Chapter Twenty-Eight

Pearl

I started to wake up, but I wasn’t ready to face what I knew was coming. I couldn’t even tell Rylan. He was my mate. The other half of my soul… but I couldn’t find the words or the courage to tell him.

If he figured out where Tamra was, he was going to be so pissed.

Consciousness called to me, and with reluctance I opened my eyes. Darkness greeted me, and for a moment, I thought I might still be asleep, but then I felt the arms around me. Alarmed, I squirmed, trying to get away from whoever was carrying me.

‘It’s all right,’my wolf assured me, having been completely aware of what was going on around us. ‘We’re being taken to Tamra.’

‘Where’s Estella?’

‘She’s walking behind with her wolf. We tried to wake you, but you refused.’

I gulped, the reality of the situation coming to the forefront of my mind making me tremble. This next part was completely unknown, and I was terrified. For my pack. For Rylan and Estella. And for me.

This was the next obstacle I had to overcome as the Alpha Seeker, but I wasn’t ready for any of it. Faela had explained, but there were things that we couldn’t predict, which made my stomach churn. How was I going to handle all of this? Or stop Tamra from doing what she was going to attempt?

I didn’t know, so I did what I’d always done when faced with a difficult decision—I reached for the Moon Spirit. The white wolf responded immediately. No matter what happened, I knew I wouldn’t be alone.

‘Are you ready for this?’I asked my wolf, needing to hear her opinion.

‘We’ll be fine. The Moon Spirit wouldn’t do this if it thought there was another way. We need to trust them.”

Easier said than done.

“We’re almost there,” Estella spoke softly from behind me. “This will be over soon.”

She was trying to reassure me, but I could hear the hitch in her breathing and the shakiness in her voice. The truth was, she had no idea what to expect, but being forced to watch what was coming must have been a living nightmare for her. I wish I could shield her from all of this.

“I can walk,” I told the person carrying me. I’d much rather go to my possible death standing on my own two feet.

‘We’re not going to die. Rylan would never allow it.’My wolf’s confidence in our mate was admirable, but I didn’t think she fully understood what was about to happen. Hell, I wasn’t even sure, but I trusted Faela, and I trusted the Moon Spirit.

The person holding me huffed, let my legs swing free of his arm, and helped steady me as I stood. I didn’t know why he was helping me, but I hoped it was a good sign that maybe there was still a part of him that wasn’t under Tamra’s control.

We walked in silence, and after my shoulder brushed against a stone wall, I realized we were still in the Cage. The path seemed familiar, and I wondered if we were being led to the same place, I’d entered the prison from the first time.

My suspicion was confirmed when the man who’d been carrying me suddenly grabbed me and jumped up out of the hole. Once safely on the ground, I looked around and saw the same boulders that I’d traversed in order to reach the Cage’s secret entrance.

It was completely dark, the only light coming from the stars up above, and I realized that there was no moon in the sky. That meant that the Moon Spirit would be at its weakest, and the Shadow Wolf would be the strongest. Tamra had planned everything down to the minute details, it seemed. She was recreating the night she killed her sister.

I turned to Estella, who had clumsily climbed up through the hole with her wolf right behind her. She was visibly shaking, but her chin was lifted, and she looked ready for anything.

“This way,” the man who’d been carrying me said, grabbing my bicep and pulling me away from the entrance.

The ambient light from the stars helped my wolf eyes to focus on my surroundings. The first thing I noticed once they adjusted was that the man who had a hold on me was Bear. The alpha of my old pack and Tamra’s mate.

He didn’t seem to recognize me at all. He just stared straight ahead and carried out his duty like it was normal. Seeing him completely under Tamra’s control, knowing that he had been her first victim, made me furious. She’d taken away his free will, giving him no choice in his life. I couldn’t imagine being forced to marry another after finding your true mate.

“Over here, love,” Tamra called, waving to him beside a large free-standing stone.

“Bear, you don’t have to do this.” I tried reasoning with the shifter, but he ignored me, giving no indication that he had heard a word I said.

Bear didn’t react, just led me over to where Tamra stood. Pushing my back against the stone, he held me still while she tied my hands together then lifted them above my head. She quickly restrained the rest of my body. Jerking and protesting did absolutely nothing against the alpha’s hold.

I relaxed, needing to conserve my energy for whatever was about to happen.

Estella and her wolf were tied up next to me with three shifters surrounding her. One was in his wolf form, and Estella’s white wolf growled a warning, putting herself between it and her human.

“Bear, please.” I tried again to reason with my mate’s uncle, but he just looked at me blankly, like he had no idea who I was.

Tamra reappeared in my field of vision, handing him the ends of the ropes that restrained me.

“I wouldn’t try to struggle,” she said conversationally, drawing closer until she was about a foot away from me. “Bear will be behind you, keeping you secure. I have no doubt you’re strong, but he and the darkness are much stronger. They’ll rip you in half before you can escape.”

I lifted my chin and met her eyes, letting her know that I wasn’t afraid of her. She could restrain me all she wanted, belittle me even, but I would not give her the satisfaction of cowering.

“I like your backbone.” Tamra stepped back to look me up and down. “Any other time, I would enjoy breaking you, but unfortunately, we don’t have time. We need to start soon so I can watch your mate go insane as I kill you.”

