Matthias nodded at his squads as he hauled himself up over the ridge. Warwick was giving Jax a piggyback. They were all waiting for them at the top. He leaned over to catch his breath as Trinity jogged across to look south, her hand covering her mouth. His tracker had set a hard pace up the rock wall. She sheltered her eyes from the sun as she stared out at the panorama.
He saw it the same time she did. Now he realized what had bothered him yesterday. One of the mountains had changed shape. Now a brown cloud rose like a hazy dust storm above it.
“Oh, my God,” she gasped, then took off running.
Matthias took off after her. She reached the edge, and he skidded to a halt at the rim of the ridge.
Matthias gaped as she jumped. Trinity landed on a trail, rolled over and gained her feet, all in one smooth movement, then took off running again. She left the trail and cut through the trees, skidding on her side down an incline.
“Holy crap. She’s like a mountain goat on Ursula’s wacky weed,” Zane gasped, referring to the Alpine medic.
“Come on,” Matthias muttered. He took a few steps back, then ran at the edge and jumped. He landed, rolled and was on his feet, bolting through the forest after his she-wolf. He could hear his guardians following. He glanced over his shoulder. Warwick was running, Jax under his arm, laughing wildly at what must have seemed like a fun ride.
He lengthened his stride, eventually catching up to Trinity. Her arms were pumping at her sides as she ran, her breath coming in controlled pants. He had no idea where she was running. He couldn’t see a trail, so remained behind her, happy to let her lead the way.
“What is going on, Trinity?” he panted. This time he wanted answers, damn it.
“The den,” she answered in a ragged voice.
She led them at a breakneck pace for an hour and a half, until she reached the base of a mountain.
“No, no, no,” she gasped, looking up at a pile of rubble. It took him a moment to realize it was the entrance to a tunnel, effectively sealed.
A cave-in.
“We had an...incident...a little while ago. It weakened the structure of the hall.” Trinity rubbed her chin, her fingers trembling. Her lips firmed, and then she climbed up some of the rocks, stopping to sniff the air every now and then. Matthias started to climb up, but she held up her hand.
“Hold,” she said in a low voice, but the command in it carried to him and his men, and they froze. She scrambled over some more boulders, bending low to squint at the dirt and rocks, and then sniff. It took a while, but eventually she nodded. “Here. Start here.”
Matthias climbed up to her and started shifting the stones. His guardians formed a chain, and rock by rock, they began removing the rubble. In a short time there was an opening wide enough to peer through.
“Hello?” Trinity cried. “Is anybody there? Can you hear me?”
Everyone fell silent, listening. After a few minutes, Trinity repeated the call. Again they waited a few minutes, and still there was silence. Trinity nodded. “Okay, let’s keep going.”
They made the hole wide enough to fit even Warwick, and Trinity started to climb through. Matthias grasped her arm. “Wait, let us do this,” he said.
Trinity looked up at him, her blue eyes filled with purpose. Her cheeks were flushed from her exertions, her dark hair a tangled mess that stubbornly clung to a braid. “This is my job, Matthias. This is what I do—what I’m meant to do. This is our main entrance. This is where most of them would come to escape.”
He stared at her for moment, and read the fierce determination in her gaze. She would do everything within her power to protect and rescue her pack mates. He could appreciate that sentiment. He nodded, just once.
“Fine, but I’m going first to make sure it’s safe.” He turned back to his men, dividing them up into teams. He left Zane to help Warwick and the others to keep clearing the entrance, and Nate and a couple of guardians joined him.
He slid his legs through first, slowly lowering himself into the dark cavity. When his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he was able to make out the dimensions of the space he was working with. As a lycan who lived in a cavern system, his eyesight was exceptional, but even he had to blink a few times to adjust to the floating cloud of dust. He dropped down the three feet to the tunnel floor, then turned to help Trinity through the hole.
