From Rejected Slave to Second Chance Luna

Backyard Barbecue Continued

Jacob lifted his glass as if taking a drink, hiding the brief flicker of relief on his face. I nodded once. “I will.”

By the end of dinner, I was barely holding myself together. I still needed to carry out my plan. I still needed to find the door, the room, the place where they were hiding my mate. Sleep was impossible with her scent living under my skin and the image of her thin, injured body burning behind my eyes. I went back to my room, showered, and waited until the pack house quieted. Close to midnight, I slipped out and kept to the shadows. At two-thirty in the morning, Beta Blake entered the kitchen. I had noticed earlier that one of the kitchen staff had left food on the counter, and for one brief moment I had let myself hope it was meant for the young woman hidden here. Blake moved to the door she had disappeared through and waited. I stayed hidden, my body locked tight with restraint. Half an hour later, the door opened. Wildflowers and rain drifted through the kitchen. My mate. Then Blake’s fist shot forward. The sound of the blow tore through me. He disappeared through the doorway after her, and I nearly lost control right there. I stood in the darkness with my claws biting into my palms, every instinct screaming at me to kill him. Minutes later, Blake came back into the kitchen, and the scent of her blood flooded the air so strongly Stowne slammed against my control. Blake took the food meant for her and threw it into the trash. Something inside me went dangerously quiet. When he left, I tried the door. Locked. Jacob, are you awake? I linked. Meet me outside the pack house. Now. I did not wait for an answer. I needed out before Stowne tore through the walls. Jacob met me near the tree line, and I told him what I had seen. Then we shifted. Stowne burst free and ran like the earth itself owed him blood. Rage drove him through the woods, through brush and shadow and cold night air, until we found a bear large enough to fight back. I gave Stowne control, and he took every bit of helpless fury out on the beast. The fight was brutal, fast, and necessary. By the time it was over, the bear lay dead, our wounds were already healing, and Stowne’s breathing had finally steadied. Dawn was beginning to pale the sky when Jacob and I slipped back inside. I showered again, blood and dirt swirling down the drain, then collapsed for a few hours after asking Jacob to invite Alpha Kane and his beta to breakfast in my room. If Kane was going to become an ally, he needed the truth before the barbecue began.

I woke at seven-thirty and ordered enough breakfast for four. Jacob arrived first and told me Alpha Kane had accepted the invitation. Good. By the time the food arrived, I had the files ready: the missing birth record, the empty death record, the lack of rogue reports, every piece of proof we had gathered so far. When the knock came, Jacob opened the door. I stood as Alpha Kane and his beta entered, and the moment the door closed behind them, the room felt different. Private. Dangerous. Honest.

“I need to tell you something,” I said once we were seated, “and I am hoping I can count on your help when the time comes to bring this pack down for what they have done.” Kane did not interrupt. He only watched me with those sharp Montana eyes while I showed him the files and explained everything: my mate, the kitchen door, the lies about the dead daughter, the false rogue attack, Blake’s violence in the middle of the night, and the scent of her blood filling the kitchen air. By the end, Kane’s expression had gone cold enough to chill the room. “Iron Spur does not stand with packs that hide abused women in basements,” he said quietly. “When you move, we move with you.” Relief hit me harder than I expected. Not enough to calm the rage, but enough to remind me I would not be facing Moon Howlers alone. Kane also told me he had found his mate, which made his understanding sharper. He knew what the bond demanded. He knew what it meant to feel someone’s pain like it lived inside your own chest. The backyard barbecue began at three, and I hoped to find a way to reach my mate afterward. I still did not know how, but Kane clasped my hand before he left. “Do not worry, Alpha Damon. You will not be alone in this fight. I will keep my eyes and ears open and wait for your move.” We exchanged numbers and email addresses before they returned to their rooms. For the first time since I had smelled wildflowers and rain, I felt the smallest shift in the war ahead. I have an ally now.

By afternoon, everyone had gathered outside for the backyard barbecue. I still had not seen my mate. I knew she was alive because the bond still pulsed faintly in my chest, but that did not quiet the fear. If anything, it made it worse. I could feel her out there somewhere beneath the noise, hidden from the sun, hidden from every wolf who should have protected her. She-wolves tried to get my attention, but I ignored them. My mind belonged to one person. Then I saw Kane with Morgan, and surprise moved through me. Morgan Sanders was his mate. I could only hope the bond and Kane’s influence might change whatever rot her parents had planted in her. Jacob was acting strangely too, and eventually I learned why. He had scented his mate as well: Tessa, the Gamma’s daughter. She was not kitchen staff, no matter how Moon Howlers tried to make the Landish family look small. She seemed gentle, a little timid, but kind. I was happy for him, but happiness felt distant with my mate still locked away. The barbecue was in full swing when a man approached me with purpose. His expression was careful, but his eyes carried years of guilt and desperation. “Alpha Damon,” he said quietly, “I am Dr. Benett Cross, I need to talk with you,” he said in a low voice so that only I could hear. “Could you meet me by the fire where we can be out of earshot?” I gave one sharp nod and I followed him to the edge of the yard, where the flames cracked loud enough to cover our voices. Then he told me the truth. Spurn was Beta Blake and Ursula’s other daughter. She had been locked in the basement since she was six years old, treated as a slave, starved, and beaten almost daily. Even though I had suspected it, hearing the words made something savage rise in me. “Can you get me to her?” I asked. Dr. Cross nodded. “Tonight. When they all leave for the pack run,” I linked Jacob immediately and told him everything. He would make sure Kane knew the plan. When the run began and the yard emptied, I slipped away without being noticed. Dr. Cross met me in the kitchen, opened the locked door, and led me down a narrow set of stairs into the basement. The air changed at once. Damp concrete. Old laundry. Fear. Her scent threaded through it all, wildflowers and rain struggling beneath blood and exhaustion. We reached a small room off to the side. Dr. Cross went in first and sat beside her, speaking gently, telling her I was there to help. When I stepped inside, I saw her fear before I saw anything else. She tried to look strong, but her eyes gave her away. She knows something, Stowne murmured, aching. I think she knows we are her mate. Something happened to her. I can feel it. I felt it too, a wound in the bond that had not come from me. But I would not ask. Not now. She needed safety before answers. I lowered myself beside her, keeping my movements slow and my voice gentle. “Hi,” I said softly. “I am Alpha Damon Lockheart. Can I ask who you are?” She looked at me, fear loosening by the smallest degree. When she answered, her voice was so faint that a human would have missed it. “Spurn.” The name hit me like a blow. Stowne, did she say Spurn? I asked, disbelief turning into fury. Do you know what that means? Yes, he growled. And when we get her home, we will give her the choice to change it. I swallowed my anger and focused on her. “Spurn, I am here to help get you away from here. You should never have had to live like this.” Terror flashed back into her eyes. “What if they find me? I will be in trouble again. They will whip me again.” She shrank into herself, and the sight nearly broke me. Dr. Cross reassured her, but I needed her to hear it from me. “I know you are scared,” I said. “But I will not let them hurt you again. If you want out of this basement, I need you to come with me now, before everyone returns.” She stared at me for a long moment, then nodded. “Is it okay if I carry you?” Another small nod. I slid my arms beneath her as carefully as I could. She weighed almost nothing. That knowledge burned worse than rage. It felt like holding a life the world had tried to erase.