Chapter 14 #2
“The point,” he said evenly, smirking right in my face, “is that I’m not just an old man, Mariah. I’m your mate.”
The words hit me harder than I wanted to admit. My pulse thudded in my ears. “Still. It’s… weird.”
He raised a brow. “Weird?”
“Yes.” I crossed my arms. “Weird.”
He shook his head and kept walking, but I didn’t miss the smile tugging at his lips.
We moved on in silence for a while, the tunnel narrowing until the ceiling forced him to duck. The air was thicker here, the smell of old stone and wet coal sharp in my nose. My wolf prowled beneath my skin, restless.
The tunnel sloped upward, the air growing lighter, fresher with every step.
My heart quickened, not just from the climb, but from the faint scent of pine that teased my nose.
We were close. Varek had mentioned there was a way out here, an old maintenance shaft that broke above ground, hidden in the rocks, but when we rounded the final bend, the lantern light fell across a wall of rubble.
A massive rock fall blocked the exit, boulders piled high where the ceiling had collapsed. Jagged rocks choked the passage and for a moment I thought we were trapped.
Varek cursed under his breath, his jaw tight. He moved closer, testing the stone with his hand. “Damn it. This was clear last year.”
I stepped forward, scanning the mess. The lantern’s glow showed a gap near the top where that sweet, fresh air must be flowing through. It was a narrow wedge of space between two boulders. Big enough for me, maybe. Definitely not for him.
“I can fit through there.”
His head snapped toward me, accompanied by his disapproving glare. “No.”
“Varek—”
“No,” he repeated, his voice edged with conviction. “It’s too dangerous. We don’t know what’s on the other side. It could be unstable. You could get stuck. You could—”
“Or I could get out,” I cut in, my voice rising. “I could see what’s there. I could find the best way through this.” I waved my hand at the pile of debris blocking our escape.
He loomed over me, silver eyes burning in the lantern light. “I won’t risk you like that.”
I crossed my arms and jutted my chin out defiantly. “You don’t get to decide what risks I take.”
His lips pressed into a hard line, his shoulders squaring. “Oh? You think I won’t stop you? You think being my mate means you can just run headfirst into danger without me? I’ll drag you back if I have to, right before I put you over my knee.”
Heat flared in my chest. My wolf stirred, restless, bristling, rebellious. “So what, you’re just going to alpha me until I roll over? You think that’s going to work on me?”
His gaze darkened, and for a terrifying, exhilarating moment I thought he might actually grab me and make good on his threat. My pulse hammered, but not entirely from fear.
“You’re mine,” he growled, the words low and raw. “And I’ll damn well keep you alive, whether you like how I do it or not.”
My breath caught, the air between us fairly sparking. “Try it,” I snapped, chin high.
For a heartbeat, neither of us moved. The tension built until it was so thick I could barely breathe.
His jaw clenched, his hand flexed at his side like he wanted to seize me, to pin me to the wall and prove his point.
I straightened my stance, trying to stay strong even when my core fluttered with nervous arousal.
And then…
A sound.
Low, guttural, carried through the stone. Not the steady drip of water or the skitter of rats. A much heavier thing. A much bigger thing.
We both froze, the fire of our argument doused in an instant.
The noise came again, deeper this time. A growl. Echoing faintly through the tunnel behind us.
Varek’s eyes snapped to mine, alarmed and alert. His hand closed on my arm, tugging me behind him as he raised the lantern high, scanning the darkness.
“We’re not alone,” he murmured. His whole body shifted, muscles tight, claws threatening at his fingertips. “Something’s down here with us.”
The rock fall no longer looked like an obstacle. It looked like a trap.
I swallowed hard, my anger draining into dread. My wolf stirred again, anxious, as the sound echoed closer.
“We don’t have time to argue, and I definitely don’t have time to thoroughly redden your defiant little ass,” he said, his voice firm, commanding. “Stay close. Do exactly what I tell you or I swear, Mariah, there will be hell for you to pay when we make it out of here.”
The growl came again, louder, closer, and the walls seemed to vibrate with it. Dust sifted down from the ceiling, the lantern’s flame twitching as though it, too, was afraid.
It didn’t sound like wolves. This sound was… foreboding, almost like a primal threat. Like stone grinding against stone, like the earth itself dragging an ancient thing up from its belly.
Varek’s hand clamped tighter around my arm. His body was coiled steel, his silver eyes glowing faintly in the gloom. He listened in that still, predatory way he had, every muscle poised, and for the first time since I’d met him, I thought I saw fear.
My throat went dry. “What is it?”
He shook his head once, jaw tight. “Doesn’t matter. You need to move.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“You need to go through the gap.” He pointed at the narrow wedge in the rock fall, the place he’d forbidden me to squeeze through moments ago. “Now.”
“No.” The word flew out of me without conscious thought. “I’m not leaving you here.”
His gaze nailed mine hard, unyielding. “Mariah. You have to.”
The growl swelled, echoing louder through the tunnel. The stones under our boots trembled. I could feel it in my bones now, rattling my ribs, my teeth.
I shook my head, panic clawing at my chest. “I’m not crawling into the dark while you fight whatever that is. You can’t ask me to do that.”
“I’m not asking you,” he ordered. “I’m telling you. You’re my mate. My only priority is getting you out alive.”
My chest clenched. My wolf thrilled at his command, at the brutal assurance in his tone, but my human heart rebelled. I couldn’t stand the thought of him getting hurt in the tunnels while I fled into the daylight.
