Page 12

CHAPTER 11

C alla

W e continue a little further into the bunker, but a large metal door blocks our path. There’s a hand wheel on the front, but we can’t budge it, not even with all five of us joining in.

“Dead end,” Tansy groans.

“This door has been opened recently,” Nara says, pointing out marks on the floor. “We’re just not strong enough to do it.”

“Which means something a lot stronger than us was in here,” I sigh, looking back at the macabre scene behind us. “I don’t think we should spend the night in here. If something comes through those doors, we’re trapped.”

“At least we have light,” Brenna says. “That’s better than what we will have outside.”

“Yeah, but it’s too risky. We can’t stay longer than the night, anyway. We’re running out of food and the fruit isn’t providing enough hydration. We have to find water.” I close my eyes and let out another sigh. “Come on. There’s nothing useful in this bunker.”

We’re weary. The others more so than me, but my bracelet is helping with that. I still need to rest because we’ve been walking most of the day. I’d also like to get another look at the stars, since it should be dark by now. I lead them back toward the exit, despite the groans and mutters of protest behind me. Fiona was happy when the lights came on. Now it’s back into the darkness.

“We should turn off the power, so nobody knows we were here,” Nara suggests. “We won’t get far in the dark, so we don’t want them to start looking for us if they come home.”

“Agreed,” I say, following her into the control room.

Nara is able to move the lever on her own this time. The hum in the bunker dies out and we’re plunged into darkness again, my bracelet providing a dim luminescence that lights our path the rest of the way.

“The moon is brighter tonight,” Fiona whispers as we get close to the steel slabs.

“Good,” Tansy says. “I don’t like it when it’s so dark you can’t see anything.”

I walk out first, and immediately put both arms out to stop the others. We’re not alone. There are five wolves sitting outside the bunker—all with gold eyes like the one from The Aether. Their fur shimmers in the moonlight, a mixture of gold, platinum, and one with an onyx hue. He could be Silas’s twin, but he’s not as massive as the ghost. They don’t make a move toward us. They just stare, still as our shadows.

“We’re going to get eaten,” Tansy whimpers as she peeks around me.

“I guess we found what lives here,” Nara whispers. “We’ll have to fight.”

“We’re no match for them,” I whisper back. “And they’re not attacking—not yet.”

I can feel Fiona trembling. She buries her face in my back. Tansy’s sniffle tells me she’s crying again. Brenna readies her stick, but I’m confident it is no match for the five hulking beasts.

“Back inside,” I murmur. “Slowly.”

“We’ll be trapped,” Nara protests. “Just like you said.”

She’s right. That’s why we left the bunker to begin with. But I don’t detect danger. The bracelet on my wrist is matching my heartbeat, but it’s not reacting to the wolves. Silas mentioned his brothers, and while I’m not sure if onyx fur is common for wolves, one of them certainly reminds me of him.

If they’re his brothers, they don’t want to eat us. Well, they don’t want to eat me. My companions, I’m not sure about. As soon as Fiona, Tansy, and Brenna are inside, I grab Nara’s arm.

“I’m going to try to talk to them,” I whisper. “Keep the others inside. Don’t let anyone come out here, no matter what happens.”

“Are you crazy?” Nara looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “They’re wolves! Those are animals—and they’re not like the dogs the ladies in the Upper District have. They’re savages.”

“I don’t have time to explain it, and you’ll think I’m even crazier than you already do if I try,” I mutter, glancing back at the looming beasts. “Just trust me. You’ve trusted me this far, right?”

“We wouldn’t have made it this far if it wasn’t for you,” Nara sighs, casting one last anxious glance at the wolves. “Okay, I’ll keep the others inside.”

I wait until they’ve disappeared into the corridor, their footsteps fading into the silence. They don’t have my bracelet to light their way, so they’re walking blind—scared and vulnerable. Just like me.

