32
KARESSA
The underhalls flew by as I stormed through, tunnel after darkened tunnel delving into the warm earth. For long centuries these corridors had been walked and worn smooth. For centuries beyond that they’d had been crumbling; dimly lit by torches and choked with dust.
Damn. I was beginning to hate this place.
It was time for change. I knew that now. Everything I’d had here — no, everything I’d built — had been torn down or thrown away. It meant little to me now. Even the fondest memories were tainted; recollections of running full-tilt through the fragrant forests, of wriggling through the cracks and crevasses of the ancient fortress to discover the splendor of the cathedral.
But all those times were in the distant past.
Key members of our pack were all gone now, disappearing insidiously one by one without me realizing the loss. Our numbers had dwindled to dangerous levels. But I’d always had them. I’d always had him…
Broderick. I could feel him now. Sense him as easily as if he were standing before me, in full splendid view.
He was close. He was coming.
And there wasn’t an ounce of reservation or fear in his heart.
Ah, my brave, always courageous Broderick. Your fearlessness is what I adore most about you…
I’d been a fool to think I could subvert Damien, even for a moment. Though there’d been sparks of love between us there had also been a distance; an unbridgeable gap that always kept the two of us from becoming too close. Physically he was dominant — the superior of any of the three fools I’d been forced to mate for the past year. Emotionally however…
Emotionally my heart had always belonged to Broderick.
It was just one more reason I needed to leave. Needed to find a new clan, an all new pack I could raise and rule. But not here. Not in these rotting, moonless halls beneath the ground, which men had wisely abandoned for centuries.
Again and again I’d gone over my mistake, which was pushing too hard, too fast. I needed to learn patience. I needed to temper my enthusiasm with thought and restraint. Broderick had always balanced me in that way. He’d taken the edge off my compulsivity — the one trait Damien and I actually shared — and added a certain wisdom to my influence that made us unstoppable together.
Broderick I loved. Broderick I needed. Damien could fly away to whatever shiny place next drew his attention, but Broderick…
Somehow, I would make Broderick go with me.
I turned again, moving downward into the old chambers now. Here the air was heavy and the darkness oppressive. There were piles of debris; books, scrolls. Centuries-old wood swollen with water, splintering to dust beside walls of crumbling stone.
Everything here was oldest of all. It stank of mold and mildew and decay.
But this is what she wants…
I sniffed the air, wrinkling my nose at the stench. Somewhere beneath it, I could smell something else though. Something foreign yet familiar. Something more important than anything else.
No, it wasn’t Broderick I was looking for. Finding him at this point would’ve been easy enough. But in order to win him I required something else first. I needed to eliminate the one thing that could possibly keep him from coming with me.
I needed to find her.