Page 104 of The Fated Hunter Wolf
Sable dropped. I shifted back in time to catch her. The air still shimmered with what she’d unleashed.
I brushed damp strands from her face, my thumb tracing the line of her jaw. “You’re safe.”
“For now,” she whispered.
36
SABLE
Silence settled like smoke—thick, tasting of burnt magic and iron. My father was gone, but the air still held his shape, the memory of his rage etched into stone.
Astrid hung against the wall, the chains half-melted, fused around her wrists. Her skin was gray with exhaustion, yet her magic still glimmered faintly beneath it.
Rhys moved first, bare and bruised, a raw silhouette in the low light of the chamber, and I rushed right behind him. I pressed my fingers against Astrid’s neck. Her pulse fluttered once, twice, steady enough. The faint gold of her life force flickered beneath her skin—fragile, but alive. Relief burned through me, sharp and humiliating in its intensity.
“She’s alive,” I said quietly. “He drained her energy, not her blood.”
Rhys’s exhale was ragged, half-growl, half-prayer. “Then we get her out.”
The chains cracked under his hands, silver shards skittering across the stone. I caught Astrid before she could fall, her head lolling against my shoulder. She was light as breath, her magic a faint whisper against mine.
We climbed the narrow stairway, Rhys ahead of me, each step echoing through the tunnels. His body moved like a shadow. He hadn’t bothered with clothes after his shift, and I barely noticed—until the bond brushed against me, hot and alive again. Proof that he was still here. And that something had drastically changed between us.
Almost there, he sent through the bond.
The smell reached us first. Wolves. Blood. Burned ozone.
We stepped into the assembly hall. The room had been rewritten mid-battle: chairs overturned, tables shoved into barricades, glass glittering across the marble. Blood streaked a trail toward the stage, already drying. The Bellweather crest hung crooked behind it, half-torn.
Eve stood on that stage beside Logan, blue light tracing the air around her fingers. The hum of her power mingled with the low growls of restless wolves.
Several alphas were gone. The absence hit harder than their presence ever had. Emmanuel Vex’s seat was empty, his nameplate cracked in two.
Rhys stopped beside me, eyes scanning the ruin, his shoulders shifting like he was bracing for another fight.
Bart appeared from the chaos, his swagger gone wary. His gaze flicked over Astrid, then up to Rhys. “She looks bad.” His voice carried a rough edge of command. He snapped his fingers, and a young wolf bolted toward the back. “Fetch the healer. Now.”
Rhys took Astrid from my arms and laid her on the nearest intact chair, movements almost reverent. Someone thrust a bundle of clothes into his hands—black pants and an undershirt. He didn’t thank them. Just nodded once, pulling the fabric over sweat-streaked skin.
“What happened?” he asked.
Bart’s mouth twisted. “When Eve returned, the whole damn house tried to eat itself.” He gestured toward the wreckage. “Alpha Vex turned on the others. Eve shut him down before it got worse. He stormed out. Took a few with him.”
Rhys and I stood there, taking it in.
“Welcome back to the surface,” Bart said softly, eyes flicking between us. “Where a lot of rot is making its way out of the woodwork.” He glanced at the stage where the former prisoners were huddled behind Eve. Some were still looking shell-shocked and weak, but a few carried new energy in their stance.
Logan spotted us before we reached the stage. He moved through the scene of former chaos like he owned it—steady, unhurried, every inch the alpha. His stride was calm despite the storm.
“Change is coming,” he said as soon as he was close enough. His gaze swept over Rhys, then me, lingering just long enough to acknowledge the raw energy still sizzling between us. “This was only the beginning. The cracks are finally showing.”
He looked around the hall—the overturned tables, the wolves whispering in clusters, the faint shimmer of Eve’s power hanging in the air. His voice lowered. “The ones who stayed are the ones ready to build something better.”
Eve joined us and touched my shoulder. “Someone is waking.” She nodded to the place where Astrid was being treated by the healer Bart had called in.
I rushed to Astrid’s side. “I’m here,” I whispered into her ear, and a slight smile came across her lips.
“Hey, Mama Sabe.”