Then I turn back to the wolves. Five hulking silhouettes. They haven’t moved an inch. Still as statues in the moonlight, their golden eyes burning like fire behind glass, but some have flickers of other colors woven into their irises. They don’t blink. Don’t twitch. They just watch. So intensely my legs threaten to give out beneath me.

I swallow hard and take a cautious step forward. Not one of them flinches.

They all have distinct shades, but now that I’m closer, I can see the differences between them. The one in front is the largest; his fur is radiant gold, just like his eyes. Beside him is another with a similar hue, but his coat is deeper—more like muted amber than gold.

To their right stands the broadest of the group. His body is thick with muscle, platinum fur etched with scars that run along his jaw and vanish into his ruff. On the left, a smaller wolf, lean and sharp-eyed, with a coat the color of mossy brown earth. Where the others look pristine despite The Tangle, this one wears bits of the wild like a badge. Leaves and debris are tangled in his fur and dirty paws rest on the ground.

And behind them all, shadowed but unmistakable, looms the last. Onyx-furred. Smaller than Silas, but hauntingly similar. The same piercing eyes. The same weight in his gaze. The resemblance is so strong it steals the breath right out of me. I swallow hard to push down a lump rising in my throat.

“I know you can transform,” I say, my voice quieter than I intend. It lacks the confidence I tried to summon, but I continue. “You’re not just wolves.”

The golden one steps forward. His upper lip twitches, flashing a line of sharp teeth, but he doesn’t growl. His head lowers slightly, eyes scanning left, then right, as he looks at the others.

Then, without warning, he shifts.

It’s not like the slow, pulsing shimmer I saw in The Aether with Silas. There’s no glow. No mystical haze. One second, he’s all fur and fang. The next, there’s a man standing in his place.

A man with wild golden hair that spills around his shoulders, streaked with darker shades near the roots. Wisps cling to the edge of a thick beard. Moonlight glints off his skin. He’s naked, sculpted, and far too real to be a dream. Broad chest, muscled arms, and a body that seems to radiate—or maybe I’m the one feeling the heat.

He’s beautiful . Terrifying, but beautiful. A soft breath escapes before I can stop it. I lick my lips without meaning to, catching a bead of saliva before it slips.

I don’t feel so brave anymore.

“I’m Gideon,” he says, then he gestures to the others. “These are my brothers. We’ve been waiting a long time for you, Calla.”

“You know my name,” I murmur. I mean it to be a question, but it comes out soft and uncertain. Like I’ve already accepted something I haven’t fully processed.

Part of me wants to say more, but I’m cautious. If these are Silas’s brothers, I have to keep my wits. I don’t know if I can trust them. I don’t even know if I can trust Silas.

“Yes, we know a lot more than your name,” Gideon says, his eyes drinking me in like he’s as thirsty as I am, except his thirst isn’t for water. “We’ve been following you. Protecting you. Since the first night you were brought into The Tangle.”

“Protecting me?” I scoff, realizing I might have said it too harshly when Gideon’s lip twitches, so I relax my tone. “You haven’t done a great job. I’ve been kidnapped, drugged, and if it wasn’t for the women with me, I would’ve never escaped the slavers.”

“You have no idea what we’ve done for you,” Gideon growls, his voice edged like a sharp blade. “How many bodies we’ve left in pieces across The Tangle. How much blood we’ve spilled, just to make sure you made it this far.”

My breath catches. Because I think he’s telling the truth.

My thoughts flash back—howls in the night. Crashes of violence echoing through the trees. The sharp crack and agonizing wails of death. Every day. Every night. There were moments when the chaos felt endless.

Was it them? These monsters in the moonlight, trailing just far enough behind us to remain unseen? Were they watching us the entire time? Guarding us in The Tangle like Silas seemed to guard me in my dreams? It doesn’t make sense, but little has made sense since I left Haven North. Surviving this long in The Tangle certainly doesn’t. The predators should have finished us off long ago, The Tangle feasting on what was left of our flesh.

