Chapter Six

They snarled at Elyssa and darted off in the direction of Lucian’s howl, forcing her to sprint through the opening after them. Following them towards his scent, she struggled to match their unnatural speed. Elyssa shook her head, not wanting to focus on why he howled, was he trying to get himself killed?

The monstrous creatures made a sharp left turn ahead and the Labyrinth moved, Elyssa dropped, shifting immediate she hit the ground and jumped through the opening before the passage could shut her out. She slowed to a halt when she reached the field where the beasts were now locked in a fight with Lucian.

Elyssa shifted back, unable to believe her eyes, as she watched Lucian fight the beasts she had thought would be too much for him. With his sharp canines, he tore out one’s throat, before knocking the other into a puddle of black dirt.

Transformed, Lucian was the same size as the beasts; heavy and terrifying, with a presence that made her shudder. After he pissed off growl at the mangled remains of the beasts, he turned to look at her, his eyes glimmering like an otherworldly wonder, and Elyssa gasped in awe.

She stood no chance against him.

As he crawled up to her, he shifted back, towering above her and only wearing black pants that were waisted low enough for his Adonis belt to be visible. As her eyes travelled up his bare, toned torso to his face, Elyssa swallowed.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

Despite her best efforts, Elyssa could not take her eyes off of his melting amber gaze. He was the largest wolf she’d ever seen, and savage too. The rumours about him and the fear he instilled made sense to her now.

“You found me quick, it's barely thirty minutes in, Lucian. How?”

He shrugged. “Finding you is the easy part.”

He turned to look around the chamber they were in, and Elyssa noticed the top of a statue peering through the tall passage walls a chamber away. Was that the core of the Labyrinth? No, that was no possible. 

“The hard part’s getting out,” Lucian said with his back to her. “How did you end up so close to the heart of the Labyrinth anyway?”

“What do you mean?” Elyssa asked, moving to his side.

He turned to meet her gaze. With a subtle eye roll, she averted her gaze. He made her jittery in a way that curled her toes, and she hated it. She hated that he was both her mate and her mortal enemy.

“The ritual starts on the first layer of the labyrinth, and gradually leads you along the path the goddess allows. It is the goddess’ way of matching wolves.” Lucian turned back to survey the area again. “There's no record of anyone making it this deep into the chambers of the goddess. We're seventy-seven layers in, no one's gone past eleven.”

“You did.”

Lucian turned his gaze back on her. “Only because you’re my mate, and you’re this deep in it.”

As he affirmed her as his mate again, she felt a rush of desire and clenched her teeth to suppress it.

“My guess was that your family sank tunnels under this stolen fortune that lead directly to the core of the labyrinth,” Elyssa murmured.

Lucian’s eyes flared, then they narrowed. “If there's something you want to say to me, now's a good time.”

She had plenty to say to him, but she couldn't. How she would love to ask him why he could be so cruel to burn her family to death? She could have been killed, he would have murdered his mate because he was a monster.

“I just need to get out of here.”

“Not before you tell me what you meant by that.” Lucian closed the space between them as his gorgeous amber eyes lit up. “Don't think I didn't notice the way you acted when Marino introduced me as a Callisto. What was that about?”

“I think we should focus on the reason we are this far into the labyrinth. I don't imagine this is the first time you have encountered a wolf who didn’t care for your family very much.”

“You used the word stolen to describe what my family might have done to you. I’m curious about what my family could have stolen from you?”

“I’m more interested in that."

She pointed to the golden tip of the statue sticking out beyond the tall labyrinth walls.

“What?” he asked as he stepped around her. “There’s nothing up there except the empty space above the walls.”

Elyssa pointed again, frustrated with his response, and with the possibility that she was alone in seeing whatever this was.

“I see the tip of a golden statue.”

Her jaw clenched as Lucian stared at her for longer than she could bear. His eyes slithered over her, taking their sweet time as they stripped her bare of the robe that barely concealed her. She gripped the robe tightly before hugging herself against the chill creeping over her.

Lucian’s full, yummy lips curved in a whelming smile before he looked towards the wall opening up to their right. She turned towards it too, her heart thumping from the scent of Lucian’s lust and whatever laid beyond the wall.

“We should leave," he said.

Elyssa stepped forward to the blocked path that led directly to the statue only she could see. “We need to get inside that chamber.”

“That’s not how it works, cupcake.”

Elyssa froze against the shiver that shook her from the warmth of his breath brushing against the nape of her neck. He brushed her hair, now falling loose from her recent shift to rest on her right shoulder, and let his hands linger on her shoulders.

“Through that chamber, we can find a way out.” He turned her, so she was facing the opening in the wall on the other side. 

She tried shaking his hands off of her, but he spun her round and grabbed hold of her firmly.

“Elyssa.”

“You can leave if you want. I need to see what lies there,” Elyssa said, admiring his well-groomed beard and finely sculpted jaw as it clenched in response to her remark.

While she hoped he would stay with her, she also did not want him to. It was impossible for her to hurt him here, he was too strong for her. Her gun would do once they got back to the house.

“I won’t leave you here, and the Labyrinth is already dangerous enough. I will not go any further, it’s suicide.”

“Then leave.”

“Why aren’t you listening to me?”

“Because there is something down there, and only I can see it, so I have to find out what it is. There must be a reason we’re this close to the core of the goddess’ labyrinth.”

Lucian insisted, “The labyrinth is trying to lead us out of here right now, what’s to say that isn’t the goddess’ path for us?”

As she tried to wiggle away from his warm hands that sent a delicious throbbing through her body, he held her against him, and she huffed in frustration.

“Listen, I had no intention of entering this damned abyss tonight, nor do I desire to stay any longer than necessary. Whatever that is, it’s not good. We need to leave right now.”

In addition to his brittle tone and bare torso pressing against her, the scent of his steadily increasing anger filled the air.

“Let go of me, Lucian. You didn’t have to enter after me if you didn’t want to. Don’t make it out as if I owe you anything.”

But she did, if he hadn’t arrived when he did, those creatures could have wantoned her for dinner. With a growl, he stepped away from her, hands clasped on his waist and staring down the open path against the now ripening smell of rage.

“Fine, I’ll get you there.” His voice was husky, dark, and harrowing.

Her brows knitted as he turned to her. His gorgeous eyes shimmered like a golden lining around his irises, piercing the blue of her eyes.

“But not until you grant me your consent to mark you as my mate.”

A scoff escaped Elyssa’s lips; she would never mate with him. No matter how Lucian Callisto made her feel, he had to pay for what he did to her entire family and pack.

“I’d rather die.”