Page 9 of Wolf Bound

Talia

The look Penn gave me will be etched into my mind for the rest of my miserable life. The pain that crossed his face physically hurt me like a knife in my gut. I know it's because he thinks I don't want him, which couldn't be further from the truth. The moment he opened his eyes, it was like part of me clicked into place. The loneliness that's plagued me for as long as I can remember, disappeared.

My heart and my soul already belong to this shifter I don't know. It's why my head is making me push the brakes. If any of the Croisés find out we're not just compatible, but actually fated mates, there's nothing in the world I could do to save either of us from their monstrous plans.

"It's not--" I start and stop for the hundredth time since I blurted out that I couldn't be his mate.

Penn looks at me from the ground in his cell, his light blue eyes so soft yet sad. Every part of me wants to break down the cells we're trapped in, save us from this nightmare, and then spend the rest of my life loving this beautiful man. That version of me is a badass shifter, one who isn't scared all the time or hides in the confines of her mind to survive. She's the version that deserves to have a mate. Not me.

"What is it, beautiful?" He pushes himself up, stepping up to the bars that separate us. My body gets pulled forward, my feet moving of their own accord. There's already such a pull to this man and it's only been a day since he was thrown in here with me. Penn is staring at me, concern making all the pain disappear from his face. "Hey, you okay?"

"No," I answer him honestly for the first time since I was a naive young child. "I don't know how to say what I mean to say. I don't know what eyes and ears they have down here, even after twenty four years. I just--"

My breathing accelerates as tears fall from my eyes suddenly. For so long I've held back so much of my emotions, always afraid of the consequences that come when I show weakness. With Penn here, it seems I'm incapable of doing that anymore. He's opened something inside of me that this prison made me shut away for so long. Penn grips the bars, his knuckles turning white as he pushes himself against the bars.

"Please, talk to me. I know you don't want me as a mate, but that's what we've been fated to be. Your tears are making me go crazy because I can't get to you. Please, talk to me," Penn pleads, his own blue eyes going glassy with unshed tears.

"I do want to be your mate," I confess, barely able to see the relief on his face as the tears keep pouring out. "The moment you were thrown into that cell, I felt something awaken in me.I healed you even when I knew I needed to be careful, because seeing you beaten up was more than I could take. But, Ican'tbe your mate. I can't be the strong, badass mate you need me to be. I've been trapped in this prison from the moment I was born. Twenty four years here, and I have yet to find a way out.”

“Baby girl,” he whispers, holding his hands out through the bars with a soft smile. “You’re stronger than anyone I’ve ever met. You’ve survived in this place for your entire life. You’ve been fighting this terrible, uneven battle for twenty four years all alone. You’re not alone anymore, though. As your mate, I will get you out of this place. You have four more mates waiting outside these walls that are probably already on their way here.”

My breath catches in my throat, his last statement confusing me and making a panicky flutter start up in my chest. “What?”

“When I first saw you, I saidit’s youbecause I’ve already seen you a million times in my head before coming here. The pack I come from is more — how do I put this? Talented?” Penn pauses, tipping his head back and forth in thought. “We’ll go with talented. We have magic that most other packs don’t. I have visions of the future, sometimes of the past but not often. I’ve seen you with me, with the others, on our pack lands. You’re free and beautiful, completely in your element.”

“I’m free?” I whisper, tears pouring down my cheeks at this point. The idea of freedom so foreign to me, yet it’s everything I’ve ever wanted. “You really mean it? I’m going to be free?”

“I mean it.” Penn pulls me forward by my hands resting in his. “Don’t cry, baby girl. I’ll burn this whole fucking place to the ground to get you out. You’re mine,” he declares, a possessive tone in his voice that sends shivers down my spine. “And they’re done fucking with what’s mine.”

Every part of my body comes alive at his words. Every year I get older in this place, my hope of escape has dwindled more and more. It’s never been far from my mind that there was no onecoming to save me because no one even knew I existed in this prison. If I was going to be saved, I had to do it myself, and I’m not strong enough to do that.

Now, there’s Penn. He brought me hope and a mate bond that I never believed would happen. If he’s right, and I have no reason to doubt he’s not, then I have four more mates outside this prison. For the first time since I was a child dreaming about knights in shining armour coming to save me, I feel a sense of optimism when I see my future.

Without thinking, I step towards Penn, desperate to close the space between us and feel safe in his arms. The bars come into my vision a split second before I realise what I’m doing. Before I can walk face first into them, my magic shimmers over my skin, making me almost ethereal as I step through the bars.

“Holy shit,” Penn gasps, his face alight with awe. “How did you do that?”

“I — I don’t know,” I stutter, looking at my hands and body in astonishment as my magic recedes back inside of me. “I’ve never done that before. I don’t even know how I did that to begin with. There was just a deep seated need to be close to you and I didn’t think. I just walked towards you.”

“Fuck,” he breathes out, rubbing his scruffy jaw as a smile crookedly tips up the corners of his mouth. “You’re incredible. What are you?”

Shuffling my feet back and forth, I glance down the hallway, checking that we’re actually alone. The Croisés know what I am, so checking is almost pointless, but I’ve been so careful not to speak a word in front of them, or to them, for years and I don’t want to break that.

Again.

My mouth opens to speak as a sudden heavy metal screech fills the space, the sound piercing my ears with so much intensity I can’t even scream. Dropping to my knees with my handspressing tightly on my ears, I barely make out the shape of Penn in the exact same position as I am.

It feels like the sound is digging into my brain with razor sharp claws. Each new wave hurts more than the last, until all I know is pain and screeching. When it finally relents, I collapse to the cold hard ground, my breathing deep and ragged as I struggle to come down from the anguish of whatever the hell that was.

That form of torture is new, they’ve never used this screeching sound of death to torment me before. Blinking open my watery, blurry eyes, I search for Penn and find him not far from my face with blood dripping down his cheek from his ear. Without thinking I reach out, my magic already releasing towards him to heal my mate.

The sound of multiple footsteps coming down the hallway towards us barely registers in my mind. Part of me knows that I need to pull back and hide all that I can do. A bigger, louder part of me doesn’t care if they see anymore. With Penn here and four more mates outside of this prison, what does it matter if they know the extent of my magic? I’m currently in his cell with him because I walked through solid matter. At this point I don’t even know the extent of what I can do, but I do know that I can help my mate and that’s all I care about.

“Doesn’t this just look so cozy?” A feminine voice murmurs followed by a hard laugh. “It seems little Talia is growing more into her powers.”

Moving my head, I look towards the voice, shocked to see a middle aged woman I vaguely recognize standing beside the head of the Croisés laboratory, Mr. Arthur Beaumont. He stares down at us, an evil smirk sitting on his face. There’s triumph in his eyes that strikes fear deep into my soul. If he’s happy, we’re in deep shit.

“It seems you were correct in your research, Ms. Hartfield,” Mr. Beaumont praises as he lifts the keys to the lock on Penn’scell. “The Forntida Pack was the correct wolf pack to target. It seems Talia has taken a great liking to him. One would even say it’s as if they’re mates.”

---