17. Kye

Chapter 17

Kye

I can feel my mate's tension vibrating through our bond. Every new piece of information we get leads us down a darker road than the one we were already on.

I'm terrified of where we're going to end up.

Everyone wants a piece of us, and I'm tired of being their fucking chew toy.

I crawl into bed with Savannah between us and stare at the dark ceiling until they both fall asleep. My mind is on overtime, running over everything obsessively. How can I keep them safe? How can I fix the life we're doomed to have?

Restless, I slip out of the covers, careful not to rock the bed too much, and head downstairs.

The others left hours ago, though their scents linger faintly in the air.

As I step outside, I lock the door behind me, making sure they are safe before I duck my head and set off at a fast pace. I want to do this quickly so I can get back to Apryle before she wakes.

The darkness between the buildings provides cover as I make my way over to the cells. The squat structure spans two floors and has rooms to hold vargr and tau.

As I move in the shadows, I catch a scent. Beck.

Fuck. That asshole is always in my way. Careful to keep downwind, I'm almost on him when his wolf senses pick up my scent.

I'm quicker than he is, my vargr blood giving me an edge he doesn't have as a hybrid. In a move designed to incapacitate but not kill, I have my arm banded around his neck before he can even react.

I can't see his face, but I can sense his rage as he tries to shove me off him, to no effect.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he hisses, shoving and bucking in my hold.

"I don't want to hurt you?—"

"You should worry about yourself getting hurt," he growls.

I smell the surge of his magic, but before he can hit me with it, I say, "If you unleash that magic, you better hope you can hit me with it before I snap your neck." I tighten my arm around his throat to punctuate my point.

The smell dissipates, like smoke in the air, and he sags in my hold.

"I can't let you inside, Kye. I'm under orders."

"I don't care. That female knows things that can protect my family, Beck. If she knew things about your brother, nothing would hold you back, would it?"

The urge to use violence to get what I want is one I usually follow, but despite how annoying I find him, Beck is not my enemy, at least not in this.

He liked Apryle enough to teach her to protect herself. It's that affection he has for my mate that I appeal to. "Apryle's in danger, Beck. I don't know what is coming for her—or Savannah—but I need to know how to protect her."

"Shit," he mutters, and I slowly release my hold on him. He moves out of my reach quickly, glaring at me, but there's not as much heat in that look as I'd expect, considering I attacked him. "You didn't have to grab me," he grumbles. "You don't attack your friends, you giant asshole."

It surprises me to hear him call me that. I don't have friends other than Apryle, but she's my mate, and she didn't like me much at first either.

I fold my arms over my broad chest, trying to ignore the warmth spreading through my stomach.

"I just need five minutes with her."

I can see he's wavering and that he wants to help me. The cogs turn in his head as he tries to rationalize what decision to make, and my patience begins to fracture. If he doesn't move, I'm going to beat his head against the wall.

"You have five minutes. And if Callum finds out, I'll tell him you hit me."

"You can tell him whatever you want."

I shift on the balls of my feet while he unlocks the door, and as soon as it's open, I push past him to step inside.

"You're welcome!" Beck's sarcasm doesn't penetrate through my focus as I move into the room.

The lights are on low, and shadows dance in the corners of the room where they do not reach. Even so, I can still make out the figure sitting against the wall with her legs splayed in front of her, her arms resting over her stomach, as if she doesn't have a care in the world.

I grind my molars together, my eyes like granite as I step up to the bars separating her from me.

"Cozy accommodation you have here," I remark, my gaze moving around the space as if admiring it.

"Of course you like it. I bet it feels like home to you. Do they start crate training you from an early age, or do they wait until you're older?"

My wolf snaps its teeth at the insult, urging me to set him free. It's only the fact that she wants me angry that stops me from releasing him.

"Oh, dog jokes. How original," I drawl. "Except, you're the one in the cage, not me."

She leans her head back against the wall behind her, glaring at me through the bars. "If you're planning to bore me to death as a way of torturing information out of me, it won't work. I have a stronger resolve than that."

She has no idea what kind of pain I can inflict to get the answers I need, nor does she know the lengths I will go to in order to protect my mate.

I tilt my head to the side, roaming my gaze over her. How is this tiny female the source of Savannah's nightmares? How did she learn to do that? Was it taught to her at the facility she was kept in? Is she working for them? I dismiss that thought immediately. Savannah's fear can't be faked, but she is a very powerful little girl and that needs to be controlled.

I sniff in a deep breath, trying to catch her scent. She smells human, but there's something else I can detect beneath that. "You're not wolf, and you're not tau. What are you?"

Her lips kick up into a smirk that I want to wipe off her smug fucking face. "I don't owe you any answers."

I count backwards from five, trying not to explode. She can't tell me anything if she's dead, but it would soothe my wolf to bathe in her blood.

"Savannah brought you here. That's quite a talent for a girl so small. You should be afraid of what the rest of them can do. Their coven is strong."

"Any animal can be taught to perform with the right motivation," she counters.

Something in that tone of voice sets my nerves on edge.

Animal .

Is that truly what she thinks we are? We will never be worthy of anything from these people—her, the Order, and whoever else is out there truly believe that we are less than them because of our DNA, because of things we have no control over. None of us asked to be born different. I would love to be human, for me and Apryle to live a normal life without fear of being harmed because of what we are.

But that's not how it goes for us.

"Is that your assessment?"

"That you can be taught tricks or that you're animals?"

"Both."

