Chapter 53

It feels like an eternity has passed even though I know it’s only been minutes.

“Because I’m impressed with what you’re doing.” The voice enters my mind, startling me. I reach out and clutch onto Breck.

I open my mouth to say something to him. “Breck—”

“I wouldn’t tell him, princess. He’ll try to either run with you or fight. If he tries to fight, I will have to put him in his place and make him submit to me. Do you really want that?” I recognize the voice. It’s the man from the woods. The man who bit me.

Ravi.

“No.” The word comes out a whisper of a breath, and I realize Breck stares at me, his brows furrowed.

“Shit. Is that...?” Breck mistakes my reaction for something on the ground. Not something, someone. I recognize Ian. I didn’t know what happened to him, but it looks like he has been abandoned. “It is. Lisa was supposed to give him up. What if she did and this is what Dante’s pack did?”

“I’m sure that’s exactly what happened.” I swallow my nerves and try to push Ravi out of my head. I nod and glance from Breck and to Ian. “Let’s hurry and finish so we can find the others.”

Without another word, I follow Breck and he restrains the remaining half-humans. Ian stares at us with familiar eyes, his mouth opening and closing without words coming out. Only growls and what sounds like a plea. He doesn’t want to die. He wants to live. He wants to wait.

I close my eyes and jab my knife into the back of his neck. I know that he won’t complete the transformation. Dante told me as much. I hate that I had to do this. I hate that I had to end the life of anyone, but especially someone that I sort of knew, even if it was only for a little bit.

“The fuckers are going to pay.” Breck uncurls his fingers, taking the knife from me, and jabs it into the sand a couple times to clean it off instead of going back to the water.

“I hope so. If anything happens to Zev, Evan, Jeff, or Dustin, I will do whatever it takes to get justice for them. I swear. These lykoswulves think they’re in charge, but they’re going to learn otherwise. All they’ve done by biting us is give us a better chance to destroy them.” I raise my voice a bit, hoping that Ravi hears my words.

“I not only hear your words; I can also feel them. You don’t believe that’s true. I will work on your confidence though. A mate of the Sunset Pointe pack will always be capable of great things.” Ravi thinks the words to me, sending goosebumps over my skin. My body reacts to his words in a way I never expected. How could I like what he says to me? He bit me. He stalked me.

And now he’s here, hiding and waiting for the chance to attack.

“Unlike the bastard from Twilight Cove, I’m not. I’m here to claim you. I’m here, waiting for the moon to rise and for you to call my name, princess.” Ravi hums in my mind, his voice seeming to twine around my very soul, squeezing me tight and stealing my breath. But it isn’t in a bad way. It’s confusing and unbidden. “I know you’ll realize you like being a good girl, especially my good girl.”

Breck squeezes my hand, giving me a little shake. “Sasha? Are you okay? Are you in shock? Talk to me.” Bending forward, he closes the space and meets my eyes. “You look as if your mind is somewhere else.”

My mouth dries, and I try to moisten my lips. The salt from the ocean doesn’t help. I can’t even remember the last time I drank any water. “Sorry, I’m just trying to think. How are we going to find the others?”

“We know that someone came to this area. We just need to find the signs. No one can go anywhere without leaving a trail. If we find someone, we can get the answers out of them.” Breck frowns at his words. Our plan sucks. There is no raft here, but it was the only place that a boat could have entered the island because everything past this is rocks and cliffside. We saw the light on the beach from their campsite.

We are grasping at air, falling through a world of nothingness.

“If you try such a thing, you’ll put my mate at risk. That will only piss off our pack.” Ravi steps from the trees naked, raising his hands in surrender. He might be trying to look as if he’s not a threat, but the fact that he so confidently strolls out here, proves he is.

Breck grabs me and gets in front, clutching the knife and pointing it at Ravi. “Stay back. If you come any closer, I will gut you. Don’t think I won’t.”

Instead of glowering, Ravi smiles. “I know you will, little pup. You’re now on the Twilight Cove shit list. The man you stabbed on the raft didn’t survive. You’ll be thankful once the moon calls that it was one of my packmates to bite you. I was.”

