Confrontation

LAKE

My hands burn as my eyes focus on the room around me. Bars made of silver surround me.

I find my feet barely touching the floor, and my hands are chained to the cell’s ceiling. My jeans and sweater have been replaced by a cheap shirt that doesn’t even cover my underwear.

I struggle against the chains as they burn my wrists and hands. I whimper as the crystal from Oliver burns a bright red. Derrick isn’t near.

“Well, look what we have here.”

I raise my eyes to see Lucas sitting backward in a chair just outside the bars. Lynne growls furiously in my mind; she knows he did this in order to subdue her for longer.

“The gorgeous Lake is hanging deliciously right in front of me.” He snaps his fingers, and I fall to the ground.

My body slams against the hard dirt floor. I gasp and cough as my lungs release the air I had already been struggling to breathe.

The cell door opens and Lucas enters. He kneels over my form and scoffs. I can see the side of his neck where Delilah marked him. My eyes widen.

“What did you do to Delilah?” Lucas’s neck is scarred drastically where his mate’s mark is supposed to be. That can only mean…

“She’s dead,” Lucas says coldly. “She wasn’t fit to be my luna. No one is.”

I flinch as this male puts his hand on my cheeks and brings my face close to his. “No one is, except for you.”

“Y—you killed your own mate?” I ask. Tears softly come down my face. Delilah was the worst kind of person to me, but I would never wish death on anyone. Even her.

“Delilah was only after the title of luna. She never wanted to be my mate.” Lucas chuckles softly and brings me to my feet.

“But you. Oh, you, Lake, were everything that was meant for me. Do you not feel this? Do you not feel that spark and connection we have?”

I move away in disgust as Lucas trails his finger from my jawline down to my cleavage. He growls and lifts the chains around my wrists above his head, forcing my lips onto his.

My skin begins to sizzle at the pressure of the silver. I cry out in pain.

“This—Lucas rips the shirt I’m wearing to reveal Derrick’s mark and looks at it in distaste—“is something I intend to rectify.

“The help of that witch your beloved Jake brought into our territory should suffice.”

My eyes grow wide. “What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Lucas lets me fall to the ground and brushes the dirt away from his expensive shirt.

“She’s going to get that thing off you. The Day of Prophecy is just around the corner. I intend to be your mate when it happens.”

DERRICK

“Fuck…,” I mutter and stand on my feet. I find myself in the forest, alone and injured.

Drax is coming to the forefront of my mind like he always is. I can feel the urgency through our connection.

~Lake!~

~

“Firefly!” I call out desperately. I sniff the air but can’t pick up her scent anywhere. Drax is fighting to be let loose to find his mate.

“Now isn’t the time to fight, you big oaf. We’re both exhausted, and we need to find her.”

My wolf contemplates for a moment and reluctantly stays put. I can feel his anxiety bleed into mine as I faintly pick up Lake’s scent.

A few feet away, I find her clothes torn to shreds and signs of a struggle. Lynne must have put up a fight when Lake fell unconscious.

The torn shrubs and tracks in the snow make my stomach turn. Trees around me are scratched and torn to hell also. My mate didn’t go down without a fight.

I follow Lynne’s prints for a few miles. The males pursued her with haste. I see the running tracks slowly fade to a trot.

Then I see a massive indentation in the snow where Lake’s wolf must have collapsed out of exhaustion.

“Shit…,” I mutter as I turn to examine the drag marks that continue north. They dragged her, my mate, all the way to that filthy pack territory.

“Hang on just a little longer, Firefly,” I say, and the wind carries my words away. I grasp the crystal as it begins to heat, turning dark red. She’s in danger.

LAKE

I scream in agony as I’m sprayed down with diluted ointment mixed with peroxide. In the struggle during my capture, I sustained many cuts and gashes all over my body.

Females of lower ranking scrub the liquid into my skin to make them heal faster.

Derrick’s mark, however, refuses to heal. It’s as raw as the day he marked me as the result of our being so far apart for so long.

I was transported to a large bathroom in the pack house next to Lucas’s room. I’m still heavily chained, and warriors are outside the door and every window.

