I stopped with my back against the wall and craned my neck, so I could see around the corner. The hallway was as dark as the one I had just tiptoed through, however, my werewolf senses still allowed me to make sure the coast was clear.
"What are you doing?"
The female whisper had me spinning around and wrapping my hand around her neck. It took my sharp senses two further seconds to recognize the female now digging her nails into my wrist. In an instant I let go, which allowed her to take a safe step backwards. Loud coughs squeezed through her throat, while I stared at her with wide open eyes.
Did you... Edria was just as speechless as I was.
With her hands protectively around her throat stood the Luna Queen, who was still struggling to catch her breath.
I just choked the Luna Queen.
"Spirit, you werewolves are strong." She rubbed her hand against her throat.
"I... I'm so sorry, Luna Queen. I didn't hear you sneak up on me. And because I'm a warrior I'm trained to always expect an ambush."
"Forget it." She swatted my apology away and straightened back into her full height. "I should have known better than to sneak up on a sneaking werewolf. Which brings me back to my question. What are you doing here?"
We can't lie to her. She's our Luna Queen, Edria said before I could even open my mouth.
But we can't tell her the truth either.
"You're the Alpha's mate, aren't you?" The Luna Queen continued before Edria and I could make a decision. "The one who's been locked up."
"Yes." I nodded despite Edria's warning. "But he's innocent. I know it. He would never work with hunters."
"You're on your way to him right now, aren't you?"
"Yes. I know it's wrong, but I need to see him. I can't stand him being down there on his own."
"I heard Theo and Yasin talk about some kind of plan." She shook her head. "I think locking up your mate was a part of their plan, and that your mate is in on it too. I also think they're trying to lure someone else out."
Both Edria and I were left speechless staring at our Luna Queen, who glanced up and down the hallway and then back at us.
"I'll pretend I never saw you here tonight, but you need to promise to be careful. And not to cause too much trouble."
"I promise." I agreed without hesitation, while feeling like my eyes were about to pop out of my head.
Our Luna Queen is so cool, Edria breathed out.
"Thank you, Luna Queen. I'll be forever in your debt."
"That's not necessary. I'll be on my way now, so good luck."
With one last wave she slipped down the hallway into the opposite direction from where I was going. She melted with the shadows and a moment later vanished out of my sight.
Wait. Why is the Luna Queen sneaking around the castle? Edria asked.
Should we follow her?
No, we need to focus on Hunter. We don't know how much time we have left.
Edria was, of course, right. Right now Sasha was still peacefully asleep in our bedroom, but we had no way of knowing how long that would last.
I craned my neck back around the corner and once again checked that the coast was clear. Then I dashed down the hallway.
I reached the staircase leading into the underground floor in record time. While the stairs had looked shadow-covered during the day, they were now wrapped in a thick darkness. Even with my heightened werewolf senses I could barely make out the shapes of the individual stairs.
"I knew you'd be back."
I once again froze with my foot on the first stair, however, this time I didn't lunge for the newcomer's throat. Down the hallway tip-toed Elena, who then stopped a step away from me. She crossed her thin arms in front of her chest and looked me straight into the eyes.
It's her you should have choked and not the Luna Queen, Edria muttered.
"You haven't changed," Elena said.
While I knew I could easily take her on, I also knew she could just as easily mind-link her Beta mate, or, Moon Goddess forbid, even the Alpha King. I couldn't risk either of that happening.
"Maybe I haven't changed, but I hope you have. Or are you here to stop me? To wedge yourself between me and my mate?"
She was unable to hide the wince my words caused her, which in return had my stomach sinking an inch lower. This wasn't me. I hated being this cruel to anyone, even someone like her.
"I'm not here to stop you. I'm here to help."
Ha! Edria snorted.
"You can think of me what you want," for a second the determined glint in her eyes reminded me of the Elena I had grown up with, "but I'm not letting you go down there on your own. Even a strong warrior like you needs someone to watch your back."
She really thinks we'd be stupid enough to have her watch our back? Edria snorted.
I think we should let her come with us, I said.
Have you lost your mind? She tried to get rid of Naia.
I know. But right now she can help us get to our mate and free him. Like it or not, we need her.
"Okay." I took Edria's stubborn silence as an agreement. "But if you try to stop me or get in my way, I won't hold Edria back from killing you. She still wants your blood for what you did to Naia."
"Fair enough."
With Elena right behind me we tiptoed our way down the stairs. Halfway down, a scraping noise swooshed into my ears. I stopped and forced Elena to do the same. The scraping was the sound of a key being inserted inside a lock and then turned.
Elena and I locked eyes, and without any words necessary we nodded in agreement. We tiptoed down the rest of the staircase and stopped at the last two stairs. That way we still remained hidden in the shadows, while also having a perfect view of the elongated room.
