifting the broad rogue off his feet and slamming him upward against the low ceiling.

“Wait! Wait!” the scarred rogue wheezed, his legs kicking frantically in the air as his airway crushed under the Alpha’s grip. “Don’t kill me! I’ll tell you everything! We were paid to do this!”

Asher’s gold eyes flashed with terrifying indifference, his claws sinking deeper into the skin of the rogue’s neck. “Speak.”

“It was the girl in your pack—Cindy!” the rogue sobbed out, terror stripping away every shred of his defiance. “Cindy Torelli! She paid us in gold to intercept the carriage, kill the girl, and throw her in the canyon! We only kept her alive for ourselves—it was all Cindy! Just spare my life!”

Asher didn’t answer with words. With a single, ruthless jerk of his arm, he snapped the man’s neck, tossing his lifeless body into the corner like trash. Behind him, Liam silenced Jax with a final, lethal strike, leaving the dungeon in a heavy, echoing silence broken only by the quiet dripping of water and ragged breathing.

Asher turned slowly toward the wall where the silver chains dragged against the floor.

His golden gaze fell upon Lydia, and the breath left his lungs in a sharp, painful gasp. Her petite frame was battered, her green dress torn and soaked in dark blood. Purple bruises bloomed across her delicate skin, her brown hair matted with sweat and dirt, and her face pale as marble under the toxicity of the silver cuffs binding her raw wrists. She was barely breathing, her eyelashes fluttering weakly as her dazed green eyes tried to focus on his shadow.

The sight tore through Asher’s chest, ripping away his cold composure and leaving a raw, bleeding wound in its place. He dropped to his knees in front of her, his large hands trembling as he reached out to the woman he had almost lost before ever truly knowing her.

The moment his bare palm touched the side of her neck, brushing gently against her warm, torn skin, a jolt of pure, blinding electricity surged through his blood.

A deafening roar erupted from the deepest depths of his soul, violent and overwhelming, burning away the darkness of the dungeon and shattering his restraint completely.

MATE.

His wolf screamed the single word into his mind with a force that shook his very soul. The bond snapped into place like a blinding wildfire—tying his life, his heart, and his absolute existence to the broken, delicate woman lying in his arms.