Chapter 61
Maximus
“Uh … are you there? Wolf … person?” a voice calls as I begin to stir. “Wakey-wakey.”
My eyes flutter open, only to shut as bright light invades. I grunt, lifting a hand before I risk another peek. A blur of green separates into trees, but I do not recognise the patch of land I find myself in. I do, however, recognise one of the figures standing before me.
“Alex!”
Blonde hair shifts in the wind as he lifts his head, bringing those blue eyes to mine. They widen a fraction, but all too soon, familiar hurt returns. It twists his gaze into a pained scowl that batters my heart.
“Good, we’re awake and functioning!” I turn only to stiffen at the sight of the witch girl Aiden was growing far too close to. She grins eagerly at us. “Welcome, welcome, to the seventy-sixth annual Hunger Games—or would this be seventy-fifth?” She frowns. “I’m only on the second book.”
“What the hell is going on?” Alex snaps, aiming his scathing glare her way. “Why can’t I reach Julian?”
I reach for Aiden in my mind, but I meet a cloudy wall between us that hints at his presence, like a fogged outline.
“Listen up, maggots, because I’m only going to say this once,” Katerina says as she ignores us both and starts marching like a general.
“You two have been on the outs, and after everything I did to bring this one back”—she glances at Alex with a tsk—“ungrateful. All this infighting is making your owners sad, so now you’re stuck here with moi. ”
“They are not our owners,” I growl as I track her steps. “What did you do?”
“I only did what I was asked to do,” she retorts while she circles us. “Keep you guys together and at the forefront.”
“Asked?” Alex hazards suspiciously, but his query goes unanswered.
“Here’s how this is going to go,” the witch says, still marching, still crazy. “You’ve got a week to make shit right here. I’ve enclosed you in this space just outside your lands, just like the arena! It has a water source and food to hunt, so you won’t starve.”
“A week?” I echo disbelievingly. “There’s no way Aiden asked for this!”
“Or Julian!” Alex contends as he takes a step forward. “The pack needs us.”
“You two left them no choice,” she argues as she takes a step back before carrying on.
“If you try to leave, the barrier will … make that difficult. If you do not find a way to make up in the week, you’ll be stuck here until you do, and there are only so many bunnies out here to hunt, so good luck with that. ”
“What about our pack?” I shout. “We can’t just—”
“If you do not stick together, there will be consequences. If you do not work together, consequences,” she drawls before she looks between us. “Easy enough, right?”
“Listen here you slithering little piece of shit, if you don’t let us—” Alex’s threat comes to a forced halt as his eyes suddenly blacken and he screams.
My heart drops before I rush towards him, catching him as he sinks to his knees. Heart pounding, I hold him tight while Alex’s hands shake over his head.
“Exhibit A of a consequence.”
Lifting my gaze, I feel the world shift into a red haze as my canines drop. Katerina’s eyes widen a second before she lifts to the sky, taking herself out of reach before I can sink my claws into her neck.
“I was asked to do this—remember that!” she says from above. She glances between Alex and me, remorse making a brief appearance. “Well, good luck. Oh—and may the odds be ever in your favour.”
Katerina disappears a moment later, and Alex immediately releases a heavy breath as my shoulders slump. I pull him against me, holding him upright as I push his hair from his face
“What was that?”
“A siren in my head,” he grumbles, fisting my shirt as he tries to sit up, but he’s still trembling. “Stupid witches. Goddess, smite them all!”
Alex curses Katerina to hell and back, but I soon lose track as I stare at him.
It’s been almost a month since we last spoke, longer since I held him like this. I don’t dare breathe, too afraid of ruining this when I’ve just barely gotten it back. He feels like home, like love and—
Alex draws back suddenly, almost falling on his back as his wide eyes find mine. He looks away as he pushes to his feet and my heart twists as I watch him go.
“Let’s just find a way out of here before nightfall,” he mumbles, being sure to keep his gaze away from me as he dusts the dirt from his clothes. “There’s no way Julian would risk a week away from the pack after everything that’s happened.”
“I agree,” I mutter as I stand. “But I also do not think the witch made this all up for fun.”
He scoffs. “I do. She’s a fucking nutcase.”
“Yes, but she seems to like Aiden, especially after—” I pause, not sure how to word the way Aiden comforted her after what she’d done to her coven. Aiden had told Julian about it all, but it’s still hard to put into words a relationship between a witch and a werewolf.
