Chapter 26 #2
“You matter, Brie,” he said, the words flat. “If you didn’t, I wouldn’t have wasted my time grooming you. I wouldn’t have killed for you.”
He crouched again, lowering himself until our eyes were level.
“You’re not going to die, little girl. But you’ll wish you were dead by the time your buyer is done with you. And by the time I’ve made every wolf in Texas pay for what they’ve done to me.”
I wanted to ask why. I wanted to understand the madness. But I knew better than to invite a monologue.
Instead, I locked eyes with him and said, “Then do it. Stop pretending you have a plan.”
The words hit. Maltraz’s face twisted, and for a moment, I thought he’d rip my heart out right then.
But a voice from the hall interrupted. “She’s right, Sire. We need to move her now, or the shipment will be compromised.”
Adramal. Unflappable, untouchable, always showing up at the worst possible moment.
Maltraz straightened, shaking off the rage like a bad coat. “Who’s the buyer?” he said.
“Foreign. Asian. Paid triple the normal rate. Wants her shipped with the others in the next shipment.”
He considered this, then glanced back at me. “See? You’re special.”
He touched a finger to my cheek, leaving a smear of black blood.
“We leave tomorrow at midnight,” he said. “If you’re a very good girl, you may even get a window seat.”
He turned, the tails of his suit flicking blood onto the wall, and left the cell.
Adramal lingered, his face unreadable.
“That was risky,” he said, voice low. “He could have killed you.”
I managed a laugh, weak but real. “He could kill me anytime. So could you. But you haven’t. Why not?”
He didn’t answer. He just looked at me, silent and watchful, as if trying to solve a riddle he didn’t understand.
After a moment, he said, “You’d better eat if you want to have any strength.”
He tossed a chunk of stale bread onto my lap, then closed the door with a finality that made my stomach drop.
I stared at the bread, not sure whether to eat it or use it to mop up the blood.
Outside the door, I heard Maltraz scream at someone, the sound so loud it shook the whole hallway.
I closed my eyes, counting the seconds between screams, and tried to focus on the mate bond. It was weak, stretched thin, but still there. Still real.
I wouldn’t die here. Not like this.
I owed it to Finn.
If you’ve ever seen a haunted house at closing time, you know the vibe: all the performers are tired; the lights are flickering, and nobody really wants to be there.
That’s what Maltraz’s fortress felt like now.
The door to my room hung open, the dungeons half-abandoned.
I could hear demons packing up, bickering in the hallways, ready to bolt at the first sign of a lost cause.
Adramal and Nazek were the only ones who stuck around. Nazek had a nervous habit of counting something in his head—tapping his fingers against his thigh, muttering numbers under his breath. Adramal stood watch by the door, arms crossed, eyes never leaving me.
I took inventory: two guards, both distracted, chains still loose on my ankle. I waited until Nazek drifted to the far end of the hall before I whispered, “You know they’ll kill you if you stay. Finn doesn’t do mercy.”
Adramal didn’t flinch. “If I run, Maltraz will catch me. If I stay, your mate might. I pick the lesser death.”
I leaned forward, ignoring the ache in my shoulders. “Help me, and I’ll vouch for you. My Alpha will listen. Finn might even let you live.”
He stared at me, unblinking. “Why would you bargain for a demon?”
“Because you could have killed me, but you didn’t. That has to count for something.”
Nazek crept back, eyeing Adramal with suspicion. “What’s she saying?”
Adramal shrugged. “She wants to make a deal.”
Nazek snorted, spitting a gob onto the stone floor. “She’ll promise you heaven, then sell you to the first wolf who asks. Don’t be a fool.”
But Adramal kept looking at me. “You mean it?”
I nodded, once, as serious as I’d ever been in my life. “You help me. I help you.”
He seemed to consider this, then stepped away as if the conversation was over.
I didn’t have time to worry about whether he’d go for it.
Because right then, the whole world shook.
It started as a low rumble, barely enough to rattle the chains. Then the ground heaved, and a sheet of dust fell from the ceiling, coating everything in fine gray powder. The torches along the hall guttered, sending the whole dungeon into a flickering, strobe-lit chaos.
Nazek let out a shriek, running for the stairs. Adramal went still, eyes wide.
From somewhere far above, I heard the first howl. It was low, long, and beautiful—pure wolf, full of anger and promise.
The mate bond exploded in my chest, white-hot and impossible to ignore.
“They’re coming,” I breathed, more to myself than anyone.
