Dawn found Elara's small group standing at the edge of Ashfang, looking east.
The wastelands stretched before them—a barren expanse of cracked earth, twisted rock formations, and sky the color of bruised flesh. Nothing grew there. Nothing lived there. Nothing should live there.
And yet, somewhere in that desolation, Cedric's family waited.
"If they're still alive." Cedric's voice was raw. He'd insisted on coming, despite Elara's protests. "After all this time—"
"Kress knows where the camp is." Elara's voice was steady. "We'll find them."
Cedric nodded, but his eyes held the haunted look of someone who'd learned not to hope.
Behind them, Ashfang's wolves gathered at the fortress gates—watching their Alpha leave, watching their queen lead him into danger. Among them, Elara spotted faces she'd come to know in the short night since breaking Cedric's bond. Warriors who'd served under duress. Families who'd hidden their loyalty. Young wolves who'd never known a leader not bound by the master's chains.
This is why we're doing this, she thought. For them. For all of them.
Kael's hand found hers. Ready?
No. But let's go anyway.
---
The wastelands were worse up close.
The ground crunched beneath their feet—not soil, but something else. Ash, maybe. Remains of whatever had died here long ago. The air tasted of metal and rot. Shadows moved at the edge of vision, though nothing living could be seen.
Kress led the way, his scarred face grim with memory. "The master built three camps like this. Prisons, really. For hostages, for dissidents, for wolves he wanted to break." His voice was flat. "I guarded them sometimes. When I was his weapon."
Elara moved closer. "How many prisoners?"
"Dozens. Hundreds. They came and went." Kress's jaw tightened. "I didn't ask questions. Didn't want to know."
"But you remember the way."
"I remember." He pointed east. "Half a day's journey. There's a canyon—the camp is built into its walls. Hidden from above. Impossible to find if you don't know where to look."
Half a day. Elara looked at Cedric, whose face had gone pale at Kress's words.
Hold on, she thought at the unknown prisoners. We're coming.
---
The canyon appeared as Kress had promised—a gash in the wasteland's surface, invisible until you were almost upon it. Elara's group approached cautiously, using the twisted rock formations for cover.
From the edge, they could see down into the camp.
It was... brutal. Simple stone buildings clustered at the canyon's bottom. A central yard where wolves moved under guard. Cages—actual cages—lining one wall, each containing a wolf in human form, curled against the cold.
Cedric made a sound like a wounded animal.
"I see her." His voice broke. "Mira. My mate. In the third cage—"
Elara caught his arm. "We'll get her out. But we need to be smart. Rushing in will get everyone killed."
Cedric's whole body shook with the effort of restraint. But he nodded. "What's the plan?"
---
Kress knew the camp's layout intimately.
"Twelve guards on rotation. Four always in the yard, eight in the barracks." He traced the layout in the dust. "The cages are warded—blood magic alarms that trigger if anyone tries to open them without the key."
"Can you disable the wards?" Kael asked.
"I can try. The master taught me some of his magic. Enough to recognize it, maybe enough to—" Kress paused. "To redirect it. Make the alarms think nothing's wrong."
"Do it." Elara's voice was firm. "Kael and I will handle the guards. Cedric, you get your family. Kress, you cover the wards. Dace—" She looked at the chronicler. "You stay here. If something goes wrong, you run. You tell the others what happened."
Dace's jaw tightened. "I'm not—"
"You're not a fighter. And someone needs to record the truth." She held his gaze. "That's as important as anything we're doing."
He nodded slowly. "I'll be here. Waiting."
---
They moved at dusk.
The fading light was both ally and enemy—enough to hide their approach, not enough to blind them to danger. Elara's heart hammered as they crept down the canyon wall, using every bit of shadow for cover.
Kress slipped away toward the cages, his knowledge of the camp's magic guiding him.
Kael stayed at Elara's side, a shadow among shadows.
Through the bond, she felt his focus—every sense stretched to maximum, tracking threats, planning responses. He was Alpha in full measure, the predator she'd first feared, now turned to protect what mattered most.
Four guards in the yard, he thought. I can take three. You take one.
Show-off.
I love you too.
Despite everything, she almost smiled.
