Chapter 63

ALPHA TRISTAN 

When she finally opened it, her eyes were red-rimmed and tired. She didn't bow. She didn't move to let me in.

"I came to apologize, Yvonne," I said, my voice sounding hollow and thin even to my own ears. "For the scene in the hall. For... everything. I didn't know. I truly didn't know you felt that way about me."

Yvonne leaned heavily against the doorframe, a bitter, exhausted smile touching her lips. "And now that you do? Now that my secret is laid bare for everyone to mock, Tristan? What happens now? Do we just go back to playing soldiers?"

I looked at the floor, struggling with the brutal honesty I owed her. "I... I don't feel that way, Yvonne. Not yet. But they say love can grow, don't they? That time and loyalty can build something lasting..."

"Pity," she spat, her voice trembling with a sudden, sharp rage. "I’ve given you my life, my sword, and my very soul for years. I don’t want you to love me out of pity, like some wounded animal you found shivering in the woods."

"Pity? Who said anything about—" I started, but I trailed off as the very air in the room suddenly shifted.

Outside, a low, distant rumble of thunder rolled across the sky, followed by the frantic, sudden drumming of rain against the windowpane. The words choked in my mouth and I froze, my jaw hanging open. My wolf stood up in the back of my mind, his hackles raised, snarling at a ghost. Beneath the scent of rain and wet stone, there was something else. Something impossible.

Winter frost. Dark cedar. Ozone.

"Tristan?" Yvonne asked, her alarm growing as she watched the blood drain from my face.

"Sound the alarm," I whispered, then louder, my voice erupting into a roar of pure, unadulterated panic. "Sound the alarm, Yvonne! Rune is here! He's inside the walls!"

"Rune? Wait! How can that be? Our sensors—" She started to ask, her face a mixture of confusion and fear.

I didn't wait for her to finish. I bolted down the corridor, my heart hammering a frantic, erratic rhythm against my ribs. The dungeon. I shouldn't have put her there. I shouldn't have moved her from the penthouse. I had placed her in the one spot where a shadow could reach her, far from the eyes of my main guard.

"Please, Goddess," I hissed through gritted teeth as I took the stairs three at a time, my lungs burning. "Don't let me be too late."

I reached the sub-basement, my boots skidding on the damp, slick floor. I saw it before I even rounded the corner: the heavy iron door to the deep cells was twisted off its hinges like it was made of tin foil. I stopped dead, my heart stopping with me.

Rune was there. He was drenched, his silhouette massive and terrifying in the flickering, dim light of the cell block. He was holding Sara’s hand, his head tilted close to hers in an intimate gesture that made my blood boil.

"...prove that you’re a queen," I heard him murmur to her.

"Get your hands off her!" I screamed, my Alpha aura exploding from me in a wave of suffocating, dark pressure that made the very air vibrate.

Rune turned slowly, his eyes meeting mine. He didn't look afraid. He didn't even look surprised. He looked disgusted.

"You," he said, his voice a low, lethal growl that seemed to come from the earth itself. "You faked her death after she healed you when no one else could. You forced her to become your slave. You kept her in a lightless hole for the crime of wanting to be treated with dignity. You treated a diamond like a piece of coal, Tristan. You aren't fit to lead a pack, let alone own a woman like this."

"She is mine by right of conquest!" I challenged, stepping forward, my claws beginning to unsheathe with a painful shink. "You’re a dead man walking, Rune. You’re in the heart of my territory, surrounded by my wolves."

"Then let's see if your territory can save you," Rune dared, a predatory smile touching his lips.

He moved faster than any wolf I had ever encountered. He didn't wait for a formal challenge; he simply lunged. I shifted mid-air, my bones snapping into place, but he caught me with a blow to the chest that felt like being hit by a battering ram. I slammed into the stone wall, the air leaving my lungs in a ragged, wheezing gasp.

I fought with a desperate, frantic rage, fueled by the agonizing sight of Sara watching us from the shadows of her cell. I managed to rake my claws across his shoulder, drawing thick, dark blood, but Rune was a force of nature—a storm made of muscle and fur. He was the Conqueror for a reason. He parried my strikes with a cold, brutal efficiency, eventually pinning me against the bars of an empty cell. His hand was crushed against my throat, cutting off my air.

"I should end you right now," Rune hissed, his eyes glowing a terrifying, ancient gold that spoke of a power I couldn't match.

But then, the sound of boots echoed from the stairwell. Dozens of them. My guards were finally coming. The alarms were screaming through the vents, a high-pitched wail of alarm.

Rune looked at the entrance, then back at Sara, who looked caught between a past she hated and a future she didn't yet trust. He realized he couldn't fight an entire pack while keeping her safe. With a snarl of frustration, he released me, shoving me back with enough force to make my head ring against the stone.

He grabbed Sara, pulling her behind him as he backed toward the small, high ventilation grate near the ceiling.

"This isn't over, Tristan," Rune promised, his voice carrying over the rising din of the approaching soldiers. "You haven't won anything. You’ve just delayed the inevitable. I’m coming back for my Queen, and when I do, I will burn this city to the ground to reach her."

He shifted into the massive charcoal wolf in a blur of fur and bone, grabbing a heavy iron grate to shield Sara from any stray fire from the doorway. "I'll be back for you, Sara!" He paused for a fraction of a second to nuzzle her hand before retreating into the darkness of the storm-drain tunnels just as my guards burst into the room.

I slumped against the wall, gasping for air, watching the spot where he had disappeared. My chest burned, and my throat felt crushed, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the hollow realization in my gut. I had kept her, but I had never felt more like a loser in my entire life.

"What happened? Are you hurt?" Harlan asked, his voice breathless as he rushed to my side. He looked at the wreckage of the cell and then at Sara, who was standing perfectly still in the center of the room.

"Rune was here... he came for her. He'll be back again," I croaked, wiping a trail of blood from my lip. I looked at Sara, whose eyes were still fixed on the tunnel where Rune had vanished. "Take her to my penthouse. Double the guards on every floor. Let me see him try to take her from my own bed."

I ordered the change, but I remained on the floor for a long time, trying to catch a breath that felt like it would never truly return.