Chapter One
“Come on… come on…” Lennox muttered under his breath, fingers tight around the steering wheel as the car tore across the dark terrain, the spell still clinging to it in flickering remnants of speed and power.
But it was fading.
They could feel it.
“You said five minutes...ten minutes ago, Mareken. How much longer?” Dante snapped, his voice sharp, his knee bouncing relentlessly as his hands clenched and unclenched like he was holding himself back from ripping the door off its hinges.
Kael exhaled slowly from the front seat, eyes scanning the jagged rise of the mountain now looming ahead.
“We weren’t accounting for the spell cutting out early,” he said, voice steady but tight. “We should be coming up on it any minute now. We just need to find the entrance.”
“Fuck this.” Joshua’s voice was a low snarl.
“Let me out. Now. I’ll track her with the bond while you guys find the entrance, it’ll be quicker.”
“You sure, Josh?” Dom cut in immediately, turning toward him. “What if you’re outnumbered?”
“Yeah, I don’t care,” Joshua snapped, already shifting forward in his seat, tension coiling through him like a live wire. “I can’t just sit here and wait. Just stop the fucking car.”
“And you think we can, boy?” Dante growled, turning on him, eyes blazing. “She’s my daughter. I’d wager we’re all equally worried.”
“Josh,” Cam added, quieter but no less firm. “Just because you marked her doesn’t mean no one else cares just as much as you do.”
Joshua dragged a hand down his face, exhaling harshly.
“I know you care,” he bit out. “It’s not about that. My wolf is screaming at me to shift. I can’t do it here. Just...let me out.”
Lennox barely had time to even react. Because Joshua didn’t wait.
He burst the door open, and he launched himself out. Mid-jump....Bones cracked. Muscle tore and reformed. And his wolf burst free. Black fur. Green eyes blazing. He hit the ground running.
The world snapped into something sharper, clearer, instinct taking over, drowning out everything else. The pull hit him instantly. Hard. Dragging him left. While the car kept tearing forward to the right. Wrong way. They were going the wrong way.
The mountain rose around him, jagged, dark, unnatural. But Joshua didn’t hesitate. If someone built something here...It wouldn’t be obvious. It would be hidden. Buried. Protected.
He’ll find her. He had to.
His paws pounded against the ground, kicking up dust and loose stone as he ran faster, faster than he ever had, lungs burning, muscles straining, the bond pulling.
Pulling...then the wind shifted and it hit him. Her scent. Anabelle’s. Sharp. Rain, earth and freedom. Home. Alive and utterly real.
Fuck yes.
A howl ripped from him, loud, raw, echoing off the mountain walls. Excitement. Relief. Warning. He needed them to hear. Needed them to know, they had been going the wrong way. But he knew in doing so, he gave himself away.
Didn’t matter. He’d face every demon in this realm, just to get to her. So he pushed harder, following her scent like it was the only thing anchoring him to this world. Faster. Closer...
Then he rounded the jagged edge of the mountain, and skidded. Took the turn too fast, too sudden. His claws tore into the ground, trying to stop, but momentum carried him forward, body sliding across the clearing as his eyes locked onto...
Movement. People. Women. So many...
Over twenty of them, huddled together near the edge of a structure carved into the mountain itself, a... warehouse... hidden against the rock like it didn’t belong to the world above.
They recoiled instantly. Fear slammed into him from all sides. They scrambled back, some crawling, others pulling each other behind them, eyes wide, panicked. They were terrified. Of him. Of everything.
But...not all of them. No, there was one, emanating relief.
There.
The moment his eyes found her, everything else fell away. Relief hit him so hard it nearly brought him to his knees.
Gods.
The sight of her was...Glorious. Alive. Standing.
Anabelle ran. Straight toward him.
And he didn’t even think...he shifted mid-motion, the wolf tearing away into skin and bone, human again in seconds as they collided.
Arms. Limbs. Tangling together as he caught her.
“Anabelle...Angel...look at me,” he breathed, frantic, hands everywhere at once: her shoulders, her arms, her neck, her waist, checking, searching, needing to know.
“Are you okay? Angel, talk to me, are you hurt anywhere?”
She was crying. Tears slipping down her face as she clung to him like she’d never let go.
“I’m good, Josh,” she said, voice shaking but there. “I’m so glad you found me. Gods…”
That was it. That was all he needed. He pulled her tighter, crushing her against him before kissing her hard, desperate, grounding, real.
When he pulled back, his thumbs wiped at her tears, his breath uneven.
He hugged her again, tight, burying his face in the crook of her neck and inhaling deeply.
Her scent. Home. Safe...