She stood there for a moment, getting her bearings, then started to prowl around. She found a torch in a wall sconce. She pulled it down, feeling within the sconce until she found the matches. She flicked one, then held it to the head of the torch until it caught fire. She pocketed the rest of the matches.
Matthias watched her as she placed her hand on the dirt wall, cocking her head to listen. She started to walk down the tunnel, sidestepping any rubble, and stopping occasionally to sniff the air and listen.
Matthias did the same, but he mostly got dirt up his nose. Nate sneezed, and Trinity frowned over her shoulder.
“Sorry,” Nate whispered.
She started to run up a bend in the corridor. “Here, help me,” she cried. Matthias sniffed, but couldn’t smell anything other than the rich dirt and maybe granite. She started digging at the wall, and he realized the bend was actually more rubble. A shoe appeared, a sneaker, and he started to pull away at the rocks. The shoe was attached to a foot, which was attached to a leg, and eventually they were able to reveal the body of a teenage girl. Matthias checked her pulse, and was relieved to feel a slight thump against the pads of his fingers.
“She’s alive. Let’s get her out.”
Nate leaned over and scooped her up, then backtracked up the corridor, gently passing her through the hole to some waiting guardians. Matthias turned around, only to find Trinity was already moving.
He and his men followed her, assisting her wherever she stopped. She was calm, practical, efficient, but he could see the tenseness in her muscles, the tightening of her lips, the shadows under her eyes. This had to be bringing back memories of her mother’s death, yet she forged on, concentrating on rescuing her family. After locating three more pack members, they rounded a corner into what Matthias could only surmise had once been the great hall.
Tears filled Trinity’s eyes as she looked down at the cavern. Much of it was buried under dirt and rocks.
“We have some dead in here,” she whispered sadly.
He eyed her. Her sense of smell was uncanny. She brushed at the tears on her cheeks. “But we have some alive, as well. Come on.”
The first person they uncovered was a little girl, who coughed as she was pulled out of the rubble. Trinity hugged her. “Hey, Mia. It’s okay, you’re safe now.” She smoothed the child’s hair back from her face. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Mia stared up at her, tears making lighter streaks through the dirt on her face. “We—we had a meeting. Rafe wanted us to wait here for him.”
“How many were you?” Trinity asked gently.
Mia shrugged. “Lots. All the pups and elders.”
Matthias frowned, and Mia shrank back when she noticed. “Who is he?”
“He’s a friend, and he’s here to help. All these lycans are here to help.” Trinity met his gaze for a moment, then smiled down at the little girl. “You go with him now. I’ve got to find your classmates, okay?”
Mia eyed Matthias with suspicion, and he tried to gentle his expression. He knelt down so that he wasn’t looming over her.
“Hey, Mia. Let’s get you out of here, okay?” he held out his arms.
Mia stared at him for a moment, then slowly raised her arms to him. He picked her up and carried her out, holding her trembling body secure in his arms. He shook his head when Nate approached him. He’d take this little one out himself.
Trinity watched as Matthias retreated with little Mia, then glanced around. There was so much destruction. She went to work, sniffing out her family and directing Matthias’s guardians in the rescue. Sadly, some of it became a recovery mission, and Trinity fought back tears as they uncovered one of the pups, who had clung to an elder as they’d both perished beneath the rubble. She couldn’t afford tears. Not yet. Tears made the nose run, made it difficult to catch a scent. She’d have to mourn the death of her family later.
She found Dion next; the guardian prime was unconscious, but breathing. Nate and a couple of other Alpine guardians carried him carefully to safety.
They managed to dig their way to one of the main corridors, and Trinity sighed in relief when they broke through. There would be many branching tunnels off this one, and hopefully she could get deeper into the mountain, find more of her family.
They worked steadily throughout the day, carrying out several members who clung to life, and some who had lost the battle. She paused at one family den, and Matthias, bearing the flaming torch, didn’t miss her hesitation. She could smell death, but more than that, she could smell decay. The lycan in there had been dead for at least three days.
