Chapter 195
Kara
The scream that echoed up from Diana's ritual chamber wasn't just sound—it was rage given physical form, a sonic blade that made the walls shudder and ancient pipes burst. Ice-cold water sprayed from overhead, mixing with chunks of concrete that rained down like hail.
"Move!" Asher's command cut through the chaos as he shifted to human form, his hands already reaching for me. But I shook my head, tightening my grip on Scarlett's waist even as my bare feet slipped on the wet floor.
"Anna and Sol," I gasped, my voice hoarse from screaming earlier. "I promised them. They helped me escape—Diana tortured them for it. I can't leave them."
Blake's wolf form pressed against my legs, a low whine vibrating through his chest. Through our bond, I felt his desperate need to get me out of this crumbling death trap warring with his reluctant understanding. He'd learned, these past terrible days apart, that I wouldn't—couldn't—abandon people who'd risked everything for me.
The building gave another violent lurch. Somewhere below, Diana's fury was tearing apart the blood magic that had held this place together for decades. The wards were failing, and when they collapsed completely, five stories of concrete and steel would come down on our heads.
"Where?" Cole had shifted too, his medical training already cataloguing Scarlett's injuries—the split lip, the bruises mottling her pale skin, the way she could barely stand even with my support. His voice was tight with controlled panic. "Kara, where are they?"
"Second level." The words came out in a rush. "Cell block. Anna's leg is broken—compound fracture, I think. Sol has claw wounds across her chest, deep ones. They need—"
"We know what they need." Asher's interruption was gentle but firm as he cupped my face in his hands, forcing me to meet his eyes. Gold bled through the blue, his wolf too close to the surface. "Blake will carry you. Cole will take Scarlett. I'll get your friends. We don't leave anyone behind."
The certainty in his voice—the absolute promise—made something in my chest crack open. This was the Alpha I'd glimpsed in our stolen moments of tenderness, the man who'd sworn to spend his life proving he deserved my trust. Not the boy who'd locked me in a storage closet or left me freezing in the snow, but the protector I desperately needed him to be.
"Dmitri!" A voice boomed from the shattered doorway, and I watched a silver-haired man I didn't recognize burst into Diana's bedroom, followed by two others. The older man's eyes locked on me with such raw emotion that I instinctively shrank back. "Kara—my God, you're alive."
"Who—" I started, but Blake had already shifted to his half-form, all corded muscle and barely restrained violence as he positioned himself between me and the stranger.
"Later," Blake growled, his voice distorted by the partial transformation. "Introductions happen when we're not about to be buried alive."
Another tremor, stronger than before. The ceiling directly above us cracked with a sound like a gunshot, and a chunk of concrete the size of a basketball crashed down inches from where Scarlett and I stood. I felt the serpents on my arm coil tighter—Connor and Celeste's consciousness responding to my spike of fear.
"The second level," I repeated, louder this time. My human mind screamed at me to just run, to let Blake carry me to safety while I still could. But the wolf inside me—the Luna I was becoming—refused to abandon the two women who'd given me the chance to fight back. "I promised them."
---
The memory hit me hard as we moved toward the exit, Blake's arms around my waist supporting most of my weight. Hours ago, when Diana's guards had been dragging me through these corridors toward what I'd thought would be my death, Anna and Sol had called out from behind their cell bars.
Anna had been maybe twenty, with dark hair matted with blood and eyes that held the kind of fear that comes from knowing exactly how bad things could get. Her left leg was wrapped in filthy bandages, the angle of her shin clearly wrong. Sol was younger, eighteen at most, with a gaping wound across her chest that had soaked through her prison uniform.
"You're the new one?" Anna had whispered, her voice cracking. "The Luna they've been talking about?"
I'd been locked in silver handcuffs, barely able to stand after Diana's "examination," but I'd managed to nod. That's when Sol had done something that still made my throat tight.
"We can help," she'd said, her young face determined despite the pain she was clearly in. "Create a distraction. Give you a chance."
"Why?" I'd asked, genuinely confused. These were Court members, weren't they? Loyal to Diana and her twisted vision of immortality through body-snatching.
Anna's laugh had been bitter. "Because we're not here by choice. Diana promised us jobs, housing, a fresh start. We were desperate—I'd just aged out of foster care, and Sol's pack kicked her out for being an Omega. We had nothing." Her voice had dropped to a whisper. "By the time we realized what she really wanted us for, it was too late to run."
Sol had gripped the bars until her knuckles went white. "We're not bad people. We're just... we were drowning, and she threw us a rope. We didn't know it was a noose."
Hours later, when I'd seized my chance to escape, Anna and Sol had kept their word. They'd "accidentally" knocked over a food cart in the hallway, drawing the guards' attention just long enough for me to slip past. I'd looked back to see Sol being struck across the face, Anna's injured leg kicked out from under her, both of them screaming at me to run even as they paid the price for their rebellion.
Now, stumbling through Diana's collapsing lair with my Alphas surrounding me like a protective wall of muscle and fury, I couldn't leave them to die in the rubble.
Blake felt the memory through our bond, the wave of guilt and determination that made my wolf bare her teeth. His grip on me tightened, and I felt his reluctant acceptance even before he spoke.
"Asher," he said, his voice rough. "She's right. We get them too."