Chapter 12

Itried reaching out to our mate again, but she was either being stubborn or shy. The few times she answered, I could tell she was weary and weak because they weren’t feeding her. I still didn’t know her name, but she did confide in me why they were starving her. She didn’t tell me how, but she killed the previous basement caretaker who had been forgetting to feed her.

Honestly, good for her.

I’d been trying to find out everything I could about the basement. I didn’t really know where it was either. They hadn’t exactly made this place accessible when they heard a blind person was coming. If there were signs on any doors, they hadn’t had any braille added so I knew where they led. My outline trick didn’t help me read them either.

I still didn’t know where the door to the basement was, but Di’s intel had checked out so far. There was a door at the top of the stairs and a door at the bottom of the stairs and they all had biometric locks. Only a few people had access and that definitely wasn’t me.

They didn’t talk about the people down there either. I knew one of theirs died, but they weren’t exactly mourning her. Hannibal was spending most of his time down there. When he wasn’t in the basement, his aura was flustered. I was betting my mate was giving him a hard time, but he needed to feed her because she was getting weak.

The full moon happened and my coven was here. I didn’t know which one of us was going to do it, but when Benji and Cas found out he was starving our mate, Hannibal would not go gently into the afterlife. It wasn’t going to be pretty, but it would be so satisfying.

Cas and Benji were drugged to all fuck and strapped to the bed. I’d never pick between either of them and they’d never expect me to, but they didn’t have them in the same room. Cas had never experienced Coalition drugs like Benji and I had. Cas was a clean eater who only let himself get drunk on special occasions.

Benji would wake up before Cas. He’d been given these drugs before and went through this phase after we found him where he self-medicated with anything he could buy from the townies in the next city over after we told the green witches in our village to stop giving him shit that would get him high.

I had this whole conversation in my head where Benji’s eyes would crack open, I could gently explain his plan worked, ask what in actual fuck the plan was because this was Benji, and then let him know our mate was here. I was pretty sure the green witch we were supposed to rescue was our mate. I got some vibes from Di, but I hadn’t been around him long enough to know if he was one of us. I was pretty sure he neglected to mention the whole mate thing because a lot of this was crazy and we might have thought he was lying to sweeten the pot.

But also, this was Benji. Our sweet little wolf-shadow-demon hybrid never did anything you expected of him, even if it was waking up from being drugged to all fuck strapped to a bed.

He woke up half feral and lunging for anything to bite. I’m sure he could feel his wolf but he couldn’t shift. His eyes were black.

“Where is she?” he roared.

Of course, Benji already knew she was here. I was just as good at calming him down as Cas was.

“I’ve already felt her and spoke to her. She’s a fighter, Benji. She just killed someone, and she’s being punished. She’s been in the basement this whole time. I’m pretty sure she’s the green witch we were sent after. We can’t help her if you get thrown down there with her. Pull your eyes back and reach out to her. Breathe.”

Benji was panting, but he eventually calmed down. He was the youngest of us, but he’d been wanting to meet our mate the longest. Then, he grinned.

“Oh, I like her. She smells like wildflowers and she’s so mad. She won’t tell me her name, but she says we have to leave her. I’m definitely not doing that.”

“Yeah, none of us are. Cas isn’t awake yet, but he’s not going to agree either.”

There was a hard knock on the door and Hannibal came in. Benji was in a good mood considering where we were, but I wasn’t expecting him to fall out laughing.

“Smurf priest,” he gasped.

Damn it, Benji. I started choking trying not to laugh. How was I supposed to talk to this man knowing he turned himself blue? It was different when I didn’t know.

“Do the new intakes need to go to the basement? This one seems deranged,” Hannibal growled.

“I’ve been looking at their files,” I said, tapping my lap. “I haven’t been to see the other one, but he’s a bear shifter. This one is a simple wolf. You have to give them a little grace when they are first waking up because the drugs mess with their minds.”

“I’ll leave you to it. I have a special case in the basement that has all my attention.”

Benji barely contained his snarl and so did I. We both knew that special case was our mate. Still, I had this position for a reason.

“If you’re using starvation therapy, we used that, too. We found it to be ineffective and usually fatal if they go too long without food. Either for them or for us.”

“Hrmph. I’ll consider it,” Hannibal said, stalking out.

Benji leaned forward.

“I don’t even know what she looks like, but I can’t wait to meet her. And you. Think we can roleplay you as the sexy Irish priest when we get out of here? I’ve been bad, Father.”

“I love you, Benji, but I think Father Nathan has opinions about me using his frock like that.”

“I don’t think the good Father kink shames like that.”

“Let me go check on Cas. I can apparently release the two of you and we can get to work in twelve hours.”

“I got dibs on killing the Smurf priest.”

“Thank you for putting that visual in my head.”

“What? The fucker is blue from drinking all that colloidal silver so he could join the Coalition and hurt us. Everyone should know that even if they can’t see him.”

“Rest, Benji. Reach out to our mate and let her know we’re here for her. Don’t tell her the plan in case they torture it out of her. Keep her safe.”

“It’s my goal in life now.”

It was. Stopping the Coalition would probably be the most important thing we’d ever done in our life, but now that we knew our mate was here?

This was life or death.