“Jasper…She has Jasper. He’ll get her out. He got her out of a vault that was magicked to keep intruders in.”

“Then why isn’t she here?” Conah said. “We have to consider the possibility that something’s gone wrong, interfered with their connection, maybe even trapped Jasper in there with her.”

“They could be anywhere,” Bastian said.

“And when we go in after them, we’ll be trapped,” Grayson added.

I loved that he said when, not if.

“I don’t understand it,” Dean said. “They took vamps, and then they took humans, and they took Hunter too…”

I looked down at Kristoff, and the process was suddenly clear. “I think they’re turning the regular vamps into these super vamps.”

“And the humans? Hunter?” Dean pressed.

“I don’t know… Humans could be a blood source for the super vamps, I guess…”

“Blood drive. Blood donations,” Grayson said. “Fuckers.”

Oh, shit. It was all clicking into place. The only piece that didn’t fit was Hunter.

It didn’t matter. We needed to focus on getting them back. “The humans are involved, so we need to contact the Magiguard. They’ll want in on this now.” I didn’t have Ursula’s number. Cora did, but… “Conah, can you please contact Ursula for us before you leave.”

He looked torn, and I knew he was struggling over the dilemma of whether to go to the Underealm or stay to help us.

He was needed there more than he was needed here. “Look. We’ve got this. You need to focus on Lilith and stopping the war.”

“I’ll speak to Ursula now.” He winked out.

I focused on Bastian and Dean. “Put together two teams. One for extraction and one for backup.”

Bastian and Dean headed off to round up the Loup, and I was left with Grayson, Uri, and a catatonic Kristoff.

My stomach churned. My best friend was in danger…and my fated mate…I’d pushed my feelings about his missing status aside over and over because they came from a primal place, a place deep within that didn’t connect with my human psyche, but there was no ignoring the alarms bells my Loup was blaring right now.

I couldn’t shut off the panic and the need for action. I had to get Cora back, and I had to save Hunter.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Cora

“What the actual fuck?” I stand on an outcrop of rocks and look out at the churning gray sea. From my vantage point, it’s clear I’m on an island. A small, rocky island in the middle of nowhere. There’s cover behind me and a trail that leads into it. My bet is that the real HQ of these ouroboros fuckers is that way.

Time to tell the others.

I make the jump.

Pain slashes across my skin, and an unseen force slams into me. I land on my ass, jarring my tailbone.

“Shit.” No, no, no, this cannot be happening.

I take a breath and try again.

Pain and the same slug to the chest, throwing me back.

I’m trapped.

Okay, this is okay. Uri will go back and tell the others, and they’ll come looking and…Fuck, they’ll fall into the same trap.

Focus, Cora. Think.

Jasper! “Jasper!” Come on, where are you? You always sense my distress. I’m distressed, damn you. “Jasper, I need you!”

That should do it. He’ll come get me so that he can gloat.

Seconds pass, the wind tears at my clothes, howling in laughter at my predicament.

No Jasper.

My blood goes cold in my veins as it hits me that maybe he can’t sense me. Maybe whatever’s stopping me from jumping out of here is interfering with our connection. I’ve wanted to get rid of the fucker ever since he latched on to me, but right now I’d give anything to have him here. His snide, cocky attitude and his I-own-you grip would be most welcome this moment. Anything to get the fuck off this rock.

But he isn’t coming, and so I need to get my shit together and deal. I’m here, and if there’s a way onto this rock, there’s a way off it. Another portal probably. Probably through the woodland and at whatever facility lies within. Okay, I may not be able to jump out of this place, but I can jump down from this rock.

I land on my ass, stunned and disorientated for a moment. Seriously? What the fuck? It looks like using that ability is totally off the table on this island.

Okay, no worries. I still have my legs.

I climb down the rise and head for the tree line. I’m beginning to hate forests just as much as Fee hates alleys. I’m almost under cover of the canopy when a sharp click has me stopping in my tracks.

I sense a presence behind me, and then a voice booms over the wind.

“Put your hands up, nice and slow.”

My hands, huh? I raise them slowly, prepared to blast whoever with a nice ball of lightning. I turn and fire.

Knives stab my palms, but no power shoots from my fingertips. The miasma that’s been accessible to me so easily is suddenly absent.

