Chapter 26: Chapter Twenty-Five

SAVANNAH

I woke with a start, unsure of what had roused me. Perhaps it was the foul odor permeating the room, or the cold dampness of the floor beneath me. Either way, I was awake.

I pressed my fingertips against the chilly, wet concrete, pushing myself up to my knees. I groped around in the dark, damp room, searching for a wall.

A sliver of light slipped in from under a door in the far left corner, but aside from that, the room seemed empty.

It took longer than I would have liked for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. When they finally did, I noticed a shadow huddled in the opposite corner of the room.

Judging by the length of the hair obscuring her face and her petite frame, I assumed it was a girl.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

She shifted slightly, one eye peeking out from the curtain of her hair as she stared at me, but she didn’t respond.

“Do you need help?” I asked, unsure of what I could do, but offering nonetheless.

As I moved to step closer to her, a rattling sound sent a shiver down my spine. Glancing down, I realized chains were clamped around my ankles, anchoring me to the floor.

“Oh God,” I whispered. I remembered everything that happened at the Legion Pack, but after the lycan carried me off, my memory was a blank.

I slid down against the wall, racking my brain for any clues of what happened after I fainted. Had I just now woken up? I assumed I was being held captive, but I didn’t know what they planned to do with me.

The one lycan had noticed my eyes changing colors, which meant he’d likely told the others. Fear clawed its way up my throat. “How long have you been in here?” I asked.

Silence.

I stood up, tugging at the chains around my ankles, but they didn’t budge. I felt like a trapped animal, desperate to escape. I wanted Daxton. Would he come for me?

~“Of course mate will come for you,”~ my wolf said.

My patience with my wolf was wearing thin, and I tasted blood in my mouth from biting down on my tongue so hard.

~“Why can’t you shift?”~ I asked. ~“If we could have shifted back at the pack house, we wouldn’t be here.”~

~“I tried my hardest,”~ she said. ~“I don’t know why I can’t. It’s your fault.”~

I buried my head in my knees, taking deep breaths to calm myself. I shifted slightly, feeling something poke me in the side.

Carefully, I searched my torn jeans and found my mother’s diary entries folded and tucked deep into my pocket.

A wave of sadness washed over me. I couldn’t read them in the dark, and it brought back all the despair that Amber had shared with me before the attack.

I hadn’t even had time to process that my own father was a lycan. Lycan blood ran through my veins.

And yet, I couldn’t shift into either. I glanced over at the girl in the corner of the room again. She’d started to shiver. “Are you okay?”

She turned her back to me and shook her head.

~Well, that’s something.~ “What’s your name?”

“I don’t have one,” she whispered.

~No name?~ “Because you can’t remember or because you don’t have one?”

“Don’t have one.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Always.”

~Always?~ She’d been born here? A knot of despair began to form in my throat. It felt like it could choke me at any moment. I had to get out of here, ~we~ had to get out of here.

The sound of footsteps approaching the door drew my attention. I was afraid to find out who was on the other side, and what they had planned for me.

The girl in the corner curled into an even tighter ball, burying her head in her knees, and began to whimper.

That didn’t bode well.

Keys jingled, indicating that they had chained us and locked the door. It swung open a few moments later. The sudden light blinded me, so I shut my eyes tightly and hid my face in my knees.

A soft chuckle reached my ears, making the hair on my arms stand on end. “Look who’s up. ~Little Ms. Lycan Werewolf~ in the flesh.”

The voice sounded like the dark-haired lycan from the attack, and when I glanced up, I saw the blond-haired lycan standing at the door.

“I bet you think you’re special,” he said, bending down to run his fingers over the top of my hair.

I slapped his hand away, which only made him laugh. “He said not to touch her,” the blond said. “Stop screwing around and bring her upstairs.”

I barely had time to wonder who the ~he~ was he was referring to before the lycan unlocked my chains and hauled me up by my upper arms.

My legs were numb and cold, but the lycan didn’t care. He dragged me out of the dungeon. My gaze shifted to the girl in the corner, and I caught a glimpse of the lifeless look in her eyes in the sunlight before the door shut.

The grim appearance of the walls and floors changed as he carried me up the stairs and into what looked like a castle. It felt out of place considering my image and knowledge of lycans.

But then they did call him the lycan king.

The rooms were devoid of people, but the tiled floors and walls sparkled as if someone had polished them meticulously.

I was led into a large room with checkered floors, expensive art, and a solitary throne at the end of a daunting walkway.

