Resisting the Moon (Royal Shifters #2)(36)

Amelie turned her head and nodded. “Keep me with them.”

He burst out laughing. “Okay. Just so you know, their living accommodations are going to be a little . . . different.”

I could only imagine what he meant by that. The lights were bright as we walked through another room, and when he opened the door, I coughed. The room reeked of wolfsbane. There were plants in every corner of the room. We wouldn’t die from breathing in the fumes, but it would surely burn our lungs.

There was also the scent of blood. Splatters of it were on the floor and in the separate cages scattered around the room. They allowed enough room to stand and lie down on the floor, but that was it. All of them were empty except one. When the captive lifted his head, I gasped. It’d been thirty years since I’d seen him last, but he looked the same. He was one of Finn’s closest friends.

His eyes went wide and he jumped to his feet. “Tyla? Amelie?”

“Josef,” I whispered. The guy beside me pushed me into the cell next to him and locked the door while the others secured Sebastian and Amelie in theirs. Josef faced me from his cell and I latched onto the bars, hissing as my hands burned. The bars had been soaked in wolfsbane. “Okay! We get it already. Don’t you think you went a little overboard with the wolfsbane?”

They completely ignored me and walked out of the room, locking the door behind them.

Sebastian growled and touched the bars. “More like, afraid we’ll kill them.”

I turned to Josef. “What’s going on? How long have you been here?” His clothes were torn and dirty, and covered in blood. But it wasn’t his blood all over the floor.

“Only a day. Jaret’s men found me in Tennessee a couple of days after Finn left, asking me to come back to his pack. I was on my way to join him when I was ambushed and brought here. They’re trying to find him, but it looks like they found you instead.”

“More like me,” Amelie corrected.

He turned in her direction and sighed. “Where are your parents?”

Her eyes flashed. “Dead. They killed them. I’d called Tyla and told her we needed help, but all it did was drag her down with me.” She dropped her head, tears splashing on the concrete floor. “I’m so sorry, Tyla. I never meant to bring you into this.”

“It’s not your fault,” I murmured. “You didn’t know what was going on.”

“Does Finn even know?” Josef asked, glancing at us all before settling his gaze on mine. “When I talked to him, he said you were dead.”

“It was a lie my aunt and uncle had told him.”

Amelie’s brows furrowed when I looked at her. “You can’t be serious. Why in the hell would they do that? How did they even know Finn was alive? I thought he was dead!”

“He found them about twenty years ago. At that point, my mother told your parents to tell him I was dead. They knew if he found me, he’d want me to be his mate.”

Her gaze shifted to Sebastian. “And if that would’ve happened . . . you wouldn’t have met him.” She sighed and reached for the bars, but stopped short. “Tyla, I promise I didn’t know. I would never lie to you.”

I nodded. “I know, it’s okay. It all worked out in the end. Finn and I talked about it. He knows the truth now.”

“So you’ve seen him?” Josef asked.

“A couple of days ago, but I honestly don’t know where he’s at right now. If he can’t track Jaret’s wolves, there’s no way he’ll find us here.”

“He’ll find us,” Josef said, taking a seat on the floor. “One way or another, they’ll draw him in. They have the perfect bait.” He looked directly at me.





Tyla

“Tyla, wake up.” Sebastian’s voice echoed in my mind.

I didn’t want to wake up. I wanted to imagine I was back at home and not sleeping on a hard concrete floor in my enemy’s basement. “I don’t want to.”

“There’s movement upstairs. I have a feeling we’ll be having company soon.” I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Amelie and Josef were still asleep, and Sebastian sat in the cell across from me, his gaze tormented. “I hate seeing you like this.”

“I’m fine, I promise. I’ll feel even better when I can rip Jaret in half.”

“You’ll be waiting in line for that one, love. There’s a special place in Hell for him, right next to his father.”

I glanced around the room. There were two windows near the ceiling, but they were too small to even attempt to sneak out of. It didn’t matter anyway because the cages hindered us from escaping. Even if we could get out, it’d take time to pry away the bars. That time would cost us our hands. “How are we going to get out of here?”

He looked around the room and shook his head. “I don’t know. We just have to wait it out.”

As much as I wanted to think we’d get through this living hell alive, I had to question it. There were no visions of a happily ever after when we’d shared blood. It was obvious what was going to happen. Sebastian jerked his head my way, his gaze heated.

“You don’t know that, Tyla. I told you I’ll get you out safely and I won’t let you down.”

“But what is my life without you? You’re my mate, Sebastian. I’m not going anywhere without you. We fight together, we die together. The sooner you realize that, the easier this will be.” I was prepared to die fighting. Jaret wasn’t going to get anything from me.