Adramal spun on his heel, unlocking my wrists and ankles with a key he’d hidden in his belt. He pressed a finger to his lips, then jerked his head toward the door.
“If you want to live, you stay put. If you run, you’ll get caught in the fighting and die.”
I rubbed my raw wrists, every muscle screaming to run anyway.
“Why?” I whispered.
His face was stone. “Because I gave my word. And because Maltraz will kill us both if we’re caught.”
The footsteps on the stairs got louder—boot heels and claws, shouts in languages I didn’t recognize. The walls trembled with the weight of violence.
Adramal shoved me back into the chair, looping the chain around my leg so it looked like I was still locked down. He stood behind me, arms folded, projecting the air of a bodyguard on loan to a very unpopular VIP.
I heard Nazek scream. The sound cut short by a heavy, wet crack. Then another howl, closer this time, echoing off the stone.
Adramal’s hands tightened on my shoulders. “Don’t move until you see Finn. Not before.”
The power in his voice was old, older than anything I’d felt from a wolf. For the first time, I wondered if Adramal had ever been anything else.
I nodded, silent.
We waited, the air thick with blood and fear and the sweet, electric promise of rescue.
And somewhere in that chaos, I knew Finn was coming.
All I had to do was hold on.
Hell came apart from the top down.
The first sign was the shift in sound—a roar, then silence, then a higher-pitched shriek that didn’t sound like anything human or animal.
It was the kind of noise that made the stone sweat, that made every cell in your body want to curl up and quit.
It rolled through the dungeon in waves, loosening centuries of dust and rust, setting every chain and bar to humming.
Adramal, for all his calm, looked rattled. He knelt at my feet, slipping the chain off my ankle with hands that trembled only a little. “Hang on,” he muttered, not meeting my eye. “The way is not clear.”
But every instinct in me screamed GO.
Another shockwave hit—closer this time. The torches along the wall blew out, plunging us into strobing darkness as emergency magic fizzled and guttered. I could smell blood now—thick and clotted, layered over the rotten citrus of demon sweat.
I heard Nazek scream again, this time from the far end of the hall. Something big and fast hit the door, hard enough to buckle the iron, then the hinges gave out, and it crashed inward. Demons were running away.
In the flickering gloom, I saw a shape—a blur of black hair and high, elegant cheekbones. Lucia. She was beautiful, even when she was covered in blood up to the elbows and her lips were curled back in a snarl.
She moved with inhuman speed, cutting down the first demon she saw with a knife so sharp it barely left a mark before the head dropped off.
She moved to the next, a downward slash opening the chest like a zipper.
The bodies barely had time to fall before she was on the third, shoving the blade up under the chin and out the top of the skull.
Behind her, the hallway filled with screams, crashes, and the wet, meaty thud of violence.
The knot in my chest immediately loosened, and I threw off the chains.
From somewhere above, I heard a voice—Wrecker, I realized, cussing a blue streak as he fought his way down the stairwell.
“Come on, you ugly fuckers! That’s right, line up! This monster has got a present for everyone of you!”
The sounds of claws against stone, of flesh tearing, of bones breaking were everywhere.
It should have scared me. It did, but the fear was laced with a wild, desperate hope.
They were here. My pack. My family.
I pulled myself up by the bars on the chair, using every muscle left. I was on my feet, my legs finding their strength. Suddenly a rush of demons slammed through the cell door—four, maybe five, their eyes all lit up with panic, not hate.
They didn’t attack. They ran. Past me, past Adramal, straight for the back wall, where a tunnel sloped away into blackness.
Lucia followed, stepping over bodies without even glancing down. She saw me, and for a moment, our eyes locked. She bared her bloody teeth in what I decided to interpret as a smile.She made eye contact with me. "Hold on little wolf. Your Finn comes." Then she blurred after the fleeing demons.
Then the stairwell exploded, and Finn was there.
He came out of the smoke, his eyes so green they hurt to look at. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, but he didn’t seem to notice. He ran straight for me, leaping bodies in a way that would have looked ridiculous if it wasn’t so beautiful.
He caught me, one arm around my waist, the other tangling in my filthy hair.
Wrecker burst through, half-shifted, his hands claws and his teeth elongated just enough to give his threats extra weight. He was covered in blood and demon goo, his shirt torn to ribbons, his jeans black with demon goo.
He saw me and gave a manic grin. “You look like shit, Brie. Good to see ya.”
I opened my mouth to thank him, but the sound that came out was pure animal—some kind of mix between a sob and a howl.