I don’t want to ask this question, but I have to.

“Then why reveal yourselves now?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at the golden-haired brute.

“Because, Calla,” he rasps, taking another step forward. “You’re finally home .”

Home? I’m not sure if it’s the words or the implication of what he said that steals my next breath. I shake it off.

“This isn’t my home,” I state firmly, glancing behind me. “It’s an old military bunker. But you already know that, don’t you? You’re the ones who left the bones inside—trophies of your kills.”

“Trophies from when we were a younger pack,” he replies. “We didn’t move them because they scare off trespassers brave enough to step into our den. Those that don’t scare easily… well, their lack of fear doesn’t save them once we return from the hunt.”

Then they get torn apart. Like we would have been, if these wolves didn’t want me for another purpose. A purpose I only know about from a dream.

Another wolf shifts, amber fur disappearing in a flash as a mountain of a man rises. His build is similar to his brother’s, but his eyes are more intense. A flicker of purple is woven into his golden stare. His hair hangs in shimmering strands in front of his right eye, covering what looks to be a scar. He has wounds. They’re healing, but visible, glowing with the same faint crimson as Nara’s, after The Tangle gave me a remedy.

“My brother is being kind. Too kind,” he growls, his voice deeper and tense. “You’re our mate. We can smell you. Sense you. The itch goes so deep it is maddening. We will have you and I’ve waited long enough.”

The amber-haired man takes a step forward with purpose. My eyes get wide, and I take a step back, but Gideon throws an arm across his brother’s chest. Hard enough for me to see his semi-erect penis bounce, throb, and thicken. A heat rushes through my body and my core clenches. I imagine it inside me. I tremble so hard I choke on my next exhale.

“Easy, Jace,” Gideon says. “We agreed we would talk to her, not pounce on her like hungry wolves.”

“But I am hungry. And my belly’s full,” Jace snarls, the purple in his eyes flickering with a need that makes a tingling quiver through my body. “Full of meat from keeping you and your friends from getting gored by Minotaurs, chewed up by a trihybrid, or torn apart by a fucking Gen-Lion.”

Minotaurs? Trihybrids? Gen-Lions? Wait… Could that be…

“Frank? Did you hurt Frank?”

The words come out of my mouth before I mean to say them. Why should I care? He was working for the slavers and kept us from escaping the first time we tried. Still, he stopped them from whipping us. Me, specifically, since I volunteered to take the lashes for our failed escape attempt. And The Tangle spoke to him, through me. He had… a purpose.

“We didn’t kill him,” Gideon says. “We would have, but he wisely chose to follow some advice he got about searching for a Pride without a king, or something like that.”

“Why does it matter?” Jace growls, pushing against Gideon’s arm, but not moving past it. “He was chasing you. We were the ones protecting you, not him.”

A third wolf shifts, brushing away leaves and twigs as he rises. The mossy brown fur turns into tangled curls, wild and unkempt. His face doesn’t have the same rough edges as his brothers. It’s rounder, softer, and he looks—kind. There’s no hunger in his eyes. Not even a flicker. Not like Gideon, who hides it behind control. Definitely not like the unhinged hunger in Jace’s purple-gold stare.

“Enough,” he mutters, his voice lower than I expect. “Seriously, Jace. That’s enough.”

Then his gaze lifts to mine, and it’s not intense. Not sharp. It’s steady. Warm. It touches something inside me I didn’t know was trembling until it isn’t anymore. I’m still buzzing, still tingling all over, but when he looks at me, I feel… calm. Like if I took a single step forward, he’d catch me before I even stumbled.

“You’re our mate, Calla. That’s it,” he says. “My brothers will call it instinct. Or hunger. But I think it’s fate. That’s what brought you to us. And why you’re the one who’ll save our pack.”

“From what?” I ask. I almost asked Silas the same thing, but I didn’t get to stay in The Aether long enough. “What am I saving you from?”

