Chapter 18 - Heinrich
By the time the last demon falls, the forest is quiet again.
Its twisted body collapses into the snow-covered earth with a sickening thud, dissolving slowly into dark ash as the corrupted magic inside it finally burns out.
My chest heaves as I drag a hand across my face, the cold night air biting against sweat-damp skin.
Around me, the warriors of Silver Stone stand scattered among the trees, their breathing heavy from the battle.
The demon sighting had been urgent enough to pull me from the cabin without hesitation. A group had slipped through the eastern ridge, smaller than the ones we had faced before, but dangerous enough to demand immediate action.
We handled them quickly, mostly because Silver Stone’s magic is slowly but steadily returning to its former glory, albeit not as glorious or magnificent as it once was, proving that there is still much to improve between Annika and me.
But tearing through this group of demons felt too easy.
A strange unease coils low in my gut as I look across the clearing. Conan wipes blood from his blade while Damian shifts back into human form nearby, his eyes scanning the tree line one last time.
“That’s the last of them,” he mutters to Sophie, who’d joined the fight.
But something about the finality of that claim doesn’t sit right with me.
There were fewer demons than expected. Their movements had been erratic, almost disorganized, as if they weren’t truly trying to breach the valley. We’ve faced demons countless times over the years, and this group was too easy, as if they weren’t trained fighters, disposable demons.
As if they were meant to draw us away.
The thought settles heavily in my chest, and without another word, I turn toward the valley. “I’m heading back,” I throw curtly over my shoulder. No one questions it. The others know exactly where my mind is.
Annika.
The moment the fighting ended, the pull of the mate bond began tugging at my chest again, that quiet awareness of her presence lingering at the edge of my senses. It’s what prompts me to shift and run.
The forest rushes past me in a blur of dark trunks and silver moonlight as my wolf tears through the valley with relentless speed. My only thought is returning to the cabin, to the woman I left standing in the hallway with unanswered questions in her eyes.
The unease in my chest grows stronger the closer I get, and by the time the cabin comes into view through the trees, something deep inside me already knows.
Something is wrong.
I can feel the unease settle in my spine as I shift back before reaching the porch, my boots crunching against the frost-covered ground as I climb the steps.
The door is slightly open, and my stomach drops, because I distinctly told her not to leave the cabin, and I just know that she wouldn’t have done that. Not after meeting me in the hallway tonight.
“Annika?”
The silence inside the cabin answers me.
I step through the doorway slowly, my senses sharpening immediately.
The fire in the hearth has burned low, leaving only faint embers glowing between the stones.
The air inside should smell warm, alive with Annika’s scent lingering in every corner of the room.
Instead, something metallic cuts through it. Chemical. Foreign. My jaw tightens as I move deeper into the house.
“Annika?” I call out again, but still, nothing. I check the kitchen first, then the hallway, then the bedroom.
Each room is empty.
The realization settles slowly at first, like a creeping shadow spreading through my chest. Then it slams into me all at once.
She’s gone.
My wolf roars inside me.
I return to the front door in three long strides and step out onto the porch again, dropping to one knee as I scan the ground carefully. The faint scent of Annika still lingers in the wooden boards beneath my fingers.
But it’s tangled with something else.
Humans.
My nostrils flare as anger surges through me, brows furrowing with confusion.
There’s metal dust scattered across the boards, nearly invisible to human eyes, a faint chemical residue clinging to the air.
Suppressors.
My hands curl into tight fists as realization dawns.
They didn’t come here by accident. Humans don’t come to these parts of the valley.
They came for her.
Rage pulses violently through my veins as the mate bond flares suddenly in my chest. It’s faint, distant, but unmistakable.
Pain.
Annika’s pain.
The sound that leaves my throat is closer to a growl than a breath.
I close my eyes briefly, letting my wolf rise closer to the surface as I inhale deeply. The scent trail is faint but present, dragged across the forest floor toward the mountains.
Whoever took her tried to cover their tracks, but they underestimated what an alpha werewolf can do when his mate is threatened.
I shift without another thought, unable to concentrate on the million questions roaring through my being. It doesn’t matter why humans were here; all that matters is that they have my mate.
Bones snap as my wolf takes control, fur bursting across my skin as instinct replaces reason. Within seconds, I’m racing through the trees, my nose pressed low to the ground as I follow the scent trail carved through the valley.
It leads east, toward the mountains. The farther I run, the stronger the scent becomes. Human sweat. Gun oil—industrial metal.
And beneath it all is the faintest trace of Annika’s sweet scent, not appealing now, but alarming.
My wolf runs harder, branches whipping past me as the forest begins to thin, replaced by jagged stone and rising slopes that lead toward the mountain ridges surrounding the valley. The scent pools near a narrow ravine carved between two cliffs.
I slow down as I approach, because something about the air here feels wrong. Then I hear it.
A scream.
It’s faint, but unmistakable.
Annika.
The sound detonates inside my chest like a bomb. My wolf surges forward without hesitation, launching across the rocky ground toward the dark opening of a cave hidden between the cliffs.