A she-wolf with platinum blonde hair pulled the seventh barred door on the right open and disappeared into the cell. She came back out a moment later, however, this time she wasn't alone. She had a middle-aged she-wolf leaning on her shoulder, and I noticed that something was off about the older werewolf. Her entire body was shaking like a raging warrior just before she would shift.
The blonde she-wolf guided her to the nearest wall and then helped her sit down onto the cold floor. As she straightened back up, the older she-wolf latched onto her hand.
"I need my drink."
"Seriously?" The blonde tore her arm out of her hold. "I just freed you, Mom. Is your drink really all you can think about?"
"I know you have it with you, Krystal." The older one reached for her daughter again, but the said girl backed off another step.
The blonde she-wolfâKrystalâmoved to the barred door two cells closer to the staircase, and unlocked this one as well. This time, however, she didn't enter the cell. She opened the door and then moved a couple of steps away.
Out of the cell walked a young human, with dirty dark hair clinging to her scalp. She was the girl I had locked eyes with while Ren had been dragging me away from Hunter. The girl with the empty eyes.
"Took you long enough."
The moment her voice flooded my ears, my head snapped in Elena's direction. We locked eyes and in an instant I knew we had both recognized the human girl.
Aiko.
Almost hesitantly I moved my eyes back to Naia's younger sister. While I knew that she had been brought to Silver Moon for her punishment, I had never expected her to still be alive.
We need to tell Dyson that she's here, Edria urged me.
Without tearing my eyes off the human who had almost killed my Luna, I reached for the pack mind-link. Yet as seconds passed and I wasn't able to grasp a single connection, my hair prickled in alertness. Something wasn't right.
"Can you mind-link your mate?" I whispered to Elena, while keeping my eyes on the three females still standing in the middle of the long cell-covered room.
"No, she can't."
The male voice caused my stomach to squeeze into a tight ball, while I slowly turned. Elena was still standing a step behind me, but now she also had the tip of a sharp knife pressed against her throat and a large male plastered to her back.
Despite having met him only once, I instantly recognized him. Alpha Brie, of Yellow Moon. The Alpha who had sat across the table from me during the meeting.
Molly, Edria hissed. His scent.
In an instant I gathered what Edria was so repulsed by. The Alpha behind Elena didn't carry a single trace of a scent; the same state Naia had been in when I had first met her.
"Move," Alpha Brie barked.
I took one glance at Elena's wide open eyes and sank down from the last stair. The moment I stepped into the light of the hallway, the three women snapped their heads in my direction.
"What's going on?" Krystal hissed, while her eyes scanned over Elena and me.
"The two were spying on you," Alpha Brie said. "I told you to be more careful, sweetheart."
While I knew the three werewolves presented the bigger threat right now, I couldn't keep my eyes away from Aiko. Her empty eyes were staring right back at me, however, there wasn't a single flicker of recognition in them.
"Who are they?" Krystal narrowed her eyes at us.
"I think this one," Alpha Brie nodded in my direction, "is Tate's mate. She's alsoâ"
"Kill them," Krystal ordered. "I don't care who they are. We need to get rid of them."
"Sweetheart, I don't think that would be the wisest idea."
"I'd listen to him, if I were you."
One moment Hunter's cold words sent a shiver up my arms and in the next he was standing right behind Krystal. He wrapped his elongated claws around her neck and pressed the sharp point against her skin. His midnight black eyes met mine and I swore, I could almost feel the anger bubbling inside him.
"Let them go or I'll kill your Luna."
The explosion of rage I expected from Alpha Brie never happened because the moment Hunter said his threat the other Alpha burst into a booming fit of laughter.
"You think I came alone?"
Before any of us could react, I felt the tip of something cold press against my lower back. My entire body stiffened, and I had to fight my own instincts to prevent myself from moving. Without looking, I knew what the metallic weapon I was being threatened with was.
I can't believe you once thought guns were interesting, Edria shook her head at me.
You're complaining about that right now? Are you forgetting that with one squeeze we're both dead?
Hunter's frozen expression from across the room, told me my guess was right. The weapon I was being threatened with was a gun, which would in return make the person holding the gun a human.
"You okay, Kimura?" A male voice asked from behind my back.
I shuddered in disgust because of two facts. One, because I forgot that Aiko still shared the same last name as Naia, and second, because I couldn't catch a single whiff of a scent coming from the hunter standing behind me. Another person whose scent had been removed.
Aiko glanced in the direction where I assumed the man behind me was standing and nodded, but she never uttered a single sound.
"Now, that we're all here, what shall we do with these three?" Alpha Brie glanced between Elena, Hunter and me.
"Kill them."
This time the order didn't come from the blonde she-wolf. It slipped out of a different female mouth and with a much colder tone.
Aiko.
***
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- E