Chapter 31 #2
Torin’s eyes grew big, but he remained calm and quiet.
Two other men appeared from the opposite end of the tunnel—probably the men I’d followed in here.
“Walk this way,” one of them ordered.
Torin and I were escorted until the end of the tunnel, where a large brick hall opened. Massive metal doors lined the two sides.
I was sure these secret prison cells were worse than the north dungeon the Alphas had thrown the vampire spy in.
Torin was shoved inside a cold, empty room. It had no window or anything else inside. The man still held the blade close to my head and pushed me to walk inside, too, but he didn’t let go of me. Torin was too powerful and deadly, even when he was still recovering, not to keep him in check.
Torin stood still in the corner opposite where the man and I were. More voices sounded outside the prison cell, and when the next two visitors walked inside, my heart dropped into my stomach.
I shook my head and let out a breath. “I should have known.”
I looked Layla straight in the eye. Next to her, Alpha Mark smirked. Layla wanted to get rid of me, even though I’d apologized, gave her space, and tried to befriend her. But she was too consumed by grief and sorrow to show me compassion.
And Mark wanted Torin gone. Probably his hatred for Torin had increased after the vampire master in London had tortured Mark.
“You make a great team, I see,” Torin said with a clenched jaw.
He kept his gaze on the blade close to my neck.
“Indeed,” Mark said and pecked Layla on the cheek.
I stifled a groan and focused on my bracelet. But it wouldn’t be useful now that the dagger was so close to my major neck arteries. I didn’t have good control over the bracelet and couldn’t turn it into a weapon before the man sliced my flesh.
“I heard that you told the kingdom about Torin being my second mate, Layla,” I said, keeping my voice calm.
“They should know the truth. Don’t you agree?” she said and stepped closer to me.
She seemed brave now that there was a blade at my throat.
Layla pinched a strand of my hair and pulled it with two fingers. The sharp pain in my scalp only lasted a moment. I pressed my lips together. No matter what she did to me, I wouldn’t give her satisfaction.
“You’re so plain,” she said and made a “humph” sound with her throat. “I can’t believe you have two mates, and one of them is a half vampire. You unlucky girl.”
“And I can’t believe your mate is the hunter leader who wants nothing else but to kill you.”
She flinched, and Torin’s gaze fell on me for a moment.
“You’ll be the one dying today, Breanna.”
Torin let out a low growl that he probably couldn’t hold back. But his crimson eyes aimed at the man who held the dagger.
The Fates knew I tried so many times to befriend my cousin before and after we found out Uncle Derek died because of me.
When we were nine, I felt bad for Layla.
Her mom didn’t want to have anything to do with her.
Her father died. And she couldn’t understand how the future Queen was only a lowly human.
From her perspective, I wasn’t worth any compassion or saving.
The deadly glimmer in her blue eyes told me that her lifetime goal of ending my life today might finally become a reality.
“And you…” I looked at Mark, who raised his eyebrows at me. “I regret saving you.”
“I didn’t have anything against you, Princess…until I found out you were mated to that abomination there.” He pointed to Torin. “Vampires can’t walk among us, but it gets worse. I can’t let Torin have a claim over the Nighteye pack.”
Torin’s gaze snapped to Mark’s. Torin tipped his head to the side. “What are you talking about? I have my pack. Why would I want to be an Alpha of the Nighteye pack?”
“Mmm…it seems that you don’t know, then,” Mark said, and my head was about to explode if he didn’t answer Torin’s question right away.
“I dug in the past, going through archives to learn more about Torin. Thirty years ago, when the King brought Torin to the kingdom after he lost the war to the vampire Queen, the King asked all Alphas at that time to research and see if they could find anything about Torin.” Mark’s smirk widened.
“All packs keep records of their pack members, but back in the day, everything was on paper, and papers got lost and faded away. It wasn’t easy to find information on a pack member with the last name Adair—”
“No,” Torin said, and his nostrils flared, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
Torin shook his head, but Mark wasn’t going to stop talking.
“The old Alpha was a softy. He seemed to have found information about Torin but didn’t report it to the King. Good thing I recently took over,” Mark said and chuckled. “The old Alpha probably wanted to give Torin a chance, so he hid the truth about his family. But I don’t give chances to vampires.”
So that was what these two hyenas had in common—Layla and Mark were cruel and merciless.
Torin’s hands flew to his ears, pressing, covering them, but no matter what he did, he would hear every word.
When I’d stayed at Torin’s apartment in his pack, he told me he didn’t want to know about his werewolf family. He was so ashamed and angry about becoming a vampire that he didn’t want any remaining relatives to find out about him, to see the monster he’d become.
I’d always wondered about his age and how many generations had passed since he was turned. When Dad found Torin in Victoria’s bedchamber, he was already turned, but was he turned back then or earlier?
Torin dropped his hands to his sides and clenched them into fists, and his jaw muscles ground his teeth.
Mark didn’t dare step closer to the Alpha. He talked by the door and didn’t order his man to remove the blade from my throat.
So, Torin and I were unable to do anything at this point.
“How could you not even know about your family or age, Torin? You seem to be about 120 years old,” Mark said, and I sucked in a sharp breath. “You were one of two sons of the Alpha of the Nighteye pack. Of course, that was many years ago, a whole century ago actually.”
My ears rang with each word. Torin was an Alpha-born and the rightful heir of the Nighteye pack. Mark’s pack.
