Chapter 18: 18 Run

Max

Glenhaven’s invaders had rendered me unconscious, and I’d floated in blissful ignorance for an unknown period of time. Finally, I came out of the blackness to find myself chained to the wall of a cold, clinical cell with white walls and floors broken only by a door with a small barred window I could barely see out of, looking out into an equally stark hall.

My arms were already aching from the awkward position I was held in. I looked around groggily and saw I wasn’t alone. Brenda, one of Glenhaven’s best female fighters, and Porter, a monster of a wolf who was usually more of a builder than a destroyer, were chained in the other spots in the same cell.

Neither of them looked good, and I couldn’t feel either of them. I couldn’t feel anyone from my pack. I couldn’t see my mate.

But our connection remained, alive and well, the one comfort I had left in a situation far beyond my control.

“Lillian?”

“Max? Thank goodness, I didn’t know what happened to you. I could still feel you, but...” Her voice was weak in my mind with her relief.

“I’m so sorry, baby. I don’t know what happened. I just woke up... Maybe I was drugged?”

“Oh, Max.” It was obvious she had been crying from the fragile sound of her voice. I ached to hold her. I hated the shackles and walls that kept us apart.

“Where are you?”

“I’m in a cell with a bunch of our pack members.” She rattled off some names, including the beta’s daughter and Will’s sister. I was glad that she had survived after I saved her, although not that she was also here.

“Are you chained up?” I asked, worried.

“What? No. Are you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m here with Porter and Brenda. Do you know what’s happening?”

“We’re in the prison of that pack who attacked us. They brought us here after they rounded everyone up. The alpha took Kylie. I think...I think she’s his mate.”

That couldn’t be good for her. “Poor Kylie.”

“A lot of people are dead.” There was a tremor in her voice.

“I can’t feel anyone,” I said, unable to confirm who was living or dead.

“The pack link’s gone.”

She was right, but hearing made it feel real. I clenched my teeth at the memory of our alpha’s death. My wolf mourned his loss. And all the others, and the loss of the link. In a less catastrophic situation, the connection would have survived through the alpha’s closest heirs or other ranking wolves who would have taken the alpha’s place, but I could only assume we had lost too many for it to survive, leaving the survivors isolated. The desolation that must have occurred...

How did rogue wolves live like this? I’d never known what it was like to be without the bond connecting me to my people. There was a black hole in my mind where everyone used to be, questions about their fates that I had no answers to.

I wanted to know more about who was still alive, were my parents, my friends? More than that though, I didn’t want to upset my mate by asking if she knew, if she wasn’t already thinking about it. She needed me to be strong. ”We’re going to get out of here,” I promised, hoping I wasn’t lying to her.

“How? There’s no way out the door from the inside, and even if we got out of this prison, you remember how strong they were.”

“They’re not unbeatably strong, Lillian. The only reason they defeated us so easily is because they had surprise on their side.” If we’d had warning, we would have worked together and defeated our enemies. Glenhaven was not a weak pack, we’d been caught off guard. I didn’t know how they’d gotten so far into our territory before they had been detected, and I’d probably never find out. We had been defeated by the situation, because we had been wrong-footed and scattered in our response.

“I still can’t believe this happened to us.”

“Me neither, Lillian.”

“I miss you. I just want to be able to see you, to touch you. I need you, Max.”

“Me too, Lillian. Me too.”

—————

Our time in the cells was undefined under the unrelenting lights and constant monitoring, punctuated by wolfsbane to weaken us and torture designed to force us to give answers I doubted anyone had. It could have been days or weeks, but the span of time didn’t matter because my wolf remained desperate every moment to escape and find our way to Lillian.

Porter and Brenda spoke in hushed voices, and I mostly hung there, dreaming of having Lillian in my arms again while speaking to her through our connection. Between the surviving mate connections between cells, we became increasingly aware of just how great our losses had been. Nothing was confirmed, but I was fairly sure that both my parents were dead, along with several of my cousins. But without confirmation, I couldn’t even mourn properly.

The one bright spot was that Lillian’s sister and father had survived. Hannah had been caught much like my mate, and he had been knocked out early on and had survived the fight otherwise unharmed. Her mother hadn’t been so fortunate, and my arms ached to hold her while she cried out her grief. Instead, I was kept helpless, separated from her by the chains and walls of a tyrant.

