Thalia’s POV
The remaining guards watched in horror as the wolf crushed the head of their leader, who had just tried to slit my throat, leaving the headless body to collapse onto the grass.
I desperately tried to crawl backward, but my limbs refused to cooperate.
Where could he possibly have come from?
He always appeared out of nowhere to save me.
He lunged at the next guard.
The man tried to run for his life, but the razor-sharp claws tore into the guard’s stomach, piercing through flesh and bone like paper.
His blood hit the ground while the rest splattered on my legs.
I stared, completely spellbound.
What the hell was wrong with me?
I was supposed to be terrified, to be disgusted by such monstrosity, but I was not.
Instead, my body was burning with an unquenchable desire I couldn’t quite explain.
Just like two years ago, I felt the pull, the same pull that had my heart racing and had haunted my thoughts for years.
I watched as he tore every single one of the guards to shreds, his claws moving faster than his feet.
The last body dropped on the floor, and the wolf turned to face me fully.
His whole fur was coated in blood, and his claws had chunks of flesh attached to them.
Then he began to shift.
The massive wolf form rippled and fractured, bones snapping and molding back into place.
The thick, blood-soaked fur receded into smooth, sun-kissed skin, stretching over a powerfully sculpted chest and broad shoulders.
As he rose to his full, towering height, long strands of red hair fell forward, framing a face so sharply handsome it stole the remaining breath from my lungs.
My lips slowly parted as his intoxicating scent hit me hard as I stared at his flawless, naked body.
Before I could stop myself, the word left my mouth.
“Mate…”
He stilled immediately, taken aback by what I said.
But my mind went completely blank as the wound on the back of my head, where I had hit against the rock only minutes ago, suddenly burst open and began to gush out blood again.
I suddenly felt dizzy, and my eyes rolled back into my head, but as I fell, one final thought registered.
In fact, he caught me in his arms before I hit the ground.
Xxx
Caspian’s POV
The heavy prison gates slammed shut behind me.
I was beaten to the point I couldn’t even heal myself.
I lay flat on the floor waiting to fall into unconsciousness, but it never came.
My head kept spiraling and moving towards just one person: Thalia.
Where could she be?
As the seconds turned to minutes and the minutes to hours and the hours to days, my existence was reduced to one singular purpose: healing Adonis’ warriors.
“On your feet, Healer,” the guards would sneer, dragging me across the cold palace floor.
“If you have enough energy to fornicate with your Alpha’s property, then you’ll definitely have enough to heal a full army.”
They forced me to drain my own life force, fixing broken bones and sealing deep wounds.
I had considered conjuring some reverse healing technique to rot their flesh and make an opening to escape, but with how weak I was, I couldn’t channel enough power.
While trapped inside the prison, different rumors about Adonis losing control of himself began to spread like wildfire.
“Since that night Thalia ran off, Alpha Adonis has been acting weird.”
”He’s completely lost control…”
Words on Thalia’s whereabouts had been lost in the winds.
Even the guards who went after her never came back.
Knowing this entire realm from beginning to end, it was obvious where she might have run to.
The Borderlands, a no man’s land.
And if those hefty, well-trained men couldn’t make it out, what were the possibilities of Thalia ever making it out?
The thoughts of her being devoured or taken prisoner by some sickos kept playing in my head.
It was a terrible thing to imagine, but those thoughts were what kept me from giving up when it felt like I was abandoned in this cage.
Then without warning, the cell door swung open, and the guards dragged me out.
But this time, they weren’t sneering; they looked panicked.
The whole palace was in chaos.
Servants were running to and from Adonis’ quarters with bowls of steaming water.
The whole place was in shambles.
What was going on?
The moment they shoved me into the Alpha’s quarters, the stench of death immediately hit my nose.
I stumbled back a bit, overwhelmed by the number of bloody napkins beside Adonis’ body.
Eris sat beside him; the look of disgust was planted on her face.
“What took you so long?” she snapped.
I ignored her, moving straight to where Adonis was positioned.
His fair and smooth skin now appeared dull under the moonlight.
I looked around, still very much shocked at the sight before me.
Adonis was literally training and very much active a few days ago, and at a speed I had never seen him run before.
Something was definitely wrong.
“He was fine after our mating ceremony,” Eris spat, pacing the floor.
“He was stronger than ever.
But ever since that sneaky bitch ran away, his body started breaking down.”
I leaned over him to examine his vitals.
He looked like he was being drained from the inside out.
His veins popped out of his neck, legs, arms, abdomen, and even his chest, and they glowed dark green and black under his skin.
Then, I pressed my hands to his chest, channeling every drop of my remaining energy to stop his internal bleeding and stabilize his erratic heartbeat.
When his breathing came back to normal, the whole room sighed.
“This is only a temporary fix,” I warned, wiping the sweat from my forehead.
“If we don’t find the root cause, he’ll be dead within days.”
Eris stood by his side, staring at his chest.
“He looks just like he did two years ago,” she suddenly confessed.
“Two years ago?” I questioned her, completely confused.
“What happened two years ago?”
She looked up at me, her eyes cold.
“Two years ago, our pack faced a brutal attack from a rogue pack.”
”And?” I stared at her, urging her to continue.
“Thalia surrendered her wolf to him,” she finally said.