Her smile is sadistic and makes a chill race up my spine. There is crazy dancing in her eyes and acceptance that she is probably not getting out of this alive. She's not far off the mark. If she's a threat to my mate, I'll end her right here and now.

"You want the truth? Fine. I'll give it to you. I believe that your kind was never meant to exist. You're an abomination created from Revna's purity."

I arch my brow at her. "Great, you're clearly batshit off the wall nuts."

She stands, moving slowly and gingerly, as if her body hurts. I'm sure it does. There's not a mark on her that I can see but magic doesn't always leave evidence.

I tense, ready for anything. Strength-wise, she will never overpower me, but I've come to expect the unexpected.

She steps closer to the bars, the corner of her mouth kicking up. " Your kind are quick to throw labels like that, but I have never known a group of animals to be so in the dark about everything."

"You know Revna doesn't exist, right? She's just some fairytale made up to explain how we exist."

Throwing her head back, she laughs, and my skin crawls. "This is what I mean. You are so stupid. It's a wonder you've survived as long as you have. Do you truly believe those stories are not real?"

"I would rather believe that than in deluded nonsense."

She paces the floor of her small cell. She called us animals, but in this moment she is the one who looks like a caged lion. "Revna exists. She is the one true entity in this world. She gave us everything. She loved us, taught us how to use nature to create things—vast, impressive things—but it was never enough. Ungrateful, the lot of you. She should have punished you worse."

Her rambling sounds unhinged, but to understand what these people want, I need to learn their motivations. That means getting inside their craziness. "Punished for what?"

"You turned your back on Mother, and you let them hurt her. Now, Revna is crying for freedom. She's in the dark, alone, begging for help."

"You want Mother free," I say, keeping my voice as soft as I can manage.

Her head snaps in my direction. "Mother will be free. We just need the right solution."

"The right blood, you mean?"

A shiver runs up my spine at the look she gives me. There is something deeply unsettling about this female, and it is not just the fact that I know she tortured a child.

"The bloodline is too watered down in everyone we've captured. We thought we could use the girl somehow, that maybe magic could enhance what she had, but it didn't work. Nothing we did worked. A useless little abomination she turned out to be."

I force calm into every inch of my body, even though I feel anything but.

"How do you find who has the blood?"

"There are ways. Science can be useful. And once we free her, Mother will hunt down those who betrayed her."

Cold spreads through my bones, but she's not done talking yet, and the hysterical laughter she lets out sends more ice into my veins.

"You're all going to pay. Torsten took her gift, and then when he no longer needed her anymore, his cruelty knew no bounds. Her children did worse. They betrayed Mother for their own gain."

"Is she the one who told you to torture a child?"

Her lips pull into a snarl. "That thing is not a child. She's a distortion against nature. She should never have existed. None of you should. Mother gave you life, made you what you are, and he betrayed her. I would never do that. I'm loyal." She raises her hands to the ceiling, tipping her head back. "I'm loyal!"

"Betrayed how?"

She lowered her head, slowly twisting her head toward me. "She made you into powerful beasts, and yet when you hear her name, you call her a fairytale." She mutters under her breath, but I can't make out anything she's saying. "I should have killed her."

"Revna?"

"The abomination."

Savannah.

I can't control myself as I bare my teeth at her. The woman laughs, hysteria bubbling through the sound. It takes all my strength not to reach through the bars and rip her head off.

"I'm going to enjoy it when I finally get to kill you," I threaten.

She leans closer, her eyes flaring wildly. "What makes you think I won't kill you first? And when you're gone, I'll come for that pretty little mate of yours."

Too far. I grab her by the scruff of her neck, pressing her against the bars. Excitement flashes across her face, and I let my claws come out, slashing through her shirt to cut her skin. I smell the blood, the coppery iron tang of it filling my nose, although it is only a small amount.

"Or maybe I'll just end you now."

Amusement dances on her lips.

"But then how will you get the information you want to save your little tau abominations? She and your mate will both burn." She smirks and emits a high-pitched cackle.

My teeth grind so hard, the enamel wants to buckle under the pressure. I release her with a shove, taking satisfaction in the way she stumbles back and almost loses her footing.

Fucking bitch.

I head for the door, but before my hand reaches out to grab the knob, she speaks. "Don't worry, this will all be over soon. Mother will be free, and the world will burn. From the ashes, we will all be reborn."

"I wouldn't worry about it. You're not going to live long enough to see it."

She laughs again, a macabre sound that rings in my ears as I escape outside.

Beck comes off the wall, his eyes searching as he studies me.

"She's as crazy as a bucket of frogs," I remark as he locks the door behind me.

"You noticed that, huh? Callum considered trying to get inside her mind to learn more, but I think even he decided it would be a bad idea. There's no telling what we'd find in there, or if it'd even work without destroying her completely."

I scrub a hand over my jaw, tension radiating down the back of my neck. I know I should go back to Apryle, but I can't move yet. I came to find a solution, and all I have is more questions.

"I'm scared," I blurt out, and Beck's eyes flare at my admission before he softens.

"We all are. I think you'd be weird if you weren't."

He squeezes my shoulder in a rare show of support.

"Every day we get closer to freedom, Kye. We just have to keep fighting a little longer."

I glance back at the door. "What do you think will happen if they free Revna?"

Beck blows out a breath. "I don't know."

Irritation flares through me. I have never been so helpless. I can't make this better for Apryle or Savannah, and that makes me useless. It is my job to protect them, to keep them safe, and I still don't know what side we're meant to be fighting on.