Page 23 of Alpha Exile

She keeps me on this tight leash for several agonizing minutes. I can barely think, can't even seem to break my thoughts away, her control is so unbearably overwhelming. Then she comes to a fork in the passages ahead of us, and turns her attention to that long enough that I'm able to breathe, my mind slipping away from her control.

Though my body, I've noticed, still obeys her. She has the ability to keep us marching forward at an exact pace without deviation—but most of the time, she seems to loosen the reins. Not because she trusts us, but I think because the complete control is difficult for her to concentrate on for long. With her attention divided, we're still forced to march forward and follow her, but our movements are our own, as long as we do as she forces us to do.

My tongue loosened, I answer Finn's earlier query with a murmured retort of our own. "We can all see magic. It's obvious that's what she's using to control us."

"Not just that," Finn hisses back. "I can see these—these energies around us. The ones that feed the blue light that illuminates the tunnels. I think it's some kind of lichen that grows high up on the cavern walls and ceiling."

Glancing up, I search for the spot where the walls next to us meet a distant ceiling. Though the tunnels are relatively narrow, drawing in to force us into single file lines at times, mostly they're wide enough to fit two or three people across. The ceiling is a different story—it's so far away that at times I can't even see it up ahead. Right now, it's close enough to see the cracks blue light spills across, but far enough that I wouldn't be able to touch it even if I sat on Lance's shoulders.

"I don't see anything," I murmur, narrowing my eyes at the spot nearest me where the light is strongest, "but I guess it could be some kind of fungus or something. How does that help us though?"

"Something has changed... inside me," Finn responds, his voice pitches low and close to his chest. "I can see these... threads, almost, that connect the lichen. And I can see other things too. When Delphine grabbed the vial around her neck just then, a hundred threads stretched from her to you."

That gets my attention. "Like the mating threads we've seen between each of us and Delilah?"

"Exactly like that," he says excitedly, raising his voice too high for just a moment. Delphine's head swivels, and he quiets down, keeping his eyes downcast. Her attention drifts away again, and Finn murmurs, "Before, I could only see my own thread with her. Except for that time she performed that spell for us, I couldn't see the others. But now I can see all of them—all our mating threads."

My heart skips an entire beat at that.

Because if he can still see the mating threads, then—

"They still exist."

"Exactly." Finn smirks triumphantly; I have to turn my head away and look forward again, but I take heart at his joyful expression. "Delphine hasn't severed anything. She just buried them deep. Maybe that means..."

"Maybe that means we can get back to her," I murmur, afraid to say her name, as if by saying it I'll somehow curse our chances of returning to her.

I hold it in my heart instead, precious and close to each and every joyful beat.

Delilah.

* * *

Long after the connection with the young warrior is severed, I try to reconnect with the pack. I even search for some kind of connection to Delilah, hoping something remains. But no matter what I try, I'm not able to see through her eyes, until eventually, I start to wonder if it was a fever dream.

At some point, maybe in the middle of the night or maybe near morning, we come to a large cavern, and Delphine stops, a pleased smile on her face. She seems to believe this is some kind of destination, which alarms me. I watch her raise her hands to the sky and murmur a few words that light up the high-ceilinged cavern, white and blue light cascading down to glow on the floor. Several strange stone structures dot the wide, hollow area, many of them shaped in unnatural ways, almost like furniture.

I get the sense that we're not the first people to come here. Whoever came before us no doubt hollowed out the tunnels and cultivated the glowing lichen that Finn spotted. Some of the stone structures around us almost look like shelves or benches, as if this place was once meant for gathering, or even religious worship.

As the vampires trail inside the cavern, Ambrosia's watchful eyes on them, Delphine draws us to her and motions around the cavern.

"Here we are—a resting point. A place to eat and drink, and sleep." Her pleased smile grows even larger, alarming me. "I thought it would take another day of travel to get here, but we made record time. It won't be long now."

Clearing my throat, I dare to ask, "Until what?"

She snaps her gaze at me and snarls, the sound odd coming from her throat, no doubt because her wolf was taken from her. "Don't worry about that just yet. Worry about eating and drinking." She motions behind us. "See? I'm not such a tyrant after all."

I turn, finding myself staring at a low stone structure in the middle of the cavern, covered in platters of meat, cheese, and bread, next to a pitcher of something I'm not sure I believe is water. They all seem to have come from nowhere.

Ambrosia's hand slips off the edge of a plate just before my eyes land on it, her free hand clutching an empty fabric bag, a bored expression on her face. They didn’t come from nowhere—she brought the food with her.

So that's what the vampires are reduced to now. Foot soldiers and pack mules. I have no doubt that displeases Ambrosia, but I'm also certain that she won't do anything about it. It's clear that Delphine is too powerful to stand up to, and Ambrosia is in too deep now to turn away .

My stomach rumbles, but I ignore it, trawling my eyes across the edges of the cavern, where the feral vampires crouch in packs of twos and threes. There's a hunger in their eyes, almost all of which are trained on us. Besides Ambrosia, who's fully cognizant, and a few others who are only a little hungry or feral-looking, all of them are a danger to us.

Turning to Delphine, I decide to see if I can bargain for a little comfort. Whether she refuses or gives in will let me know where her mind is at. It's easier to fight an enemy you know well, after all.

"The food is all well and good, but I feel more like I'm on the menu than anything," I point out, sweeping my eyes around the cavern and forcing myself to look intimidated. Finn glances at me and joins in on the action, making his best wary and uncertain face. "It's hard to eat... or sleep, if that's next on the agenda, with slavering vampires everywhere. Especially without a stitch of clothing on our bodies. It's gotten cold and damp down here."

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