“Do you want me to do this one, Trin?” he asked gently. “Even I can smell this.”
She shook her head, then pushed the door open. The woman lay on the bed, her skin mottled, her eyes staring sightlessly to the ceiling. Trinity could see, though, the frailty of the limbs, the tightness of the skin as it stretched over bone. Trinity went over and brushed her hand over the dead woman’s face, closing her eyelids, and gently brought the blanket up to cover her head.
She folded her arms and stared at the covered figure, sadness and frustration, and yes, a little anger, washing over her. She pulled a small bag out from beneath the bed. It was a child’s bag, like the humans used for school, and she started to pack toys that lay in a box near a smaller bed.
“Trinity?” Matthias said, his voice low as he watched her movements in confusion. She opened some drawers. She knew the woman had kept some keepsakes, some mementos in the top drawer. She scooped them all into the bag, and pulled the photo frames from the top of the dresser to do the same. She zipped up the bag and faced Matthias.
“Jax will want some of his things, and the rest—well, it will give him something of his family when he’s older,” she said quietly.
Understanding dawned in Matthias’s expression, and he closed his eyes, but not before she saw the sadness.
“Come on. There will be others.” She wanted to collapse in a heap and sob, but she had family in the den, buried, scared, hurt. She needed to focus on what was really important right now.
They checked other family dens, little pockets within the mountain that each family unit made their own. Curiously, all were empty.
Trinity paused at the door of her own den. “Wait, I—I need a minute.” She stepped into her home, the single-sized cave she’d been assigned after her father’s death. It was cramped, and it had been well away from the others, but it had been hers. She went over to the nightstand and picked up the trinket box. There was only one thing she really wanted—although she didn’t understand why. She reached in and pulled out the simple gold band, then held it up to show Matthias.
“It was my mother’s.” She laughed softly. “I don’t know why I want to keep it. It symbolizes death and grief to me, but I can’t seem to let it go. People put such stock into a damn loop of metal.”
Matthias stepped in close to her, and she caught sight of the ring resting against his chest. She winced. “Sorry, I don’t mean to disparage the memories or emotions for those who do believe in its symbolism.”
Matthias eyed her closely. “Do you really see it as a symbol of death and grief?” he inquired. The intensity of his gaze surprised her, as though her answer was important to him. She decided to be brutally honest.
“My mother and father were bonded mates. They loved each other, they wore their rings and when one died, the other didn’t fully live. When Jax’s father died, his mother starved herself to death. You wear a ring,” she said, gesturing to his chest, “as a reminder of the love you had for your wife—now dead.” She spoke softly, trying to lighten her words. “You see a symbol of love. I see a death sentence. That’s not to say you’re wrong and I’m right, or vice versa, it’s just a different way of looking at the same thing.” She shrugged.
His eyes narrowed. “You see love as a death sentence?”
She considered his words for a moment, then shook her head. “No. Not at all. I love my students. I love Jax. I loved my parents, and I know they loved me—in their own way. I also love my pack. But I do know with great love comes great pain, and unimaginable sorrow. Love, on its own, is fine. It’s more the mate bond that I have a problem with.” She made a face. “Like I said, bonding with a mate is just a death sentence temporarily on hold.”
Matthias blanched. “Not all mates pine, Trinity. Some mourn, and then learn to live again.”
“Is that what happened with you, Matthias?”
His eyes took on a glazed look, as though he was looking internally, remembering. Then those beautiful green eyes sharpened as he met her gaze. “Cara and I loved each other, yes. And I definitely mourned her death. For a while, I lost myself. But I came back. I found a new home.” He looked at her meaningfully. She frowned. He was looking at her as though...as though there was something more than there ever could be between them. Would that it were possible...but the evidence that it wasn’t hung around his neck.
She reached out and patted him on the chest, taking just a momentary pleasure in among the seriousness of the moment. “And yet you won’t take off her ring,” she said softly. “Yeah, you’ve totally moved on.” She walked out of her little cave, sliding the ring into the front pocket of her jeans. Matthias followed her, his expression thoughtful in the flickering light of the torch.