I’m fucking cut off. Totally and absolutely cut off from my power.

My stomach feels suddenly empty and hollow as the three humans dressed in black watch me down the barrels of their guns.

Oh, fuck.

Hunter

I can’t feel my Loup. I can’t connect with it. It’s pushed deep into slumber. The power of this place has finally subdued it. But we fought. We fought hard, and I succeeded in leaving a message for Fee and Grayson.

Have they found it?

I don’t understand how I can connect to them, but I can, and that’s the only hope I’ve had since I was captured.

Captured.

Me.

Fucking ridiculous.

Thinking about it makes my blood boil. I sensed something was off when the human teens showed me the flyer for blood donations. I should have made them drop the idea. Instead, I offered to fucking chaperone.

I should have taken backup.

Ha. Backup.

I’m packless, for fucksake. Mated to a Loup who hates my guts and chose my brother.

Fee…

Thinking about her makes my chest ache. The way she looked at me when I took her, the vitriol in her tone, so at odds with the way her body responds to mine.

I close my eyes and summon her face and heat blooms through my limbs. My Loup is suppressed, but it isn’t dead.

The memory melts, and I sigh. Nothing can distract me from the fact I’m trapped in a cage, a fucking guinea pig for human experimentation. Fucking humans!

The gall.

They’re building soldiers. Vamps juiced up on fuck knows what. I’ve seen them.

And the human prisoners they’ve collected are a food source for their army.

But what do they need an army of vamps for? What are they planning?

I need to know.

I rub the needle marks in my arm. I’m not healing as quickly as I usually do. This place is saturated with magic, and it’s blocking my Loup power. I wager it’ll render an outlier mortal. Clever humans.

This evens the playing field, except that the juiced-up vamps seem to retain their strength. Which leads me to conclude their power doesn’t come from magic, it comes from biological tampering. I’ve seen the vials in the lab where they work on me every day.

They’ll come for me soon. It’s almost time. I can feel it. They have me in a lone cell, in an empty block away from the human prisoners and the vamps they’ve rounded up, ready for altering, but I’ve seen the other blocks. They drag me through them every time they need more samples from me. Up a staircase and past a door, which screams no access. I can feel power radiating off that door. There’s something behind it. Something important.

My hand goes to my neck, but I don’t touch the chafed and bruised skin. The fucking collar they use is brutal. Able to administer electroshocks if I get out of line, and in the first days, I got out of line, a lot.

No point in fighting it, though.

Best to lie low and gather intel until they come for me.

If they come for you.

My stomach twists. No. I’m not hearing him. He isn’t real. Fee will come for me.

Right, because you mean so much to her.

I’m her mate.

A mate she rejected.

She isn’t the kind of Loup to turn her back on someone in trouble.

But when the someone is you... Face it, Hunter, no one wants you. No one has ever wanted you. Needed you, yes, but wanted…Nah. This is where you belong. This is what you deserve. Your father knew it. He knew you were bad luck from the moment you pushed your way out of your mother’s womb, squalling like a little bitch. Your mother died rather than stick around to suckle you.

Anger races, hot and potent through my veins. Fuck off.

Not this time. I clawed my way back, and I’m not leaving.

I’m not listening to you.

You can’t not.

I stand tall, fighting the tremor that wants to take over my body. You’re not real.

Oh, Hunter, I’m real, all right. I’m all the shit you hate about yourself pressed together and given life. I’m self-loathing, and buddy, I ain’t going nowhere.

Boot falls echo off the stone walls, and I back up into the shadows, waiting, hoping for a chance to pounce. All these fuckers need to do is make one false move. I know my way around this facility and—

Yeah, even if they do, you won’t get far. This place is a fortress.

I ignore the inner voice, barely breathing as the guard appears, but he isn’t alone. He has someone with him. A blindfolded and cuffed female. Anger radiates off her like a furnace.

I like her already.

Another guard joins the first and unlocks my cage. My legs ache to pounce, but I know I won’t make it past the woman. They have her blocking my exit. The guard holding her uncuffs her, shoves her into my cell, and slams the door closed.

She throws out her arms to catch herself and cries out in pain as her knees hit the ground. “I hope your dicks fall off!”

Yes, I like her.

“Have fun with your new roomie.” The guards sneer at her before sliding their glances into the shadows where I stand.