Page 25 of Wolf Chosen

“Remain as the wolf. Follow.” Rowan turns on his heel, striding down the corridor. To my horror, my legs move of their own volition, carrying me after him.

Away from the cell.

Away from Taylor.

Chapter Thirteen

Taylor

The pressure lifts and I crash to the ground, the impact jarring my insides. Pain lances through my skull as it cracks against the unforgiving stone. Stars burst behind my eyelids, bright and dizzying.

For a long moment, I can only lie there, gasping for breath. Nausea churns in my gut, bile burning the back of my throat, but it's nothing compared to the anguish shredding my heart.

Rowan has taken Liam. Again. And I'm powerless to stop it.

Desperation claws at my chest, urging me to action. I stagger to my feet, the cell spinning around me. I lurch toward the bars, grasping them with white-knuckled intensity. The metal is cold and unyielding beneath my fingers. Invisible static bugs race over my hands, magic making my skin crawl.

I shake the bars, looking around the cell for the millionth time. I know it's futile, but I have to do something. Need and logic are at war inside my head. I can't just sit here while Liam suffers more at the hands of that monster.

Sobs build in my throat, but I choke them back. I won't let Rowan break me. Even if that's exactly how I feel. Shattered into a million jagged pieces, hope bleeding through my fingers.

I need to be stronger. Liam is the one being tortured while I’m simply going mad.

God, the thought of what Liam must be going through... It's a waking nightmare. Heat surges up my throat, and I barely manage to turn my head before I'm retching. Nothing but bile comes out, which somehow makes it worse.

I want to scream. I want to rage. I want to claw at the walls until my fingernails crack and splinter. But I don't. I can't. I have to hold it together. For Liam.

He's going to survive this. He has to. Because the alternative, if he dies, is unthinkable. I’m not sure I’d survive that, either. And even if I did, Rowan could just leave me here, forgotten. Starving to death.

Fresh tears sting my eyes, blurring the edges of the cell into wavering shadows. I sink to the floor, curling in on myself. Despair is a tangible weight, crushing me, suffocating me.

I've never felt so helpless. So alone.

Without warning, static crackles through the bond, sharp and biting. It feels like a million ants biting my insides with sharp pincers. I gasp, my hand flying to my chest.

Something...something is wrong.

Pain explodes behind my ribs, white-hot and blinding. It steals the breath from my lungs, the strength from my limbs. I crumple to the ground, my body convulsing as agony rips through me.

I'm being torn apart from the inside out. Pieces of me are being shredded and ripped away. I scream, but no sound emerges. Or maybe I just can't hear it over the roaring in my ears, the frantic stutter of my heart. Black spots dance across my vision, growing larger with each passing second.

I try to cling to consciousness, but darkness drags me down into its smothering embrace.

***

Awareness returns slowly, filtering in through the haze of pain and confusion. I blink, disoriented, as I take in my surroundings.

I'm...in the forest?

But that's impossible. I was just in the cell, I was...

Liam. Oh God, where's Liam?

I clamber to my feet and spin in a frantic circle, my eyes raking over the towering evergreens, the carpet of pine needles beneath my bare feet, but he's nowhere to be seen. I'm alone.

Fear claws at my throat, but before it can fully take hold, a strange sense of peace washes over me. It's jarring, out of place. I shouldn't feel calm. I should be terrified.

And yet...

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