Trinity did a sweep of the den, but there weren’t many more to be found. She frowned as she returned to what had once been the great hall. Those who had been rescued that were still able to move had joined in the efforts, and for a moment she watched Woodland and Alpine work together.
Their faces were grim, their eyes red with unshed tears, and she went over to join them. There were other tunnels to uncover, more searches to be conducted. So far only the pups and elders had been located—and Jax’s mother. Where were the rest of them?
They worked tirelessly. Torches had been lit to shed some more light, and Matthias organized everyone into teams so that work still carried on while others rested. She got to one end of the cavern, the section that had seen the most damage, when an acrid scent caught her attention.
She frowned. It triggered a memory, but it was like the wings of a bird fluttering against a window—not quite substantial enough to break through. She followed the scent, shifting some of the rocks, occasionally getting a whiff of Rafe interlaced among the astringent fragrance, until she reached a pile of dirt. Scooping it out like a dog digging a hole for its bone, she moved the dirt, stopping occasionally to sniff. She grimaced. It was like...like...damn it, what was it? She knew this, but hadn’t smelled it in years.
She heaved against a rock, and eventually it rolled down the pile.
Her blood ran cold in her veins when she saw the thin white cable, and recognition hit her. Woodland used to mine copper, and there were these charges her father used to store in one of the locked units farther below...
She pulled at the cable, twining it around her hand until she had it free. She stared at it for a moment, trying to make sense, then startled when she heard the low whistle.
“We’ve found another tunnel,” Nate called softly, waving, and she rose to her feet, stuffing the cable into her jeans pocket as she scrambled toward the hole Nate, Kai and the others had revealed.
Another scent teased her nostrils, one that was instantly recognizable and sent fear and trepidation coursing through her. Please, please... As soon as she crept through the hole, she paused, sniffing the air. Matthias followed her, twisting sideways to get through the space.
“Is there someone in here?” he asked, and she nodded.
“Yes, yes there is.” And fortunately, the stench of death didn’t cling to him.
“Trin!” A faint cry echoed from farther down the tunnel, and she took off running.
“Dalton!”
“Over here, Trin,” her friend called, and she stopped when she found the mound. Wooden trusses from the tunnel had collapsed amid the rock and dirt, and she could just make out a tuft of hair, caked in dirt. She started digging at the earth, and in a moment Matthias was by her side. A grimy face was slowly revealed, and her friend coughed as the soil was cleared away.
Dalton blinked, his gray eyes finally focusing on her, and his teeth flashed white against the dirty background of his features. “Took you long enough.”
* * *
Matthias watched his she-wolf patch up her friend, his expression dour. They’d set up camp a short distance away from the entrance to the den, in case of any more cave-ins. Nate stepped over the log he was sitting on and sat down next to him.
“How many?” Matthias asked.
“Twelve dead. Thirty-two alive, sixteen injured, four of those critical.”
Matthias swore. “What the hell happened?” Packs made their home underground, and by necessity they picked the strongest structural point in their cavern system for their home site. A cave-in on this scale should never have occurred.
“Not sure. I’m no engineer, but it looks like the initial collapse happened when one of the primary structural supports behind the main hall fell, and there was a domino effect throughout the main den area.”
“Something must have happened—dens don’t just collapse,” Matthias said brusquely. “And they’ll want a reason for why so many have died.”
“True. They’re raw at the moment, and they’re confused, afraid. They don’t know who to blame, but they want to blame someone.”
“I’m surprised they’re not trying to blame us.”
Nate chuckled. “Every lycan knows not to bite the hand that feeds them. Which brings up another point.” He shuffled across as Zane joined them.
“What point?” Zane asked. “The point that some Woodland lycan is cozying up to our guardian prime’s she-wolf?”
