With shaky fingers, Mathias reached beneath his torn tunic and pulled out a ragged cloth stiff with dried blood. Symbols scratched unevenly across it. Words written by a dying hand.
"An Elder. He said only you could expose Caius."
He took it. The moment his fingers touched the blood letter, the world seemed to still. His eyes moved across the words, each line carving itself to him. When he finished, the room felt colder.
"Caius kept him hidden after the massacre. Elara met him in the cell."
He folded the blood letter carefully and slipped it inside his cloak. Then, he stepped closer, inspecting him.
"You're hurt."
"I'll manage," Mathias said instinctively.
"Caius's men will be here soon. You're going to find Jax, Lysa and Riven."
"And you?"
Dante straightened. For the first time, his face was blank. "I'm going back for her."
The cell doors slammed open. Elara's head snapped up just as heavy footsteps flooded the corridor. Firelight cutting into the darkness and throwing monstrous shadows against stone walls.
Caius knew.
Her chest tightened instantly. Guards poured in, their scents sharp in anger and alarm, eyes sweeping the cell until one of them snarled, "The boy's gone."
Elara let out a broken sound as a rough hand seized her arm. She was yanked away, fingers tearing her from Rose's grasp. Her stomach dropped as she was taken away, catching sight of Rose on the floor, rocking back and forth, whispering Mathias name like a prayer breaking apart.
The place Mathias was dissolved into noise. Voices rose in alarm, sharp and frantic, chasing him as he limped towards the entrance.
He did not look back.
Pain throbbed fiercely at his side, each step dragging him sharper through his body. He wasn't fully healed. His breath came uneven, shallow and strained, his vision narrowing as the world tilted dangerously around him. His wolf stirred weakly, urging him to rest.
He couldn't. Not when his head would be out of his neck. He forced himself forward, weaving through narrow streets that twisted unpredictably through the city. Light flickered against stone walls as he stumbled past sleeping homes, the silence of the hour broken only by his uneven steps.
His legs began to shake.
He pressed a hand against his side, feeling warmth beneath his fingers, panic fluttering in his chest. Each breath burned.
Just a little more, he urged his wolf.
But his wolf wouldn't answer. The world spun violently as he lost his footing, the ground rushing up to meet him.
Elara barely felt the stone beneath her knees when they forced her down. She was tired to struggle and hungry. The hall loomed vast and cold above her as she looked around. The Alpha and Luna stood before her with grace and anger. People gathered as if to condemn a wolf.
"I knew you wouldn't do as you are told," the Luna said, her gaze fixed on Elara as though she were something dragged from a dirt. "What have you done now?"
A murmur rippled through the gathered crowd.
"Enough," The Alpha said, his gaze shifted, sweeping the room, taking in the guards lining the walls. "Why is this hall filled with unrest? Why do I find my guards posted without summons from me?"
The question lingered.
Then Caius stepped forward. He moved with calm precision, a faint smile curving up his lips as if this moment pleased him. As if he has been waiting too long for this moment.
"Father," Caius said smoothly. "the chaos you sensed is not without cause."
Elara's stomach tightened.
"You speak of grave matters.," the Alpha said carefully. "My judgement still stands regarding your brother. Choose your words well."
"I intend to," he replied, glancing at Elara as if to remind her he could kill her without flinching. "Because what I'm about to reveal now explains the unrest, the betrayal and the necessary measures I have taken."
She looked up at him and saw not certainty but calculation. He knew what he was doing.
Mathias woke up to voices that refuses to stay still. They drifted out of his consciousness, low at first, then sharper, edged with emotion he was too tired to name. His body ached in places he didn't remember injuring, and when he tried to move, pain answered him immediately.
"...you shouldn't have brought him here," a woman's voice said. Controlled. Tight.
"And leave him in the street?' another replied, rougher. "He wouldn't have lasted an hour."
He knew that tone.
Mates.
His lashes fluttered, then lifted fully. The world swam, then steadied. Two figures loomed over him, close enough that he could feel the heat of their bodies.
Curious eyes met him first, then black eyes already calculating his threat.
Lysa and Jax.
Their argument cut off the instant his breath hitched.
"You can continue," Mathias croaked, his throat dry as sand as he shifted slightly on the pallet. Pain flared to his side, but he forced a crooked smile. "I hate to interrupt a lovers' quarrel."
"We are not lovers," Lysa snapped. "You shouldn't have brought him here, Jax. He might be a spy."
"If he is," Jax replied flatly, "Then, he should tell us why guards were after him."
"Where is he?" Mathias asked, trying to shift.
"Who?"
"You know who," Mathias said, meeting Lysa's gaze. "The one with white hair and smells of winter and blood."
Jax's jaw tightened but Lysa blocked him.
"He asked a question, Jax. You don't have to murder him."
"Speak now before I finish what's been started. What do you know about Dante?"
Mathias closed his eyes for a moment, gathering himself. "He's with the blood letter. He asked me to find you two who aren't nice anyway."
"And where is he now?" Lysa asked.
"He went back for Elara."
Jax ran a hand through his hair. Lysa swore under her breath.
"He told me," Mathias continued, " That if anything went wrong, I was to find both of you."
Jax crouched beside him, lowering his voice. "Did he say where he was heading?"
"To Caius." Mathias said, staring at the two.
"Father," Caius began, faking sadness. "What I'm about to show you pains me deeply. But truth demands sacrifice."
Two men stepped forward, carrying a wide iron box between them. They placed it carefully at the Alpha's feet. Caius opened the box, and in it was Elder Norren's head.
The hall went still.
"He was murdered," Caius continued, his voice tightening just enough to sound wounded. "Silenced after discovering the truth about the council's slaughter."
The Alpha rose slowly to his feet. "Who did this?" he demanded.
Caius turned to Elara. "Dante."
The name barely left his lips before a white-haired figure burst to the room.