Chapter 95
Damon
The moment I stepped into the courtyard, I knew something was wrong.
The palace gates groaned open ahead of us, the guards offering their bows a beat too slow. Ronan had peeled off to handle the travel reports. I stayed behind, expecting the usual–an update on the selection, Council requests, maybe a moment of quiet before the chaos resumed.
Instead, silence greeted me like a fog.
No attendants rushed forward with messages. No one met my gaze directly. The stillness wasn’t reverent–it was suspicious.
Thanded my coat to a waiting steward, but he flinched when our hands brushed. I stared at him until he bowed and fled.
My chest ached–low and sharp, like a bruise beneath the ribs.
At first, I thought it was fatigue. The journey had been long, the meetings longer. But the ache pulsed deeper, just below where the bond sat–where!
should’ve felt her.
Lila.
I reached for her in that quiet way we’d learned to do–wordless and warm.
But there was nothing.
Not emptiness. Not resistance. Just… absence. A chill crept up my spine.
I turned to the nearest guard, one I didn’t recognize. “Where is Lady Ashford?”
The man paled. His mouth opened, closed. “I–I believe she’s… resting, Your Majesty.”
Liar. My voice dropped into a growl. “Where?”
“I–she was seen near the Council chambers, but I don’t-”
“Get Beta Ronan.”
I didn’t wait for a response. I moved down the corridor with growing urgency, passing the garden arch, the Council wing, the east hall–and still, no sign
of her.
The ache in my chest sharpened. The closer I got to the heart of the palace, the more I felt it: the bond wasn’t just muted.
It was strangled. The air shifted–rushed.
“Your Highness!” Emma’s voice cracked through the hall like a whip.
I turned just as she barreled toward me, breathless, face flushed and wild. “You’re back–you’re really back–thank the gods.” Her hands clutched my sleeve before I could speak. “You have to come, They’ve taken her.”
“Who-”
“Elena, er, Lila…” her voice hushed on my mate’s true name, knowing to keep it secret. Nora accused her in front of everyone. Said she broke the selection rules. They–they threw her in the dungeon.”
I stared at her, frozen.
“She’s been down there for days, Your Majesty. I tried to get to her. The Council barred me. Said she needed to be sequestered for questioning–some
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long winded explanation about protocol-
The words slid around me like cold water. “She’s been where?” I asked softly.
Emma’s eyes filled with tears. “In the lower cells. Under the old wards. They’re suppressing her wolf. She hasn’t eaten. Ho one’s seen her I don’t even know if Her voice broke. “Please,”
Everything inside me went still. The fury didn’t come loud or hot. It arrived like black ice–cold, smooth, and deadly.
I turned without a word.
“Wait,” Emma called, rushing after me. “They’ll try to stop you.”
“They’re welcome to try.”
The guards flanking the south corridor stiffened as I approached. One stepped forward. “Your Majesty, the Council has ordered-”
I didn’t even slow. “Open the lower gates.”
“I can’t–without-”
My eyes met his and I let my power ripple over him. “Then move.”
He did.
I descended the stone steps, every pace measured and silent. The torches flickered along the walls. The scent of magic thickened the deeper I went. It clung to the stones. Cloying. Suffocating.
The ache in my chest surged into a burn. Now I understood. This place–this warded tomb–was why I couldn’t feel her.
And someone was going to pay for it.
The lower halls of the dungeon were just as I remembered.
Torchlight danced across damp stone, casting warped shadows that clawed at the ceiling. The silence was unnatural–not quiet, but suppressed. I could feel the wards pulsing against my skin like pressure in the soul, designed to smother what made us wolves. What made us whole.
No wonder I couldn’t feel her.
My boots echoed against the floor with each step, but the sound, faded too quickly. This place was made to erase.
Two guards stood at the iron gate that led to the sequestered cells. They straightened at my approach, uncertain whether to block my path or drop to
their knees.
“Step aside,” I said.
One opened his mouth. “Your Majesty, the Elders requested-”
“I did not.”
That was all it took.
They scrambled back as I reached for the key hanging on the inner post. The cold metal bit into my palm as I unlocked the gate and pushed it open with a groan that sounded far too much like a death toll.
Down the final corridor the magic thickened with every step. Old spells–designed to break minds slowly. Wards of confusion. Suppression. Silencing.
I reached the last door.
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Chapter 95
The moment I laid a hand to the handle, the bond gave a flicker. Not strong. Not clear. But there. Faint. Wounded. Alive.
I shoved the door open.
She was curled in the corner like a discarded offering–knees pulled to her chest, hair limp around her shoulders, skin pale with a bluish tint at the edges. Her gown, the one she wore the night she was arrested, was torn and filthy. Her feet were bare.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
“Lila,” I said, but it came out as a whisper.
Her head lifted slowly–too slowly–and she blinked at me like I was a hallucination. Her lips parted, cracked and dry, but no sound came out.
I crossed the cell in two strides and dropped to my knees beside her. My hands hovered–afraid to touch her, afraid she might break.
Her scent was wrong. Dim. Muted beneath the weight of magic and cold and suffering.
I tilted her face gently, and her eyes met mine. Empty. Not because she didn’t feel–but because she didn’t believe what she saw.
Her voice, when it came, was so soft I almost missed it.
“Are you real?”
I closed my eyes against the ache in my chest.
“I am now,” I said.
Her brow creased faintly. “You didn’t come.”
My jaw locked.
“I didn’t know,” I said, my voice rough. “I left thinking you were safe. I came back and couldn’t feel you.”
Her eyes fluttered closed.
I slipped one arm behind her knees, the other beneath her shoulders. She didn’t resist as I lifted her–she simply sagged into me like something folded too many times.
Her head fell to my shoulder.
Every muscle in my body burned with restraint. Every step I took back toward the cell door felt heavier than the last. I could hear her breathing–shallow uneven. But she was breathing.
Alive. And mine.
When I reached the corridor, the guards scrambled back again. I didn’t speak to them. I didn’t speak at all.
But I made sure they saw my eyes–glowing faintly now, just enough to remind them who I was.
Not a council member. Not just their king. A pissed off Alpha Wolf. And someone had hurt my mate.
As I climbed the stairs, carrying her against my chest, I didn’t need to shout or rage. The promise in my silence was enough.
I would find every single person who let this happen. And I would make them beg.