“He’s just a friend,” Matthias said through gritted teeth, though he did nothing to hide his displeasure. He should be happy that Trinity’s friend had survived the cavern collapse, and perhaps even grateful to the man who had been his she-wolf’s only friend in a pack of emotionally distant shifters. Instead all he could feel was a ridiculous jealousy that his she-wolf had her hands on another lycan. Her earlier words haunted him. She thought the mating bond was a death sentence. To say that made things a little more challenging for him was an understatement.
“As entertaining and frankly, hysterical, as Matt’s newly awakened love life is, I was referring to a lack of medical supplies and food for our new dependents,” Nate said drily. “We were more successful than we imagined when we set up that blockade in Summercliffe. They’re running low on pretty much everything, and whatever we’ve been able to scavenge from the wreckage of their pack den won’t suffice.”
They’d been able to retrieve clothing, blankets and sundry items to set up a camp kitchen, but Matthias had already recognized that what they had was woefully inadequate.
Zane swore. “We’re supposed to be killing them, not nursing them,” he muttered. He held up a hand when Matthias turned to him. “I know, I know, we’re not actually going to kill them,” he said, brooding. “But we came here for vengeance. Now we’ve semi-adopted a pup, our guardian prime is panting after their tracker—” he met Matthias’s gaze “—sorry, but you are—and now we’re setting up a triage for Woodland’s pups and elders. This vengeance kick has no meat in it.”
Matthias folded his arms, and tilted his head to look at his impetuous guardian. “What would you have us do, Zane?” He was curious to see what the younger man would suggest.
Zane sighed. “Of course we have to tend to them. They’re still our tribe—although it sucks to admit it. I just wish we could do something that had more...” Zane made a face. “I don’t know, more grrr in it.” His voice roughened on the growl.
Matthias arched an eyebrow. “More grrr?”
Zane nodded, as though his choice of words perfectly communicated his sentiment. “Exactly, more get up and grrr. I want to be a badass with these guys, but they’re not in any shape for it.”
“Sometimes mercy is the greater display of strength,” he said quietly. “Understanding that your enemy is weak, and that fighting them in this state has no real honor or pleasure... That’s quite a noble lesson to learn.”
Zane grimaced. “Yeah, well, being noble sucks. I’d rather smash some skulls.”
Matthias grinned. “We haven’t abandoned our mission, Zane. We’ve just got to put it on hold until we deal with this latest development.”
“Which brings me back to the supplies,” Nate interjected. “We need to make a supply run if we’re going to be able to help these werewolves. We’ll also need more food, as our camp has nearly tripled in size.
“I’ll go,” Zane offered.
“No, I’ll go,” Nate stated.
Zane stood. “You don’t think I can do a simple supply run?”
Nate stood to meet his gaze. “You’ll have to go through Nightwing. Can you honestly say that if you bump into Lucien Marchetta, you’re not going to want to rough him up, maybe even bite him?”
Zane glared at him for a moment, then nodded, just once. “Good point. You go.”
Matthias looked at Nate. He’d been interested to see how the power play would pan out, and had been content to sit back and watch. Sometimes Nate’s insight surprised him. He’d make a good guardian prime, one day. Maybe even an alpha prime. “Then it’s settled,” he said as he stood. “We’ll set up a more permanent camp here—these wolves are going to need shelter until their den is cleared, or a new den is created, and winter is just around the corner. Nate, you go back to Alpine, explain the situation to Samantha.” His alpha prime wasn’t going to be happy to learn they were actually helping their enemy, but once she was apprised of the situation, she’d understand and would agree with his actions, he was confident of that. He looked around the camp. These were kids, elders... They were vulnerable and in need of help. The kids deserved protection, and the elders deserved respect, no matter what pack they belonged to.
“Ah, I’m not sure what’s going on with your she-wolf,” Zane commented, “but that does not look like her happy face.”
Matthias turned. Trinity and Dalton were engaged in a serious conversation, and neither looked pleased.