Chapter 16 Chapter 17
Chapter 16 Chapter 17
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Fenrir’s POV
I grabbed him before he could breathe.
My hand slammed into his throat and pinned him back against the wall so hard the stone cracked faintly behind him.
“You’re going to talk,” I said, my voice low and shaking with something I wasn’t trying to control anymore. “Right now.”
Luca didn’t fight me.
That was what made it worse.
His fingers curled loosely around my wrist, not to push me away, not to resist—just… there. Like he wasn’t afraid of what I could do to him.
“She’s gone,” he said hoarsely.
My grip tightened.
“Then you’re going to tell me where.”
A faint, strained breath left him. Not quite a laugh. Not quite pain.
“If it were that simple, I would have said it already.”
I slammed him harder into the wall.
“Don’t play with me.”
“I’m not,” he said, his voice rougher now. “You’re the one who thinks this is something you can chase with a blade and anger.”
My jaw clenched.
“I don’t need your riddles.”
“Then you’re going to lose her.”
The words landed hard.
Too hard.
For a second—just a second—my grip faltered.
And he felt it.
Of course he did.
“You felt it, didn’t you?” he continued quietly. “The moment it took her.”
I said nothing.
Because I had.
That instant when the air snapped, when something tore through the space between us and she was just… gone.
Not like someone running.
Not like someone dragged.
Like she had been pulled out of the world entirely.
My hand tightened again.
“Where,” I repeated.
This time, slower.
Deadlier.
Luca exhaled, his eyes flickering to the empty space where she had stood moments ago.
“It’s not a place you walk into.”
That wasn’t an answer.
“It’s not somewhere you track,” he went on. “You don’t follow it. You don’t hunt it.”
“Then how do I get her back?” I snapped.
Silence stretched between us.
Then—
“You don’t.”
The word hit like a blade.
I didn’t think.
Didn’t hesitate.
My fist connected with his jaw hard enough to snap his head to the side, the crack echoing through the cell. He hit the ground, coughing, blood already gathering at the corner of his mouth.
I stepped forward, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and hauling him back up.
“Say that again,” I said.
He winced, but there was still something steady in his eyes.
Something that refused to break.
“You don’t get her back the way you think,” he corrected.
That was the only reason he was still breathing.
I shoved him back against the wall again.
“Then start talking like you want to live.”
He swallowed, his throat shifting under my grip.
“She wasn’t taken to be killed,” he said.
“Then why was she taken?”
A pause.
Then—
“To be tested.”
My grip tightened again.
“Tested for what?”
“For what she can become.”
I stilled.
The anger didn’t disappear.
It shifted.
Turned sharper.
Colder.
“What does that mean?”
Luca hesitated.
And that hesitation—
That was new.
“She’s not just surviving it,” he said finally. “She’s… holding it.”
My mind ran through that.
Fast.
Unforgiving.
“What happens if she fails?”
His gaze dropped for a second.
Then came back to mine.
“She won’t come back.”
My chest tightened.
And something inside me—something I had been holding back since this started—finally snapped.
I released him abruptly, stepping back.
Not because I was done.
Because if I didn’t move, I was going to kill him.
And right now—
He was the only one who knew anything.
I ran a hand through my hair, pacing once across the small space, trying to keep my thoughts from turning into something reckless.
Too late for that.
“She was still fighting,” I said, more to myself than to him. “I saw it.”
“Yes.”
“She wasn’t gone.”
“No.”
“Then she’s not lost.”
Silence.
Then—
“That depends on her.”
I turned on him again.
“What does that mean?”
Luca pushed himself up slowly, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
“It’s not just taking her over,” he said. “It’s offering her something.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“What kind of something?”
“Power.”
Of course it was.
My jaw clenched.
“And you think she’ll just accept that?”
“I think she’s been pushed far enough to consider it.”
That hit harder than anything else he had said.
Because he wasn’t wrong.
I had seen enough of her life to know what she had been through.
What had been taken from her.
What had been done to her.
And power—
Power was the one thing she had never had.
Until now.
“No,” I said quietly.
Luca didn’t argue.
Didn’t agree either.
Just watched me.
“She’s not like that,” I added.
Another pause.
Then—
“Everyone is like that when they’re given the right reason.”
I stepped forward again, stopping just in front of him.
“You don’t know her.”
“I don’t need to,” he said. “I’ve seen enough of this to know how it ends.”
Something in my chest burned.
Hot.
Sharp.
“You’ve seen this before?”
That got my attention.
His expression shifted slightly.
Not fear.
Not quite.
But something close.
“Yes.”
My focus sharpened instantly.
“And?”
A long pause.
Long enough to tell me I wasn’t going to like the answer.
“They didn’t come back.”
