Chapter 22 - They Are Mine
1356 Words
No one moved.
The last of the Valemere wolves stepped out of the prison behind Elara, their movements uneven after years underground. Chains brushed against bruised skin while loose restraints knocked together with hollow metallic sounds that carried through the morning air. The scent of damp stone, rust, sweat, and silver clung to them as they emerged from the darkness into the pale light of dawn.
Cold wind moved through the trees surrounding the prison grounds, stirring loose strands of Elara’s hair across her face. Somewhere deeper in the territory, wolves had already started gathering. She could hear movement beyond the heavy silence in front of her—boots against dirt, distant voices, the growing awareness spreading through the pack that something had gone wrong.
Thorne’s gaze found her immediately.
His eyes moved over her once, taking in the dirt streaked across her hands, the bruising forming along her wrist, the tension locked through her shoulders, and the way she stood between him and the wolves behind her before his attention settled fully on her face.
“What exactly did you think you were doing?”
His voice stayed calm.
Controlled.
That frightened her more than if he had shouted.
Elara held his gaze without stepping back.
“What I had to.”
The answer came steady, though her heartbeat slammed hard enough against her ribs to hurt.
Something tightened in Thorne’s expression.
“You broke into a secured prison,” he said. “You attacked my guards.”
“They were keeping Valemere wolves in chains.”
Her voice cut through the cold air before he could continue.
The wolves behind her shifted uneasily at the edge in her tone.
“They’ve been buried underground for years while everyone believed they were dead.”
Wind carried through the prison grounds again, brushing against sweat-damp skin and stirring the scent of silver lingering behind her. Somewhere farther back, another wolf approached cautiously before stopping when they sensed the tension spreading between both groups.
Thorne’s jaw tightened slightly.
“This pack answers to me,” he said. “And I decide when prisoners are released.”
“They are Valemere.”
Her voice didn’t waver.
“They are mine.”
Every word came harder than the last, her tone leaving no room for argument.
Several Draegon wolves farther back exchanged uneasy glances.
The tension between both groups thickened with every word exchanged. The Valemere wolves behind her stayed close together instinctively, battered bodies gathering around the only thing that currently felt safe.
Her.
Thorne remained where he was, broad shoulders rigid beneath the pale morning light. His expression revealed almost nothing, though the bond between them churned violently enough for Elara to feel the strain pressing against her chest.
“You don’t get to walk into my territory and make decisions without understanding what you’re interfering with.”
A bitter laugh almost escaped her.
“I stood beside you in front of both packs and accepted that bond to protect my people. Meanwhile, you kept them locked beneath your territory like they were something to bury.”
Behind her, somebody stepped closer.
Elara felt the movement instantly. Garrick had straightened despite the exhaustion dragging through his body, his hollow face turned toward her with something dangerously close to hope. Another wolf moved nearer beside him, shoulders tense, eyes fixed on the Draegon wolves ahead like he expected violence at any second.
They were afraid.
Elara could smell it beneath the silver and prison stench.
Fear that had lived too long inside them.
Fear carved deep after years trapped underground.
Thorne noticed it too.
His gaze flicked briefly toward the wolves behind her before returning to her face.
The bond twisted painfully between them, anger and pressure grinding together beneath the surface while something deeper threatened to rise with it.
Rafe finally stepped forward, boots crunching softly against the dirt.
“Both of you need to calm down before this gets worse.”
His voice stayed careful, but Elara noticed the tension in his posture immediately. Unlike Rowan and Kaia, Rafe looked less angry than concerned.
Rowan remained silent off to the side, watching everything unfold with narrowed eyes. Nothing in his expression gave away what he was thinking, though his attention kept shifting between Elara, Thorne, and the wolves behind her like he was already calculating how badly this situation could spiral.
Kaia moved before anyone could respond.
“You should’ve left them where they were.”
Hostility cut through every word.
Elara turned toward her slowly.
Kaia didn’t back down.
“They were taken before the treaty,” she continued. “They belong to Draegon custody.”
The words drove straight into Elara’s chest.
Custody.
Like the wolves standing behind her were objects instead of people who had lost years of their lives beneath stone and silver.
A low sound escaped her throat before she realized it had happened.
Several Draegon wolves stiffened immediately.
The shift rolled through the prison grounds almost instantly.
Elara felt her wolf surge beneath her skin, anger flooding through the bond hard enough to make the pressure around them feel suffocating. Heat flashed through her veins while her senses sharpened all at once—the smell of wet earth, pine sap, fear, sweat, metal.
Kaia’s stance changed immediately.
Challenge burned openly across her face now.
Behind Elara, the Valemere wolves reacted instinctively to the shift in her wolf. Even weakened, they straightened around her, battered bodies tightening with nervous energy as if some deeply buried instinct still answered her without question.
The Alpha’s daughter.
Thorne took one step forward, and the movement alone changed the air around them.
Power rolled off him instantly, thick enough to make the atmosphere feel heavier. The pressure slammed against Elara’s wolf in warning, forcing several wolves behind her to tense visibly.
One of the weaker Valemere wolves stumbled backward.
Another lowered his head automatically beneath the force of Thorne’s dominance.
Fear moved sharply through the group behind her.
Elara stepped forward immediately without thinking, shielding them from the full weight of it.
“Enough.”
Thorne’s voice carried across the prison grounds with enough force to silence everyone.
Still, Elara refused to move.
The morning wind stirred around them while her chest rose unevenly with restrained fury. Dirt streaked her hands from the prison floor. Her knuckles still ached from fighting the guards. Silver lingered in the air behind her, clinging to the wolves who had spent years breathing it in.
Every instinct inside her screamed at her to protect them.
“I’m not putting them back down there.”
Her voice dropped lower this time, quieter in a way that felt far more dangerous.
Thorne’s eyes locked onto hers.
“You have no idea what they were involved in.”
“They were starving in cells.”
Emotion cracked through the words before she could stop it.
“They were forgotten.”
Something flickered across Thorne’s face before disappearing too quickly to fully read.
“Elara—”
“No.”
The word came out harsher than intended.
Pain flashed through the bond for a brief second before anger buried it again.
She stepped closer, closing more of the distance between them.
“If you expect me to stand here and pretend any of this is acceptable, then you don’t know me at all.”
The wolves surrounding them had fallen completely silent now.
Elara could hear uneven breathing behind her. Chains shifted softly whenever one of the Valemere wolves moved. Somewhere farther back in the territory, more footsteps were approaching.
More Draegon wolves.
Anxiety tightened viciously in her chest.
They were running out of time.
Behind her, Garrick shifted closer despite the exhaustion weighing down his body. His breathing sounded rough from years underground, though he still forced himself upright beside the others.
They were waiting for her.
Trusting her.
She refused to fail them now.
“I’m sending them back to Valemere,” she said, holding Thorne’s gaze. “And if anybody here tries to stop me—”
The threat remained unfinished, but nobody standing there needed her to finish it.
- Writer