I grabbed his arm, fingers digging into the muscle there. “You’ll die.”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But if one of us is getting out, it’s going to be you. I’ve shown you the way. Get to the Resistance. Tell them what they need to know.”
I shook my head so hard my vision blurred. “No. That’s not good enough. I don’t want to survive without you.”
I hadn’t wanted to admit it—not after everything, not after the bite, not after the chaos of my first shift, but it was there all the same. The thought of losing him carved a hollow ache in my chest.
“I can’t,” I whispered. “I can’t just run.”
The sound came again, loud, a roar that made the walls shudder all around us. The air pressed hot and heavy suddenly, choking. A shadow in the dark beyond that bend we’d come through shifted. I felt its presence before I saw it, immense and wrong, like a shadow with teeth.
Varek gripped my chin, forcing my gaze to his. His hand was rough, his eyes blazing silver fire. “Mariah. Look at me.”
“I am,” I said, my voice cracking.
“You’re going to make it out of here.” His thumb brushed against my jaw, gentler than the words. “You’re going to live. You’re going to laugh with your friends again. And you’re going to remember me, whether I’m behind you or not.”
Tears blurred my vision. “Don’t say it like you’ve already decided—”
He kissed me.
It wasn’t slow or sweet. It was violent, desperate, a claim and a promise all at once. My fingers curled into his shirt, my whole body screaming to stay right here, pressed into him, safe in the circle of his arms.
Then he tore away, breathing hard. “Go.”
I shook my head, sobs pushing out of me. “Varek, please—”
The roar thundered again, closer, so close the dust rained in a steady stream from the ceiling. A shadow rippled against the tunnel wall, vast and writhing, too big, too wrong.
“Here!” he said, ripping a map out of his pocket and shoving it into my hands. My fingers closed around it, gripping tight as though it was a lifeline.
“Now! Go! I’ll catch up. I promise!”
His command cracked like a whip through the tunnel, reverberating down my spine. My wolf whined, my body obeying my alpha before my mind could catch up. I stumbled toward the rock fall, choking on tears and fear.
The gap loomed above me, small, jagged. My hands scraped raw against stone as I climbed, squeezing my shoulders through the narrow wedge. I could barely fit, rocks pressing into my ribs, tearing at my clothes.
The roar came again, deafening now, and the ground shook like the mountain itself wanted to split open.
I forced myself through the gap, stone cutting into my arms, my breath ragged. I twisted, my cheek scraping stone as I looked back.
The lantern light flickered behind me, casting Varek’s shadow huge against the wall.
He stood in the tunnel, knife in one hand, his eyes locked on the bend where the roar had come from. The firelight painted him like a warrior carved into legend.
Scarred, bloodied, unyielding.
My heart cracked.
The tunnel ahead of me narrowed, and for a terrifying moment I thought I’d be trapped, that I’d die here between rock and shadow, but then I burst through into open air, collapsing on my hands and knees in the daylight.
I pressed my hands to the earth, my chest heaving, tears burning my eyes.
The first breath of open air hit my lungs like fire. It should have felt like freedom—the clean bite of pine, the faint chill of morning wind cutting through the damp coal dust on my skin—but instead it only burned with agony.
Because he wasn’t with me.
I pressed my forehead to the ground, fists curling into the dirt.
I should go back. God, I should go back. I need to do something. Anything.
His command still rang in my head, echoing down my spine. It had dragged me forward whether I wanted it to or not, and part of me hated him for it. Hated that he could push me away when all I wanted was to cling tighter.
And yet… he’d done it to save me.
My throat tightened until I could barely breathe as I realized a truly terrifying thing.
I was falling in love with him.
Not just the bond, not just the wolf inside me that howled every time his eyes met mine. But for him. The man who tucked me into bed in that bunker. The broken wolf who had lost someone he loved, and still, somehow, had enough left to want me, to protect me, care for me.
I didn’t know when it had started. Maybe when he called me little wolf. Maybe when his bite cut through the madness and pulled me back from the brink. Maybe when his lips crashed into mine in the tunnels, hard and desperate, and I realized I didn’t want to fight him anymore.
All I knew was that the thought of losing him was unbearable.
The ground shook again, pebbles bouncing down from the cliff above, birds scattering into the sky with panicked cries. I clutched at the earth, my entire body trembling.
He’s gone, a cold, cruel voice whispered in my head. He stayed behind so you could run, and now he’s gone. Just like everyone else you’ve ever loved.
“No,” I rasped, my voice breaking. “No, I can’t—”
Images swarmed me: his steady gaze, the way he’d pressed his forehead to mine, the fierce promise in his voice when he said I would live. The feel of his mouth on mine. The heat of his hands on my skin. His body filling mine.
I hadn’t wanted to give myself to anyone, not after everything the wolves had taken, but God help me, I had given myself to Varek.
I dug my nails into the dirt, rocking forward, my tears soaking into the ground. The sky was too blue, the air too cold, mocking me with freedom I didn’t want without him.
My wolf howled inside me, pacing, snarling, begging me to turn back, to throw myself into the dark beside him. To fight with him, to die with him if I had to.
But my human side was paralyzed, trapped between fear and grief, between survival and love.
What if I go back and I lose him anyway?
What if I don’t go back and I lose him for sure?
My whole body shook with the weight of the choice, the sound of the mountain splitting open behind me, the certainty that whatever monster was rising from the deep was stronger and more terrible than anything I’d ever seen.
And yet, my thoughts were consumed by him.
Varek.
My mate.