One Week Earlier
Astor POV:
“Excellent. Do you both understand what is at stake if we do not bring her back in time?”
My mind had already strayed from the Alpha’s Chambers as I had turned to leave, so I was slow to untangle the meaning of her words.
“Both?” I asked, turning back to face her. What did she mean, both?
Seeing her these days never failed to disorient me. It was as if I looked at someone whose face I had seen in a dream, or knew from long ago but could never quite grasp who it was. My mind told me she was still my mother, but my heart and my wolf, Cyrene, had not been convinced.
Looking at her now, even my mind began to doubt itself.
She was wrapped in shadows, the darkness of the chamber thick and unyielding around her. The light of the torches should have been enough t
