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Maybe even…dead.

I sucked in a breath, my lungs heavy, and forced myself to my feet. My legs wobbled, the edges of my vision going dark for a moment before the wave of dizziness passed. I took stock of my body and found everything intact at least.

I clenched my fists. I had no idea if Silas and the others were still alive, but I couldn’t afford to think otherwise. I wouldn’t. I had to get them back. I didn’t really have a plan, but I had to try.

I couldn’t lose Silas again. He was more than just my mate, more than just the stubborn, overbearing Alpha who had claimed me. He was the first person who had ever made me feel safe, the first person who had ever truly seen me—my fire, my strength, my defiance—and still wanted me.

I loved him.

The thought of a world without him, without his rough hands steadying me, without his golden eyes burning into mine with that fierce, unyielding devotion, was unbearable. If I lost him—if the Nyktos had already taken him from me—then I didn’t know if I’d ever feel whole again.

I took a deep, stabilizing breath and moved. I hiked slowly for a while, following my tracks back to the mouth of the cave. Before I could let myself feel the fear, I pulled back my shoulders and took that first step.

The cave swallowed me whole.

The moment I stepped inside, the world outside ceased to exist. The light, the open air, the sounds of the wind—they were all gone.

The cave was black, the kind of darkness that felt like a living thing, like it was pressing against my skin, trying to pull me deeper.

I moved carefully, placing my feet with cautious intent, my breaths slow and controlled. My wolf senses were much keener than before, the newness of them still foreign, but useful. The sounds around me were amplified: the soft drip of water from above, the distant, eerie chittering that echoed through the tunnels.

The scent of decomposition was suffocating.

I pressed onward, my hands lightly grazing the cave walls as I felt my way forward. The rock was cold and wet, slick beneath my fingertips. As I moved deeper, the faint glow of phosphorescent fungi illuminated the cavern walls, casting a creepy greenish hue along the rocky tunnels.

I didn’t rush though. If I was going to do this, I needed to be smart.

Moving like a shadow, I pressed myself against the cavern wall, listening. The tunnels breathed with movement, skittering, shifting, from things deeper inside. No doubt the creatures were here, and they weren’t sleeping. Not that I really expected them to be. Wishful thinking.

I followed the path downward, my body crouched, my movements slow and silent. Every step had to be perfect. One wrong sound, one misstep, and I was dead. That meant so was Silas and the rest of our men.

I reached the first chamber and peered around the uneven rock wall. The cavern opened into a wide, sprawling space. In the center, there were bodies.

Dozens of bodies.

Some were old, nothing more than husks, their skin shriveled, their eyes hollow. Others were fresh, their clothes torn from whatever attack had brought them here, their limbs twisted at unnatural angles. I refused to believe my wolves were here in this room.

The stench of death was suffocating.

I ignored it and kept going, until I encountered what could only be called a nest.

A tangled mass of sinewy, organic material stretched along the walls, woven into the rock like a nightmare spider’s web. Thick, pulsing strands of the stuff stretched from corpse to corpse, looping around limbs, binding them together, feeding deeper down inside the cave.

I swallowed a gag and moved forward, keeping my heartbeat steady, my hands gripping my blades tight.

I needed to find them. I needed to find Silas.

I needed to find my mate.

Another tunnel stretched ahead, leading further down. The sounds of the monsters were growing louder now, the cave walls vibrating with the sheer number of whatever was waiting there.

I kept moving forward.

I stayed pressed to the wall, avoiding the throbbing, organic structures that felt like they were watching me. My wolf instincts screamed at me to run, but I ignored them, forcing my breathing to slow and keeping my movements silent.

Ahead, another chamber opened up, and I saw them.

Ryan. Rowan. Varek.