Alcaeus
There had been many moments throughout my life when I’d wondered: How the fuck did I get here? Where did I go wrong? What the hell was I thinking?
But as I sat inside of a holding cell in my own pack’s—my own family’s—estate home in Salvador, I pondered such questions harder than I ever had before.
Of course, this was after I’d expended all of my energy and every shred of magical ability I possessed first trying to escape, then threatening and bargaining with any guard within hearing range, and finally destroying anything and everything within my cell.
Goddamnit, I resented not possessing the ability to teleport right now. Short of bribing or manipulating a guard, there was no other way out. And Milena and Alex had already blocked all of the guards’ minds from me.
I’d personally had a hand in conceiving and reinventing our holding cells here at the Reinoso pack estate in Salvador after Raul had managed to escape and lay destruction to an entire wing of the place a decade ago. Talk about irony. I was trapped within my own invention: stone-and steel-constructed walls too thick to break or blast through with magic—that were also reinforced by magic. Convenient.
Never would I forgive Kai for this.
Never would I forgive any of them.
My own family had stood before me as a united front—against me—when Kai, Remy, and I had teleported back to Brazil and I had sought their help in recovering Avery and Sloane from Raul.
Before I had known that they intended to betray me, I had warned them that Raul had changed—that he’d disobeyed his Alpha Gabriel to save Avery, arguing that his power development had to be greater than what we knew it to be at this point—greater than what Raul displayed to the world, at least.
Raul. That conniving sonofabitch always managed to have some secret that he was keeping from everyone and unlimited tricks up his sleeve. As much as I hated him for the way he had waltzed into Avery’s home and plucked little Sloane up in his arms like it was no big deal, as much as I resented him for teleporting both Avery and my daughter away from me, I also knew that he was possibly the only hope I had left—the only protection there might be for Avery and Sloane from Gabriel now that my own family had betrayed me and locked me away like I was the enemy.
Locked me up “for my own good,” they’d claimed.
My own good? To prevent me from protecting my own mate and her child!
They all thought I’d gone mad. But they were the ones who were crazy.
And they were all dead to me.
I still couldn’t believe how my whole world had gone to shit in a matter of minutes within the four burnt walls of Sloane’s bedroom. It had been easier for Raul to calm Sloane than it had been for him to subdue her mother. Avery had flipped out at his initial intrusion, her motherly protective instincts kicking into high gear when Raul blasted me out of the way and snatched up Sloane.
Yet Raul had still managed to convince Avery to come with him. Willingly, she’d agreed—right in front of me. Even after Raul had confessed to having switched the cell phone her friend Wyatt had given her for one with a tracking device days ago when they’d first met; confessed to have been watching the house ever since that day in order to make sure that she and Sloane were safe.
My mate had ultimately believed in Raul—trusted that Raul could keep her safer than I would when I’d tried to convince her not to go with him. I’d foolishly begged her to come with me instead—to bring her daughter to Brazil so we could convince Milena and Alex that Sloane wasn’t the Rogue threat the prophesies perceived her to be.
Avery had whispered that she was sorry, had told me with tears in her eyes that she couldn’t come with me—because she didn’t trust my family; she didn’t trust Kai.
And she had been smart not to. Wiser than I had been.
Raul had already saved Avery from Gabriel once. I fervently prayed he would do it again in my absence now. I had no other options.
Looking back on my four centuries, I realized now that mine had been a very privileged existence. Too much had come far too easily.
Avery was right about me: I did have a hero complex—to the extent that I accurately grasped what that was. And that hero complex had made me stupid.
Because I’d been so wrapped up enjoying a life where I’d long been top dog, spoiled and arrogant from centuries of besting every opponent, of overcoming every obstacle thrown at me, of always getting the final word in and having the last laugh, that my pride had prevented me from accepting the truth of Lupe’s situation all those years ago when I’d been faced with it.
For decades, I’d chosen to deny the reality of Lupe’s connection to Nahuel, because it was easier than accepting that I would never truly be able to save her—no matter how long she lived or remained under my protection. That I couldn’t fix it, as Lupe had reminded me on more than one occasion.
It was a shameful moment of realization now to see all of the ways that I had spent the better part of the past decade nursing my own ego as much as I had mourning the loss of a woman I’d loved so dearly.
Worse yet to admit that same stubborn ego had caused me to grossly underestimate my former best friend’s level of frustration with me; and had prevented me from fully acknowledging his and the rest of the pack’s increasing respect for and loyalty to Milena.
Milena had been weepy and apologetic about having to lock me up—moments before she’d knocked me out cold with a lightning bolt to the back of my skull.
She’d doled out every assurance that no one would ever harm Avery, promising me that my mate would be recovered safely from the Salvatellas and brought to me here. She couldn’t say the same for Sloane, though—not until she’d witnessed the Rogue’s behavior firsthand, she said.
And they’d all stood by Milena in agreement with this decision: my own brothers as well as Kai and Jussara. Even Lessa had taken their side and said it was best to recover Wyatt by other means rather than negotiate with a pack that had never been honorable.
Alessandra caving and abandoning me at my darkest hour had cut the worst of all.
But then again, I should have seen that one coming, too. Ever since our baby brother was born, Lessa had sided with Alex over me. And I knew of only one time that she’d been able to disobey his direct order when he’d been Alpha.
I hadn’t eaten any of the food they’d brought to my cell. I hadn’t slept a wink in the past twenty-eight hours and forty-three minutes since I’d been away from Avery. I wasn’t sure how I ever would again until I had her back safely with me.
I was curled up in the corner in my wolf form, revisiting all the ways I’d let my ego blind me and cause me to put my mate’s life in danger, when I caught the sound of Lessa’s voice on the other side of the thick cell door.
Then it stopped, and I dismissed it as my ears playing tricks on me.
Alex and Milena had forbidden Remy, Jussara, and Alessandra from coming to Salvador to visit me until everything was resolved with Raul. I’d heard them give the order.
And they were all likely on their way to meet with Raul by now. I had informed them of Raul’s demands in exchange for Wyatt’s safe return.
My ears perked up again as I heard the door bolts in the floor slip out of place, one at a time. No one had opened the door since I’d been in here. Food was provided through the smaller portal in the wall.
Were they letting me out already?
Had they recovered Avery?
I didn’t expect so. Not enough time had elapsed. And Avery’s energy still felt so far away from me.
And so sad.
A side bolt slipped out, then another.
The door swung open, and Lessa walked in—not dressed like a schoolteacher. She was wearing red-heeled combat boots and skinny jeans.
She threw a blast at every surveillance camera throughout the room, before turning her attention to me. “You look like shit.”
Lessa had come back for me! She’d disobeyed both Milena and Alex’s direct orders.
She could do that?
“You waiting for an invitation?” She stomped over and snapped her fingers in front of my muzzle. “Put some clothes on and get your head in the game, Al. We’ve got mates to rescue and a pack to take back.”