TWENTY-FOUR

"And why should we trust you?" Clemmy snarled at him. "You were going to torture us. How should we know you won't lead us down the wrong path on purpose?"

Blake made a move to approach us, but I shoved Clemmy back to keep him away from her. On the other side of the wall from where we came, I could hear the cave collapsing into itself. The ground trembled under my feet, warning us to keep moving, to escape.

"I'm not asking you to trust me," he stressed, "I'm saying I can get you out of here."

"That sounds the same as asking us to trust you." Clemmy crossed her arms over her chest.

Rocks and sand began falling from the ceiling above our heads as the cave's structure started to crumble.

My eyes travelled between Clemmy and Blake as I said desperately, "Stop arguing, both of you! We have to get out of here before the roof gives in." Glaring at Blake, I added, "Don't make me regret this."

With a single nod, he took off towards the second tunnel. Grabbing onto Clemmy's hand, I made sure she stayed close as we followed Blake. From the front, he created two misty spheres of light in his hands, illuminating the tunnel for us to see what's ahead. The farther we progressed, the colder the air became. I shivered when an icy breeze swept past my face and bare shoulders, causing goosebumps to spread across my arms.

"We're close," Blake informed, glancing back at us.

My hand tightened around Clemmy's as we rounded another corner. Then we saw it, light at the end of the tunnel.

The ground beneath my feet quaked as the cave we stood in a few seconds ago collapsed. Chunks of rock and sand rained down on us and, out of nowhere, the tunnel floor cracked wide open. Blake twisted his wrists and several grey smoke tendrils blasted from his palms. Slithering towards the crack, they attached themselves to either side of the torn floor to mend the gap.

Picking up the pace, we rushed forward and passed the mended crack. We hardly made it to the other side before I heard it crumble and collapse as Blake dropped the spell.

A rusted iron gate was the only thing that stood in the way of us and our freedom. Blake thrust a hand forward and the gate flew clean off its hinges. There wasn't time to marvel at his strange yet astonishing abilities. We still had to escape whatever this place was and get back to Craven Pride. I only hoped Lucine wouldn't beat us to it.

Blake was the first to exit the tunnel, standing aside to let us through.

The moment the fresh air filled my senses, I uttered a sound between a laugh and sob. We were standing on a beach with the waves crashing only a few feet from us. The cave Lucine kept us in must have been an old smuggler's den centuries ago. It didn't surprise me that she chose it out of all places to act as her evil villain lair.

Clemmy threw her head back to inhale the salty air, smiling when a bit of rain drizzled on her face. My eyes found their way to Blake, who was staring at her in contemplation. "Why did you help us?"

He blinked from whatever trance he's been in and turned away. "I... it's hard to explain."

"Not an excuse," I argued, "Little over a week ago, I discovered werewolves and dark curses were real. You just magicked a gate off its hinges, and Lucine uses smoke to turn into an old lady who I thought I used to know. Now that's hard to explain."

With a huff, he turned towards us, locking eyes with Clemmy. "Look, I don't know anything about this or how it's supposed to feel. But you...I think you're... we are... I'm..."

While he was struggling to form a coherent sentence, I had a moment of realization where it literally struck me like lightning. When I saw him for the first time in the cave, he approached Clemmy and me with only one goal in mind: to torture us. But he didn't.

He froze.

At first, I thought he was looking at me, but now I knew he wasn't. He was looking past me – at Clemmy. Just as he was looking at her a minute ago.

I knew that look. That's how Rheon looks at me. That is how a werewolf looks at their reason to live.

The moment it clicked; my jaw nearly hit the beach. "She's your mate."

Clemmy's eyes grew at the revelation. I felt her hand slacking in mine as her body went numb with shock. Blake and I simultaneously reached out to capture her before she could drop to the sand. She flinched away from him when he tried touching her and pressed herself into me as if I could grow claws and fangs and protect her if he decided to pry her off me.

"You can't be my mate..." she whispered, "I don't feel anything towards you."

"Because you're too young." He swallowed visibly. His eyes were dark and desperate as he looked at her. "You can only feel the bond when you're eighteen."

She shook her head, tears streaming down her face. "What if I don't want you as a mate? You're evil, anyone with ties to Lucine is. I don't want what has happened to my brother to happen to me."

My heart clenched at the helplessness he displayed. Call me naive or soft, but something told me Blake wasn't like his sister. Perhaps in the past, yes - I imagined him as the type of person who'd torture people for stress relief. And perhaps he would've tortured us if Clemmy didn't turn out to be his mate. We'll never know. All I knew was that he helped us. If not for him, we'd either be crushed by the cave collapsing, or left for Lucine to have her wicked fun with.

