She reached through the bars to touch him again, willing him to get stronger. She could smell dried blood, which brought some relief to her troubled mind. He'd stopped bleeding since they brought him in. He'd started to heal.
'How did you get caught?' she asked as a Hunter opened the broken door.
She hadn't even tried to walk out of the cage. She hadn't thought of anything but the feast they brought her.
Her shame returned in full force.
"Have you finished eating? Your room is ready," the Hunter said, standing aside.
And the hatred in the warehouse increased.
This was the Commander's doing. Turning her people against her. Using her in his sick plan.
Her first clenched.
If he wanted to play this game, then so be it. She was done. Whether her wolf was meant to save anyone or not, whether Diedre was right or not, she was done.
The Commander would die by her hand.
"Yes, I'm finished," she answered calmly. "I'm ready."
She looked up, met Gavin's gaze through the bars, and finally looked at Faith. Her cuts and bruises would not heal as long as the Hunters kept her caged.
'Don't worry about me,' she said. 'Be strong just a little while longer.'
Faith's eyes widened.
'What will you do?'
'What I must.'
She slid out of her cage on her own. Once again, there was only one Hunter to escort her. The Commander presumed that was all he needed to do to break her. That was fine. She would let him.
Until the last moment.
Until the light died in his eyes as he lay at her feet.
There was no other way out of this for either of them. Fate would decide how everyone would tell her story.
"The Commander wants you to rest well. You'll be busy in the morning," the Hunter said as the door to the warehouse was opened from the outside.
There were armed Hunters lined up along the wall. The bigger ones, like the one she bit. Like the ones that guarded the restricted area. The Commander just put on a show for the wolves, but the message he sent with the force of his guards was clear.
If she made one wrong move, it would be over.
But it was over anyway. The Commander just didn't know it yet.
Chapter 52
The full moon was high and the night was almost over. He could feel the wolves near him itching to run and follow their nature, but everyone stayed still. Everyone waited.
Hunters had been driving into the base throughout the night. The car park was almost full like those fuckers were having a party while his mate was imprisoned inside their walls.
He had never seen so many Hunters in one spot, not even when a hunting party chased them through the forest, and they were still coming. There was no doubt that whatever they were doing involved all the wolves they took.
Soft footsteps behind him didn’t take his attention away from the gate. One chance. That was all he needed to get into the fortress the Hunters built for themselves. He wasn’t about to let anyone distract him from waiting for it.
‘I think you should rest while we wait,’ Dylan said in the mindlink.