Chapter 13
Mariah
The bunker smelled like coal dust and damp stone, but it was warmer than the tunnels.
Varek had built it out carefully: timber beams holding the ceiling, tarps stretched tight across one corner to make some sort of a wall, crates stacked high against the sides.
A cot sat crookedly in the back, its canvas patched but clean.
There was even a little fire pit at the center, ringed with blackened stones. Varek crouched over it now, striking sparks from flint until the kindling caught. The orange glow crawled over the walls, pushing back the shadows, turning the cavern into something almost livable.
He dug into one of the crates and pulled out what looked like a few ancient ration packs. He tossed one to me and one to Elsie.
“Dinner,” he said.
I caught mine, wrinkling my nose at the faded packaging. “This looks older than me.”
Elsie snorted, ripping hers open with her teeth. “If it doesn’t crawl away on its own, it’s edible.” She dumped a handful of some kind of jerky into her palm, popped some into her mouth, and began chewing loudly.
I hesitated before peeling mine open. Inside were hard biscuits, some more jerky, and a lump that might have once been dried fruit. I chewed carefully, the salt and smoke filling my mouth. Not bad. Not particularly good either, though.
“Better than starving,” he said, as if reading my mind.
Elsie leaned back on her crate, rifle propped against her knee. “You’ve got a cozy little hideout here, Commander. Food, weapons, supplies. Almost feels like you’ve been planning this for years.”
“I have,” he said flatly.
She whistled low. “Paranoid or prophetic?”
“Prepared,” he answered.
I tore another bite of jerky, watching them both. The fire popped, sparks drifting up into the damp air. “So what happens when all this starts coming together? You both talk about storming the gates like it’s easy, but what happens once we escape these tunnels and come together to attack the city?”
Elsie chuckled, her grin widening. “That’s when the real fun starts. Wolves versus humans, humans versus wolves, wolves versus wolves, and maybe we kill enough bastards on both sides to make a difference.”
Varek shot her a look, silver eyes flashing. “That’s not the plan. Not if we can avoid it. The goal isn’t slaughter. It’s freedom.”
“Spoken like a wolf who’s never been thrown out like trash,” Elsie muttered, bitterness undercutting her words.
“Spoken like someone who doesn’t want to see the world burn just to prove a point,” he countered.
Their eyes locked, heat sparking in the shadows. I cleared my throat. “Can we not argue while I’m trying to choke down a hundred-year-old cracker?”
That broke the tension. Elsie barked a laugh, shaking her head. “Fair point, sweetheart.”
I flushed at the nickname, but didn’t look away. “I’m serious. I don’t want to be caught in the middle while you two measure who’s got the bigger dick.”
Varek smirked faintly. “You’ve got balls, mate, I’ll give you that.”
“Damn right,” Elsie said, raising her ration biscuit like a toast.
I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t hide the small smile tugging at my lips. For a moment, the firelight made it feel almost normal, just three people eating together, the night quiet outside.
The flames crackled, shadows dancing across Varek’s scarred face. His eyes softened as they met mine, full of warmth and emotion.
Elsie noticed and snorted into her biscuit. “God, you two. Get a room.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. “We’re literally in a room.”
“Exactly.” She grinned wickedly.
I shook my head, muttering, “Crazy woman.”
Varek chuckled low, the sound rumbling like distant thunder. “Eat,” he said, poking at the fire. “I’m sure you’re hungry.”
The firelight licked at the stone walls, turning shadows into long, strange shapes that moved with the dancing of the flames. The rations were mostly gone, crumbs on our laps, packages tossed into the fire to hiss and blacken.
Elsie chewed the last of her biscuit and smirked at me. “So. You were taken captive by the wolves too.”
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Yeah. For quite a while. They never… they never got to me. Not before Varek did.”
Her brows shot up. “Lucky you.”
“Lucky?” My laugh came out much louder than I intended. “It didn’t feel that way. Day and night I sat in the dark, in a cage, and waited for them to come. And every night they took someone else instead. I felt guilty for being relieved that it was never me.”
