Page 2 of Freed Wolfsbane

Anson presses his lips into a thin line and looks away. He’s silent for so long that I think he won’t answer. “Experiments mostly. Some torture if guard morale is low. Occasional executions if we get too unruly.” His voice is monotone as he lists off the options, but his eyes are haunted as he meets my gaze.

Lovely.

Experiments, torture, and executions, oh my.

I try to ignore the way my heart jackhammers in my chest as I think about what exactly these “experiments” consist of. I’m guessing that’s where I’ll spend most of my time, since they need me to figure out how to expand the curse from just female wolves to all shifters.

The Knights are in for a rude awakening if they expect me to willingly help them destroy shifters. I doubt there’s anything they can do to me that Patrick hasn’t already done. My mates, sister, and family are all safe away from here, so they have zero leverage over me. Along with that, the Knights also don’t know that I have magic. I don’t know how my fledgling magic will really help anything, especially since it refuses to listen to me, but it’s better than nothing.

I open my mouth to ask more about the experiments, but then I hear pounding footsteps in the hall and panicked shouts surrounding us. Anson swears under his breath and turns to me. “Those are the guards. They take someone to the lab each time they come down here. They should leave you alone since you just got here.”

I blow out a sigh of relief. It’s short-lived as two guards in the typical Knights of Aeneas black tactical armor with a spartan skirt stop in front of our cell. One of the guards is lean and tall, and the other is short and stocky. Both of them have cruel smiles on their faces as they stare me down.

The tall one fishes a key from his pocket and unlocks the door. Its hinges squeal in protest as he pulls it open. Instead of coming inside, the tall one stands outside while the short guard enters the cell. He points one meaty finger at me. “You,” he barks. “Come with me.”

My eyes are wide as I glance at Anson. I thought they were going to leave me alone since I just arrived here. I’m in no shape to go toe to toe with any of the Knights. I feel so weak and out of sorts that I’m struggling to access my magic or my wolf.

Maybe if I just stay quiet, they’ll forget about me?

Anson hops up from his cot and steps between the guard and me. “She just got here! You can’t take her yet. She’s not at full strength. I’ll go in her place,” he pleads. All he gets for his trouble is the short guard backhanding him. Anson’s lip splits and sprays blood onto the wall, the red standing out starkly against the faded white.

The short guard pulls back his arm to hit Anson again. “I’ll go!” I interject before the guard can strike him again. My muscles shake as I push myself to my feet, and my steps wobble as I walk the short distance to the guard. He roughly grips my upper arm hard enough to bruise and hauls me out of the room. The last thing I see before the guard blocks my view is Anson’s terrified eyes watching me.

CHAPTER2

SAINT

It’s been a day since my little shadow was taken. A day since I didn’t protect her. A day since I failed her in the worst way possible.

Since we lost her, I can’t feel anything other than all-consuming grief. I can’t think about anything other than Briar and the tears streaming down her face the last time I saw her. I can’t get all the things I never got to say to her out of my head.

With the mate bond, I should be able to locate Briar. Either because the Knights have protection spells or because our bond is too new, I can only narrow it down to thousands of square miles in a remote part of northern Canada. With how cold it is and how unpredictable the weather is in late December, we’ve ruled out an aerial search. It would take way more mage power than we have to keep a helicopter operational for that long. It’ll take us weeks to comb through that much land, but we at least have a starting place.

“When do we leave?” I ask in a hollow voice from my place at the large dining table we’re using as a makeshift command center.

Briar’s other mates and Rhys Gallagher, one of the founders of Elemental Security, are the only ones left now that we have a plan. Elemental Security is one of, if not the best mage security and intelligence outfits in the country. I work for Elemental often in a freelance capacity, always taking jobs I can do alone. They’re based near Hawthorne Grove and run by genuinely good people.

I work with three other mage security companies as a freelance security consultant because I like the option to do whatever work strikes my fancy. I’m particularly partial to cases where I help supernaturals find their missing mates.

I’ve been doing freelance work for two years now. Being able to help people and make a difference is one of the things that pulled me up from my self-destructive spiral I fell into after my parents died and Briar left.

Since I hurt too much to care much about staying alive, I got myself into all types of shit I shouldn’t have. The only upside about going off the rails is that I learned the skills I use to help people now, like hand-to-hand combat, tracking, using various weapons, and entering and exiting locations undetected.

Rhys was the one who approached me about working for Elemental and, unbeknownst to him, started to pull me out of my spiral. Hitting rock bottom is what finally snapped me out of it, but that’s not a day I like to think about. I push down the memories of lying on the dirty concrete, my body broken and bloody, the sneering faces above me, and just how close I came to never getting to reunite with my little shadow.

He’s become a close friend over the past two years. Although, I reconsider our friendship when he says, “Weleave in a couple hours.Youare staying here, along with Briar’s other mates.”

“What?” I growl as I shove to my feet, the chair clattering backward as I do. “No, I’m fucking not. I’m going with you.”

To my surprise, none of the wolves complain, at least vocally. All of them look like they want to argue but are biting their tongues.

Rhys slides a hand through his close-cropped dark brown hair in exasperation as he rounds the table to come stand next to me. I’m an inch taller than Rhys. He more than makes up for it, though, with how muscular he is, his bulk approaching shifter size. “Yes, you are. This is my operation, McAlister. I get what you’re going through, I really do, but you’re not useful to your mate like this.”

Acid bubbles in my chest at him telling me he understands what I’m feeling. If he did, he wouldn’t be trying to stop me from going after Briar. “You don’t understand. You don’t have a mate.” I know my words are a low blow as soon as they leave my mouth.

The part of me that can feel anything other than crushing grief feels guilty for hurting him. But that part of me is so far down that I make no move to apologize.

Rhys flinches minutely. He’s been looking for his mate for years without any success. While mages generally marry for power, his family seems to prefer finding mates. Both him and his younger brother, Aiden, are so focused on finding their mates they hardly date.

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