Chapter 136: Running Out of Time

ARIEL

~KLANG!~

The metal door slams shut behind us.

I kick the door and scream in anger.

We were so close. We were almost on the plane.

I feel physically sick. This dungeon, with all its chains and bars, reminds me of the Hunters.

It was so long ago, but the pain and torture they put me through is still lodged in my memory.

I feel goosebumps pop up all over my body and I shiver.

I have that same feeling of powerlessness, of being trapped in a cramped cell awaiting my doom, and it’s sending my senses into a frenzy.

~I’m not going to be held captive again. I’m going to find a way to break out.~

I punch the door a few more times, but yelp in pain as one of my knuckles breaks under the pressure.

“Have you broken your hand?” Isabella says. She hobbles over to me, but my healing ability kicks in before she can see.

“No,” I say, showing her my hand. “It’s fine. I’m just pissed that we got so close to freeing you, and then it all got fucked up. And that we’re stuck in here!”

I look around at our dingy surroundings.

The walls are dark and damp. Moss is growing in the corners of the dungeon.

When we were outside, the night air was cool. Down here, my breath rises up in clouds.

Isabella shrugs.

“I have been locked in my tower for two months. What is one cage for another?”

I nod.

“I was the same, locked up against my will,” I say. “Although mine was for two years.”

“How did you do it?” Isabella asks. “How did you survive?”

“It’s sort of a crazy story,” I say. “The Moon Goddess freed me from captivity.”

Isabella nods.

“I prayed every night for someone to bring Mateo back to me and to set me free.”

“Well, that’s why we’re here,” I say. “Still working on breaking you out though.”

Isabella goes to lean against the wall, but she stumbles forward over her ankle.

Her face twists in pain and her breathing becomes labored. I inch forward and motion toward her foot.

“Shall I look at your leg? I can help you,” I say quietly.

“I don’t think you can help, it’s pretty bad,” Isabella says.

“Luckily for you, my skills are Moon Goddess-approved,” I say with a smile.

Isabella wordlessly shuffles a little closer. I pull up the hem of her dress and take a look. I gasp. It’s so much more than a sprained ankle.

There’s bruising all around her foot. I touch the skin and realize it’s still hot. I know what it is, because I’ve experienced it before. It’s silver poisoning.

I look at Isabella and see tears about to form in her blue eyes.

Laying my hands on her leg, I call out to Selene through my mind. I feel Isabella’s pain surge through me as the healing power of the Goddess melts into her.

“~Diosa mio~!” she says, looking at her leg. “You are blessed!”

“Okay,” I say, standing back up. “Now to find a way out of here.”

I turn back to the metal door and start to examine the handle. Maybe I can spring the lock with a hairpin or an earring.

Isabella talks while I plot our escape.

“Are you good friends with Mateo? Does he talk about me?” she asks.

~Shit.~ I’d hoped that we could get them back together before we had to mention the messy details of how we “‘know” each other.

~I better tell her now before she accidentally finds out.~

“Yeah, so, funny story…,” I start. “Mateo and me…we’re kind of ~destined mates~.”

Isabella’s eyebrows rise in surprise.

“But Mateo and I…,” she exclaims. “We did…oh no!”

Isabella slumps back down against the wall, fresh tears streaming down her face.

“I love him, he loves me. But he is with you. We cannot be together.”

She raises her hands to the ceiling.

“~La Diosa Luna~, strike me down! I cannot bear to live without him as my mate.”

“No, Isabella, it’s not what you think,” I say, walking over to her and taking her hands in mine.

“Don’t worry. I already have my own mate, Alex, the king. I was rejected by my first mate, but then Alex and I met and fell in love. We chose each other. You and Mateo can do the same.”

I continue.

“The Moon Goddess ordered me to heal Mateo’s heart. And the only way to do that was to match him up with you. He wants you to be his chosen mate, and to be with him forever.”

Isabella beams as I say the last few words. I guess she loves him as much as he does her.

I lay out our plan for her.

“Once we escape we’ll break our mating bond, and then the two of you will be able to live happily together like me and Alex, as ~chosen~ mates. I promise.”

My ears pick up footsteps coming toward the door. I grab Isabella and pull her to one side, into the shadows.

“Stick close to me,” I whisper as I hear the key turn in our lock. I silently unsheathe my claws.

ALEX

“Turn the plane around!” Mateo roars at the pilot.

“Hell no!” he says. “Didn’t you see them shooting at us?”

I pull Mateo back and turn to the pilot.

“We have to go back!” I say. “They have Ariel and Isabella, we need to save them!”

“Not going to happen,” the pilot shouts back, gripping the controls. “I’m doing everything I can to keep us in the air. If we go back then we’ll all be killed!”

“I’m ordering you, as your king, to turn the plane around,” I shout.

“And I’m telling you, it’s my duty to protect the king when we’re flying,” the pilot says. “If we go back, we’re dead meat!”

I snarl and unsheathe my claws, ready to rip the controls from him and turn the plane around myself, but Jo grabs my arm in a vise grip.

“Alex, cool yourself,” she says in a stern voice. I rip my arm away and storm out of the cockpit. I punch an overhead compartment, denting the hardened metal underneath my fist.

“We need rational heads, my king,” Jo says. “We can’t just go storming back in without a plan. We’d be cut down in seconds.”

“But we need to get back,” Mateo says. “Our mates are there!”

“And I would like to get back to MY mate ALIVE,” Jo says. “I’m not storming Esmeralda’s palace without a plan!”

I breathe in and out a few times. Jo is completely right: we need to stay calm and collected, that’s the only way out of this mess.

“Okay, let’s cool off and try and think of a plan,” I say.

“Ariel is one of the best warriors in the pack,” Jo says. “She’ll keep Isabella safe. She’s likely already started formulating an escape.”

We hear beeping from the cockpit. The pilot presses a few buttons before he calls back from his seat.

“We’re getting a call from the Royal Pack—Vivian—I’ll patch it through. There are some headsets at the back.”

The three of us race to the back of the plane and all grab spare headsets so we can hear her.

“Hey honey,” Jo says sweetly, her voice immediately changing from the stern drill-sergeant tone to a sugary-sweet one.

“Vivian, what’s going on?” I ask.

“Maybe I should ask you that,” Vivian says, her voice serious. “What the hell happened to the plan?”

“We almost made it,” I say. “But Esmeralda caught on at the last minute. Mateo, Jo, and I got out. We got split up from Ariel and Isabella. Have you heard anything?”

“Yeah, bad news,” she says gravely. “I just got off the phone with the Spanish werewolf ambassador. They captured both of them.”

“What’s going to happen to them?” I ask, trying to hide the quake in my voice.

“The ambassador said that Esmeralda is wanting to forgive the whole evening and start over on a blank slate…” She trails off.

“What does she want in return?” I ask.

“She will let Ariel go free…in exchange for Mateo.”

“How long do we have?” I reply.

“She’s given you forty-eight hours for the swap,” Vivian says.

“And if we don’t agree to it?” I say.

“She’ll kill both Ariel and Isabella!”

~Give up Mateo in return for Ariel?~

For a second, my brain tells me to do it, to land as soon as we can, take Mateo prisoner, and immediately settle this whole thing.

But then I think about Ariel, and what she would do if it had been me who was captured instead of her.

She wouldn’t even entertain the idea for a second, so why should I?

We can’t let all our effort go to waste.

I turn to Mateo and look him dead in the eye as we take our headsets off.

“I’m telling you now, there is no way in hell I’m giving you up.”