Elsie’s grin faded, her eyes flickering with understanding. “I know that guilt. I lived in those cages too. But they did take me. Again and again. Until…” She stopped, her throat working, then forced a laugh that didn’t sound real. “Until they decided I was too broken to bother anymore.”
My stomach twisted. “You’re not—”
“Don’t,” she snapped, holding up a hand. “Don’t pity me. I don’t need it. I survived. That’s what matters.”
I wanted to argue, but I saw the steel in her eyes, so I just nodded instead. “You did.”
The tension in her shoulders eased, and she gave me a small nod back. For the first time, it felt like we weren’t just strangers. We were two women with scars in the same places.
The fire popped, filling the silence.
I glanced at Varek. He sat across from us, back straight against the wall, his eyes reflecting the firelight. Watching. Always watching.
“Elsie said something earlier,” I began carefully. “About you. About your past. Was there… someone before me?”
His head snapped toward Elsie, and the look he gave her could have carved through stone. She just grinned, unbothered. “Don’t glare at me, Commander. She deserves to know what kind of ghost she’s bedding down with.”
Varek’s jaw tightened. For a moment, I thought he’d shut down and refuse to answer, but then his gaze softened as it slid back to me.
“There was,” he said, voice low. “Her name was Elena.”
The fire seemed to dim at the sound of her name.
“She was human. We both were,” he went on, his eyes fixed on the flames. “We lived together and we were… happy. For a while.” His lips pressed tight. “Then the wolves came. They raided our village and invaded our home. I told her to run. She did.”
His throat worked, his hands curling into fists on his knees.
“She didn’t make it. By the time I fought them off, she was dead.
In the chaos, I was bitten. Everything I had—everything we had—was ripped away in one brutal night.
That’s when I became what I am now. I’m a powerful, influential alpha wolf commander, but I hate the Council and all it stands for. ”
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the drip of water from the ceiling and the pop of firewood.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. And I meant it.
He lifted his gaze to mine. His eyes were sad and unguarded. “Don’t be. Elena is my past. I loved her, but she died a long time ago. You are my future.”
I stared into the eyes of my mate, feeling something completely unfamiliar welling up inside my chest.
Elsie made a noise halfway between a scoff and a laugh. “Gods, you wolves and your drama. But hey—” she gestured at us with her rifle, smirking, “—at least you’re honest about it.”
I shot her a look, but couldn’t help the smile tugging at my lips. Varek’s hand brushed mine, callused and warm, grounding me in the moment.
The fire cast Elsie’s face in light and shadow, and for the first time I really looked at her.
Her cheekbones were sharp, her nose slightly crooked like it had been broken once and never set right.
A thin scar cut across her jawline, pale against her dirt-smudged skin.
Her hair was dark blonde, tied back with a strip of torn cloth, stray strands curling loose against her temples.
She was lean, wiry, all tendon and sinew, like someone who had learned to live on scraps and fury.
Her eyes were the fiercest thing about her, gray, piercing, and entirely too restless.
They didn’t just look at you. They judged you.
She looked older than me, but not by a lot.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly, surprising even myself. “About your baby. About what they did to you.”
Her jaw tightened. She looked away into the fire. “Wolves are no good,” she muttered. “That’s all there is to it.”
The silence stretched, thick. Then Varek leaned forward, his gaze steady on her. “Tell me more about the Watch.”
Elsie glanced at him. She studied him like she was deciding how much he deserved to know. Finally, she huffed out a short laugh.
“The Watch isn’t just a ragtag band of rebels hiding in the mountains.
They’re everywhere. A worldwide network of humans who never forgot what we lost when the Collapse came.
They share information, weapons, whatever they can…
usually. Their goal? To take back our standing in the world.
To stop bowing and bleeding for wolves.”
Her voice hardened. “Some of them are just kids with knives. Some are ex-soldiers. And some… some are radicals who’ll burn everything down if it means no wolf draws breath again.” Her eyes flicked to Varek, narrowing. “But every one of them hates your kind. They don’t make exceptions.”
