I rolled my eyes and leaned my back against the rock wall.
I still could not believe this girl had actually called me the Moon Goddess’s husband.
The Moon Goddess’s husband?
Who even thought of something like that?
For a moment, I wondered if she had hit her head when she fell into the river.
I had spent seven days watching her after I dragged her out of the water.
Seven full days.
I cleaned the mud off her skin.
I gave her food.
I poured water down her throat when her lips were dry.
I built a small fire out of dry leaves and wood to keep her warm.
I stayed awake and watched her chest rise and fall while she slept on the stone floor.
After doing all of that for her, I thought she might be different from the other people I had met.
I thought she was special.
I thought there was something unusual about her.
But right now, standing here and listening to her talk, I was not so sure anymore.
She was beautiful.
I could not deny that.
Her smell filled the room, sweet and strong.
Her energy felt strange and heavy, tempting me in a way I could not ignore.
Even now, sitting tied to this wall, I felt her presence all around me.
I could not explain what it was doing to my body.
Maybe it was my heat acting up.
Maybe it was something else.
My body had been reacting to her since the moment she washed ashore, and I did not know whether I should blame my instincts or her.
There was something else I could not stop thinking about.
Earlier, when she walked over to me and put her hand on my heavy iron chains, trying to set me free, something happened inside me.
My bound power moved.
For the first time in a hundred years, the power locked deep inside my chest stirred.
I felt a small spark move through the iron links.
That had never happened before.
Not once.
Many omegas had been sent down into the Hollow over the years.
Some of them tried to help me.
Some of them pulled at the heavy chains with all their strength.
Some of them cried and begged me to let them free me.
None of those women made the chains react.
None of them woke up the power sleeping inside my body.
She did.
The moment her bare hand touched the iron, my power moved.
I still could not understand why that happened, and that made me want her even more.
There was something about her that I needed to figure out.
Maybe she was my second-chance mate.
Maybe there was something strange about her wolf.
Maybe she carried a shadow wolf inside her.
I did not know yet.
I knew one thing for sure.
She was different.
The longer I looked at her, the more certain I became that she was tied to something much bigger than she realized.
She also looked like someone from my past.
She shared the exact face of a woman I knew five hundred years ago.
That fact alone made me stay careful around her.
It was not as if I could not get close to her.
I could easily stand up.
I could walk over to her.
I could put my hands on her.
I could kiss her if I wanted to.
Something held me back.
It was not fear.
I was not afraid that she could hurt me.
I was worried about her mind.
There was something wrong with this girl’s head.
She acted like someone who had a loose screw somewhere in her brain.
Maybe she had lost her mind completely.
Maybe whatever happened to her before she washed up here had broken something inside her.
I could not tell.
She finally pulled herself up out of the river.
She stepped onto the flat ground, water dripping from her hair down her body.
She walked toward me, grabbing the bottom of her damp shirt and wringing the water out onto the stone floor.
I watched her move for a moment.
Then I shook my head and let out a quiet breath.
“You really do not behave the way you look,” I said.
She stopped wringing her shirt and looked up at me.
“What?”
I stared right at her eyes.
“How can someone who looks like you say something so foolish?”
She wrinkled her nose and frowned at me.
“What did I say?”
“The Moon Goddess’s husband,” I said, shifting my iron chains slightly against the ground.
“Do you even hear yourself? Who told you the Moon Goddess has a husband?”
She stood there on the stone floor, staring at me for a few seconds.
Then she let out a long breath and dropped her hands to her sides.
“Okay. You are right,” she said.
I raised one eyebrow and kept my eyes on her.
“I was stupid for saying that,” she said, bending down to squeeze the water out of the bottom of her pants.
“I made a mistake. I do not know much about the Moon Goddess or any of those things.”
She wiped a wet strand of hair off her forehead and looked directly into my face.
“Anyway, I am sorry that this apology is coming late. But who are you?”
I did not answer her right away.
I stayed quiet and watched her.
She took a step closer to where I sat.
“What is your name? How did you get here? What happened to you?”
I looked at her face, calculating what I should say.
I played the part of a normal prisoner, keeping my voice calm and hiding the full truth about my strength.
I needed her to trust me before I made any big moves.
“My name is Elden,” I said slowly.
“Elden Zender.”
She waited, her eyes fixed on my face.
“I am a Lycan,” I added.
“I am over a hundred years old.”
I did not tell her my real age.
Five hundred years was far too long to explain to a girl who already thought I was a creature from the dead world.
Right now, I needed her trust.
That was the only thing that mattered.
Once I broke free from these iron chains, I would climb back up above the ground.
When I reached the top, every single person who had betrayed me would pay for what they did.
Every person who did me wrong, every person who forgot what I built with my own hands I would find them all, and I would kill them.
First, I had to get out of this cave.
I needed to be patient and play my part well.
She stared at me without speaking.
“What?”
She kept her eyes on my face.
“Have you heard that name before?” I asked.
She blinked twice and looked down at her feet.
“I think I have.”
“You think?”
“I do not know where.” She pulled her eyebrows together, trying to search her memory.
After a moment, she gave up and shook her head.
“I hate history.”
I almost let out a laugh.
“History?”
“Yes. All those old stories, tribal rules, ancient people, and all of that.” She waved her hand through the air.
“I do not remember any of it.”
I nodded once.
“Fine.”
She looked down at her wet shirt and wrapped her arms around her chest.
“Anyway, I have a bigger problem right now.”
“What problem?”
“I am freezing,” she said, her teeth clicking together.
“I need clothes.”
She turned her head toward the big pile of old clothing lying across the stone floor of the cavern.
She took two steps toward the pile, then stopped dead in her tracks and pulled herself back.
“I am not wearing those,” she said, pointing a finger at the cloth.
“Why not?” I asked.
“A human skull rolled out of the last pile I touched.” She turned back and looked at me with distrust in her eyes.
“Who knows what else is hiding inside those old clothes?”
I closed my eyes for a second to stop myself from sighing out loud.
I decided it was time to change the direction of our talk.
“That is not my problem,” I said.
“What I want to know is where you got that heirloom”
Her hand moved instantly to her chest, her fingers closing tight over the metal piece resting against her skin.
“I do not know what you are talking about.”
I stared straight at her face.
Her lie was clear.
She had been doing this exact same thing since I first brought it up dodging my questions and changing the topic every time I asked about it.
I wondered why that heirloom meant so much to her.
If these heavy chains were not locking away my wolf and my abilities, I could have reached into her mind and pulled the answers out myself.
My powers were bound, so I had to sit here and use patience.
“Why is this place filled with so many clothes?” she asked, looking away from my eyes again.
She was doing it again, dodging the question right in front of me.
I let out a breath and pulled my heavy cloth wrap closer to my side.
“Every five years, an omega is sent down into the Hollow,” I said.
She turned her head back to look at me.
“As a sacrifice?”
“To deal with my heat and my other needs,” I told her.
Her mouth fell open, and her eyes went wide.
I ignored her face and kept speaking.
“This place is called the Hollow.”
“Huh?” she repeated.
“Yes.”
She looked around the walls of the cave, her eyes moving slowly over the dark stone.
I could see the truth coming together inside her mind.
“All these clothes…” She looked back toward the messy piles spread across the ground.
“They belonged to those omegas?”
“Yes,” I said.
Her mouth opened slightly.
“How many?”