Then, he froze. There was something else there. Something wrong. A scent that he hadn’t smelled in years. His brows pulled together, his body going still as he inhaled again.
No. No...
He pulled back slightly, eyes searching her face.
“Why do you smell like…”
He stopped. Understanding hitting him all at once. Sharp. Immediate.
His head snapped up.
“Is she here?” he demanded, voice suddenly hard, urgent. “Is Hera here?”
Too loud. Too fast. The women behind her flinched. Recoiled. Fear spiking again.
Joshua barely noticed. His focus snapped back to her. “Anabelle?”
Joshua’s hands were still on her. But they weren’t steady anymore.
They trembled, just slightly, but enough that Anabelle felt it where his fingers pressed into her arms. His breathing had changed too, no longer frantic with fear, but uneven… sharp… like something inside him had shifted too quickly to settle.
“Anabelle?” he repeated, quieter this time, but worse.
Because now there was something off in it. Not anger. Not fully. But something raw. Unbalanced.
She swallowed, her own pulse still racing from everything that had just happened.
“Josh—”
“Is she here?” he cut in again, the words pushing out of him like he couldn’t stop them. His eyes flicked past her, scanning the women, the entrance, the shadows beyond.
His jaw tightened hard enough she could see the muscle tick.
Behind them, the women shifted uneasily, shrinking closer together again. Bethany’s hand came up instinctively, as if ready to pull the others back if things went wrong.
Anabelle noticed. Of course she did.
She lifted her hands slowly, placing them over his wrists where they still held her, grounding him.
“Josh,” she said softly. “Look at me.”
For a second, he didn’t. His gaze stayed searching, wild, scanning everything but her. Then finally, it snapped back. Locked onto hers. There it was again. That off-kilter edge. Like his wolf was still too close to the surface.
“She’s here,” Anabelle said carefully. “Inside.”
His entire body went rigid. Every muscle. Every breath.
“Inside,” he repeated, like he was testing the word. Then his eyes darkened. “Alive?”
“Yes.”
A beat. Then something dangerous flickered across his face. Not relief. Not even surprise. Something sharper.
His hands dropped from her arms, but not because he was calming down, because he was pulling back, pacing a step away like he needed space from her… or from himself.
“Of course she is,” he muttered, dragging a hand through his hair. “Of course she fucking is.”
“Josh—”
“Did she touch you?” he snapped suddenly, turning back to her so fast it made a few of the women gasp.
Anabelle blinked. “What?”
“Did. She. Touch you,” he repeated, slower now, but the tension in his voice hadn’t eased. If anything, it had coiled tighter.
“Josh, no—”
“Did she see you?” he pushed again. “Did she hurt—”
“Joshua.”
Her tone cut through him. Firm. Grounded. Not afraid.
That stopped him. Just enough.
Anabelle stepped closer, closing the distance he’d created.
“She didn’t hurt me,” she said, softer now. “None of them did what they planned to do.”
His chest rose sharply.
“But she’s in there,” he said again, quieter, but no less intense. “Not out here, meaning she was part of all of this. Part of the reason you were taken.”
Anabelle hesitated, just for a fraction of a second.
And he caught it. Of course he did. His eyes sharpened immediately.
“What?” he demanded. “What aren’t you saying?”
She exhaled slowly.
“She… she knew who you were to me,” Anabelle admitted. “The second she got close enough, she...she scented you on me.”
Joshua went completely still. The air around him seemed to shift. Tighten.
“She what?” he said, dangerously quiet.
“She told him I was off limits,” Anabelle continued, watching him carefully. “Said I was yours. That I was mated.”
A beat. Then...Joshua laughed. But there was no humor in it. A sharp, disbelieving sound that made the women behind them flinch again.
“Of course she did,” he muttered again. “Of course she fucking did.”
“Josh—”
“Did she say anything else?” he cut in, stepping closer again, too close now, his presence intense, overwhelming. “About me? About us? About—”
“She just said that mated females weren’t part of their deal,” Anabelle said quickly. “She warned him about continuing to keep me. About… what it meant.”’
That stopped him. Again. But this time, It didn’t calm him. It made something else flicker. Confusion. Conflict. It passed just as quickly as it came.
His jaw clenched.
“She doesn’t get to do that,” he said, more to himself than to her. “She doesn’t get to…” He broke off, shaking his head sharply.
Anabelle reached for him again, more deliberately this time, her hand finding his chest, right over the mark.
“I’m okay,” she said softly. “Josh, I’m right here.”
His breath hitched. His eyes dropped briefly to where her hand rested.