“Extinction,” Gideon says. “And suffering.”

“I’m really suffering right now,” Jace grumbles, his toes digging into the dirt.

“We’ve lost brothers. Sisters. Our pack isn’t what it once was. The only thing waiting for us is death,” the kind-faced brother says. “But you’re the one who can change that. Give us peace. Purpose. A future. Gideon and Jace are the only two who feel the pull right now. The rest of us will, in time. It’s following a pattern.”

He gestures toward the platinum wolf. “Knox is next. If it keeps going the way it has. Gideon’s the oldest—he felt it first.”

“Jace is the second oldest,” I mutter, nodding as it clicks into place. “And you?”

“I’m Vance. Youngest, so I’ll be last.” He chuckles softly and jerks his thumb over his shoulder. “It’ll be Caleb before me. Don’t mind him. He doesn’t say much.”

The onyx wolf doesn’t react. He stays still, watching from the shadows like a statue carved out of the night. Jace pushes harder against Gideon’s arm, that same arm still the only thing keeping him from lunging forward. From tearing my clothes off and taking what he clearly thinks belongs to him.

And as much as I hate it, I’m starting to wish Gideon’s arm would slip.

“I haven’t felt genuine pleasure in over two hundred years,” Jace snarls. “I’ve got a lot of time to make up for. And don’t pretend you don’t already know what’s going to happen. I can smell your arousal, and it won’t be long before that sweet nectar is dripping down your thighs.”

I swallow hard and take a step back. My whole body is buzzing. Overheated. The bracelet on my wrist pulses faster, syncing with my racing heart. It’s too much. These feelings. These thoughts. The strange desire coursing through me, demanding I give in. The first traitorous trickle drips down my thighs and sends a shudder through me.

This is what the supplements were for. In Haven North, we’re dosed so we don’t feel like this. They allow us to focus on work instead of desire. Lust. The kind of hunger that could make you forget everything else.

But I can’t forget what’s at stake. I’m not alone. I’m not the only one here.

I have to think about the others. Fiona. Tansy. Brenna. Nara. There’s no way I can fight off a pack of wolves—ones who are hungry for more than food—but maybe I can bargain. What they want from me isn’t possible. I’m infertile, even if they don’t realize it. Nobody is going to breed me.

Still… I can’t deny what’s happening. Not when my thoughts are spinning, and my body’s already reacting.

“What do you plan to do with the others?” I ask. The words come out tight. “They’re my friends. I want to know they’ll be safe.”

“We’re not going to eat them, if that’s what you’re scared of,” Vance says, gentle as ever. “We don’t like the taste of human meat. No harm will come to your friends.”

“Yes, you can call them out if you’d like,” Jace growls. “I’ll point them in the right direction, and they can be on their way. You’re the one we want, Calla. Not them.”

“If what you said is true, they wouldn’t get far… would they?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady despite the tightness in my throat. Despite the heat between my legs.

“We’ll make sure they get home safely,” Gideon says. “Back to Haven North. As long as you agree to come back with us.”

They’ll be safe. They’ll get to go home.

If I say yes, then I’m already home. This bunker—this den—it belongs to the wolves. If I agree, it will belong to me too.

I don’t know if I believe in fate. I don’t know why I’m different. Why The Tangle speaks through me. Why I dream about their brother. But if giving up the life I thought I’d have will ensure the others survive… then maybe that’s enough. My body is certainly eager.

“Then we have a deal,” I say.

The words fall like stones. And the whimpering, tortured growl that rips from Jace is enough to make my knees buckle, but I keep myself from falling.

“We can’t travel until sunrise,” Gideon says, his voice low and tight.

“Which gives us plenty of time to get to know each other,” Jace says menacingly, the purple in his eyes flickering with intensity. I take an apprehensive step back and his lips spread into a grin. “Oh, you didn’t think we were going to wait until we got back to taste what is ours, did you?”

