MY HEAD FELT AS if I had been slammed with a sledgehammer. I moaned and rolled, falling a short distance to meet cold concrete with my hands and knees. Pain bloomed through my cranium, and my vision fractured in the ambient light surrounding me. My stomach rolled, and I put my forehead on the concrete, welcoming the chill.

“Sarah?”

His voice struck a warmth in my soul, but he was too far away.

“Mhm,” I mumbled. It was all I could produce.

“You okay?” Robby asked softly.

“No,” I whispered. I had an idea of where we were; if I was right, we’d never see the light of day again, never mind hold each other. And my stomach wasn’t cooperating. God, how I hated the tranquilizer hangover, but this time, it was a much harsher awakening than it had been the last time.

I forced my eyes open and scanned my surroundings. Concrete, with only a metal cot, a toilet, and a sink. Not even a shower to properly clean up with. I squinted, forcing my eyes to focus. Robby sat cross-legged in front of a row of bars across the hall from my cell. His expression echoed the same hopelessness that crushed down on me.

My stomach lurched, and I clamped my lips together, crawling to the toilet. The sound of my retching echoed off the walls, making my headache worse. When there was nothing left, I spit and flushed before pulling myself up to the sink to rinse out my mouth. There was nothing worse than vomit taste. I shivered from it, gagging again, but this time nothing came up. I rinsed out a second time and then made my way to the front of my cell.

“Sorry,” I whispered and plunked myself down on the floor, stretching out so I could have the cold concrete against my cheek.

“Who’s there?” A voice echoed in the hallway to my right, and I moved closer to the bars. On the right, next to Robby’s cell, a bearded face pressed against the bars and a wild eye scanned the area.

“Hi, Manny,” I said from my spot on the floor. I stuck my hand through the bars and waved my fingers.

The hissing sound that came from the cell had me drawing my hand back.

Robby just shook his head.

“I smell your blood. Please, please just give me some. Just a taste!” His voice echoed in almost a shrill scream.

“Shut up,” I snarled, pushing my will, and all went silent. I stared at Robby. “Not you, hon.” I wiped my face. “What happened?”

Robby shrugged and stretched out on the floor, too. He reached through the bars carefully, but he couldn’t even reach halfway across the hallway. Without a word, he stared at me before he pulled his hand back inside. The hiss of silver against skin filled the air, followed by the stench of burnt skin. “We’re going to die in here.”

I reached out with the intention of melting the fucking bars. A zap of electricity snapped my hand in the opposite direction. The sting followed, and I shook my hand. “They fucking electrocuted my bars?”

“Mine are silver.”

“I could vaporize the entire fucking building,” I growled low, meeting his gaze as I started to gather my fire in the center of my being.

Robby stared at his ceiling and slowly shook his head, as if there were something there that I couldn’t see from my angle.

“I doubt you’d be quick enough to incinerate the vat of boiling silver that’s above my son’s cell.” Robert Young Sr. stepped into view.

“You’d sacrifice your son to keep me behind bars?” I snapped at the man who could have been Robby’s twin except for the gray at the edge of his temples. He held what looked like a smartphone in his hand and kept glancing between it and me.

“He forfeited his life the moment he broke protocol. The same with your friends when they chose to harbor fugitives.” He glared at me and dropped a bag of blood on the floor in front of my cage, and pushed it with his toe through the small space that usually accommodated trays of food.

“I’d prefer a nice, rare steak if you don’t mind.” I pushed it back into the hall, careful not to touch the bars. “And you are aware of what I did to the last asshole who threatened to douse my mate with liquid silver.” I climbed to my feet and stared him down with a cocked eyebrow, ignoring the sudden vertigo that took hold of me. “You remember Harrison, right? That was my handiwork.”

He paled.

“Let us out of here,” I commanded.

He turned and glanced at Robby, and that’s when I saw the ear plugs and words typing on the screen in his hand. Words on a screen had no impact to compel.

“Fuck,” I muttered and looked past him right into Robby’s glare. But at least my mate wasn’t looking at me with murder in his eyes. I had only seen that level of hatred from him once, and that did not end well for the recipient.

His father glanced back at me with a smirk. “You really didn’t think I’d come down here without safeguards, did you?” He waved at his ear. “You are a vampire, after all, and from the intel I received, our anti-compelling medallions don’t seem to work on you.”

Fury filled every cell, and I screamed my frustration despite the pounding in my head. I wanted to pummel the man into a bloody pulp.

Manny joined me with his insane screech. Robby covered his ears, wincing at the pitch I hit.

His father just grinned. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to the cage, just like your friend here.” He nodded toward Manny.

Robby’s anger crumbled into despair, as if someone flipped a switch inside him.

My mark tingled with the darkness pulling him down into an abyss.

He reached out, grabbing hold of the silver bars. Flesh sizzled, but he kept his hands in place. “Please, Dad, just let us out. Please.”

“Robby, let go of the bars,” I commanded as the stench of burning flesh tickled my nose.

His hands dropped and his gaze flicked to mine as irritation ran over his features. But that didn’t stop him from continuing to grovel. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do. Please don’t leave us to rot down here. Please.”

Robert Senior frowned with disgust at the words scrolling across the screen. “You would be willing to kill her?” He hooked his thumb at me.

Robby startled with tears in his eyes and stepped back away from his father. That haunted look passed over his face. He had already killed me once against his will. Robby’s refusal to follow through on that order reflected in his eyes. He wasn’t keen on doing that again, even if it meant his freedom. He shook his head. “No.”

“Then you’ll remain locked up.”

“At least put us in the same cell. Don’t fucking torture me with her just out of reach. Please, Dad.”

Robby’s plea fell on deaf ears. Robert Senior glared at his son. “You ceased being my son the moment you chose her over the pack. You shouldn’t even be alive right now.”

“How the hell do you figure that?” Robby snarled, giving up the pleading that was going nowhere and letting the anger rule him again.

Robby’s father looked at his handheld translator. “I was told it was the price I had to pay for allowing you to mark her.” He looked up at Robby and gnashed his teeth. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

Robby opened his mouth to answer, and then closed it as his father’s words sunk in. His eyes narrowed. “You knew?”

He pressed his lips together. “I did not know you were still alive. I was misled.” He inhaled and pointed at me. “And I vowed to kill you if I ever had the chance.”

“I tore apart the last person who had the audacity to harm my mate,” Robby said with a voice as cold as steel.

Neither his father nor I acknowledged Robby’s words.

I cocked my head at his father. “Why didn’t you go after Cassius?”

“It was not in my best interest to go after him.” He glared at his son before he pulled a tranquilizer gun from his hip and shot.

Robby’s yell followed me into the dark.