Chapter 151

Holden was right about his bond with Aurora. As soon as we got closer, he knew more details about where she was. It was remote, high in the mountains, which were already covered with snow. But less than 48 hours after the thing from the stone—the guardian, or the prisoner—had taken her, we stood on the road below the ruin of a castle.

It was night when we reached it, and it loomed black against the snowy mountainside, its towers a shadow of emptiness between the stars.

“She’s here?” I asked.

Holden nodded. He seemed increasingly frazzled the closer we got to her. Holden was an arrogant ass, but now, despite the cold, I could smell the sour stink of his nervous sweat.

“She knows we’re coming,” he said, his voice sounding hollow. “She’s…so different. She’s waiting for us.”

As if his words had summoned her, the wind blew a drift of snow up. When it settled, she was there at the castle’s fallen gates.

She wore all black, which made her skin look so pale and perfect, as porcelain. Even though the moon was barely more than a sliver, it turned her hair silver in its light. It fell over her shoulders, and her lilac eyes gleamed.

“Holden, welcome,” her voice echoed melodially in the empty courtyard. “I knew you would come.”

Slowly, she turned her eyes to me. Something flashed across her face—something raw and broken.

“Dane,” she whispered.

In that whisper, I heard her. I knew she wasn’t gone. I might be able to win her back, even now.

She hesitated, as if battling within herself. Then she gave me an uncertain smile. “Won’t both of you come in?”

I could reach her. I knew I could reach her. Fuck Holden and his bond, she was mine.

Aurora turned away and walked into the castle.

On arriving, we had tried to contact Evander’s father, Winston. He hadn’t answered. I didn’t know if he was in the DeVere pack house or not. Even though we’d found Aurora, the Nameless was nowhere to be seen. Winston DeVere could still be our best chance to find where its lair was if Aurora wouldn’t or couldn’t tell us. If we could find out where that thing was—what it was—I could kill it.

I was starting to wonder, with my strength and my resistance to magic, if that wasn’t what the goddess had always intended for me to do.

We followed her into the ruined castle. She led us through an interior that had once been rich and beautiful but was now decaying and covered in dust.

The echoes of our footsteps echoed. I didn’t know what was going on with her. She had said the Nameless was taking her memories, and Holden said she seemed strange, but that expression when she’d seen me—it meant something.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“It’s the DeVere pack house,” she said without looking over her shoulder.

“It’s a wreck,” Holden said.

“This is just the entrance. Wait until we get inside,” she replied.

I frowned. I scented other wolves, but none of the smells seemed recent. As if she could read my mind, Aurora said, “There are other entrances. You just happened to come in the most obvious one.”

She led us deeper in, to a dark, cobweb-covered ballroom, then up a creaking staircase to a wide, open room. Its French doors were broken out, and a chill wind blew in from a stone balcony outside.

She walked over. Holden followed, his stride confident.

Don’t forget, he’d said on the plane ride over, She’s part of my pack. It doesn’t matter what she does, I’m her Alpha. She can’t defy me. I’ll just command her to come home. With me.

I’d ignored that statement. Mostly because two lycans battling in an airplane was likely to cause a crash.

But watching them, the power Holden had once wielded over Aurora seemed…diminished. She didn’t move like she feared him at all.

“As much as I’m enjoying the tour, Aurora, we need to talk,” I said.

This place was eerie. Where were the other wolves? The High Alpine Pack was rich and large. There should have been wolves outside guarding this place. There should have been someone here besides her.

She laughed, a beautiful, haunting sound that echoed in the large stone room. “Of course. I’m sorry, it’s just been so long since I was back, and I’ve always wanted you to see this place.”

“We need you to come home,” I said as she wandered closer to the balcony. I could see, now, it had a broken stone railing. As if compelled by my instinct to protect her, I followed her.

Holden snarled at me. I knew he thought of Aurora as his. I shouldn’t have been surprised. He pushed past me to stand beside her outside, where wind whipped her pale hair and turned her cheeks pink.

“Oh, I can’t come home,” Aurora said.

“Wrong,” Holden told her. “You will come home.”

I felt his power rise and surround Aurora. Her eyes widened a little as he tried to compel her obedience.

Then Aurora shrugged off his magic with a wicked smile.

“Oh. A command from an Alpha,” she mocked. “How caveman of you. Unfortunately for you, Holden, things have changed. It’s time for you to pay for what you did.”

Shadows coalesced around her, forming…wolves. Wolves made of tatters of magic and inky darkness. There were six of them. The largest stood at her side, growling. It had golden eyes.

Aurora had turned so that her back was to the room and Holden and I were standing out on the balcony with our backs to the broken railing. I glanced behind me. Not only were we in a tower, but the castle was also on a cliff. The fall was so far, it disappeared into icy darkness.

“Aurora,” I said.

With a wave of her hand, the shadow wolves lunged at Holden. It was so much of a shock he hadn’t even had time to shift into his lycan form.

The big shadow wolf with golden eyes jumped on his chest, snarling. He staggered back, and they both went over the edge.

Holden screamed for a long time as he fell. Then, suddenly, his scream stopped.

I turned back to her. That flash of doubt was back. I held up my hands, shifting into my lycan form as I did. Snow started, driven hard by the wind.

“Aurora, please. I know you’re in there. Tell me you know me. Please.”

She looked up at me, and a sliver of recognition entered her lilac eyes. “Dane?”

As if he’d sensed the momentary lapse, shadows swirled behind her. A man with slicked-back black hair stood there. He smirked at me. “I know you’re here to offer yourself, Dane Montague. If you have a deal to make, let’s hear it.”