Andrew’s POV
The cave was cold, damp, and barely lit, just like my mood. The rest of my wolves stumbled into the dark, hidden space, each of them tired and battered from the battle we barely survived. I could feel the weight of their gazes on me-some confused, some disappointed, others downright angry. Even I felt disoriented. This wasn’t the outcome I had anticipated. Aiden’s strength, I expected. But the complete magical lockdown of his territory? That was unexpected, and it caught me completely off guard. I should’ve known better. His aunt Belle was known for her abilities, but I had underestimated her influence.
As my wolves settled in, licking their wounds both physical and mental, I retreated further into the cave toward the section I had claimed as my own-a hollowed-out room deep within, where I had kept Shenaya and Zoey. My heartbeat quickened as I neared the door, with adrenaline still coursing through my veins from the fight.
Shenaya and Zoey were mine now, whether they liked it or not.
I opened the door and stepped inside. My eyes immediately darted toward Zoey. She was small, delicate, and innocent-looking, but she quickly darted behind Shenaya when she saw me. I could see the fear in her eyes, and something within me twisted painfully. Zoey had always been so trusting of me, so attached. What changed?
“Zoey?” I called out softly, trying to mask the fatigue in my voice. “Come here, little one. It’s alright.”
She didn’t move. Her tiny hands clutched Shenaya’s dress, and she refused to meet my gaze. The sight made my heart sink. Was I losing her too? No. I couldn’t allow that.
I took a step forward, my eyes flicking toward Shenaya. It was then that I noticed it-the mark on her neck. My world slowed down. That’s an unmistakable wolf’s mark. Aiden’s mark.
For a few seconds, I just stood there, frozen in disbelief. Rage bubbled up from within me, hot and uncontainable.
“You let him mark you?” I spat, my voice trembling with the fury that threatened to break loose. “All this time, Shenaya? And I’m just now finding out?”
Shenaya looked up to confront me, and I could not read any remorse in her eyes; she was only rebelling.
“Yes,” and she uttered the word in an icy, frosty manner. “He’s my mate. He always has been.”
Her words cut deeper than I ever imagined they could. Mate. The word alone was like a knife to my gut.
“Your mate?” I repeated my voice barely a whisper. “You’re supposed to be mine!” I shouted, throwing a chair across the room in a blind rage. The noise startled Zoey, but I didn’t care.
I hurried to advance and then, seizing Shenaya’s arm, jerked her up and tossed her across the room as violently as I could. With a terrible thud, she collapsed against the opposite wall, and with the sickening sound of her body hitting the stone at the center of the room, the reading lamp shut off.
“You think this mark changes anything?” I growled, stalking toward her. “You’re still mine, Shenaya. You and Zoey. Aiden doesn’t matter.”
Shenaya stood up shakily, her defiance still burning bright in her eyes.
“You’ve lost, Andrew. You can’t keep us here forever. Aiden will come for me.”
I laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“Aiden will come for you? He doesn’t even know where you are. You’re stuck with me here, and you had better start liking it.”
When I tried to tap her again, it was growing increasingly frustrating now, I felt the air in the room shift. The air started to get cold and heavy and became dense, it felt like there was someone there observing me. I paused, turning slowly toward the source of the shift. It was Zoey.
Her small frame stood stiff and straight, no longer hiding behind Shenaya.
Her eyes were wide, and there was no longer fear in them. They were bright, barely human bright, but intense and glowing from her very core. Her small hand was extended in my direction, and her fingers clenched and shaken as if she were furious. Before I could register what was going on, I realized I was being lifted off the ground. I was being lifted by Zoey-without hands, touching me, without physical gestures at all. Her power was pure and raw, and I had never in my life come across such a force. My back hit the wall, and I couldn’t breathe. I attempted to squirm and twist, but I couldn’t. I was helpless, captured as if they had placed me under a glass.
“Zoey, stop!” I shouted, trying to break free. “Stop it!”
But Zoey didn’t listen. Her eyes grew wider, and I sat there stunned as a knife levitated from the table beside us and began to twirl effortlessly. It sat there for a moment, and then this thing came flying right at me, cutting me on the arm. I screamed as fiery pain radiated through me. I screamed, and the sound raked up and down my throat, but it didn’t matter. There was an ugly sore on the arm that I realized was taking a very long time to heal. Why wasn’t I healing?
Then Zoey lowered me gently to the floor, making sure that she was letting me go after using her invisible hand to hold me. I sank to my buttocks and, grasping my arm, gazed at the steady flow of blood from a severe, clean cut.
“How-how did you do that?” I choked on my own saliva, much to Zoey’s amazement. She was just a child. She couldn’t possibly know magic this powerful. Where had she learned it?
Zoey stared at me, her expression blank and unreadable. She didn’t say a word. She didn’t need to. Her power spoke for her.
Shenaya hurried over to Zoey, to pull her back.
“You don’t ever touch her again,” Zoey said, her voice low and dangerous. ‘If you ever attempt to harm her again, I won’t hold back.’
WHAT? I simply gazed at her; I could not believe my ears or my eyes; my brain was buzzing. The person speaking wasn’t even sounding like Zoey, as if she had been possessed. I had lost control. In this case, Zoey has control over me, and the shame of being under the mercy of a little with washed over me. I was scared of her ability and of the entire situation.
I slowly rose from the floor, grabbing my arm to ease the pain. The bleeding had lessened, but the cut was deep and nasty. I lurched toward the door, suddenly flying into a panic that had not been a part of me for years. How had I been tripped up on this so thoroughly? I was thinking, how did Zoey, a child once dependent on me and a woman now, gain so much strength?
I opened the door, and with one last glance at Shenaya and Zoey, I slammed it shut behind me. The walls of the cave echoed with the sound of the door closing, and I leaned heavily against the cold stone, breathing hard as I tried to regain my composure.
What had just happened?
The pain in my arm was secondary now. The real pain, the one that gnawed at my soul, was knowing that I had lost control over everything. Shenaya, Zoey, and most importantly, this mission.
I teetered in the direction of the main room of the cave in which the rest of my wolves were dozing. When I walked by them they glanced up at me, from the corner of their eyes I could see fear and bewilderment. I didn’t say a word. I couldn’t.
But one thing was clear. It was not as I expected the type of power Zoey possessed. And if she had turned against me, then I had a much bigger problem than just Aiden she was far more dangerous.
Whether it was witchcraft, she was employed, or some other force, I had to wrest control from her- or join her in it. This is what I never wanted to happen to me because if I had not taken action, I would have done it anyway.
Zoey was the key. The question was whether I would unlock that power before it destroyed me.
But first, I needed to figure out why the knife wound wasn’t healing. Something was very, very wrong.