In the high-backed chair, a man sat, legs spread wide, his hands resting on the oversized armrests and his head tilted upward. The power that radiated off him made my wolf bow, and I didn’t understand why.

We were werewolves, we didn’t bow to a lycan. But then it hit me. I wasn’t just a werewolf, was I?

His blond hair was slicked back, revealing warm brown eyes, as the lycan dropped me in front of the stairs that led to his throne.

My heart hammered against my ribs as I stared at the stairs, his polished shoes coming into view before I felt his rough hand grip my upper arm, pulling me up with ease.

His deep brown eyes studied my face, his strong jaw set tight. His gaze dropped to the mark on my neck, and a hint of a smile played at his lips.

When he shifted his gaze back to mine, a realization struck me. There was a resemblance between him and the other blond lycan. And… it stirred something in the back of my mind.

“Savannah Harper,” he said, his voice deep and smooth. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Hansel Withers, and I’m the lycan king here. I’ve been waiting for this moment for years.”

~Years?~ How long had he known about me? There were so many questions I wanted to ask him, but I kept my mouth shut, fear settling like a stone in my stomach.

And judging by the way everyone stood silent, not a hair out of place, I felt I needed to follow their lead.

“Aren’t you going to speak to me?” he asked, his voice calm. His demeanor sent a chill down my spine.

He seemed too calm. Like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment.

“How do you know who I am?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Hansel tilted his head slightly, letting his gaze roam over me from head to toe. “I’ve known about you since I was a boy.

My family told me you’d be my queen one day, and I’ve waited patiently for you to come of age and attend Werewolf University to find your mate. Now, here you are,” he said, his thumb brushing against my lip.

On reflex, I stepped back, fighting the urge to slap him, but caught myself just in time. Hansel chuckled. “I suspected as much. You’re fiery and you don’t know me, but you will soon enough,” he said.

“So,” he cleared his throat. “I’ve had a suite prepared for you, I hope it’s to your liking. I based it on what my cousin told me about you.”

~His cousin.~ I stared at him, trying to understand who could possibly know anything about me, because the only lycans I’d ever been in contact with were here.

“I don’t understand,” I said. “Who is your cousin?”

Hansel gestured to someone behind me, a woman, who stretched out my arms and began measuring me. “That’s right,” he chuckled. “He hasn’t said anything to you, has he?”

Hansel walked back over to his throne, crossing his ankle over his knee, watching me through half-closed eyes. “I had my cousin keep an eye on you growing up, to keep anyone away who wasn’t part of the plan.”

~Oh my God~ …

My stomach lurched, and the remains of my meal from the coronation spilled from my mouth.

The maid gasped, hurrying to clean it up, while I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. That’s why they looked so familiar to me, they were related to Trent.”

“Trent is your family? He is a lycan?”

Hansel shook his head. “No, he is not. That branch of the family tree didn’t inherit the gene like us, but once we introduced him to our roots, and our plan, he was more than willing to help.”

He laughed, a sound almost melodic. “I can see why. You’re beautiful.”

My mind raced, my fingers dug into the floor beneath me, and the hairs on my body stood on end. Trent had been pretending with me for years. The times we spent together, the kisses…

He was my first, and I gave that to him! He even pretended to care that I was with Daxton. Was that part of the plan, too?

“Why would you let me find my mate first and then rip him from me? Was this part of your cruel game?”

“Savannah,” Hansel said. “Lycans do not share their mates with others willingly…”

“I’m not your mate!” I screamed, unable to hold back. The sound of my voice echoed against the high vaulted ceilings.

The maid cleaning up the floor glanced up at me and shook her head slightly, a silent warning.

Hansel rose from his throne, shoved his hands into his pockets, and fixed me with a stare colder than ice. “Let this be your warning, Savannah Harper. No one talks to me like that or raises their voice at me. Do you understand?”

When I didn’t respond, he smirked.

“Tomorrow we will welcome you into our pack, I will mark you, and you will shift. From there… I’ll have a lycan-werewolf hybrid, and you’ll be mine.”

The woman in front of me tugged me toward the doors, but I didn’t look away from Hansel as I was led out of the room.

The lycans around me gave me wary glances, clearly uncomfortable with my defiance, but I wasn’t going to back down.

I would not be marked by this lycan, and I was not going to be his queen. Daxton was my mate, and he would be… until death do us part.

And the only death I planned in the future was the lycan staring at me with icy brown eyes.