“Jace, you sound unhinged,” Vance sighs. “Give her some space, will you? Let’s get her friends taken care of first. I’m sure they’re hungry and thirsty—and scared to death.”

“Vance is right,” Gideon says. “Control yourself, brother. She already agreed to be ours.”

Part of me doesn’t want Jace to control himself. I imagine the behemoth of a man closing in on me. Pinning me to the ground. Taking what he wants like a Groom claiming his Bride on their wedding night. I used to imagine how that would be, before I found out I was infertile and got my first cycle of supplements. I imagined a bed—not a patch of well-traveled dirt.

Jace relaxes and I feel a tremble of disappointment. “Fine. We’ll get the other settled first,” he says, his eyes still locked on me.

The platinum wolf bares his teeth, then turns and disappears into the darkness. I look toward the spot where the onyx wolf was sitting, and he’s gone too. He moved so fast I didn’t even notice. The other three brothers don’t move, so I turn and step into the bunker. Wobbly legs and the traitorous heat trickling down my thigh make my movements awkward, but I manage.

“Your bracelet glows,” Vance remarks, noticing the green that radiates from my wrist once we’re inside. “Interesting. I’ve never seen a piece of The Tangle continue to pulse after being torn from the root.”

“It appeared in my hand after a dream,” I say, unsure how much I should share with them, considering I don’t even understand it myself. “It took the shape of a key, while we were locked in the cage.”

“Ah, so that’s how you escaped.” Vance sounds both fascinated and impressed. “And now it’s a bracelet?”

“Yes,” I answer, turning when we reach the door to the control room. “Do you guys have… pants?”

Gideon and Jace exchange glances. Vance laughs and shakes his head.

“We’ll get dressed so we don’t frighten your friends more than they already are. There are some old military fatigues on the lower level.” Vance motions for his brothers. “Past the trophy room. Bring your friends. We’ll leave the door open.”

I catch Vance’s arm as he passes. “Don’t tell them about our deal. Let me bring that up when the time is right.”

“Understood,” Vance says, tensing a little from the contact.

Gideon’s gaze lingers on me long enough to make me quiver. Jace’s intensity and the low, rumbling growl that echoes from his throat make the quiver send another trickle down my thigh. Vance just smiles before guiding his brothers deeper into their den.

I have no idea how I’m going to explain this to the others, but at least they will be safe. They’ll get to go home. Their safety has been my top priority since I woke up in that cage.

I take a deep breath and push the door open. My bracelet illuminates them, huddled in the corner. Nara has Tansy and Fiona behind her. Brenna is by Nara’s side, clutching her stick like it will somehow protect her from hungry predators.

“It’s okay. You can come out. They’re not going to hurt us,” I say, tensing up when I hear metal scraping against metal in another part of the bunker.

Fiona peeks out from behind Nara, then she pushes her aside and nearly knocks me over with a hug. “I’m so glad they didn’t eat you, Nurse Calla,” the girl whimpers. “I was afraid we were going to be next.”

“What happened?” Nara asks cautiously. “They just decided to… let you go?”

“Not exactly,” I sigh. A second later, the lights come on. These aren’t just auxiliary lights. The bunker flickers to life as a deeper humming echoes below us, and a white, fluorescent hue illuminates the bunker. “But we’re staying here tonight. Tomorrow, they’re going to get us home to Haven North.”

“Your bracelet lets you talk to wolves. And they talk back?” Brenna questions, relaxing her grip on her stick.

“They’re not just wolves. They’re… men,” I explain, seeing confusion in the eyes of the others. “Probably some sort of hybrid. I’m not sure. But they’ve been protecting us. They’re the reason we got this far.”

I go into a little more detail, but don’t share everything. That I’m the one they’re protecting and the reason why. That they’ll see the streets of Haven North again, but I won’t make it that far. That would just complicate things.

Tonight, they just need a little hope.