Chapter 63 Don't leave me
Carleigh would probably help him free her so that she could get back into my bed. Hellhounds were territorial, and she'd made no secret about her inten- tion, even after I'd turned her down repeatedly. Hell, I'd even invited Eryx to join me with her, and she still hadn't gotten the message that we weren't exclusive.
It took an hour and a half to reach the lodge, and the moment we landed, Toralei was there screaming at me. I watched her marching up to me, poking her finger into my chest as her rage filled the air between us. "Where is she?" she demanded, hair wild and messed as if she'd been run- ning her fingers through it in anger. I slid my gaze over her face, noting the way her nostrils flared, and her pupils dilated.
"Where the fuck is who?" I countered, watching her face turn a mottled shade of red. "Braelyn! What the hell did you do with her, asshole?"
"She's in her fucking room, Toralei. Point that finger at me again, and I'll fucking rip it off." "Liar! She is not in her fucking room."
"Bullshit! Lucas ensured me she hasn't left it," I argued, watching her chest rise and fall with her anger.
"Lucas left the week after you did, asshole. He left with your bitch, and no one has seen him since! No one has seen Braelyn since Eryx marched her into the woods, and no one will tell me anything! I am her beta. Do you have any idea how fucking insane I feel not being able to feel her? You don't think— where the fuck are you going?"
I was moving toward the lodge, rushing through it as my stomach churned and tightened. I didn't stop running until I was standing above the container, smelling death and blood. A lot of fucking blood. Eryx helped me lift the doors, and I jumped down, staring into the darkness. Others landed around me, light- ing flashlights as the blood left my body.
Braelyn was balanced on a barrel precariously. Her body was covered in blood that continually dripped from the razor wire slicing into her body. Her big blue eyes were unfocused, and her lips were moving. Braelyn was filthy, covered in blood, and her hair was matted and caked in something I couldn't identify. The air left my lungs as she whispered, "Mommy. I'm ready to go with you, please." "Jesus, fuck. Stay with me, Brae. Just fucking stay with me," I growled, grabbing her as she started to fall forward, causing the razors to slice deeper into her tissue.
"What the actual fuck?" Eryx snarled, helping me push her up. "We need wire cutters, now!" he shouted, holding her upright while staring at the frailness of her body and the blood that covered her from head to toe. "I want Lucas found, and I want his fucking heart," I snapped. "Carleigh is to be held in a room, and she doesn't leave it until we know what the fuck they did here. They were the only two with keys to the lock I placed on the doors."
"She's bleeding out," Ezekiel announced as if we didn't fucking know it already.
"And she wants to go with her mommy," Enzo stated, flicking a blade open as he cut through the wires that were inside the skin of her thighs. "Someone wanted to kill your mate. This wire is set to cut her to pieces, including her fucking throat the moment she fell."
I looked at the wire and frowned at the way it was rigged. I'd seen it used many times, where cold-twisted bastards placed bets on how long the victim could remain upright before the wires cut them into pieces, ending the life of even an immortal. Someone had tried to murder Brae while I was away, and I was willing to bet it was Lucas and Carleigh.
Braelyn mumbled more words to her mother, begging her to take her away from the evil, causing nausea to burn the back of my throat. I'd left her here, intending for her to spend one fucking night in the box since the children had been in it for weeks. I'd remained gone to help find their parents. Never had I assumed Lucas and Carleigh would leave her in the container, let alone strung up to die a death like the one the razor wire promised.
"Braelyn, stay with me," I uttered, watching as the last of the wire was cut away from her body, but she remained upright. Eryx helped me bring her down from the barrel, staring at the wounds that hadn't healed due to her body sustaining too much damage. "Her head is split open, and someone cut her up enough that she shouldn't have been able to remain standing, let alone live long enough for us to get back here."
"Judging by the way her wounds look, she's been hung up for days, if not longer." Xavier covered his nose as he pointed to the wounds on her inner thighs in varying healing stages. "That looks like it was done days ago. The edges look more like scars than wounds, but it can't heal with the amount of blood she lost. There are white marks on her calves, which I'm guessing were cuts as well. She's a fighter, Saint. If she weren't, you'd be returning to a corpse."
Braelyn lifted her head, but there was nothing in her gaze. The vacant look she gave me said she didn't even recognize me. Her lips moved, but the sound was so soft that I couldn't make out the words. Leif stepped closer, touching her chin to lift her eyes toward the light.
"It's not Loki, little Princess. He can't have you, and he knows it. It is for- bidden for Loki to take one of our kind from this world or the afterlife. Brenna, wake her," he stated, turning his head toward the dark corner of the room. "Either wake her or take her away from the pain, Brenna Haralson. Your daughter suffers because you're holding her to you. She cannot be inside both words."
I peered around at the others, shrugging at their confused expressions. Braelyn gasped in air, her eyes regaining focus before a mask covered her fea- tures. Her eyes moved to mine, holding them before she stepped back, faltering, then stood proudly, with no pain visible on her face. If I didn't know better, I'd think she was one of Harold's victims.
"I didn't mean for this to happen." I watched her closely, noting she didn't even look in our direction. She looked through us as if she were alone inside the container. Blood dripped from multiple incisions and tears on her flesh. I moved closer, and she stepped back, uncaring that she stepped into the mushed corpse of a victim. "Let me help you, Brae." "I do not need your help," she whispered, barely loud enough to be words. Leif looked over her head, catching my attention briefly before turning to the corner, staring at the air.
"Seven days of standing on a barrel, waiting to die," Leif announced, still staring into the shadows. "Your mate, she's an entirely different breed of woman. You got yourself a fucking Valkyrie, lucky prick. Brenna, a pleasure see- ing you again. I'm sure you'll be waiting with a blade at the ready when I enter Valhalla. I look forward to it, shield-maiden. You raised a rare one, with silent courage and one hell of a pain tolerance."
"Who the fuck are you talking to, asshole? Brenna Haralson has been dead and gone for fifteen years," I grounded out, watching as Leif pointed his thumb toward the shadows, causing a shiver to rush down my spine.
"Brenna, obviously. I'm guessing she returned to keep her daughter stand- ing until help arrived. Sprits that are in the afterlife can only return when their bloodline is on the brink of extinction. I'm not crazy, Saint. I died, which means I can see beyond the veil that this world can see. We should get Braelyn to the lodge before her mother, who really doesn't like you, accepts her pleas to join her in death." Braelyn moved on her own. I watched her moving toward the light that was fading as day gave in to the moon's demand for dominance over the world.
Fear at how feeble and weak Braelyn appeared, gripped my heart. I hadn't wanted her to suffer any pain. Discomfort, certainly. Those she'd left out in the bone-chilling cold, to starve and sit in their own shit, had suffered more than the twenty-four hours I'd intended for her to spend here. I watched her leap for the ledge, landing hard on the ground while everyone remained away from her.
They knew she wouldn't want help, which burned me inside, watching as she fell to the ground, unable to reach the edge to leave the storage container. It took Braelyn multiple tries before her fingers caught the edge, and we all stared in silence as she hefted her weight up and over the edge. One by one, the others went up until I stood alone, peering into the shadows that Leif had been speaking into, sliding my eyes around it.
"You can't fucking have her yet," I whispered, shaking my head. Something touched my shoulder, forcing my eyes to close as warmth washed over me. "She's my mate, and until I decide otherwise, you don't get her, Brenna. You left her with a monster which turned her into one, too. I have to decide what to do with her, and until I do, she is mine." Pain slid against my forearm, and I looked down at the marks that covered it. Leif wasn't crazy after all. "Thank you for keeping her alive until I got here. Now back off and let me see if I can save her."