The acrid, chemical smell of lemons is the first thing that hits me.Then the fact I cannot move my hands. Rough, painfully sticking tape clamp them together.Blinking, the room is miserably dark and from the soft cushioning underneath me I realise I am on a mattress. As my vision gradually adjusts, I recognise the grey walls, the dark, almost charred wood of the four-poster bed. I am back at Beta Tange’s.I am back in the room I shared with Cillian. The same bed I fell apart in his arms with, heard his pained confession and felt love. My head is pounding like I’ve taken a beating. I can barely make out Nina's presence. In a panic, I wonder if she has been taken from me like Vez. My bound hands struggle towards my neck, checking for cuts. After a few minutes of wriggling, I realise I can sense her faintly, just enough to quell my panic. I still have a wolf, albeit a completely tranquillised one.Whatever the hell that woman, Ruth, did to me has left me eerily alone with my thoughts.
Zeke eyed Briss with nothing but hostility as he clambered onto the back seat of the truck next to Zena. The night was cool, but the bodies all crammed together quickly made the atmosphere uncomfortable. As the truck trundled on its way along to the grim concrete world of Tange again, I spun around in my seat.“Why was Matilda in danger then? I left her with her mate,” even though the very idea sounded bitter to my tongue.“I don’t know, I was sent back out to the human border the instant you left. I came back last week as usual to report and noticed she wasn’t around.”It was impossible to keep my face straight and voice calm. “So where was she then!”Briss coloured pink, the first time I had seen anything fluster his usually placid, tanned face. “I heard…she was being kept in the cells. Well they’re old storge rooms but prisoners have been placed there in the past.”“What the hell!” I shouted, slapping the dashboard, “I only left her there because I thought she wanted Tange! How the
The dagger feels good in my hands. There had been hardly any noise when I took down Tange apart from Zena’s shrieks. If I was lucky perhaps Ruth was still asleep. Retracing my steps up the staircase everything reminded me of Matilda. My pulse thundered almost painfully as I wondered where on earth she had run to. I did not doubt Briss had tried to find her. Like the calm within the eye of a hurricane I found myself smiling softly at her useless sense of direction. For a few brief seconds the rage inside me settled down to something more manageable as I remembered tracking her down with Franz and Zeke one summer's day when we were about fourteen as she got herself lost coming back from the river. Literally the place we hung out every day. She had blushed beetroot red and explained she had been daydreaming so much she found herself in a whole new section of the woods. I remember it because she wouldn’t meet my eye. I had been so worried about her even then I had been annoyed she woul
I recognised Cilian’s footsteps with horror. Even trying to be quiet there was no disguising his movement. When you've loved someone for as long as I have, you know all their traits. Good and bad. It also meant when he cursed Ruth so vehemently for everything she had taken I shut my eyes and braced myself for pain. In that second I believed my life was to end for Cillian is a man of his word. Nina remained adrift and useless, possibly stunned into silence by the wolfsbane. I couldn’t move an inch because of the heavy tape wrapped around me. I could breathe raggedly through my nose, but the sirens silenced even that sound. I was completely dependent on Cillian remembering the man he is meant to be. To not let the pain break him. However when he flipped me over and the silver blade slammed against my throat, I wasn’t afraid, I knew as soon as he saw my eyes he would realise. I was expecting relief, maybe even joy at seeing him again. I didn’t expect my heart to lurch in sorrow.
I’m halfway to being sane again. Her tiny hand in mine. She’s safe, and we’re going to be okay. I have no doubt in my mind that facing down my anger, my pain and embarrassment and choosing not to kill was the fork in the road Zena warned me about. For if I had harmed her, that would have been the end of my sanity. There would have been no coming back from that. Not in a million years. Even with Vez restored I would have been a wrecked shell. I know in my soul that making a mistake as vile as killing my own mate would have left me uncontrollable. I’d have wanted to main and destroy everything linked to my catastrophe. But thanks to my father’s wisdom, my mother’s kind heart and the Betas who have guided me through my life I was just, only just, able to see beyond the hate. The raw pink of her skin where the tape had been felt like my own stab wounds. Lookiny at each red welt made my guts churn. All the hate that swelled within has been replaced with a desperate desire to make our
The bloodied lump on the table had almost entirely regained his consciousness. “Where am I? What the fuck is this? Alpha Cillian?” Tange muttered, each statement panickier as he wriggled against his restraints. I walked slowly towards him, aware of my heavy boots stomping. I wanted him to be scared. He deserves to be terrified., In my flattest, firmest tone I tried to convey the same authority my father had. I might be young but there is no doubt I wield the power of life and death over my pack members. “Tange. It’s over. You’re getting one chance to tell me everything. I’m taking my wolf back regardless. I can do it with or without killing you.” It took some accepting that I had caused all that damage. That mangled, bloodied face with a nose that resembled crushed tomatoes was the sole product of my unrestrained anger. I heard the soft footsteps of Briss as he stood watch at the arched doorway. Tange’s eyes flashed between golden yellow, orange, and grey, two wolves battling for
Watching Zena work has been incredible. Seeing an actual wolf spirit entering the glass vial was mesmerising. Glowing like a captured star the sight had made all of us gasp and utter silent blessings to our Goddess. Equally shocking was how Tange visibly greyed. Ageing before our eyes. I realised then how much impact having stolen a powerful Alpha wolf like Vez had made to him. He was reduced to an elderly, crooked man within seconds of losing him. Muscle tone, charisma, everything faded whilst he was unconscious on a table.Zena’s hands shook as she intensely muttered her oaths and tributes. A language I did not recognise, I turned away and buried my face into Briss’s arm when she finally cut Cillian’s throat using a bronze blade.The angry swell of scarlet blood down hs neck was terrifying. But the gleaming starlight travelled straight into him. Cillian’s whole body then shook, convulsing as his wolf re-entered and accepted him as a host.Zena had stepped back quickly. Lighting an
It’s utter insanity. Everything, every event of the last twenty-four hours. From reuniting with Vez, the impossible blessing of my parents final guidance. Then to witness the pitiful state of my sister and Nikolai. There is no way I would have come up with this plan had I taken the other fork in the road. There is every chance my sister would have died if I had been so caught up in my own hate-filled rage. Especially, if as Zena suggested I was unkind or even violent towards her in the other version of events. Who would have been there to apply the herbs, salves and incense that give the two bloodied individuals in the back of our truck a chance to live. Everything about the plan is insane. Yet as I announced it I knew in my guts it was the best shot we had. Phillipe is cocky, overconfident. To kill his own parents, he is suffering delusions of invincibility. He will believe there is no way his plan can fail. So he will see the blood splattered chamber where Matilda died. He will s