Chapter 56 Thane
Thane
No’ even near midnight yet.
Sweat poured as his beast prowled beneath his skin. Holding back his primal self—mated, beneath the moon—went against every law of the Lykae. Thane gripped the bars, drawing in any faint hint of his mate, though he felt as if he stood waist-deep in her caustic magic.
At last, Straegan’s ceaseless howls cut off.
Blessed quiet. Only the surf pounding below the cliffs and the thin cries of nocturnal seabirds. Thane let his shoulders relax a fraction…
Then his brother loosed a different sound. A long, savage roar, a call to arms.
Thane’s beast bayed inside him. The two remaining guards nearby traded uneasy looks.
“Ignore him,” Thane ordered. “We’ll get through this.” No sooner had he spoken than tendrils of light sparked across the bars of his cage. Ditch’s tethering magic—so tenacious, so strong—flickered and hissed as something else flooded in: a foreign current, both cold and malicious.
The spell was changing. The world tilted.
The fuck is happening?
His beast felt…empowered. As Thane fought to keep control, he sensed a clash beyond himself as well. Magic battling magic. Had Ditch’s own coven sabotaged her spells? Would the cages fail?
Straegan slammed against those bars with renewed ferocity.
“Lowell!” Thane bellowed. Ditch’s ward could not hold for much longer. “Lowell, get back here!”
No answer.
He turned to the pair of warlairds. “Where the hell is he?”
“We’ll find him.” They hastened toward Straegan’s cell.
If my brother gets loose, he’ll kill Ditch.
Lowell, godsdamn it.
Roars erupted from the dungeon. Shouts. Screeching metal. What sounded like a battle and the scent of blood carried.
Moments later, a warlaird lurched back into view—Duncan, maybe?—one arm clinging by a strip of flesh, the other hand pressing his lacerated chest together.
“What’s happening down there?” Thane demanded. Straegan must’ve used his speed to swipe his claws from his prison.
Duncan wheezed, “Cell’s…collapsing. Guards mangled. Swords…bounce off him. Matter of time… We need you.”
“Where is Lowell?” Had Straegan taken him out? Thane swallowed hard.
“Gone. Canna find him.”
Gone. His right hand had deserted him during the most volatile hour the kingdom had faced in centuries. After I trusted him with so much? Betrayal fanged deep.
Thane shoved it aside. The spells were failing. Straegan would soon get loose, and he would race straight to the Witchwood to murder the pack’s fated queen.
“Free me,” Thane growled. Better she face one wolf bent on claiming her than one bent on destroying her.
Duncan nodded grimly, retrieved the key, and unlocked the cage. He displaced the line of magical grains, not that they worked any longer.
The door swung open. The last threads of Ditch’s ward peeled away, and the moon took him like a leash snapping tight.
“I’ll handle Straegan,” Thane grated, his voice already changing.
“But we’ll be at war with the witches tonight.
” He sprinted toward the stairs. “Ready the pack. Bring in more warlairds to fortify the castle.”
Duncan coughed blood. “We’ll…be ready.”
Halfway down the steps, Thane heard another metallic shriek, followed by silence. Freed already?
I’ll block the stairs. But his canny brother predicted just this; Straegan simply barreled through the castle wall.
He was all-powerful tonight. And I must defeat him.
Thane hurtled up to the roof and saw Straegan: a shadow arcing over the moon, landing on the cliff’s edge as the sea exploded beneath.
He stood far taller than a man, the outline of his wolven beast overlaying his enlarged body, spray frosting his naked skin. After ages in that dungeon, he breathed the salt, the moon lighting the feral insanity in his blue eyes.
Thane dug his claws into the stone, snarling a warning. I will kill you tonight, brother.
Straegan flicked his gaze toward the Witchwood and back. With a bone-deep howl, he bolted.
Thane vaulted off the rampart after him. Mid-fall, he let his beast rise fully, felt his own body morphing with the change. Frame burgeoning, clothes tearing.
Luminous scent threads hung in the air as visible to him as moonbeams. Straegan followed Ditch’s trail without wavering.
He was fast—unnaturally so. Was killing her so consuming he could outrun even Thane?
Never.
Frenzy sharpened Thane’s muscles, and he gained ground, devouring miles.
The brothers hit the granite flats that stretched between the two territories. Thane sped across the dew-wetted stone, the scent of iron filling his senses. The blazing moon spawned both shadows and reflections over the plateau, making this night even more surreal.
Steam rose from his breath as he dug deeper, finally in striking distance. His body coiled to spring…
Thane lunged.
He tackled Straegan, sending them skidding, stone shards flying. They rolled, snarling, claws gouging granite as they regained their feet. They circled each other, fangs snapping in the primal heat of aggression.
Eliminate the threat. End the danger. Tonight. He feigned left, dove right, and clamped his jaws around Straegan’s throat.
A sliver of restraint held:—Brother.—
Straegan snatched his head back, sacrificing his own throat. Blood blinded Thane. Straegan slammed him down, cracking his skull against the stone. The slab fractured. Thane’s skull fractured.
The moon spun above him.
Straegan staggered up, blood sluicing down his chest, and sprinted on as if his neck wasn’t torn open.
What madness drove him this hard? Thane heaved himself up, slipping through blood and brain fluid, and barreled after him.
Must catch him. He’ll slaughter her. As he did that last one.
The Witchwood rose before Thane, Strix Keep a dark promise in the distance. He sped through barren trees, scent light guiding him.
But something thudded wrong in his chest: Where were the traps Ditch had promised? The wards. The snares. The Witchwood yawned exposed. Had her enemies undone her protections too?
Then Straegan veered sharply. Away from Ditch’s sublime thread?
Aye, his brother followed a pulsing lure, one Thane had scented in the past but couldn’t place.
His beast stilled. The threat had shifted. Something else called to Straegan.
But Ditch’s intoxicating scent overwhelmed Thane, irresistible. The moon amplified it, driving his beast wild.
His steps faltered on the last, thin tether of reason. Even knowing the impossibility of it, Thane fought to regain control. Yet his beast would never give up this night. It knew that Thane’s anything—up to a point hadn’t been working, and it had a plan to protect Ditch totally.
Forever.
Gods almighty, if she canna defend herself, it’s going to take her through the portal.