Chapter 394 394
Sabine POV
“I know he did,” I say tightly, “but I still need to get to the cave. You have to take me.”
“No, Luna.” Maxime shakes his head. “The children are safe. I’m here to tell Aurélie Alpha Didier has them.”
“No.” I grab his arm before he can turn away. “Don’t tell her. Not yet. Something is wrong with Alpha Damien. Maurice is going to fight him I can feel it. And I can’t do this without him, Maxime. I can’t run a pack alone.”
“It won’t come to that.”
“It will,” I cut in. “Unless you take me to the cave.”
“Luna”
“I’m going with or without you,” I warn. “Without you will just take longer.”
Nausea rolls through me the moment we reach the mouth of the cave.
Bodies litter the ground dead men sprawled across stone. A heavy sense of dread coils in my stomach, twisting tight. This place was never meant to be entered. I know that with absolute certainty. Something deeply wrong lingers here something ancient and malicious.
“Luna,” Maxime says firmly, “stay outside. I’ll go in.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I need to see my brother. I can talk sense into him. I know I can.”
Didier has the children. That means they’re safe. They’re no longer part of this equation.
Now it’s about Damien.
Getting him out.
And not losing my mate in the process.
Ignoring the instinct screaming at me to stay back, I step into the cave.
The darkness swallows me faster than I expect, thick and suffocating.
“I can’t see.”
“Call on your wolf,” Maxime says calmly at my side. “She’ll give you enhanced vision.”
As if it’s that simple.
For him, maybe. Not for the rest of us.
I reach inward, searching for my wolf. She responds instantly, her presence sliding forward.
Hold onto the bond, she murmurs. It will help you see.
When I open my eyes again, I gasp.
The darkness thins. It isn’t clear but it’s enough. Enough that I don’t have to feel blindly through the stone.
We move deeper, pressing on, the ground beneath our feet suddenly sloping downward. And then something shifts.
Either my wolf is pulling back on the vision… or this place is growing too dark even for her.
“My sight,” I whisper. “I think my wolf is struggling.”
There’s something about this cave something that warns me not to raise my voice.
“It’s not her,” Maxime replies quietly. “Mine is struggling too. It’s the cave.”
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end. My heart begins to race wildly, pounding so hard I can barely breathe.
I need to get to Maurice.
I need to get him and Damien out.
I fight the urge to flee, to run as far from this cursed place as possible. The cold turns brutal, biting so sharply that my breath begins to freeze the instant it leaves my lips.
“Look.”
Maxime stops suddenly, one hand pressed to the cave wall. His fingers trace a black image an eerie drawing of a crow. He gestures to others nearby, touching them as well.
I don’t.
I can’t.
There’s something wrong with the drawings. My wolf recoils violently, warning me to stay away.
“It’s too dark… wait…” My voice trembles.
I barely make out Maxime pulling off his shirt and crouching low. Sparks scatter at my feet as he strikes two stones together.
When the fabric finally catches, fire flares.
I search frantically for something anything to use as a handle.
Instead, I find bones.
Animal bones… I hope.
I grab one, bile rising in my throat, and pass it to Maxime. He wraps the burning shirt around it, lifting it high above us.
It won’t last long.
But for now, we have light.
And I almost wish we didn’t.
The cave around us is a nightmare walls covered in haunting images, bones scattered across the ground. Then it comes.
A low, blood-curdling growl echoes ahead.
I step past Maxime, drawn forward despite every instinct screaming at me to stop.
The cave opens into a clearing.
Two figures stand there, facing one another.
Both on the edge of shifting.
Damien.
And Maurice.