Chapter 14
Mariah
I woke to the sound of boots crunching lightly on gravel. The fire had burned low, just embers now, painting the bunker in dull red light. Varek was still beside me, stretched out on the cot with his knife across his chest, his breathing slow and steady.
Elsie stood at the door, her rifle slung over her shoulder, her gray eyes catching the faint glow of a lantern as she pushed the latch open.
“You’re leaving,” I said, my voice rough with sleep.
She glanced back, a crooked grin tugging at her mouth. “I don’t do long goodbyes, sweetheart. Besides, you don’t need me watching over your little wolf romance. I’ve got a job to do.”
“You’re going to the Watch? You’ll tell them the plan?”
“Yeah.” She shifted her weight, her smirk turning more serious. “Someone’s got to rattle their cages. Convince them this might actually work.” Her eyes flicked between Varek and me. “Good luck, you two; you’ll need it.”
Before I could answer, she was gone, slipping through the door like a ghost, the sound of her footsteps fading into silence.
I sat for a long moment, staring at the empty doorway, my chest tight.
Varek stirred, opening his silver eyes. He must have sensed it the moment she left. “She’s gone?”
“Yeah.” I pulled the tarp tighter around me. “She’s going to the Watch.”
He pushed himself upright, wincing at the stiffness in his injured leg. “Good. Then it’s our turn.”
I blinked at him. “Our turn?”
“To reach the Resistance in the mountains,” he said simply. “If we want this plan to work, they need to know what’s coming. We’ve got to pull everyone together.”
“Do you know where to go?” I asked.
He stood, already moving to one of the crates, pulling free a rough map he’d stashed there.
The parchment was smudged with coal dust, the lines faded but still clear enough to trace.
“There’s a tunnel that runs beneath the western ridge.
Old mining shaft. It’ll get us close to the outer range of their territory. ”
I rose to my feet, shaky but steadier than I’d been the day before. My body still hummed with the memory of shifting, of fur and fangs and fire under my skin, but I pushed it down. I watched as Varek gathered some supplies into a pack.
Varek lit a lantern and doused the last of the embers, plunging the bunker into shadow. “Come on,” he said quietly. “The sooner we move, the better.”
We slipped back into the tunnels. The air was damp and cold, the stone walls making me feel claustrophobic, but Varek moved like he belonged here, each step confident, sure. I followed close behind, my hand checking the knife he’d given me, the weight of it on my belt grounding me.
The tunnels narrowed the farther we went, the walls closing in until I had to duck beneath beams blackened from some old fire.
Coal dust coated everything, clinging to my hair, my throat, the sweat on my skin.
Every drop of water from the ceiling echoed like a stray footstep, every gust of stale air felt like a breath on the back of my neck.
Varek led with the lantern, and I followed close behind, my soft boots almost silent.
My wolf prowled restlessly under my skin, senses heightened to the point where I could hear the scuttle of rats in the dark and smell the damp rot of collapsed beams long before we reached them.
It was exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time.
At one point, the ceiling dipped so low we had to crawl. My palms slid across slick stone, my heartbeat quickening until the tunnel widened again and I could stand. My chest heaved as I straightened.
“You’re doing well,” Varek said over his shoulder.
I rolled my eyes, brushing grime from my shirt. “Don’t talk to me like I’m a pup you’re housebreaking.”
A low chuckle rumbled from him. “Fair enough.”
We pressed deeper. Once, the tunnel forked into three. Varek crouched, brushing his fingers over the ground, sniffing faintly like a wolf on the trail. He pointed right. “That way.”
“How do you remember all this?” I asked.
“I’ve walked these paths more than once,” he said simply. “Memory, scent, and instinct. Together, they don’t lie.”
The silence stretched, broken only by our boots crunching on gravel. My thoughts drifted back to Kendra and Lia, my girls, my sisters. I missed them and I was looking forward to seeing them soon.
“You know,” I said softly, my voice bouncing back from the stone walls, “before everything went to hell for us, Kendra, Lia, and I got our hands on a bottle of bourbon from the black market.”
Varek glanced back at me, one brow raised.
I smiled faintly at the memory. “We didn’t know what we were doing.
It tasted awful, but we passed it around until we were giggling like idiots.
Then we snuck into this old mall, and there was this…
Spirit Halloween store. Everything was still there, dusty costumes, plastic masks, wigs, the works. We tried everything on.”
The image bubbled up so vividly it made me laugh under my breath.