My hair is wet from the mist of the mixture.

“Please turn, Luna.” One of the girls bows her head with a towel in her hands. Not knowing what will happen to her if I don’t comply, I turn.

All the females then begin to groom me with towels and expensive-smelling lotions. I smack a hand away from my mark and growl by instinct. They all cower in submission.

“I’m sorry,” I mutter. “Continue. Just don’t touch this.”

“Alpha prepared you some outfits, my luna.” A dark-haired female, Shayna I believe, ushers me to Lucas’s room and shows me the three outfits spread on the large bed.

I scrunch my nose as I scan all the revealing pieces of clothing.

“I’m guessing these were Delilah’s?” I ask and glance at Shayna. She doesn’t say anything and keeps her head bowed. I sigh.

The first and second outfits are a no go. Both are miniskirts and crop tops.

The third outfit is a simple gray sweater dress with thigh-high boots. I ask Shayna to bring me a pair of black stockings, and she does so.

Soon after I get dressed, Shayna leads me to the huge walk-in closet, where another pair of girls are waiting for me with a curling iron and what looks like makeup.

My hair is curled, and makeup is lightly put on my face. The girl doing my makeup says her name is Lee. Her sky-blue eyes remind me of Landon’s.

My crystal still feels hot and looks deep red. My eyes waiver as Shayna and Lee escort me to the pack house living room. Their eyes remain on the floor as I take in Lucas’s form.

He’s wearing a very fancy pair of dark jeans and a white button-up shirt. He holds two glasses of wine in his hands as he smiles widely.

“Lake.” Lucas steps to me and hands me the glass of wine meant for me. “How did you like your maids?”

“I don’t really need them, Lucas,” I say flatly. He chuckles before taking a sip of wine.

“Is that so?” Lucas snaps his fingers. Two young warriors storm into the room and begin to drag screaming Shayna and Lee away.

“Wait!” I exclaim. “That’s not what I meant! Keep them here, damn it!”

I breathe a sigh of relief as the warriors stop and look at their alpha, who nods for them to do as I say.

Shayna and Lee pick themselves up from the floor after the two males shove them away. I kneel to help both of them.

“Interesting.” Lucas sips more wine. “Delilah never wanted to save the help as you just did.”

I growl, “I’m not Delilah, Lucas.”

Lucas puts his hands up in surrender. “Just a quick comparison, my love. Nothing to irk you.”

“Are you two okay?” I ask Shayna and Lee. They simply nod and take back their positions in the corner of the room. I glare at the warriors until they cower and scurry out of the room.

“What do you want, Lucas?” I turn and put my glass on the coffee table in front of the large sectional in the middle of the room.

“It’s simple, love.” Lucas sighs happily and smiles at me. “You.”

“You have to know by now that the bond between us was fabricated by the White Witch,” I scoff. “We’re nothing. Delilah was your mate, as Derrick is mine.”

Lucas growls and throws his wine glass against the wall. It shatters loudly, and the red liquid splatters all over the white paint.

“You are my mate, love.” He straightens his shirt and collects his composure.

“Delilah was a mere pawn to get me to see that. Now, I have matters to attend to. You are free to go about the territory with these two with you.

“Remember, I have warriors all around here watching you. Any wrong move, and those two are roadkill.”

***

I shove my hands in my pockets as the snow falls lightly around me. My nose is runny from being out here for so long.

Shayna and Lee stick by me at all times, just as Lucas said they would. I feel like a princess in a novel, and it’s annoying.

Lynne isn’t liking this, either. The silver I was exposed to earlier has made her presence and activeness in my mind dwindle.

Before I left the pack house, I was forced to wear a silver chain around my wrist to make sure Lynne couldn’t emerge.

“Luna, we must go back now,” Shayna says and lightly grabs my hand. “Dinner will be prepared soon.”

“Can you tell me what happened to Delilah?” I ask her and Lee. They look at each other wide-eyed.

“I’m sorry, my luna,” Lee whispers almost inaudibly. “Punish us if you must, but we are forbidden to speak of that.”

“What has happened to this pack?” I ask myself as I look at the cloudy afternoon sky and watch my breath disappear into it.