Page 5 of Wild Fated

Kael prowled behind me, his presence buzzing at the edge of my awareness. Tension rolled off him, the way he kept glancing toward the hallway. We had different priorities. Yes, Kael and Callista had committed to helping me unearth information on the rest of the relics, but until we figured out where Kael’s friend Destin was, he wasn’t going to be able to focus on that.

“Just go,” I muttered. There still wasn’t any sign of life in the building. If this was a trap by the northern alphas, wouldn’t they have sprung it by now?

“I’m not leaving you here alone.”

I shot him a look but knew it wouldn’t change anything. He was on high alert for his mate. I was just caught in the crossfire. I shoved his agitation aside and bent closer to the papers. I needed to make sense of all this. I had to.

After scanning the mess of papers and books faster than a high school literature assignment, I finally saw it. A tattered piece of paper was buried beneath a ledger, half hidden under ink-covered pages. I carefully pulled it free, the brittle edges flaking under my touch. My heart kicked up as I scanned the faded letters, the words barely visible. But there it was. A mention of another relic. A book.

I frowned, processing the words in front of me. Lava Forks. A sacred site. Deep in the mountains. Was that where the alphas thought it was hidden?

I held up the paper to Kael. “This is why they aren’t here.”

He took it from me, his brow furrowing as he read. “You think they found it.”

I gestured at the empty room. “You said it yourself. They wouldn’t have left this without a good reason.” He handed the paper back, and I slipped it into my jacket pocket. This was the first real lead we had, though it raised more questions than it answered. “Do you know anything about Lava Forks?” I asked.

Kael shook his head. “We can get into that later.”

Callista took his hand. There was no sound. No scent. I glanced down and scanned the desk one final time, my eyes snagging on a title that sat on the corner. Legends of the Shadow Pack. It was a storybook. One I’d seen before but couldn’t quite place. I picked it up and shoved it in my bag.

“They may have taken your friend with them.” I took a step toward the door. I hoped they’d taken him with them. Otherwise . . .

Kael’s expression hardened as he turned. We made our way back into the hallway, Kael taking the lead with Callista closebehind. He pushed into the two other rooms on the main floor and found them empty, then took the stairs at the end of the hall.

The stairwell groaned under our weight as we descended, the light from the windows above struggling to reach the basement. The deeper we went, the colder and heavier the air became. Kael was a wall of tension ahead of me, his shoulders stiff. Even Callista looked like she might jump out of her skin at the tiniest sound. At least they didn’t trust this place any more than I did.

As we reached the lower level, the scent of old blood hit me like a slap. It clung to the walls, thick and metallic. My wolf stirred uneasily, sensing the same thing I did. Kael stopped short before a rusted metal door, his jaw clenched tight. The hinges groaned as he pushed it open, revealing the dingy room beyond, and?—

The sight inside stopped me cold. Bars. Reinforced walls. A massive black wolf was curled in the corner of a makeshift cell, its fur coated in layers of filth and blood. His ribs made impressions through his fur, and dark stains streaked the floor where he’d tried—and failed—to escape.

“Is that—” I started to ask, then snapped my mouth shut when a low growl rumbled from the wolf’s throat, vibrating through the walls of the tiny cell.

I shuddered, my wolf baring her teeth. She knew that sound. This wolf was starving. Desperate. And dangerous.

Chapter

Four

Destin

Kael’s scent hit me first—familiar but distant, like something from another life. My wolf stirred, a flicker of recognition buried beneath the exhaustion and rage. But it wasn’t enough. The snarl slipped out before I could stop it, a low, guttural warning that rumbled through my chest. My jaws twitched, lips curling back over my teeth. He was too close. Too familiar. And right now, nothing familiar felt safe.

Kael took a slow step forward, his voice low and steady, like he was trying to coax a wounded animal. “It’s me, Destin. You’re safe now.”

Safe.The word meant nothing. Safe was a lie people told to make you drop your guard, and the wolf in me knew better than to fall for it. My glowing eyes locked on him, wild and full of warning. I hated the way he crouched in front of the bars, calm and patient, like he still believed I was something that could be reasoned with.

My muscles screamed as I pushed against the cold concrete, trying to lift myself. My paws scrabbled against the floor, useless and weak, my body too starved to obey me. I barely got my head an inch off the ground before it dropped back down, a growl of frustration rumbling deep in my throat. Every inch of me should’ve been aching. But I felt nothing.

Kael crouched closer, his gaze steady as if daring me to snap. His hand moved slowly, careful not to spook me, fingers brushing the lock on the door.

"Easy, Destin," he murmured, keeping his voice soft. It grated against my ears—too kind, too steady. He was treating me like something fragile. I wasn’t fragile. I was broken. There was a difference.

My wolf shifted restlessly inside me, torn between the instinct to lash out and the faint flicker of trust buried somewhere in my chest.Kael wasn’t the enemy. The truth floated, slipping through my thoughts before I could grasp it.

And then I caught the scent. Kael wasn’t the only shifter in the room. He’d brought another—his mate. I could smell their bond. And . . . there was one more. Her scent burned through me like whiskey.Where was she?I searched but couldn’t see her.

He was hiding her from me. I couldn’t trust what I was seeing. Kael wasn’t alone. They could say all the words they wanted, but words meant nothing. They hadn’t fed me, hadn’t helped me heal, they’d left me here to rot, and my body was still paying the price for it. The growl in my chest deepened.

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