“After?” he prompts with a scowl.
“A friendship is building there. So perhaps he really did ask for this.”
“For a crazy witch to lock us outside of our pack?” he exclaims, alarmed enough by the proposition to finally look at me. His gaze feels like a breath of fresh air. “Why the hell would he do that?”
I do not speak right away, and that beat of silence is all he needs to recall the rest of what she’d said. For us.
“Alex,” I whisper, taking a step forward, but he’s just as quick to take two back.
“No,” he dismisses, turning away from me and walking straight towards the treeline. “Not this.”
I race after him, catching him by his arm. He twists with a snarl, trying to escape, but I don’t let him. I fight him, struggling until I force him to face me, to look at me. But he doesn’t. He keeps his gaze on my chest while he strains against me.
“Alex, please.”
“No,” he snaps, voice breaking slightly as the fight in him tapers. “Not … not now, Maximus.”
“Then when?” I beg as I try to catch his gaze.
“I don’t know,” he retorts, trying again to pull away, but I’ve waited too long to have him again to let this pass.
I tuck my knuckles under his chin and force his gaze up.
Blue eyes meet mine, but they aren’t the light treasures I know them to be.
They’re deeper, tinted a darker shade, with the pain that ripples through them.
My heart buckles at the sight, nearly tearing a pained whine from my lips. Alex pulls away, and I let him, not even fighting as he steps back. He draws a line between us, a clear one that rips me apart from where our souls meet.
“I don’t know, Max,” he repeats as he backs away. His lip trembles as he shakes his head. “I … I don’t know.”
Alex walks away, searching for a way out, so that he can get away from me.
“I can’t believe he did this,” Alex growls as he paces in front of the fire. “I can’t believe he’d trust a fucking witch.”
I keep my mouth shut as I prod the pile with my stick, shifting a few more twigs in place to burn.
It was only after we’d circled the edges of our “arena” three times that Alex finally gave up on finding a way out.
Begrudgingly, he followed me back to where we first started.
We hadn’t noticed it at first, but there were three packed sleeping bags and some supplies, including clothes, soap, toothpaste, and a note.
It was from Aiden and Julian. Despite what we wished to believe, this very much was their doing, and while neither had been eager to ask Katerina for more help, they “didn’t know what else to do.”
Talk to us, I wanted to say, but they had tried—or at least Aiden had. Several times now, but I always shut him down, and I was sure Alex had done the same. So, they’d taken matters into their own hands, and now here we were, roughing it out in the woods until we mended ourselves.
“I’m looking again first thing in the morning,” Alex declares as he comes to a sudden halt. “It’s too dark now to see anything, but every spell has a loophole.”
I nod, not bothering to refute his plan with the reminder that night is supposed to be where our senses excel, and that Katerina seems far stronger than even the most legendary witches.
“We should wash up before we sleep then,” I say as I rise from the fire and grab the bag of supplies designated as mine.
In trying to make his escape, Alex had found the water source, which was a large stream with a wide and deep enough centre to dip within.
Stilling, Alex parts his lips before blinking quickly and blurting out, “You can go ahead. I’ll go after you.”
“We don’t know what else is in here,” I reason as I try to breathe around the ache spreading within my chest. “It’s better if we stay together.”
“She put us in here,” he retorts, “she wouldn’t leave us with something dangerous.”
“Are you really going to trust a witch?” That does it.
Mumbling under his breath, Alex snatches up his own belongings before we start along a lone path.
We don’t speak as we walk, only the rustle of the wind through the trees and the snap of twigs beneath our shoes break the uncomfortable silence.
Alex should be telling me some story about him and Julian while laughing too hard to tell it properly, and the woods should be filled with his joy.
We should be happy, not walking in silence, each standing on opposite sides of the wall I forced him to build between us.
Eventually, the stream’s surging waters break the quiet, and a minute longer passes before we come upon it. It sits under the moonlight like a dream, brushed in strokes of silver that make it glow.
I smile as I drop my bag at its banks and strip.
I’m not much of a swimmer, but I always enjoyed any chance to be under Goddess’s raw light.
Naked, I head towards the water, meaning to dive right in, but the numbing cold that skitters up my spine when the water meets my toes has me jumping back with a yelp.