For a second...Just a second, he leaned into it. Then his gaze snapped back up, hardening again.
“How many are inside?” he asked abruptly.
“Five in that room,” she said, matching his shift, understanding what he needed now. “Two more on the second level, though we didn't search it thoroughly.”
He nodded once. Short. Sharp. Focused, but still not steady.
Behind him, distant, but getting closer, the sound of an engine. The others. Joshua’s head tilted slightly, hearing it too.
Good.
But his attention snapped right back to the entrance. To the mountain. To her.
“They dont get to touch what’s mine,” he muttered under his breath, barely audible, but Anabelle heard it anyway. Felt it. The edge in him hadn’t settled. Not yet. Not even close.
And as he stepped slightly in front of her, positioning himself between her and the entrance, instinctively protective, dangerously keyed up....It was clear. Joshua wasn’t just here to rescue her. He was on the verge of tearing this place apart.
“No.” The word came out of her instantly. Rough. Final. Instinct, not thought.
Joshua didn’t even look at her when she said it, his eyes were locked on the entrance carved into the mountain, his body angled forward like he was already halfway gone.
“Josh.”
“I’m not waiting,” he snapped, voice low, dangerous. “I’m not standing out here while they’re in there—”
“No. Babe, listen to me.” Her hands came up again, firmer this time, gripping his forearms and forcing his attention back to her.
He resisted it for half a second. Then his eyes snapped down to hers. And she held them. Really held them.
“No, Josh,” she said again, softer now, but steadier. “Listen. I have a plan.”
His jaw flexed. “I don’t care about the plan…”
“Please mate.”
That word, It hit differently. Not weak. Not begging. But real. Raw.
“Please,” she repeated, her voice dropping, threading through the chaos in him. “Let this have been for something. Let me do this my way.”
His breathing hitched. Just slightly. Her grip tightened, anchoring him.
“You’re here,” she continued, slower now, deliberate. “You found me. You found us. I’m safe. I promise.”
His eyes flicked over her again, like he was verifying it, like he didn’t trust the words without proof.
“You’re bleeding,” he muttered, gaze catching on her arm.
“It’s already healed,” she said quickly. “Because of you. Because of all of you.”
That made something flicker again. Confusion. Awe. He didn’t understand it, but it cut through the edge just enough.
“I got them out,” she added, nodding slightly behind her toward the women. “All of them. They’re alive because I didn’t rush in without thinking.”
Joshua’s gaze shifted then, really seeing them this time. The women. Clinging to each other. Terrified. Alive. His chest rose sharply.
Anabelle softened her hold on him just slightly, but didn’t let go.
“So please,” she said again. “Let me finish this. Let me end this.”
He dragged a hand down his face, pacing a step away again, torn now, visibly fighting himself.
“I don’t like this,” he muttered.
“I know.”
“You’re asking me to stand down while the people who took you are still breathing.”
“I know.”
His hands clenched into fists.
“I should be in there.”
“And you will be,” she said immediately. “In a second. Just, not like this.”
He looked at her again. Really looked.
“You’re asking me to trust this?” he said, voice quieter now, but still tight.
“I’m asking you to trust me,” she corrected gently.
That landed. Hard. A beat passed. Two. The wind shifted around them, carrying the distant sound of the approaching car closer now...louder. Time was running out. Joshua exhaled sharply through his nose, shoulders tense, like every part of him was still screaming to ignore her and charge in anyway.
“What do you need?” he asked finally.
It wasn’t calm. It wasn’t fully controlled. But it was enough. Relief flickered across her face.
“I need you to get Dad,” she said quickly. “And Mareken. They need to hear this first, before anyone goes in there.”
His brows furrowed. “Why?”
“Because this isn’t just about me,” she said. “This place, what he’s been doing, it’s bigger than that. And if they go in blind, we could lose that chance.”
Joshua hesitated again. Then nodded once. Short.
“Fine,” he muttered. “But I’m not going far.”
“You don’t have to.”
She reached up then, brushing her hand lightly against his cheek, grounding him one more time.
“I love you Josh, I’d do anything for you.” she said softly.
His eyes closed for the briefest second at the touch. When they opened again, the edge was still there. But it was… focused now. Controlled enough to aim.
“You better be right about this, angel,” he murmured.
She gave him a small, steady smile. “I am.”
Behind them, the car finally broke into view around the mountain bend.
Joshua turned toward it, already moving, but stopped after a step and glanced back at her. Just once. Like he needed to see her still standing there. Still breathing. Still his.
Then he nodded to himself, and took off toward the others.
Leaving her at the entrance.
Alive. Safe.
And very much not done.
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