I am Wolf
Chapter Twenty-Five

WOLF

I replace myself locked inside a cage when everything eventually stops spinning. My stomach still feels like it’s been freshly pulled from a drier, but my headache is at least gone.

The cage I’m stuck in is the same cage inside the hole initially intended for Sasha when we arrived here; the metals of these bars are made from very raw and unbreakable metal, specifically created to hold our kind and restrain them. I could not break out of here if I tried; my body feels like it’s been dragged through a grinder; whatever that witch said to me disagreed with my indigestion. Fuck.

Then, I sense her somewhere behind me, gritting my teeth in distaste; I close my eyes, my back facing her as I sit against the metal bars of the cage as I grumble,

“Not now,” Of all the times and all the people, Mason is the last person I want to see. The moment you no longer look at someone without imagining all the ways you could end their lives, you know it’s over; there’s no coming back from that, and that’s how I look at her now, whatever we had in the past is dead because she’s responsible for this.

The Mason I knew is dead to me now; I don’t care how sick and twisted she’s become over the past two years, especially since the last time I saw her. Still, she made one fatal fucking mistake the moment she ran off to Caius, one she’ll pay for with her life if anything happens to my mate.

Leaning against the metal bars, I can feel her fingertips running down my back, and my entire body tenses with putrid disgust.

“I can help you forget about everything, like old times... remember when I helped you numb the pain?”

Is she for real? I swear it’s just an instant reaction as I swing around and, in a split second, grip her by her throat through the metal bars, tightening my hold, yanking her right up against the bars as she starts to choke, turning red in her face; her eyes widened as she stares at me,

“I’m not the same fucking kid you manipulated when I was fifteen. Touch me again, and I’ll break your hand right off,” I growl at her, my wolf showing in my eyes before I abruptly let go of her and turn around to face the other way.

I’m not playing this game with Mason; my wolf is ready to snap at any given moment, so one wrong push from her, and I’ll do something I’ll end up regretting, all because she pushed me too far.

I’m secretly hoping she’ll get the drift and leave when Damien steps up to her out of nowhere and grips Mason by the shoulder, yanking her back and away from the metal bars; he spins her around. Lucky, because a second longer, she would have been a goner if I had anything to do with it.

It’s then that my wolf decides to come back to the party after hiding away for the past few hours. I can’t say I blame him; he feels shit about nearly getting us killed by initiating the shift; again, it’s not his fault. The witch was the one who made him lose his goddamn mind.

I turn back to face the two of them and see how Damien’s staring at Mason, and I know something’s off.

Damien is holding Mason by her shoulders, staring her right in the eyes as he glares hard at her,

“Seriously, I told you no, and you do it anyway. I said stay away from him. Do you want me to lock you away in my fucking room until this is all done?!” He’s scolding her, and instead of biting back as she would typically do, she’s clenching her jaw and flinching away as if his words are physically hurting her.

What the fuck am I witnessing right now?

Sensing my confused look as I stare at them, Mason tries to wiggle free from his grip when she grits out,

“Don’t you dare touch me again?” Damien quickly steps forward, a growl coming from him as he clenches his jaw; gripping her around the throat, he pushes his forehead against hers as he stares into her eyes.

“I will touch you any fucking way I want to. Don’t test me, Mason.” And as she pulls back, I watch her bottom lip quiver, tears welling in her eyes. He slowly lets go of her, and she lowers her eyes to the ground before spinning on her heel and heading toward the exit in a hurry.

My mouth gapes as I watch her go, completely dumbfounded.

Was she just about to cry?

I’ve never seen Mason cry a day in my life.

It’s then that I hear Damien sigh, raking a hand through his messy hair before turning his head to look at me,

“You know what, I don’t envy you one bit, being mated to a half-wolf, half-witch hybrid. But at least it beats the shit show I’m now fucking having to deal with.

Furrowing my brows, I’m trying to put two and two together,

“First of all, leave my mate out of this, and second, what the fuck was that? Is Mason your...” I can’t even say it because it’s that unbelievable. Nodding, Damien scoffs,

“Yup, I just found out yesterday; I mean, the moon has to confirm it officially, but the witch made it known to us through her witchy magic,” I blink in response, my brows furrowing as I try to process how messed up that is.

“But she’s you’re cousin?” Smirking, he again sighs,

“Yeah, maybe. I’m not so sure anymore,” I scoff, shaking my head in disbelief,

“That’s fucked up,” raising a brow at me, he shrugs nonchalantly,

“Tell me about it.”

We stay like that for a while, not saying a word to each other because Damien and I aren’t exactly friends; we’ve never seen eye to eye, and I can’t see that changing anytime soon. Still, I genuinely feel sorry for him, being fated to your cousin. Man, that’s messed up.

Damien blows a breath, shaking his head as he turns away and heads towards the hole’s entrance, mumbling under his breath as I watch him go.

Man, we all have our own problems, some more than others.

I suddenly feel her there inside of my head; it’s Sasha. Her mind link is this instant warmth and comforting sensation that comes over my soul, and I instantly respond to her when I link back,

“Hey baby, you okay?”

“No.” My jaw clenches in response as my brows furrow and my beast ripples through my body,

“What’s wrong? Is it Caius? Is it that witch? Sasha, tell me?” Rambling, I feel my wolf wanting to lose control as that last bit comes out in a growl.

She doesn’t respond; she keeps dead quiet, and this only agitates my wolf more when I snap at her,

“Sasha!”

“I’m fine, okay; it’s not Caius or Lisbon or anything like that... It’s just...” My beast instantly calms as I blow out a breath and scrub a hand over my face,

“Just don’t do that to me; you don’t understand how badly my wolf wants to break through and shift; he can’t handle being separated from you,”

“I know, I mean, my wolf feels the same, that’s what I meant. She’s making it unbearable, and now, with this thing around my neck, I can’t shift either,” It feels as if all the air leaves my lungs when I link back,

“What thing around your neck?”

“It’s a Maldovite stone; Caius said if I remove it, we’ll both die. I don’t know if he was only messing around, but-”

“Don’t take it off!” My voice booms through the mind link as my wolf surges through my chest, “Whatever you do, just don’t, okay, Caius and this damn witch isn’t messing around with this stuff,”

“I’m terrified, Wolf, not for myself but for you,” and I can feel her heart aching through the link, which instantly has a lump forming in my throat,

“Baby, don’t cry, please. I know it’s scary right now, but I’ll get us out of this; I just need to figure out how exactly I’m going to do it, but I promise you...”

“I believe you; I just wish that there was more that I could do,” she links back in no more than a whisper, and then just like that, the link breaks before I can even respond, which only means that someone’s there.

My wolf rattles at my chest like an out-of-control beast when a deep growl reverberates through my chest. I grip the cage’s metal bars, shaking them as I grit my teeth. I’m going to lose my goddam mind in here, and that’s the idea; that’s what Caius wants.

My chest rises and falls heavily when I rest my forehead against the cold bar in front of me; think, Wolf, fucking think, there has to be a way out of this; there just has to be.