3. Firion

Chapter 3

Firion

I woke lying on something hard inside a stone, walled cell with bars running across the front of the small room. Sitting, I rubbed the bump on the back of my head and grimaced. No blood, and I’d woken—both good signs. But where was I?

I’d only heard of the Veerenad underground mining operation, how those who ran it operated on the outskirts of the rules the regular population followed. I suspected this was where I’d now found myself.

Cutthroats and rogues, those running the mining operation weren’t above kidnapping their fellow Veerenads if they were short on workers.

And Zuldruxians?

Why else would they have brought me here? If they were after my few possessions, they would’ve taken them and left me lying in the sand.

I swung my legs around to sit on the side of my low bunk and held my head while it spun. Once my mind had settled, I rose to my feet and walked the few steps to the barred door, grabbing onto the metal and peering up and down the hall outside my cell. Others like mine lined each side for as far as my eyes could see, each holding at least two Veerenads. I didn’t see any Zuldruxians, but that didn’t mean much. If this was the mining operation and I was not part of forced labor, this wouldn’t be the only wing of cells.

“You’re alive,” a male Veerenad growled from across the hall from me. He stood at the bars, clutching them like me, his snout turned so he could peer between them.

“Where are we?”

“In a place of torture. A gruesome place. A place we all wish to escape from.”

“Is this part of the mining operation I’ve heard of?”

“Sadly, yes. What did you do that they now force you to give the rulers a lifetime of hard labor?”

“Nothing,” I said. “I was . . .” Where was the treaty now? A quick glance around my cell didn’t reveal my pack. Had they left my papers in the desert?

Not that this was my biggest concern. Escaping was vital. Paperwork could be put together again later. I held most of the agreement in my head, anyway. This treaty was even more vital. No one should be taken to this place without reason. Actually, this place should be destroyed.

“You were what?” he asked.

“Traveling in the desert.”

He grunted. “Captured, then. There are others like you here.”

“Zuldruxians? ”

“I meant those who didn’t earn their way into this place by doing something foolish.”

Kidnapped like me, then. “What did you do?”

“Nothing you need to be knowing.” With that, he pivoted and went over to lay on the floor. The other Veerenad in his cell slept on the solitary bunk. Perhaps they took turns.

I needed to escape this place as soon as I could.

Turning, I leaned against the bars, taking in a bucket with water in one corner and a refuse hole with a rusted metal seat in the other. Other than that, the room only contained a small table with a plate holding a hunk of something covered with flies. Dinner? Maybe breakfast.

I shifted around to grab onto the bars again, and yanked on them, but they remained solid, without even a hint of movement.

A bang rang out down the hall, and I squinted, watching as a door on the far end opened and a Veerenad male shuffled this way, followed by two carrying something between them. They continued down the hall with Veerenads appearing at the front of their cells to grunt and watch. A few howled, their shrieks jarring across my bones.

The Veerenads stopped in front of my cell and the one in the lead poked his spear between the bars, aiming for my belly. My snarl ripped out, and I reeled backward, my hands lifting. His gaze sharpened on me, and he jutted his spear toward me again while inserting a thin device into a small panel on the door. It creaked open, and he stepped inside, keeping a wary eye on me and his spear lifted.

The two others stomped into the cell and laid someone on my bed before all three left, locking the door behind them.

I watched them before turning to the person.

My eyes widened as I took in her long dark hair, her tan face and the way the thin white gown hugged her lush frame.

Human.

Female.

And she was trapped inside this horrifying place with me.

The stone walls on my left shimmered, the surface of each huge block smoothing before going rough once more. When fragments broke off to rain down on the floor, I dropped to my knees.

When a symbol seared across my wrist, my hoarse cry of joy and sorrow rang out.

“I hear you,” I rasped, bowing my head to the will of the stone gods of my clan. “I hear you. Thank you.”

This female was my fated mate. How was I going to protect her in this wretched place?

I glared at the ceiling, seeking a way out, but I spied no openings, no cracks I could work on to make the ceiling collapse. The floor felt solid beneath my feet, and the walls appeared much too thick to beat my way through. Even the hole for the refuse pit was too narrow to fit even the tiny human.

I would find a way.

Rising, I walked slowly over to stand over the woman the gods had gifted me as a mate. My precious mate who would struggle to survive in this place.

She thrashed on the bed, her head snapping back and forth on the crude blanket while her legs shifted.

That’s when I saw the infected wound on her arm.

If I didn’t get her help, she was going to die.