THE ALPHA'S WOLF IS MY ENEMY

Chapter Seven: Beneath Us

The growl came again.

This time the floor moved beneath my feet.

I grabbed the wall to steady myself, while Cassian reached for the sword at his waist before remembering that he had left it upstairs. His hand closed around nothing.

My mother pulled against the chains.

"Get away from the floor."

I didn't need to be told twice.

Cassian stepped between us and the centre of the chamber.

"What is down there?"

"I don't know."

"You just said it wasn't a person."

"Because it isn't."

Another tremor ran through the stone.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

I looked down.

There was a thin line running across the floor, almost hidden beneath the dirt. It hadn't been there when we entered. As I watched, the line widened.

A smell came through the crack.

Not blood.

Not smoke.

Something older.

The nearest wolf outside began whining.

I could hear it clearly.

No.

Another wolf answered.

It's awake.

The third wolf said nothing.

I looked at Cassian.

"The wolves know what it is."

"What are they saying?"

"That something has woken up."

He glanced at my mother.

She had gone very still.

"Marissa."

She looked at him.

"How do we stop it?"

"I don't know."

"You keep saying that."

"Because I don't know everything, Cassian."

The floor cracked again.

This time, a section of stone dropped several inches.

Something moved beneath it.

I stepped backward.

My mother looked at me.

"Nora, come here."

I went to her.

She lowered her voice.

"Listen to your wolf."

I almost laughed.

"She isn't talking."

"She will."

"How do you know?"

"Because she knows what's down there."

I waited.

Nothing.

I closed my eyes.

At first, all I heard were the wolves outside, the scrape of claws and the nervous breathing of the men waiting beyond the broken door.

I listened harder.

A faint sound reached me.

Not a voice.

A heartbeat.

Slow.

Heavy.

It seemed to come from underneath the entire mountain.

I opened my eyes.

"It's alive."

Cassian looked at me.

"What is?"

"I don't know."

My mother whispered, "The Guardian."

Cassian stared at her.

"What guardian?"

"The one Silas was looking for."

His expression hardened.

"You knew about this?"

"I knew there was something beneath the old council chamber."

"And you never told me?"

"I was chained to a wall."

"Before that."

My mother looked away.

Cassian stepped toward her.

"You knew."

"Yes."

"And my father knew."

"Yes."

"What were they protecting?"

My mother shook her head.

"Not protecting."

She looked at me.

"Hiding."

The crack in the floor widened.

A hand came through.

I screamed.

Cassian grabbed me and pulled me behind him.

The hand was not human.

It was too long, with black claws curved at the tips.

It gripped the edge of the broken stone.

Cassian shifted.

Rook appeared in front of me before I had time to think.

The black wolf growled at the thing beneath us.

The creature stopped.

For a strange moment, neither moved.

Then I heard Rook.

You shouldn't have come back.

My skin prickled.

I looked at him.

"Who are you talking to?"

He didn't answer.

The creature beneath the floor slowly raised its head.

I couldn't see its entire body, but I saw two pale eyes staring through the gap.

It looked like a wolf.

But there was something wrong with it.

Its body was too thin, its fur almost completely gone in places, and strange silver markings covered its face.

I had never seen anything like it.

My wolf whispered.

Don't let it see you.

I stepped backward.

The creature's eyes moved toward me.

It saw me anyway.

Rook moved immediately.

He stood directly between us.

The creature snarled.

Rook answered.

The sound shook the chamber.

I heard something I couldn't explain in his growl.

Recognition.

The creature knew him.

So did Rook.

Cassian's body shifted again, but he didn't take control. He was still there somewhere beneath the wolf, fighting for it.

My mother pulled against her chains.

"Rook!"

The black wolf looked at her.

She shook her head.

"Not yet."

Rook turned back toward the creature.

The thing beneath the floor whispered.

Not with its mouth.

Inside my head.

You came back.

I froze.

It wasn't speaking to me.

It was speaking to Rook.

I heard him answer.

I had to.

The creature growled.

She was supposed to remain asleep.

Rook lowered his head.

She isn't asleep anymore.

I stared at him.

My mother saw my expression.

"What did you hear?"

I couldn't answer.

The creature suddenly lunged.

Rook jumped aside as claws tore through the stone where he had been standing.

Cassian's body slammed against the wall.

"Rook!"

The wolf recovered and attacked.

They collided in the centre of the chamber.

The creature was much larger than Rook, but it moved awkwardly, as if it hadn't used its body in years. Rook managed to bite into its shoulder.

Black liquid spilled across the floor.

The smell made me gag.

The creature threw him against the wall.

I ran toward him.

"Nora, don't!" Cassian shouted.

I ignored him.

Rook tried to stand.

The creature turned toward me.

Its pale eyes met mine.

And suddenly I remembered.

A room.

Not the forest.

Not the night Silas took my wolf.

A room beneath the mountain.

I was six years old.

My mother was crying.

My father was arguing with someone.

Cassian was there too.

But he wasn't alone.

There was another boy beside him.

A boy with the same golden eyes as Rook.

I couldn't see his face.

I heard my father say something.

"She cannot stay here."

Someone answered.

"She is the only one who can open it."

My younger self was crying.

My mother knelt in front of me.

"Don't be afraid."

Then she placed her hand over my chest.

"Your wolf will keep you safe."

I heard another voice.

Silas.

"No. Her wolf will open the door."

The memory changed.

My wolf was standing beside me.

She was still small, barely more than a pup.

Rook was on the other side of the room.

He wasn't attacking.

He was watching me.

Silas raised his hand.

Silver light filled the room.

My wolf screamed.

I screamed with her.

The memory disappeared.

I fell to my knees.

"Nora!"

Cassian was beside me.

He grabbed my shoulders.

"What happened?"

I stared at him.

"I remember this place."

He looked at my mother.

She was crying.

"You remember?"

I nodded.

"Silas brought me here."

My mother's lips trembled.

"Yes."

"And my father was here."

"Yes."

"Cassian was here."

She nodded again.

I looked at Cassian.

"There was another boy with you."

He went completely still.

"What boy?"

"I don't know."

Rook had stopped fighting.

The creature had retreated into the hole.

He was staring at me.

Then he lowered his head.

My wolf spoke.

He remembers him.

I looked at Rook.

"Who was the boy?"

Cassian shook his head.

"I don't know."

But I knew he was lying.

Not because I heard it from his wolf.

Because I saw the answer on his face.

He knew.

The door behind us suddenly opened wider.

Rowan appeared again.

He was breathing heavily.

Three armed guards stood behind him.

He looked past Cassian and straight at the hole in the floor.

His face lost all its colour.

"What did you do?"

Cassian turned.

"We didn't do anything."

Rowan shook his head.

"You woke it."

My mother looked at him.

"How many people know?"

"Silas knows."

"And?"

Rowan swallowed.

"Everyone who was involved in the old war."

I stood up slowly.

"What war?"

Rowan looked at me.

"The war that never ended."

Before I could ask what he meant, something beneath the floor moved again.

The creature didn't come back.

Instead, I heard a voice.

This time it was clear.

A voice I recognized.

My father's voice.

"Nora."

I stopped breathing.

The voice came from beneath us again.

"Don't trust Cassian."

Cassian looked at me.

"What did you hear?"

I stared at him.

I couldn't answer.

Because my father had just spoken my name.

And he was supposed to be dead.