Werewolf traditions allowed anyone who deemed themselves stronger than the current Alpha of a pack to challenge them and become the new Alpha—the way Torin became the Alpha of the Black Lunar pack, and the same way Mark had recently taken over the Nighteye pack on the East Coast.
Mark wasn’t born an Alpha. He’d only won against the old Alpha who had served for so long and had grown too comfortable in his training. Mark was stronger and had defeated him.
But now Mark was worried about Torin wanting his rightful position as Alpha of the Nighteye pack.
Torin’s red eyes grew dull. Was he not happy to know he had a brother?
I sighed. It must have hurt Torin to know he had a family who must have died by now. But wasn’t it better to know that Torin was loved by his parents and brother even if they were no longer living?
Suddenly, something in Torin’s gaze shifted.
His eyes emitted anguish and anger at the same time, as if he realized all over again that his immortality was, indeed, a curse.
He already knew that, but it must have hurt a lot more now that he knew he’d lost his parents and a brother while he still lived.
Mark cleared his throat to draw Torin’s attention.
“Your mother was the Luna of the Nighteye pack, but vampires killed her. Brutally,” Mark said and smiled.
I wanted to punch the grin off of his face.
“And we all know how it works when a fated mate dies. The other half can’t live without her,” he said. “The archives don’t describe what exactly happened to your father, but I’d venture to say he must have gone crazy with grief. You must have inherited your hot temper from him.”
Mark shook his head as if he didn’t like the rest of the story, and my stomach tightened.
“The documents have on record, only days after your mother died, your father, the Alpha, ordered almost all of his warriors to accompany him on his attack of the vampire castle.” Mark let out a small laugh, and I froze.
Torin’s face scrunched up in more agony. Alphas couldn’t just engage in a large-scale attack, especially not on the vampire Queen or her territory. It was a doomed mission.
Dad wasn’t even born at that time, but probably the father of his father had not been happy about an angry outburst from one of his Alphas.
“There was no planning, no voting on the attack by other high-ranking wolves. There was no rational thinking behind your father’s attack,” Mark said.
“Of course, his mission was crushed. Almost everyone died, but not your father, Torin. Staying alive was his punishment because he had to return to a pack that now hated him for taking their fathers, sons, husbands to their deaths, as well as a very angry werewolf King at that time.”
My heart ached for Torin. Not only had Torin been turned against his will, but he’d also lost his mother to vampires.
Torin took a deep breath. “Why are you telling me this? I don’t need a history lesson. As you said, it’s been over a hundred years. I don’t care what happened back then.”
Torin’s face stayed stoic, but his eyes betrayed him. He could fool anyone else but me. I was too attuned to his body not to notice the twitch in his jaw, the sharper features on his face—his slow transformation to his vampire form.
Mark chuckled. “Well, you would have shared the same fate as your father, but…” Mark sent me a cold glare. “But someone has had your back, it seems. Your father was kicked out of the pack and the kingdom and stripped of his title.”
Mark tilted his head and studied me with the intensity of a predator ready to pounce on his prey.
I flinched under his scrutiny.
“My plans to banish Torin kept failing. But here we are.” Mark smiled. “Your savior will be your punisher and she”—he gave me a glance—“will finally finish my mission by bringing you to your knees.”
My mouth fell open. What were Mark and Layla going to do? A cold chill carved down my spine, and a heavy feeling settled in my gut.
Layla took a few steps away and returned with a dagger she must have taken from the man standing in the hallway.
“Layla, you don’t have to do this,” I said, wide-eyed.
She walked toward me but halted when Torin let out a loud growl. He moved toward me, but the man holding me only brought the blade so close to my skin that I felt the blade’s coolness. If I were to take a deep breath, the blade would cut my throat.
I stood as still as possible, and Torin didn’t dare move.
Layla grabbed my hand, turned my palm up, and sliced it. It was a much deeper cut than the one I did on my other hand to awaken Torin’s vampire when he was poisoned. I winced and grunted; more adrenaline rushed into my veins. I wanted to shove Layla away, but I didn’t.
Blood seeped out onto the dirty floor. The burning pain throbbed in my hand and climbed up to my shoulder. Then nausea hit me hard, and I swallowed.
Layla handed the dagger back to the warrior but stayed in the hallway. Mark joined her there.
“It will be such a shame that your mate will end up drinking you dry, dear cousin,” she said, her voice echoing off the cold stone walls. “The King won’t take to that lightly, and Torin will be executed. A much worse fate than his father’s.”
“He would never harm me,” I said.
I clung to the belief that, as his mate, our connection should be strong enough for him to resist his thirst.
Layla pointed a finger toward Torin, and I followed her gaze. Torin’s hair shimmered silver in the dim lighting. His face and ears had changed, and he’d completely shifted. His nostrils flared with each labored breath he drew.
His crimson eyes aimed at my hand as if he counted the drops of blood falling onto the ground, each droplet igniting a deeper hunger within him. The vampire looked thirsty, and a shiver passed down my spine as I watched him struggle against his primal instincts.
This time, the cut was much deeper, and I was trapped with Torin, who had no other source of food but me.
Doubts crept into the edges of my mind, but I pushed them deep down, unwilling to believe Torin would hurt me.
But even if he wouldn’t, Layla and Mark stood ready to claim my life.
Dying in the dank, forgotten dungeon was far from how I envisioned my final moments playing out.