The silence that followed felt heavier than anything that had happened so far.
Because this—
This wasn’t some unknown threat anymore.
This had happened before.
And it hadn’t ended well.
“Then she won’t be like them,” I said.
The words came out harder than I expected.
Sharper.
Like I was forcing them into truth.
Luca didn’t respond immediately.
He just looked at me.
Studying.
Measuring.
Then—
“Then you better hope you’re right.”
I didn’t respond.
Because hope wasn’t something I relied on.
Not anymore.
I turned toward the door.
“Open it.”
The guards outside hesitated.
Of course they did.
They had heard everything.
Seen enough to know this wasn’t normal.
“Alpha’s orders—” one of them started.
I didn’t give him time to finish.
“Open it,” I repeated.
Slower this time.
More dangerous.
That did it.
The door unlocked quickly, the heavy metal groaning as it opened.
I stepped out without looking back.
Then stopped.
“Bring him,” I added.
A pause.
Then—
“Yes, Alpha.”
I didn’t wait to see if they followed.
I was already moving.
Fast.
The corridors blurred past me, stone walls and flickering torches stretching into something distant and irrelevant.
My mind was already ahead.
Working.
Planning.
She had been taken.
Not killed.
Not yet.
Which meant there was still time.
But not much.
Whatever this thing was—
Whatever it wanted—
It wasn’t going to wait forever.
“Where are we going?” Luca’s voice came from behind me.
I didn’t slow.
“To my uncle.”
A quiet breath.
“That won’t help.”
“It will give me answers.”
“And if he doesn’t have them?”
I stopped abruptly, turning just enough to look at him over my shoulder.
“Then I’ll make him have them.”
Luca held my gaze for a second.
Then looked away.
Good.
Because I wasn’t in the mood for his calm right now.
Not when everything in me was burning.
We reached the main hall faster than expected.
Too fast.
Or maybe it just felt that way.
The doors opened before I even touched them, the guards inside stepping back the moment they saw me.
Good.
They knew better than to get in my way right now.
My uncle sat at the far end of the room, exactly where he always did.
Like nothing had changed.
Like the world hadn’t just shifted.
His eyes lifted to meet mine as I approached.
Calm.
Unbothered.
That was about to change.
“You look troubled,” he said, his voice smooth.
I didn’t slow.
Didn’t stop.
I crossed the distance between us and slammed my hand down on the table hard enough to rattle everything on it.
“She’s gone.”
His expression didn’t change.
Not immediately.
“Explain.”
My jaw tightened.
“Something took her.”
Now—
Now I saw it.
That flicker.
Small.
Brief.
But there.
“You lost your bride already?” he said lightly.
That was the wrong response.
Very wrong.
My hand curled into a fist.
“I’m not in the mood for games.”
His gaze sharpened slightly.
“Then speak clearly.”
I leaned forward slightly.
Lower.
Quieter.
“Something came for her,” I said. “Something that doesn’t belong here.”
Silence fell over the room.
Heavy.
Different.
My uncle didn’t speak right away.
And that told me everything I needed to know.
“You know what it is,” I said.
Not a question.
A statement.
His fingers tapped once against the arm of his chair.
Then stilled.
“I was wondering how long it would take.”
My chest tightened.
“What does that mean?”
His gaze held mine.
Steady.
Unmoving.
“It means,” he said slowly, “that she was never meant to stay untouched.”
Everything in me went still.
“Untouched by what?”
He leaned back slightly.
And for the first time since I had known him—
I saw something real in his expression.
Not amusement.
Not control.
Something darker.
Older.
“You’ve just stepped into something far bigger than a forced marriage, Fenrir.”
My jaw clenched.
“Then start explaining.”
He studied me for a long moment.
Then his gaze shifted briefly to Luca.
And something in the air changed.
Recognition.
Of course.
“You brought him here,” my uncle said.
I didn’t answer.
Didn’t need to.
His attention returned to me.
Slow.
Measured.
“And now you want answers.”
“Yes.”
A pause.
Then—
“Careful what you ask for.”
I didn’t hesitate.
“I don’t care.”
Silence stretched between us.
Then—
He smiled.
Not t
he kind he showed the pack.
Not the controlled, practiced one.
Something else.
Something colder.
“Good,” he said.
Then he leaned forward slightly.
And the next words he spoke—
Changed everything.
“She didn’t just get taken, Fenrir.”
My chest tightened.
“Then what happened?”
His gaze locked onto mine.
Sharp.
Unforgiving.
“She was claimed.”
The word settled into the room like a sentence.
Heavy.
Final.
And for the first time since this started—
I felt something close to fear.
Because I didn’t know what that meant.
And I had a feeling—
I was about to find out the hard way.