Anger rushes over me and I dodge past Breck. He yells my name, but I need to confront this bastard. I need to kick him in the balls. I need to make him feel pain. Something. Anything. I can’t just let him stand there and act as if we’re beneath him. Like Breck might be beneath him.

My mind catches up to my body, and I slow down only to grab what looks like a makeshift spear from the ground. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think it belonged to one of the guys. I don’t have time to inspect it. I know that Zev had carved his initials into his.

Swinging it, I aim for Ravi’s legs, trying to drop him to his knees. The bastard jumps into the air, transforming into a wolf, not giving me a chance to even brace myself as he collides into me. He growls, the sound vibrating to my core, but it’s not at me.

His eyes look above my head at Breck.

And then he drags his tongue across my cheek from my jaw all the way to my temple. He transforms on top of me, caging me in with his body, but he doesn’t pin me down. He kneels, straddling my legs, and points at Breck.

“If you take another step closer or try to hurt me, I’ll leave your ass here for the call of the moon. You’re going to give me a couple minutes to talk. Sasa is mine. She has accepted my bite, and once the moon calls, she’ll be my official mate. My alpha has promised her to me as long as I get the other packs in line. Who she chooses to spend more time with is up to her. The rules on this island vastly differ from the human world. But it seems like you already know that. Sasha knows that. I can smell her all over you. Be thankful that I have far better restraint from killing unnecessarily than most here. If I were Sean, you’d be dead for laying a hand on my mate before me.”

Annoyance and rage explode through me, and I swing my hand out, attempting to slap him across the face. Ravi catches my wrist and yanks it over my head, leaning in far enough to make me stiffen. He inhales a deep breath near my ear, and his lips brush my lobe.

“Be a good girl now, princess. I’m doing you a favor. If you behave, I might let you see what happened to your friends.” Ravi releases his grip on me and slides off, getting to his feet. Extending his hand, he holds it out to me.

I ignore him and hold my hands out to Breck instead. Breck hesitates for only a second before getting the nerve to help me up.

It’s the strangest thing. It’s almost as if he was waiting to see if Ravi would allow him.

“You know where they are? It was you, wasn’t it? Your pack?” I reach for the knife Breck clutches, and he lets me take it without saying a word. I point it at Ravi. “You fucking monsters. How could you do this? How can you assume that being nice to me now is going to change anything? I shouldn’t be on this island. None of us should. What you’re doing is horrific. It’s inhumane. You can’t just bite a bunch of humans and leave them to suffer.”

Ravi flares his nostrils and bares his teeth at me. His eyes flash with a reflective light. “Do not put my pack in the same category as those who kidnapped you. This—” He waves around the beach. “This is not Sunset Pointe’s doing. There are many other packs. We all have different beliefs on how things work here. If we were all working together, there wouldn’t have been so many casualties already. I wouldn’t have had to fight for you until the full moon. But I had to ensure your place.”

“My place? My place is back in civilization.” Shadows crowd my vision. My breath quickens, and I struggle to keep my shit together. I want so badly to charge him again in an attempt to attack him, but I know it won’t get me anywhere. He’s expecting it. I need to surprise him somehow.

“It’s not. Now, come on. We don’t have a lot of time. If you want to see the rest of your group and say goodbye in case, let me take you. We had to snatch them or Twilight Cove would have.” Ravi steps closer and offers his hand to me, acting as if the knife I hold isn’t a threat.

“I think we should go with him, Sasha. We don’t really know what else to do. If he can take us to—”

Ravi charges forward, snatching me off my feet and swinging me over his shoulder. He locks his other arm on Breck and drags him, forcing him to run beside us. I stare at the ground, my heart racing. The knife falls from my fingers before I can even defend myself.

“Don’t scream, princess. Someone’s coming.” Ravi’s voice hums through my mind. “You need to trust me. I’m your mate now. I will not allow anything to happen to you.”

I don’t respond to him.

I don’t think I’ll ever trust a lykoswulf. Not now. Not ever. Ravi seems like he’s trying to help, but so did Dante. I won’t be fooled again.

The second I get a chance, I’ll make him regret biting me.

I’ll make the whole island regret ever bringing me here, even if I must become as feral as them. My humanity will die with the moon. I know it. Now I must embrace it. It’s the only way I’ll ever have the future I want.