Page 81 of Never Tamed
Our men pile into the tunnel behind her and the closer we get to whatever she sees or scents head, the higher the hair on the back of my neck lifts.
This entire place is wrong. And it’s worse than Torin’s stinking shrine in the middle of the city. Buildings, materials like this, they’ve always sat poorly with me.
I’m too wild to be redeemed.
And I don’t even want to fucking try anymore.
The tunnel takes a sharp left before I finally hear the cries of the imprisoned women. There, ahead of us, are row after row of cages. Slender white fingers cling to the bars and shake them.
“Oh my god.” Red’s voice cracks.
The stolen omegas and other pack members are tucked into cages barely large enough for a small dog, let alone a wolf. But that’s intentional. Isn’t it? To keep them cramped and human and breakable without giving them the space to change and defend themselves.
This far underneath the distillery, the stench of the liquor has seeped into stone and helps to mask the wolf scents. My heart gives a single thud before it settles into an uneasy rhythm. I lick my lips, but the taste of old blood sours in my stomach.
They cry for help. The sounds shatter my heart and my stomach dips before a wave of sickness lurches up.
And there—there’s Flora! Dirty and her cheeks a little more sunken, but alive.
“Get these doors open. Now.” Torin barks out the command to the men.
Mathis is already in motion. He tries to pry the nearest lock off but the metal holds firm. The hinges are well oiled and strong. But thankfully not coated in silver. That would make this job infinitely harder.
Red’s the only one who has any luck. She moves unerringly to Flora’s cage and pries the bars apart with barely any effort. Theomega’s eyes go wide before she falls forward, landing on her hands and knees in the puddles of filth.
She’s in Red’s arms within seconds, her pregnant belly heaving.
You’re safe my love, so safe, and warm. Safe in my arms, with teeth of your own.
No harm will come. No harm be done.
The moon is high, the wind is cold, and you, my love—
The song takes on a discordant, fractured tempo in my head and every beat of my heart brings it closer. I see her smile again like something’s been dredged up from my depths and refuses to be ignored anymore.
Screw this.
I can’t keep losing myself this way to these memories. They disappeared for a reason. Nothing from the past is going to help me be strong.
I pry one of the bars out of the wall from the entrance to this fucking crypt and use it to beat against the lock. The metal shatters after three tries.
Sweating, I toss the lock aside and move on to the next cage, the next. A blur of motion and movement because that’s so much better than trying to figure out who the smile belongs to.
We free as many as we can with the men brought along. And I know Mathis. He’s not leaving this place until we get them all out. But as my gaze skips over the heads for the freed pack members, it’s impossible not to note the missing. The pelts we were given. The ones Andras sent.
Noble leads the charge to get the women out. Red is like Mathis, though. She sticks close to Flora but she’s not going to go yet. Not until she’s satisfied that we’ve gotten them all.
Her eyes meet mine across the room and I know the depths of them intimately. Because we’re the same when you take away all the fancy shit and the trappings.
We’re vengeful creatures.
We like the power plays and we like testing ourselves and seeing how far we can go. We like the taste of blood on our tongue like a forbidden delicacy.
Red breaks eye contact and my gaze dips to Flora. The normal flush of her cheeks has drifted away into a sickly paleness and her hands are tense and white knuckled on her heaving stomach.
My ribs tighten further.
“Go, go!” Torin calls out.
