Lahat ng Kabanata ng Fated To My Hockey Stepbrother : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 19

The cages were not empty.I stood at the bottom of those concrete stairs with cold air pressing against my skin like a warning, and I counted them. Six cages, three on each side of the tunnel, stretching back into the flicker of dying fluorescent light. Most were empty. But in the very last one on the left, a figure sat hunched against the chain link, knees drawn to their chest, face buried in folded arms.Small. Thin. Still.My heart climbed into my throat.“Zane.” His name came out barely above a whisper.He was already moving. He reached the cage in four long strides, crouching in front of it, flashlight cutting through the shadows. I followed, Darius right behind me, his alpha aura so thick in the enclosed space it felt like breathing through wet cloth.The figure stirred at the sound of our footsteps.A girl.She couldn’t have been older than fourteen. Dark hair matted and tangled, bruising along one cheekbone, wrists wrapped in what looked like silver-threaded rope the kind used

Amelia POVShe flinched when the flashlight hit her face.I moved before Zane could. I dropped to my knees in front of the cage and kept my voice as low and even as I could manage. "Hey. We're not going to hurt you."The girl raised her head slowly, like even that small motion cost her something. One eye was swollen half-shut, the bruise around it spread purple and yellow across her cheekbone. Her lips were cracked. The silver-threaded rope binding her wrists had left raw lines in her skin, the kind that didn't happen in hours. That happened in days.My stomach turned over."Get it open," I said to Zane without looking at him.He was already at the padlock, claws working the mechanism. Metal groaned. The cage door swung outward with a shriek of rust, and the girl shrank back against the far wall, knees pulled to her chest, eyes darting between all three of us."You're safe," I told her. "I promise. My name's Amelia. We came from the mansion." I hesitated, then added, "Darius is here.

Darius was in his study.I knew it before we reached the door because the alpha aura leaking from beneath it was different from anything I had felt from him before. Not commanding. Not composed. Raw. The kind of power that slips its leash when the person holding it stops pretending everything is fine.Zane didn't knock. He turned the handle and pushed it open, and I walked in beside him with our fingers still linked.The study was large and dark, lit only by the desk lamp and the lightning strobing through the tall windows. Darius stood at the far end with his back to us, one hand braced against the windowframe, staring out at the storm. He looked like a man who had been standing exactly like that for a very long time."Close the door," he said.Zane did. The latch clicked and the three of us were sealed inside with whatever Darius had been carrying alone since the moment he heard the name Lydia Cole."She was my fated mate."He said it to the window. Plain and quiet, the way you say

I didn't sleep.I tried. I lay in my room with the lights off and the storm finally quiet outside and I stared at the ceiling and listened to the mansion settle around me... the creak of old wood, the distant murmur of guards doing rounds, the occasional low exchange of voices somewhere below. All the sounds of a house that was pretending everything was normal while something underneath it had fundamentally shifted.At four in the morning I gave up, wrapped myself in the oversized sweater I'd stolen from the back of Zane's closet two weeks ago and never returned, and went downstairs.The kitchen was empty. I made tea I didn't particularly want and stood at the window above the sink, watching the pale pre-dawn light begin to separate the sky from the tree line. The grounds were still wet from the storm. The grass looked dark and flattened. Two guards moved along the south perimeter, their breath clouding in the cold air.We were being watched from the inside and the outside both, and t