Varek didn’t flinch. “Then they’ll have to learn. We are not all bad, not all like the Council.”
Elsie snorted. “Good luck with that.”
She poked at the fire with the barrel of her rifle, sending sparks spiraling upward into the damp air. Her face was all hard lines again, but her eyes stayed on me and Varek like she was measuring just how much of the truth we could handle.
“Tell me more about them,” Varek pressed.
“You want details?” she asked, her tone almost mocking. “Fine. But it’s a little hard to define. The Watch is always changing, adapting.”
Varek leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Go on.”
“There are branches of the Watch in every region I’ve ever heard about, from old cities to coastal ports, even in the frozen wastes up north.
Each one does what they can: smuggling, sabotage, assassinations when the wolves aren’t watching too closely.
” She smirked faintly. “Sometimes we even share information. But not always. Trust is a rare commodity to come by.”
I swallowed hard. “And the rage serum? Was it only here?”
Her smirk slipped. She looked at me like she wanted to lie but didn’t bother.
“No. This wasn’t the only place.” She tapped her temple.
“I’ve heard whispers, other branches trying their own recipes.
Different strains. Some failed outright.
Others created… abominations. Not Nyktos exactly, but close enough.
Things that didn’t know if they were human or wolf or monster. Vicious things that didn’t last long.”
The fire popped loudly, making me jump. Elsie didn’t blink.
“Most of those tests ended in death,” she went on. “But there’s always someone in the Watch who thinks the next batch will be the miracle. That one day we’ll find the formula that turns humans into weapons strong enough to wipe wolves off the map without destroying themselves in the process.”
“Does the Council know?” I asked.
She barked out a humorless laugh. “Not a chance. If they did, they’d burn every human alive.
No, the wolves think they’re the only ones running experiments.
That’s why the Watch hides theirs in places the Council doesn’t think to look.
” She leaned back again. “So when I say it’s everywhere, I mean it.
The Watch is the closest thing we’ve got to a human army. ”
My throat went dry, as I considered what a worldwide army of desperate humans—some of them willing to poison their own just to see wolves burn—would be capable of.
It was a terrifying thought.
I leaned forward, shifting the firelight’s focus back to her. “What about you?”
Elsie’s piercing gray eyes snapped to mine, suspicious. “What about me?”
“You said the Watch found you,” I pressed gently. “But what was it really like? For you.”
For the first time, she didn’t smirk. She looked down at the rifle across her lap, fingers tracing the metal. The firelight caught the scar on her jaw, and in that moment, she looked more tired than fierce.
“They saved me,” she admitted after a long pause.
“At least, that’s what I told myself. I was half-starved when they picked me up, bruised and broken from the last time the wolves put their hands on me.
I’d been thrown out with nothing, damaged and used, with nowhere to go.
” Her mouth twisted. “The Watch gave me food. A weapon. A reason to live. At first, that was enough.”
Her voice went quieter. “But they’re not saints. They used me too. Pushed me into missions, told me my anger was useful.” She shrugged, gaze flicking back to me. “When you’ve lost everything, purpose feels like a gift, even if it cuts you bloody.”
My chest tightened. I wanted to reach for her, but I wasn’t sure she’d let me. “You didn’t deserve what they did to you. Any of it.”
She huffed out a breath that might have been a laugh. “Neither did you. Neither did any of us. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? Wolves don’t care what we deserve. They don’t care about humans at all. They take, they use, they destroy, and we just survive however we can.”
Her gaze slid to Varek then. “That’s why I don’t trust him. Doesn’t matter what he used to be. He’s still one of them now. You are too.”
Varek’s silver eyes narrowed, but he didn’t bite. He just sat and let her words hang.
I shifted closer to the fire, my voice softer. “Then maybe that’s why you’re here. Maybe we’re supposed to figure out what happens when good humans and good wolves stop fighting against each other… and start fighting together for a common goal.”
Elsie stared at me across the flames, and for a moment, the hardness in her eyes cracked. Just a little.
She shook her head, muttering, “You sound like the kind of girl who still believes in miracles.”
I didn’t look away. “Maybe I do.”