My jaw flexed, and my hands curled into fists above my head. My lip twitched with the need to bare my teeth. I knew without a shadow of doubt that Rylan was on his way, and he wouldn’t let her hurt me. He would set the world ablaze. She should be scared of the monster Rylan could be. Underestimating him would be her downfall.

Suddenly, howls filled the air, hundreds of them making my chest clench. We were surrounded by hundreds of wolves, all waiting patiently. Answering howls sounded from the distance, a much smaller number in comparison, which made my heart sink. Rylan and our pack were outnumbered, and I had no way to warn him that he was running into a trap.

Fear raced down my spine, and I reached for the bond, ready to do just about anything in order to get through to him.

‘Rylan! Rylan, it’s a trap!’I yelled through our bond, desperately hoping that my words would get through.

I felt a stirring on the other end then nothing. Biting my lip, I wondered if I could howl and alert them all. Glancing at Estella, I tried to silently tell her what I was about to do. Her eyes narrowed, but that was it. It was probably the best I was going to get.

As quietly as possible, I sucked in the deepest breath I could muster while my wolf pushed forward, ready to use both our voices to get our message to our mate. My head tilted back, my throat opened, and my diaphragm tensed.

I howled, the sound breaking the overwhelming silence. It sounded like two different voices, when it was actually just one. I sent a silent prayer to the Moon Spirit, hoping that Rylan would hear me.

My eyes closed, and my head tilted back, so I didn’t see the fist shooting toward my neck. Pain exploded from my throat, cutting off my howl. I felt a crunch that made my head reel. I tried to draw in breath to scream, but I couldn’t. The trauma from the blow had cut off my voice and my air flow. I choked and tried to cough, my lungs screaming for oxygen.

My wolf healing kicked in, allowing me to suck in a tiny breath before stars appeared and my vision became hazy.

A howl split the air, making me jump. Through the blur of pain, I saw Estella’s wolf continuing the howl that I started. The wolves surrounding her surged, but the human Estella kicked out and managed to trip them up, allowing her wolf to finish the howl.

“It doesn’t matter.” Tamra waved away the shifters Estella had tripped. “It’s too late for them. They’ll never get here in time to save you.”

Turning back to me, she raised a long and shockingly white dagger. My heart started beating faster as I registered that I was staring at the blade Rylan had nearly decapitated me with.

Tamra stepped toward me, the dagger in her hand gleaming with an eerie white glow, like it was made of moonlight instead of steel.

“I’m sure you recognize this,” she whispered, tapping the point on my neck where the blade had been lodged after the Gala. “This is a unique blade that the darkness made for me. You see, it’s not metal.” She moved the tip to my left collarbone, and I swallowed past the panic, determined not to let it show. “It’s actually bone. Her bone in fact.” Tamra’s eyes flitted sideways to her sister. “The darkness took the Moon Spirit power from my sister’s body, forged this blade, and gifted it to me. A thank you for bringing him into this world.”

The shadows surrounding us moved, drawing closer to her as she explained the dagger in her hand.

“Wolves are not bothered by silver like the stories say, but the bones of the dead frighten even the strongest alpha. Do you know why?”

I shook my head, having no clue why the bones of shifters could hurt us.

“Because darkness deals in death. Bones are a testament to that. Shifter bones do not belong to the Moon Spirit. They belong to the dark.”

The blade nicked my collarbone again, but this time I felt the cool bite followed by the warm trickle of blood that flowed from the wound.

Darkness swirled in Tamra’s eyes, and she welcomed it like she knew it intimately. A presence swept over me, making my stomach churn violently. The shadows coalesced behind her until a completely black wolf appeared. It was taller than any wolf I had ever seen, nearly a head above Tamra’s.

“It’s time,” the enormous wolf said, speaking out loud for everyone to hear.

Tamra trembled, not in terror but more in rapture. The voice of her master caused a physical reaction from her. It was grotesque, and I fought the urge to gag. This whole thing was messed up, and I couldn’t understand how she didn’t see it.

‘She only sees what she wants to see,’my wolf said, a vague sense of pity for her flitting across my mind.

Tamra bit her lower lip then lifted the bone blade above my head. At first, I thought she was going to cut through my bonds, but that was wishful thinking on my part. The quick slices on my wrist were almost painless. Blood poured down my arms, the liquid covering the filagree marks. A whimper escaped when the blade moved down to my throat.

“No,” Estella yelled, as her wolf snarled pulling on her restraints.

‘That’s enough, Tamra.’A soft voice drifted through all of our thoughts. ‘I’m here. Let my Alpha Seeker be.’

I couldn’t help the gasp that escaped when I saw the all-white wolf standing a couple paces behind Tamra and the Shadow Wolf.

My heart ached when I saw the Moon Spirit, knowing what it was about to do in order to save me. I wanted to yell, to beg the wolf not to sacrifice itself for my life but also knowing that it wouldn’t listen. All of Faela and its careful planning all led to this exact moment.

“Excellent.” The Shadow Wolf panted with excitement. “Time to die.”

The dark wolf lunged, but before it could take two steps, a sound reached our ears. It was deep and rumbly. It shook the ground beneath our feet, followed by a wave of power that knocked nearly every wolf to their knees.

With my heart pounding in my ears, my eyes narrowed on the tree line directly across from me. An enormous figure darted out. At first glance, I’d say it was a monster, but after further inspection, I recognized it for who it was.

Rylan!