Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Noah
I snarl at the searing pain of my fur and skin burning beneath a silver choke chain.
My hackles are raised, shoulders hunched as Esme drags me forward on a leash.
My paws skid in the soft earth. Saliva drips from my bared teeth as I growl.
My vision blurs from the toxic proximity of the silver to my eyes.
I scent hordes of male Adawulfs and beneath it, the scent of a female. Not Aster, though.
The iron gates to the Adalwulf property swing open where fifty Adalwulf soldiers flank their alpha and the Warden in battle formation.
One young she-wolf dressed in a gossamer slip huddles behind the men.
My wolf is too debilitated from the silver assault to read lips, but I feel the blast of Aiden’s ragey energy as he confronts Esme. Something like, “...fuck are you?” He points at me. “And who is he?”
She yanks on the chain, dragging me up to heel. I snarl and toss my head, fighting the cruel lead. Esme beckons the acolyte forward. I catch her lips forming the word “others?”
Aiden snaps a hand out to grasp Esme’s throat, but instantly drops her, shaking his reddened palm.
Silver dust. That’s probably what’s smarting my eyes.
His soldiers lunge forward, but he holds a hand up to stop them, more wary now.
Esme’s unperturbed, shaking her head with a smirk. I blink hard to focus on her face, so I can follow the conversation. “Give me the girl.” She beckons the acolyte forward again.
“Give me the tiara.” Aiden shows his teeth.
Esme pulls it out from the pouch tied to her belt loop and drops it on her own head. “Girl first. Then you get your prize.”
The wolves shove the terrified girl forward.
Esme takes the tiara off and tosses it like she’s tossing a frisbee for a dog. A grouping of soldiers all lunge to catch it and pass it to the Warden, who examines it, then nods.
“I brought you another offering.” Esme pulls up on the leash, dragging me up on my paws to choke my breath. I wheeze, my eyes bulging.
Aiden looks at me with disdain. “He’s not mine.”
“No, but this is the wolf who marked your Seeress.” Her smile is maniacal.
The Warden and Aiden slo-mo turn as one to take me in.
I show my teeth and lunge at them, and Esme yanks me back. The silver choke-chain cuts into my flesh.
“What do you want?” Aiden asks.
I try to read her lips. “...gift to you. …show…faith. My coven seeks a partnership…your pack.”
“...steal from us…good faith?” The Warden shows his teeth at her.
I don’t know what he says, but Aiden blasts him with Alpha Command, and the Warden shuts his mouth.
“What coven?” Aiden demands.
“The Montaigus.”
Aiden stares at her a moment longer then reaches for the leather handle of my leash. “Give him to me.”
I dig my paws into the dirt and make him drag me, like I don’t want to be taken to their dungeon. Like I’m not hoping to be brought right to my mate.
Like this wasn’t my plan all along.
Aster
My cell door clangs open, and Hugh leaps to his feet, snarling.
I take my sweet time opening my eyes.
“Get up,” the Warden rasps. He’s in white ceremonial robes. His raccoon face paint is fresh, with the added emphasis of lines and dots on his forehead and cheeks. “It’s time.”
I don’t make any move to rise. “What about the acolytes?”
“They have been found unworthy. They will be punished and kept in confinement until the next Alpha Rite.”
Phew. At least I saved them, for now.
I told Aiden nothing about where I’ve been and why. Only that I’ve been following the guidance of the Grandmothers, which I know unnerved him. It’s one thing to believe one of your key pack members has gone rogue. A rogue member can be tortured. Punished. Starved and forced into submission.
It’s another thing to believe the Grandmothers are working against you, the supposed alpha of the pack.
I’ve been meditating, cultivating stillness.
I’ve made it clear to the Grandmothers I won’t be doing anything that puts my mate in danger, but I am open to their advice and help.
I can feel them considering this. They haven’t said anything yet, but I feel the rumbling of psychic thunder, the heaviness to the spring air.
Tonight’s lunar eclipse will be a massive portal for power.
I only wish I knew what to do with it.
I stand, keeping my face serene.
Come, I sign to Hugh.
The ghost wolf stands at my heel.
Talk to me, Grandmothers, I demand. They owe me their guidance.
Perhaps they were demanding only my sacrifice to pack.
For me to get up on the altar and be alpha bonded to Aiden.
Or worse, bred by the alphas of the pack.
Maybe that was the reason they warned me what would happen if I left with Noah.
To ensure my compliance. Now that they have it, they have no need to guide me anymore.
