Chapter 103

Thorne’s POV

“What was the plan once your group grabbed my mate? How did you know you wouldn’t be stopped?” I ask, curiously. They had such a large group, but they could’ve easily run into more of my men if they weren’t careful.

The dark-haired man shakes his head, “We had a secondary team that created a distraction in another section of your pack just before we attacked.”

I glance at Jace and Anders, and both of them nod in confirmation. They hadn’t told me anything about another attack, meaning that the distraction was big enough to bother the pack but not hurt anyone. Unlike our fight.

Two of my men were killed and more injured.

“I-I’ve heard things about the woman… your mate. Is she really the daughter of the Lycan King?” He asks. If she isn’t, then all this would be for no reason. At first, when I heard she may be Lycan King’s daughter, I was happy for her, but if being tied to him sets her up for a life of danger, I don’t know if I want their familial connection to be true.

It may be better if she’s not related to the Lycan King, after all.

“It hasn’t been confirmed, but the Dark Knight Pack doesn’t care about that,” I mutter, pinching the bridge of my nose to alleviate the growing headache.

The dark-haired man nods quickly, agreeing with me, “Our leader told me that the Alpha of the Dark Knight Pack is greedy and power hungry. If your mate is special, he’ll be extra cruel to her.”

I grit my teeth as he talks.

“I’ve also heard that he has a crazy doctor in his pack who works for him. They’ll probably test your mate to see if she’s the Lycan King’s daughter,” he babbles. “They say that the crazy doctor likes to experiment on people and animals, torturing them until they die from his tests—”

“Stop!” I jump up, grabbing the man by his neck. His eyes go wide as saucers as he gasps. “Where is she being held?”

He shakes his head, “W-We were supposed to drop her off yesterday at a meeting spot on the edge of the rogue and Lycan border. I don’t know where their pack is because they move around to keep the Lycan King from detecting them. There’s no way to know where they are currently located unless you’ve been told their location.”

Jace hums and rubs at his chin, “Then how does your leader know where they are?”

“He went to their pack when they made the deal,” the rogue answers. “I’m not sure if they’re still in the same place, but it would be somewhere to start searching.”

Again, I nod. Even if the Dark Knight Pack has moved on, knowing their previous location would give us somewhere to start looking.

“If you let me live, I’ll show you where our base is, and you can ask our leader where the Dark Knight Pack is.”

Anders and Jace step up to my side as I release the man’s neck. He wheezes, and I sigh.

“Jace, gather three groups of six gammas, and be ready to leave within the hour. We’re going to find my mate.”

Aurora’s POV

My body snaps and breaks, reforming into the wolf form I didn’t know I had. I scream and cry out as every bone rearranges itself and sends sparks and waves of pain through me. I thrash and claw at the floor, until I’m lying there, panting and unable to move.

“It worked,” the thin man exclaims, tossing the empty syringe aside. “I forced her to shift!”

A whimper falls from my mouth… snout, and my heart threatens to ram itself right out of my chest. I can’t move, not even as the thin man digs his scalpel into my shoulder and cuts out a chunk of my flesh.

The broken, keening cry that fills the room makes my heart ache. It’s the sound of an animal in so much pain, and I try to look for the animal before I realize the sound is coming from me.

“This is going to be a great test of your abilities,” the crazy doctor laughs as he moves the blade toward my face.

I growl, wanting so badly to bite him, but again, my body doesn’t respond to my commands. I can’t move to get away, and I can’t move to defend myself.

“Just bare with the pain,” the thin man says. “For science.”

Then, he lowers the scalpel to my eye. He drags it from my brow, across my eye, and down through my snout. The pain that comes with the cut is blinding, blacking out my vision in one eye, as the man cackles.

Blood seeps into my mouth, pain swirls in my head, and bile climbs into my throat. I gasp for air, only seeing half of the room, and that half is slowly being overtaken by a red haze.

“That’s enough for today.”

“Alpha, I was just—”

“If you kill her, I won’t have my leverage against the Lycan King,” the Alpha growls, moving into my line of vision. He crouches in front of me, his eyes moving over my injuries. “Throw her back in her cell and let her heal before you conduct anymore experiments.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

The Alpha looks at me one more time before leaving the room. My ragged breathing and the pain from my wounds make my body shake as the guard hauls me off the table. I can’t hold myself up, so I let myself hang limply over his shoulder.

When we reach my cell, he tosses me in. My body collides with the hard ground, and all the air leaves my lungs. The world spins, half light and half dark, and all hellish as the guard locks the door and leaves me alone in my misery.

I gasp for air, dragging in wheezy breaths.

How long have I been here?

I let my eyes fall closed as I lay here, trying not to think about anything other than staying calm. I try not to think about how I might lose my eye or how I won’t make it out of this place alive.

There isn’t anything I can do, but I want Thorne to come for me, I want to go home, and I want this hell to be over. And honestly, I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

“Just hold on a little while longer.”

The soft, faint voice makes me open my eyes, but all I see is dark stone.

“You’re stronger than you think you are,” the voice says.

Am I? I don’t know if strong is a good word to describe me.

Sighing, I close my eyes again. All the pain has made me delusional, and now I’m hearing voices.

“Our mate will come for us.”

If Thorne was coming, wouldn’t he be here by now?