“Kendra put on this giant hotdog costume, tripped over the bun, and couldn’t get back up.
She was just this big hotdog with felt ketchup and mustard down her front, rolling around on the floor.
” I felt myself grinning at the vivid memory.
“Lia found vampire fangs and a stupidly long black cloak. She wouldn’t stop swinging it up in front of her face and hissing at us, imitating this thick Dracula accent: ‘I vant to sssssuck your blooood!’ I ended up in this witch hat two sizes too big holding onto a plastic broom.
I couldn’t see a damn thing, but danced with that broom until I fell over. ”
I shook my head, my heart swelling with love for those two lost sisters of mine. “We danced around in those stupid costumes until we collapsed in a heap. For that one night, we weren’t girls growing up in a world of wolves just waiting to be bred. We were just… teenage girls, being ridiculous.”
Varek’s expression softened. The light of the lantern made his pale eyes glimmer. He smiled, and there was a warmth there, a respect in the way he listened.
“I just can’t wait to see them again,” I admitted quietly.
Varek took my hand and squeezed it in solidarity, I guess, and we kept walking, the tunnel twisting downward. Gravel shifted beneath my boots, and I slipped on a patch of loose stone. His hand shot out instantly, catching my arm.
“Careful,” he said, close to my ear.
Heat spread through me where his hand gripped mine, strong and steady. My pulse jumped, and I muttered, “Thanks,” trying to shake off how much I liked the feel of him holding me.
His hand lingered just a beat before letting go.
The air grew colder as we descended, heavy and damp, and somewhere ahead a rumble echoed like distant thunder. My wolf stirred uneasily.
To distract myself from the tightness in my chest, I asked, “What was it like for you? Before. When you were human.”
He didn’t answer at first. His stride didn’t falter, but his shoulders stiffened. Finally, he said, “I was a soldier.”
I blinked. “Seriously?”
“Yes.” His voice was steady, but his eyes went distant, reflecting the lantern flame. “I enlisted young. I thought I was fighting for order. For a future.” He gave a humorless laugh. “Turns out the future had other plans.”
I studied him, trying to picture him clean-shaven, in uniform, standing tall with that same commanding posture. It wasn’t hard. He still carried himself like a soldier, straight-backed, disciplined, always scanning for threats.
“Did you like it?” I asked quietly.
His jaw tightened. “It gave me purpose. Discipline. But it took a toll. You see enough bodies, you stop believing in heroes.”
Something in his tone made my chest ache. “And Elena?” I whispered before I could stop myself.
His gaze cut to me, angry for just a second, but then softened. “She was the only thing that brought light to the darkness of our world at that time. When she was gone, all I had left was war.”
The words hung heavy between us, heavier than the rock above our heads.
We came to a collapse then, timbers caved in, and rubble piled high. Varek set the lantern down and started shifting stones with his bare hands. I joined him, coughing on the dust until we cleared enough space to squeeze through.
On the other side, the tunnel opened wide into a cavern, vast and echoing. Stalactites dripped from the ceiling, pools of black water catching the light like shattered glass.
I gasped softly. “It’s beautiful.”
Varek studied me for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, it is, isn’t it?”
The cavern’s ceiling soared above us, dark and glistening with moisture. Every drop of water that fell into the shallow pools echoed like a bell, rippling through the silence. I followed Varek’s lantern light across the jagged floor, taking each step painstakingly slow.
He moved with certainty, like he’d walked these tunnels a hundred times before. Even with his limp, he looked unshakable.
I found myself staring a moment too long.
Not at the weapon in his hand, or the way he carried himself like a commander even down here, but at him, broad, scarred, and strong. A man who had been human once, like me. A man who had lost everything and kept moving anyway. Like me.
A thought caught me off guard, and before I could stop myself, the words tumbled out. “Wait… how old are you?”
His stride slowed. He glanced back, brow furrowing like the question hadn’t crossed his mind in years. “I don’t know exactly anymore. Mid-thirties when I was bitten. Time’s different for some of us early wolves.”
“So…” I tilted my head, squinting at him in the lantern light. “You’re like—what? Pushing one hundred? Two hundred?”
One corner of his mouth twitched, not quite a smile. “Something like that.”
My jaw dropped. “I’m only eighteen!”
He stopped, turning fully now, his silver eyes glinting with danger and amusement all at once. “And still alive. Because of me.”
Heat rushed to my face. “That’s not the point!”