Page 42 of His Claim
The woman tilted her chin slightly, eyes narrowing as though in approval. The brothers exchanged a glance and gave quick nods. Joren just gave me a quick wink as his lips lifted up into a smile.
Varek’s commanding voice cut through the moment. “You’ve done your job. Now get back to your posts before Maelor starts sniffing around for you. We can’t afford to show our hand yet.”
Rafe frowned, his jaw tight. “Sir, with respect, after what happened here, there’ll be whispers no matter what we do.”
“Then keep them pointed in the right direction,” Varek snapped, though not unkindly. “You’re my eyes now. My ears. You hear talk, you bring it to me. But youstay alive, and you stay invisible.”
The brothers nodded in unison. Brenna gave a sly smile, already fading back like she’d never been there. Joren lingered a beat longer, his gaze flicking from me back to Varek.
“You’ll need to move fast,” he said. “If Maelor smells blood, he’ll track it.”
Varek’s jaw tightened. “I know.”
Then Joren clapped his shoulder and melted back into the hall with the others. In another heartbeat, they were gone, the sound of their boots swallowed by the sterile corridors.
It was just us again.
Varek leaned heavily against me, his blood warm on my skin. He bent close, his breath hot on my ear. “We have to move. I know a way out. Old mine shafts below the base. The wolves built over them and forgot they ever existed.”
I gulped, my chest still aching from the shift, my legs trembling, but I nodded. “Then let’s go.”
CHAPTER 10
Varek
We needed to get out. Now.
I half-dragged, half-guided my mate down the service hall, the smell of disinfectant and blood mixing thick in the air.
At the end of the corridor, an old equipment locker leaned against the wall, its hinges rusted, paint flaking. I shoved it aside with a grunt, metal screeching as it scraped across the tile. Behind it, the panel in the floor waited, the steel lip faint under the glow of the emergency lights.
Mariah blinked at it, dazed. “That’s… an exit?”
I ignored my injuries to the best of my ability and crouched down, fingers hooking under the edge. My claws punched through the seam, and with a screech of metal on concrete, I heaved the hatch open. A breath of cold, damp air rose from the darkness below, carrying the cool bite of earth, coal dust, and old stone.
“It’s the way out,” I told her. “There’re forgotten tunnels down here. Coal mines from before the Collapse. The wolves built over them and never bothered to seal them off.”
She peered into the black. “It looks like a grave.”
“Better a grave we choose,” I replied, “than one they put us in.”
I dropped down first. My leg screamed as my boots hit packed earth, the sound muffled by layers of dust and grit. The tunnel stretched before me, low and jagged, timber beams bracing the walls, their wood dark with age and damp. I could see the grooves where carts had once rolled, could smell the ghosts of fires long since burned out.
I looked up, offering a hand. “Come.”
She hesitated, then slid into the dark. I caught her easily, setting her on her feet. She clutched her arms around her waist, her bare legs streaked with blood and grime.
“Stay close,” I told her. “You don’t know these tunnels, but I do.”
She nodded, her green eyes wide in the dim glow of the emergency light spilling through the open hatch.
I pulled the hatch shut above us. The clang echoed, sealing us in. The darkness swallowed everything, heavy and absolute. Only the faint glimmer of my wolf eyes and the pounding of our hearts remained.
I grabbed a lantern I’d stored by the entrance, lit it with a match, and then we moved.
The tunnel stretched on. Drips of water pattered from the ceiling, echoing like distant footsteps. The floor sloped unevenly, gravel crunching under each step.
Mariah stumbled once, catching herself against the wall. Her hand came away black with coal dust.