But it doesn’t matter what happens to me. All that matters is that Noah and his family are safe.
But why guide Noah to rescue me from the tower? Was it just for me to help him get his mother and sister out?
It seems so cruel to bring my mate to me only to rip both our hearts out when I leave him.
I gasp.
What if they brought us together so that Noah–the true alpha born of the Alpha Rites–would be the one to breed me?
That thought brings tears to my eyes.
Could there be life growing inside me already? I put a hand to my belly, but of course I don’t feel anything there. It’s too early. And I might not be pregnant at all.
A bittersweet pain spears me. Part of me hopes beyond all hope that I am already pregnant with Noah’s pup. But raising a child without him, raising a future alpha of this twisted pack, pitches me into an ocean of hopelessness.
Really, Grandmothers? Am I just to be bred and denied my mate’s companionship like Catherine Adalwulf endured with Bruce Blackthroat? Destined to murder her own mate to ensure the safety of the pack?
Disgust stirs in an oily lump in my gut.
I step out of the cell and into the hall, and I get a whiff of a familiar scent. Shock ripples through my body.
No.
Please, Grandmothers, no, I pray because I have no one else to turn to.
Why is my mate here?
Hugh presses against me, and I’m grateful for his ghostly reassurance even though it feels like a cold hand pressing against my leg, chilling me. I fight to keep my voice even. “Is someone else here?”
The Warden gives me a cruel smile. “Yes. A new prisoner. One you know. Rather intimately, I believe.”
Trembling starts in my legs, traveling up through my trunk, straight to my teeth. I bite down to keep them from chattering.
“Tonight, your punishment for defiling your body will be to watch the male who took your virginity bleed out at your feet.”
My heart stops. I can’t breathe. Can’t suck air into my vibrating lungs.
Noah.
No!
He was supposed to be safe, with his family. Why is he here?
I school my face, so I don’t look horrified. The Warden is watching my face closely, gloating a little. I need to remain calm, so I can figure out how to get Noah out of this.
My heart pounds in my chest. I want to be sick. He wasn’t supposed to be here!
He'll never leave us, my wolf whispers. Mate.
I let her calm surround me, even as my brain scrambles to search for a solution. At least I know he’s still alive.
“You proved yourself to be unworthy of your calling,” the Warden is saying. He’s like a buzzing mosquito, and with all his war paint on, he looks like a clown.
“The Grandmothers have orchestrated it all,” I say and stare him down. My eyes burn, but I am the Seeress. Guided by the Grandmothers. The Warden is nothing but a pale poser clawing for scraps of the magic I wield.
Finally, he looks away. He snarls, but I don’t flinch. I just won that dominance game, and now I’m going to win the war.
When we arrive at the Celestial Cradle, the red moon has risen.
I feel the power along the ley lines running through the Cradle, and also the sense of hollowed ground.
But I also feel the taint of what Oma, Odin, and the Warden have wrought in this land, the violence and bloodshed.
The Earth is unconcerned with death because death is part of life. Even the Grandmothers agree on that.
If death is what’s in store for me, I am willing to die tonight.
But there’s no way I will allow them to kill my mate.
Noah
I stayed in wolf form the entire time they tortured me. I had hoped to be taken to the dungeon where I would escape, find Aster, and get the fuck out of here.
Unfortunately, I’ve had at least six wolves on me at all times, including Aiden and the Warden.
Aiden used all the Alpha Command he could wield, but I refused to shift. Even when they nearly choked the life out of me with the silver choke collar. I do pretend to be hurt worse than I am, making a show of hanging my head and staggering on my paws.
I had Esme use real silver because I knew they would never buy that I was her prisoner unless they saw real suffering.
I don’t give a fuck about the pain. It’s nothing compared to the anguish of losing my mate. I was an idiot to let her sacrifice herself for me, but it won’t happen again.
This time, I’m doing the sacrificing.
One of the links of the choke collar has a catch.
All I have to do is shift to human form and unlatch it to get myself free, but when I read the Warden’s lips about sacrificing me in front of Aster, I decide to bide my time and wait until then.
As soon as I have eyes on my mate, I trust I will know what to do.
It’s a weak plan, but it’s all I’ve got. Getting myself battered isn’t ideal, but I’m trusting my wolf will pull out all the reserves of energy and power for Aster.
They drag me out, bloody and beaten. The hallway is filled with red-eyed wolves, lurking in man form. There’s something off about them. I can sense a red tinge to the air around them–maybe their auras?
They lead me to the forest.