Page 39 of Her Reborn Mate

“Will’s going to come to find me, you know,” she said. “He’s probably here.”

“I’d like to see him try. He can’t find us. No one can. I made sure to—” Before Maurice could say something else, I stepped behind him.

“You made sure to place warding runes on the walls,” I said. It gave me immense pleasure to see the look of sheer terror on his face as he turned around to face me. He was a quivering mess of a man as he realized that his plan had been foiled yet another time, possibly for the last time.

“How the fuck are you here?” Maurice gasped.

“Well, I could say that you did a hell of a sloppy job with the runes, leaving them all over the place for anyone with two brain cells to pick up their track. Or I could say something far more fitting. It’s the end of the road for you. Your retribution stares at you. Death is at your doorstep, you son of a fucking bitch,” I said, and before he could respond, I grabbed him by the neck and threw him against the bars of Alexis’s prison.

He clanged so hard against the iron door that the door swung open inwards. Maurice’s blood splattered the cave floor as he lay there unconscious, unmoving.

I stepped inside the prison and came face to face with Alexis, who looked like she had been severely beaten up.

“You came,” she said, slowly approaching me, her face pulled back in surprise and relief. She placed her hands on my shoulders and pulled me closer. “All this time, I thought I was hallucinating. I didn’t think you’d come for real.”

“When it concerns you, I will cross the threshold of life and death if it meant getting close to you,” I said, holding her by the small of her back and bringing her body against mine.

Instead of saying anything, Alexis, buried her face in my chest, breathing deeply. I hugged her fiercely, feeling relief course through my body as her body came into such close proximity to mine. It felt right and long overdue. But this was not the right time for a reunion.

Not while Maurice still drew breath.

As I let go of her, I saw that Maurice had somehow gotten up and escaped, leaving both of us trapped inside the prison.

“Isn’t that just wonderful?” he said, gleaming from the other side. “I catch the bitch, and the dog follows soon after, doesn’t he?”

“You have an awfully big mouth for someone who has lost everything,” I said calmly, knowing that there was nowhere for Maurice to escape and that the prison he had seemingly captured us in was nothing in the wake of my newfound strength.

“The two of you robbed me of everything. Allow me to repay the favor,” Maurice said, taking out a pistol from behind.

“I’d much rather you paid attention to your head,” I said, retaining my calmness. There was no way he was going to hurt Alexis or me. Not now. Not when fate had deigned us to come together again. “You’re bleeding like a faucet.”

“Enough!” Maurice yelled and pulled the trigger.

I preemptively grabbed Alexis and ducked, not knowing where the bullets would land.

Chapter 17: Alexis

I yelled in shock when Maurice pulled the trigger, but Will held me and ducked sideways.

“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice tranquil, his face the epitome of peacefulness.

“I am, but in case you didn’t notice, Will, we’re fucking trapped,” I said helplessly as I watched Maurice fiddle with his pistol and aim at us again.

“No, we’re not,” Will said, and before we could discuss a plan of action, he shifted into his new form and turned into a wolf that loomed so large that his presence filled the entire cave. With one single powerful tackle, he brought down the iron bars, clearing the way for us.

I’m going to get even with Maurice,he said, racing after Maurice, who had ditched his pistol and had decided to run away for dear life.

I’ll blow this place up to kingdom come,I said.No one’s ever going to smuggle so much as a drop of blood out of Fiddler’s Green ever again.

Good girl,Will said approvingly before breaking into a run and disappearing around the corner. As I looked, I saw the flash of gunshots come from around the corner, followed by the resounding bang that rang across the caves. I was not worried for Will. His new form was powerful enough to withstand close-range gunshots. I was worried about myself. Amid the excitement that had ensued after Will’s sudden appearance, I had forgotten how deplorable my condition was—I was dirty, starved, thirsty, and on the brink of passing out. On top of all that, I had overcommitted by saying that I’d destroy this entire lair.

How would I go about doing that?

I struggled out of the cave and came into the clearing of the central tunnel where Will and Maurice, both of them in their wolf forms, were engaged in a pretty one-sided battle. Will thrashed the hell out of Maurice, threw him around the tunnel, and mauled him brutally every chance he got. Maurice whimpered, howled, and reeled away, trying to escape but failing to. Whenever he attempted to slide away, Will latched on to him and flung him across the tunnel.

I had bigger fish to fry than being a spectator in this battle. The caves had to be brought down upon each other. It was a good thing they were connected; otherwise, bringing down this network would require more explosives than I’d be able to procure. Even now, with what little consciousness I had left in my body, I had to sift through all the hundreds of boxes and find out where, if at all, Maurice had kept the firepower.

I needed dynamite, and I doubted if Maurice had a crate of dynamite just idly lying about. As callous as he had become, he wasn’t going to be so careless as to just leave explosives in a series of dangerous caves. I needed something else. Anything that would help me blow this place up.

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