Two humans stand guard outside.
They barely have time to react when the first one turns toward me just as I leap. My jaws close around his throat before he can raise the weapon in his hands. Bone snaps instantly beneath the pressure of my paws, blood spraying across the rocks as his body collapses beneath me.
The second man manages to fire a shot. The bullet grazes my shoulder, slicing through fur and skin, but I barely feel it, my body absorbing the pain like it’s nothing, thanks to the adrenaline pumping through me.
My claws slam into his chest, sending him crashing into the stone wall behind him. His skull cracks against the rock with a sickening sound, and he drops lifeless to the ground.
The cave beyond them smells like blood.
And Annika.
I shift back before entering, grabbing one of the fallen men’s knives as I step into the darkness. The sight that greets me inside the cave nearly stops my heart.
Annika is chained to the far wall.
Her head hangs forward weakly, dark hair falling over her face, bruises staining her skin, and the metal cuffs around her wrists glow faintly with some kind of technological seal.
For a moment, rage nearly blinds me. Then she stirs.
“Heinrich…” Her voice is barely a whisper.
I cross the cave in seconds and tear the chain from the wall with a violent pull, the stone cracking under the force. The suppressor cuffs resist at first until I locate the small control device clipped to one of the fallen captors nearby.
One strike from the knife destroys it, and the cuffs release immediately. Annika collapses forward into my arms, her body trembling violently as I catch her against my chest.
“They…stripped my magic from me,” she murmurs weakly.
I pull her closer, one hand cradling the back of her head. “You’re safe now,” I say quietly.
Her fingers grip my shirt weakly as if she’s anchoring herself to me. “I knew you’d come.”
The words cut deeper than any blade. “I will always come for you.”
Carefully, I lift her into my arms, and she murmurs again. “The demon…”
“It isn’t here now. You’re safe,” I assure her, holding her tightly to my chest.
She’s far too light, far too fragile, and whoever did this will regret it for the rest of their very short lives.
Annika remains unconscious most of the journey back to the cabin, and I don’t seek to wake her. I don’t wish to let her out of my sight again.
***
When Annika finally wakes, it’s long after dawn, her breathing shallow and uneven as the effects of the suppressor cuffs continue to drain the last of her strength. Her magic should have healed most of her injuries already, but without it, she’s forced to recover as slowly as any human would.
So I stay.
For two days, I barely leave the cabin. How could I leave when I almost lost my mate and had the biggest scare of my life? I haven’t been able to keep her out of my sight, and my heart hurts to see her in the condition she’s in. She’s never been this quiet and is like a shell of her former self.
I hate what they did to her, but all I can do now is be there for her through her recovery. She briefly told me about what happened, how she was captured by the humans, and that there was a demon in the cave with them. I didn’t encounter that demon, but I would have ripped it to shreds if I did.
As Annika looks at me as if she’s searching for strength only I can give her, I clean the cuts along her wrists where the cuffs bit into her skin. I replace the bandages across her shoulders and arms where the humans burned her with their devices. When she’s too weak to stand, I carry her.
Sometimes she wakes during the night from nightmares, her breathing frantic until she realizes where she is.
Each time I’m there, holding her, quietly reminding her that she’s safe.
Those moments change something between us.
The mate bond deepens with every passing hour, no longer just an instinctive pull but something quieter and more deliberate.
Something chosen.
We barely speak much, just remaining in each other’s presence until the mate bond makes it possible for her to fully heal. When she’s finally strong enough to remain out of bed on her own, I leave the cabin for the first time since bringing her home.
***
The council chamber is already full when I arrive.
My father sits at the head of the long wooden table while Damian, Conan, Joel, and several others stand nearby studying a collection of metal equipment laid across the surface.
The moment I step inside, every pair of eyes turns toward me. Amos adjusts his glasses as he gestures to the cuffs resting on the table.
“We’ve finished analyzing the devices used to capture Annika.”
My gaze darkens as I look at them.
“And?”
Amos exhales slowly. “The suppressors are military-grade technology,” he says. “Not black market. Not experimental.”
A heavy silence fills the room as we all seem to understand what that means.
Damian leans forward slightly. “Meaning someone supplied them.”
Amos nods grimly.
“We’ve already started tracing the origin of the alloy and manufacturing codes.”
My fists tighten slowly at my sides. Whoever provided those weapons, whoever helped those humans take my mate, is about to discover something very important.
You do not touch an alpha’s mate and survive the consequences.
“Do we know why the demons are working with humans now?” Conan asks, and I step forward, placing my hands on the table.
“We will when we find the source of the weapons and pull the truth out of the supplier,” I say measuredly. “What matters right now is stopping this operation before it gets out of hand. The humans working with the demons need to be stopped before this leaks into the rest of the world.”
A silence stretches over the meeting chamber as everyone agrees.
We all know what needs to be done, and now, there’s no time to waste. Annika is still recovering, and it’ll take some time for her powers to return. We can’t let them attack again.