There was nothing I could do but hope that my mate and my pack weren’t all going to share her mother’s fate.

—————

Time passed, and I was woken from my shallow dozing by the voice of my mate. Not too long ago I’d been dragged out of the cell and beaten while they demanded answers. When they were done, I’d been tossed to the floor and left there. My ribs still ached where they had been cracked, but I was healing enough to ignore them in spite of my increasing weakness.

They no longer kept me and the others shackled to the wall, but instead connected by a single chain, apparently considering us less threatening after a period of abuse and little food and water.

“What’s wrong, Lillian?”

“Max, they’re taking us from the cells.”

“Okay. Stay calm and tell me what’s happening.” I pushed myself up, even though there was nothing I could do.

“There’re lots of guards. Some of them have guns. And they’re chaining us together in the hallway. We’re being taken down it. I think we’re passing your cell, Max. I can smell you. And is that your blood I smell?” Her voice grew higher with her worry. In spite of the numbing effect of the wolfsbane, my wolf was frantic and I clawed at the floor with my human nails, wanting to get to her. I stood up, getting as close to the door as the chain would let me.

The hall echoed with footsteps, light sounds, and terse orders from guards. I tried to pick out Lillian from the small amount I could see, but she must have been blocked from my view. Once the sounds faded I sunk back onto the floor.

“I promise I’m okay. They roughed me up a bit, but it’s nothing my wolf can’t handle.” The only thing I could do was try to reassure her. It would do her no good to know exactly what had happened to me.

“We’re going up some stairs. There’s so many guards. And now we’re outside. Max, what do they want from us?”

“I don’t know, Lillian. Just stay calm and keep telling me what’s happening.”

“They’re not bringing you out?”

“Not that I know of. Don’t worry about me.”

I listened as she described the guards and the way the prisoners were secured to the edge of a raised platform, my stomach sick with helpless dread. Were they going to execute my mate, along with the remainder of my pack? If so, why not those who the alpha considered a threat? There’d been a marked difference in the way they had treated the captured who had fought back like me, versus those who had fled and hid, like my mate. I was grateful that she hadn’t tried to fight, because it would have been so much worse if they’d been torturing her.

But what if this was the beginning of these monsters hurting them?

“Max!? He’s letting us go.”

“He’s what?” I jolted upright. Porter and Brenda looked over at me, concerned.

“He said the non-combatants can either stay and join his pack or leave and never come back.”

“Is he serious?” I couldn’t believe it. What would possibly motivate him to release prisoners if he had considered our pack enough of a threat to take everyone in the first place? Even the non-combatants could cause him difficulty in the future, either by searching for help from other packs, or by trying to undermine him in the future.

“He says he’s doing it as a gesture for Kylie.”

Then was this the mate bond at work? Either way, if this were true, this was her best chance. I didn’t want her staying under that alpha’s power. The slaughter, aches from torture, and the blood and bruises on the others were testament to what sort of pack that alpha ran, what sort of man he was. It was a gamble to trust the enemy’s words, but there really was no better choice for her. “Leave, Lillian.”

“But where are you, Max?”

“I’m not a non-combatant. Don’t worry about me. I’ll find my way out later.” I didn’t know if it were possible, but nothing would stop me from trying.

“But Max!”

“Don’t stay here for me, Lillian. Run, and get somewhere safe.”

“But I can’t leave you.” Her voice was high and distressed and I just wanted to hold her one more time. But I could live on solely based on the fact that she was alive and away from this place.

“Yes, you can. Don’t stay here for me. Go with your father and sister and the others. Get somewhere safe. Do that for me.”

“But...” I didn’t need to see her to know she was crying.

“Get somewhere safe, and I’ll find you when I get out.” If I got out. “Go!”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too. Now go!”

There was silence between us, and I could only hope that Lillian had made it off the territory. It almost surprised me when I heard her voice again, calling my name, but faint.

“Max?”

“You’re not gone?”

“I’m with Dad and Hannah. We’re outside the border and running. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to talk to you.”

The relief that filled me was undeniable. Not being able to speak to her much longer barely registered, because at least she was safe, or at least safer. “Good. Now, keep going.”

“But—”

“Lillian, just get somewhere safe. And I swear I will find you.”

Her voice was choked with emotion and quieter than usual in my mind due to the increased distance. “You’d better not let anything happen to you before I see you again.”

“I won’t. I love you. Stay safe.”

Only silence answered my words.