In real life, that wouldn't be enough to redeem him. As the daughter of a lawyer, I knew that much. A murderer doesn't walk free by doing a good deed. But this wasn't real life anymore, not how I knew it, at least. The world of the supernatural has different laws, different beliefs, and I didn't know enough of it to judge Blake for what he was intended to do to us.

What I did know was we were alive because his immediate bond with Clemmy saved not only us, but him as well. Perhaps Clemmy was the push toward redemption he needed.

"Don't say anything you'd regret later," I told her sincerely, "He helped us escape and now we must help him redeem himself. And in two years, when you turn eighteen and experience the bond for yourself, then you can decide whether you want it or not."

Clemmy wiped her eyes, stealing a glance at Blake. "I don't trust him."

"Me neither, but right now, he's the one helping us save the pack. Plus," I whispered into her ear although Blake could hear it with his werewolf senses, "I know you think he's cute." The only response I got was a glare and an elbow in the side. "What, I was a teenager too once."

Behind us, Blake cleared his throat awkwardly. I imagined he didn't receive many compliments before, even less being called cute. "We need to move. Lucine isn't alone. She has her own pack of werewolves to take Craven Pride by force if necessary. Her plan is to kill those who won't follow her and use them to set an example for the other packs in Europe."

Clemmy's hand clamped over her mouth. "My pack..."

I grasped her hand, hoping to provide her with some comfort. "What about the curse? Rheon's already bound to her. Can't she just manipulate him into surrendering?"

He shook his head gravely. "The curse isn't permanent yet, she has to mark him to bound him to her."

Of course, the mark. I should've known Lucine would want to end this in some poetic manner. However, a flicker of hope sparked within me. "You're saying there's still a way to stop her?"

Blake nodded thoughtfully. "I might be able to conjure a spell to restrain her. There's a ritual that can strip her of her magic - without it, the curse is sure to be broken. We just need to keep her away from Rheon, because she will mark him if she sees her chance."

The sun was setting in the distance, announcing the end of the day. I wanted to scoff. Seriously, I only came here to photograph a wedding, not fight against a half-werewolf, half-witch psychopath in a werewolf war! But dammit I love Rheon and I'm not going to let that witch take him away from me.

"How much time do we have to get back?" I asked.

Blake quirked a brow. "Does two seconds sound good?"

Before either of us could ask what he meant, a cloud of smoke swiveled up around us and the ocean and beach disappeared.

It felt like my organs were rearranging themselves as we spun around and around and around until we came to an abrupt stop. Clemmy staggered into me as she lost her footing while I extended both my arms in a pathetic attempt to regain my balance. The smoke vanished to reveal us standing on the shore next to the lake at Craven Pride.

It felt like I could kiss the pebbles underneath my feet as I took in my surroundings. A few feet to the left was Victor's thinking rock where we hung out one morning. Just up the slope was the path that led to my photo studio and among the trees behind us was the chapel where the wedding took place.

We're home!

Clemmy made a dash for the castle, only for Blake to grab onto her arm and pull her back. "What do you think you're doing?"

She tried prying his hands off her. "What does it look like? I'm going to warn my pack against your sister..." However, she stiffened when her werewolf senses picked up a disturbance in the atmosphere. Clemmy looked at me with eyes wide with terror. "...they're already here."

Panic surged through me at her words. All I could think about was Rheon. He probably went out of his mind after the ball when both his sister and mate were taken by Lucine. And I don't blame him. If the roles were reversed, I would've felt the same. I imagined how helpless he must have felt with no sense of smell and no way of tracking us down.

"What's the plan?" I pushed the fear aside to focus.

Blake looked at me as if I was crazy. "You're not doing anything."

That offended me. "And why not?"

"First of, you're a human; you can't fight or heal as we can. And secondly, you're already injured. You'd only be a liability and that's the last thing Rheon needs while he should be focused on fighting Lucine."

"Then what? I should go hide in the castle until the fight eventually ends?"

"That would be helpful, yes." He nodded. Clemmy wasn't arguing with him, much to my dismay. If anyone should be sticking up for me at this moment, it should be her.

"What about me?" She looked at Blake.

"You stay with me." She opened her mouth to protest but he cut her off before she could even utter a word, "I know you don't trust me yet, but please, believe me when I say I would do anything to keep you safe. If something happens to you, if you get hurt in any way, there is no telling what I'd do. Just... stay with me."

I saw her scowl soften as her resolve shattered. With a single nod, she agreed to his plea.

Their moment was interrupted when a bone-chilling howl sounded in the distance. A moment passed until another one followed, and then a third and a fourth until an entire symphony of howls echoed in the night sky. Clemmy shrunk back at the noise, inching closer to Blake as he studied the starry sky.

He inhaled slowly before saying the words I feared, "It has begun."