Eila jolted awake with a strangled gasp.
Her heart hammered against her ribs, her breath ragged, her body slick with cold sweat. The nightmare clung to her like chains — the twins, their steel-grey eyes glazed and unseeing, walking away from her hand in hand with another woman who wore her face. She had screamed for them, clawed at the ground, but they had not looked back. Their bond had gone silent, as if it had never existed.
Even awake, the echo of that silence gnawed at her chest.
She blinked rapidly, trying to orient herself. The chamber was dim, the walls damp stone instead of polished wood. Flickering violet fire spilled its glow across a wide bed draped in silks — silks that covered her bare skin. She sucked in a sharp breath and clutched the sheets tighter around herself. This was not her room. Not the pack house.Not the bed and breakfast from Rosebud River pack.
And then she saw him.
Jeremy.
Seated in a high-backed chair, his crimson eyes glowed faintly in the firelight. He had been watching her — patient, silent, as if he had all the time in the world. His posture was still, almost regal, his hands clasped loosely in his lap. Yet his gaze lingered, heavy and unblinking, taking in her disheveled hair, the curve of her shoulders, the sheet clutched against her chest.
"Awake at last," he said softly. His voice was deep, smooth, but carried an undertone that made her skin prickle.
Eila's throat was dry. "Where am I?"
Jeremy tilted his head, as though considering how much to reveal. "Safe. My lady commanded it."
My lady. The lost goddess Valeria had done this and Jeremy the notorious master of Veil was following her orders like a loyal servant. The realization struck like a blade of ice. Stolen her from the pack, from her mates, leaving her here… stripped of everything.
She couldn't even sense or feel anyone else in her mind through her mind-link. She couldn't ask for help from her pack or family. Even Leonard was completely cut out. Valeria sure was a thorough person. She had completely cornered her from her loved ones and thrown her in front of her mortal enemy. But Jeremy was no longer ghastly looking, an intimidating villain. He looked like a perfect man of many she wolves dreams. Still she felt the unease of the situation and she didn't know how to fight back. She tried to summon her powers but those were absent along with her wolf Sera. She was feeling devastated. But she must fight back and thinking about fighting back She forced her trembling voice into steadiness.
"Take me back."
Jeremy's lips curved in the faintest of smiles. "I cannot. You are precious to her. I am to keep you unharmed. That is my purpose."
She pressed further, " Aren't I your mortal enemy and you need to defeat me to open the veil completely?" Eila was feeling really confused and uncomfortable.
He didn't say anything. Just shifted his gaze, ever so slightly, tracing the lines of her face, her throat, the bare curve of her shoulder above the sheets. It wasn't leering, not openly, but there was a weight to it that made her heart stutter. He was studying her — not like a man studies a woman he desires, but like a sentinel forced to notice details he shouldn't.
Eila pulled the sheets tighter, wishing she could vanish into them. "Don't look at me like that."
His expression didn't change, but his eyes deepened, shadows stirring in their red depths. "Forgive me. I was only… thoughtful."
"Thoughtful?" she echoed and surprised at that sudden politeness, her voice trembling despite herself.
Jeremy leaned forward slightly, elbows on his knees, his gaze never leaving hers. "I have served her for some time. I have obeyed every command without question. But she has never before asked me to guard something so delicate. She promised me a grand victory and a place in this world where I was never needed. My goal was to open the veil and conquer the world but after I have found my Goddess; goals of my life have changed. All I want to do now is follow her commands and keep her happy forever by any means necessary. Also, I never thought that my mortal enemy was so vulnerable." His eyes flicked, for the briefest instant, to the sheet she clutched like armor. "It makes me… curious."
Eila's breath caught.
Her wolf pressed anxiously inside her, sensing the danger beneath his calm demeanor. Jeremy's loyalty to Valeria was absolute — but in his silence, in his watchfulness, there was something shifting. Awareness. A dangerous awareness of her nakedness, her fragility, her very humanity stripped bare before him.
She swallowed hard, clutching the sheet like a shield, the echo of her nightmare ringing in her ears. Losing them. Losing everything.
And now, trapped here, alone under Jeremy's crimson gaze, she wondered if that nightmare had only just begun.