Page 63 of Lone Wolf

There’s a moment of silence, then the sound of heavy bolts zipping back. The door opens slowly, and Mari steps out, still tense and wary until she confirms the threat is gone.

“We need to move quickly,” Ariadne says, all business. “The Mancinis will send more backup, and they could arrive any minute.”

Mari nods, turning back to the women behind her. “It’s okay,” she tells them. “These people are here to help us. We’re getting out.”

There’s disbelief on many of their faces—hope is dangerous when you’ve been captive so long. But they follow Mari’s lead, filing out of the safe room.

“Extraction route secure,” Hadria reports over the comms. “Medical team on alert at Elysium.”

“Copy that,” Lyssa responds. “We have ten civilians. Beginning evacuation now.”

The journey through the mansion and back to our convoy is blessedly uneventful. But I stay close to Mari the entire time, afraid that if I look away, she might vanish like a mirage. And in the transport vehicle heading back toward Elysium, Mari and I sit side by side, shoulders touching. Ariadne sits across from us, but I keep glancing at Mari, still making sure she’s real, that she’s here beside me after all this time.

“I still can’t believe it,” Mari says softly, echoing my thoughts. “After I tried to escape the third time, they told me you’d beenkilled—punishment for my disobedience. That’s when I… Well, I gave up.”

I squeeze her hand tight. “I never stopped looking for you,” I reply, my throat tight. “But just recently, the information we found…it suggested you were dead. But I couldn’t give up, not when I knew there were others…” I trail off.

Mari squeezes my hand back. “How did you find us?”

“The Styx Syndicate found you. I joined them because I was looking for you.”

Mari looks at me and then across at Ariadne curiously. “The Styx Syndicate…that’s your organization? I thought maybe you were law enforcement.”

“Oh, no,” Ariadne answers with a grim smile. “We aren’t law enforcement. Though I suppose you could say we like to enforce a law of our own in and around Chicago.”

Mari studies her with the discerning gaze I remember from childhood, then turns back to me, asking me a wordless question. I guess she must have seen the way Ariadne and I look at each other. I give Mari a little nod, and she actually smiles. “I’m glad,” she murmurs.

“Ariadne helped train me,” I tell her, because I can’t tell her everything else that Ariadne means to me right now, not in the back of this vehicle with all these other people listening.

Mari nods slowly, processing this. Then, to my surprise, she reaches across and touches Ariadne’s knee briefly. “Thank you.”

I see the surprise flash across Ariadne’s face, though she hides it quickly. We ride the rest of the way in silence, and I lay my headon Mari’s shoulder as I watch Ariadne across from us. She gives me a tiny smile, and I give one back.

We get back to Elysium and get all of the women into what Scarlett says is trauma-informed medical care. Mari insists on overseeing all of it before she’ll submit to any checkups of her own, and I stay with her. Ariadne stays close, too, and I’m grateful for her presence, though she makes sure to give us some room.

And after we’ve settled all the other women, and wait for Mari herself to be seen, we talk some more. “What happened to you?” I ask the question that’s been burning inside me. “The Syndicate had intelligence saying you were…that you died soon after being taken.”

Mari’s face darkens, her gaze dropping to her hands. “Some of us fought back at first. But they killed the most vulnerable among us when we did—to punish us, break our spirit. It didn’t take long to realize that if I didn’t behave, they would makeotherssuffer for it. And I just couldn’t stand to think that I was causing that suffering.”

My hand tightens around hers. I haven’t let go of her since we got into the car, and now my rage simmering just beneath my skin. I want to hurt everyone who touched my sister, everyone who tried to erase her.

“But after a while,” Mari continues, “they realized I was more valuable alive than dead. I was good with the new girls—could calm them down, get them to cooperate without as muchviolence or drugs. So I…became a handler of sorts. I…” She trails off, and disgust crosses her face.

“You protected them,” Ariadne tells her, understanding in her voice.

Mari looks up at her. “I guess. As much as I could. I couldn’t save them, but I could…make it less terrible than what happened to me.”

“You survived,” I say fiercely. “That’s what matters.”

“Not just survived,” Ariadne adds unexpectedly. “You found a way to help others even in the worst circumstances. That takes extraordinary strength.”

Mari looks at Ariadne with surprise. “Maybe,” is all she says, and then she glances at me. “What about you?” she asks me. “After I was gone?”

I hesitate, wondering how to condense those years of grief, searching, and hardship into words my sister can handle right now.

“I was angry for a long time,” I say finally. “I wanted to kill our father for what he’d done.”

“Did you?” Mari asks, her tone neutral.

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