LOGINAsher's pov.Taking in a deep breath, I crouched beside the chair and reached for the remaining cuff, but the second my fingers touched the metal, my wolf snarled at the restraint so violently that claws pushed through. “Move your hand,” I told her, already gripping the damaged lock.Inara looked down at the cuff, then slowly back at me with the deeply offended expression of somebody whose brain was moving three seconds behind everything else. “My hand is attached to me.”“Very observant.”“I’m drugged, not stupid,” she slurred, which would have sounded more convincing if she had not nearly missed my face while trying to glare at me.“Debatable.”A low chuckle escaped me, and she tried laughing too, but the sound came out weak and uneven. That killed my amusement immediately. I tore the first cuff apart, then the second, before moving to the restraint across her chest. The old Blackthorne seals fought harder there, but half the system had already been damaged by whatever she had done
Asher’s POVThe moment we crossed the outer ward, my wolf stopped pretending he was under control.The scent hit me all at once, stronger than it had been inside the abandoned vehicle. Blood, suppressant, old Blackthorne metal, burnt containment seals and beneath everything else, that strange orange current my wolf had been obsessing over since we found the first trace of Inara. Only now it carried something else with it.I could literally feel the pain and fear that comes with itMy wolf slammed against me so hard I nearly stumbled.“Find her.” his voice filled my being “I’m trying.”“Now!”I had heard him furious before and I've heard him bloodthirsty, territorial and stupid enough to want fights that would leave both of us half-dead, but I had never heard fear in him.That scared me more than I wanted to admit.Dax was already moving deeper into the compound with Marcus and the others when I stopped near a branching corridor. Ciara’s scent pulled one way, faint beneath layers of s
Jasper’s POVThe first Blackthorne team crossed into the outer territory twelve minutes before Ayla moved Ciara.I knew because the ward I had been watching changed rhythm the moment Dax’s people touched the edge of it, and almost immediately, movement inside the compound increased. Guards shifted toward the western perimeter, two containment lines strengthened and someone activated an emergency channel that had remained silent all night. Ayla had finally realized she was out of time.So had I.I watched from the ridge as the lower medical doors opened and four guards came out ahead of a transport unit. Ciara appeared several seconds later, weak but conscious, her wrists restrained in front of her while another guard stayed close enough to catch her if she stumbled. Even from that distance, I could see the way she held herself carefully, protective of the child despite whatever Ayla had already done to her.My hand tightened around the injector inside my coat.Enough waiting.For the
Dax’s POVThe real trail became uglier the farther southwest we went, which was exactly why I trusted it. Ayla was too intelligent to leave us a clean road once she realized the Call had turned half the realm into hunters. The heavier vehicle tracks disappeared under old stone, surfaced again near a dried riverbed and finally scattered where three narrow forest paths met beneath trees thick enough to swallow most of the moonlight. Marcus crouched beside the last clear impression while two scouts moved ahead, but Asher had stopped caring about the ground entirely. For nearly a minute, he stood facing the left branch with his head slightly lowered, breathing in slowly while his wolf pressed so close to the surface that his eyes kept flashing.Marcus eventually looked up. “The physical route leans south, but somebody disturbed the ground after that. Could be deliberate.”“It is deliberate,” I said, still watching Asher. “Ayla knows what we’re tracking.”Asher took one step toward the lef
Inara’s POVI woke up with my head hanging forward and enough drugs in my body to make lifting it feel like hard labour. For several seconds, I could not even remember where I was, but the moment I tried moving my arms, cold metal bit into both wrists and everything came back at once. Ciara on the ground, purple current everywhere, Ayla tackling me and the needle entering my neck then Ciara standing again with those strange glowing eyes before collapsing.“Fuck.”My voice came out weak, but anger rushed in fast enough to wake the rest of me. I yanked against the restraints and immediately regretted it when something hot tore through my shoulders. The chair beneath me was bolted into the floor, my wrists locked inside thick black cuffs with silver lines running through them, while another restraint crossed my chest and two more held my ankles apart. Old symbols covered the floor and climbed the walls around me in connected circles, and every time I struggled, the entire thing seemed to
Ciara’s POVI woke up fighting the restraints before I even understood where I was.Cold metal cut into my wrists as I pulled, and the harder I struggled, the heavier the pressure over my body seemed to become. My head felt thick, my mouth was dry and something deep in my stomach felt wrong enough to make panic hit before the room came fully into focus. The baby moved weakly, not in pain exactly, but differently, and that alone scared me more than the restraints.“Inara?”My voice came out rough but there was no answer.I twisted again and tried looking around the room properly. White walls. Medical equipment. A low humming sound from somewhere beneath the floor. No Inara.My fear sharpened instantly.“Inara!” I shouted, louder this time. “Where the hell is she?”Nothing.That was when the memory came back. The escape, invisible boundary, Ayla appearing with guards and Inara standing between us with orange burning through her eyes. Then pain, purple light, shouting, and after that, da