---
They struck simultaneously.
Kael moved like lightning—three guards down before they knew he was there. Elara's target spun, reaching for a weapon, and found silver light blazing in her eyes instead.
"Don't." Her voice was quiet. Deadly. "You don't want to fight me."
The guard froze. Something in her power, in her presence, in the rightness of her claim made him unable to move.
Behind her, Kael finished his work. The yard was clear.
"Go." He was already moving toward the barracks. "I'll hold them here. Get Cedric's family."
Kael—
Go. I'll be fine.
Through the bond, she felt his certainty. His love. His absolute refusal to let anything stop her.
She ran.
---
The cages loomed before her.
In the dim light, she could see faces pressed against the bars—wolves who'd been imprisoned so long they'd forgotten what freedom felt like. Among them, a woman with Cedric's eyes, clutching two small children.
"Mira." Elara reached the cage. "I'm here to get you out. Cedric sent me."
The woman's eyes widened. "Cedric? He's—he's alive?"
"He's alive. He's waiting for you." Elara looked for Kress. "The wards—"
"Almost there." Kress's voice was strained. He stood at the cage's base, hands pressed to the stone, sweat beading on his forehead. "The master's magic is... strong. Fighting me."
"Can you break it?"
"I can—" He gasped. "I can redirect it. Make it think the cage is still closed even when it's open. But I need time."
From the barracks, sounds of fighting erupted. Kael, holding off the remaining guards.
They didn't have time.
Elara made a decision.
She pressed her hands to the cage bars and pushed.
Silver light exploded from her palms—not gentle this time, not careful. Raw power, drawn from the deepest well of her being. The wards screamed. The cage shuddered.
And then, with a sound like breaking chains, the door swung open.
Kress stared at her, awe in his empty eyes. "You—you just—"
"No time." Elara reached into the cage, pulling Mira and the children out. "Go. Up the canyon wall. Dace is waiting."
Mira clutched her children, tears streaming. "Thank you. Thank you—"
"Go!"
They ran.
---
Kael found her at the cage line, breathing hard, silver light still flickering around her hands.
"That was reckless." But his voice was warm with pride.
"That was necessary." She looked at the remaining cages. Dozens of wolves, still trapped. "We can't leave them."
"We can't take them all." He grabbed her arm, pulled her toward the canyon wall. "Not tonight. But we can come back. With an army. With time."
She wanted to argue. Needed to argue.
But the sounds of pursuit were growing louder. Guards rallied, recovering from Kael's attack. Soon the camp would be swarming.
"We'll come back," she promised the caged wolves. "I swear it."
Then she ran.
---
The climb was brutal.
Hand over hand up the crumbling canyon wall, Kael close behind her, guards howling below. Elara's muscles screamed. Her power flickered, exhausted from breaking the wards. But she climbed. Kept climbing. Survived.
At the top, Mira waited with her children, Dace beside her. The chronicler's face was pale with fear, but his hands were steady, his journal already recording.
"Where's Kress?" Elara gasped.
"Here." The scarred warrior appeared over the edge, hauling himself onto solid ground. Blood seeped from a wound on his arm. "Guard got close. Not close enough."
"And Cedric?"
A shape emerged from the darkness—Cedric himself, having circled around to draw pursuit away from his family. He crossed to Mira in three strides and crushed her against him, children pressed between them.
"I thought—" His voice broke. "I thought I'd never—"
"I know." Mira wept into his chest. "I know."
Elara watched them for a moment, her heart full.
Then Kael's arm wrapped around her, and she let herself lean into him.
"We did it," she whispered.
"We did." He kissed her hair. "Now let's go home."
---
The journey back to Ashfang took two days.
Two days of watching Cedric rediscover his family—his mate, his children, his reason. Two days of Kress's quiet redemption, the empty-eyed killer slowly becoming something more. Two days of Dace filling pages with observations, recording everything for future generations.
And two days of Elara and Kael stealing moments—a touch here, a kiss there, a whispered promise of the cabin in the mountains that seemed impossibly far away.
On the second night, camped in the wasteland's shadow, Elara sat apart from the others, staring at the stars.
Kael found her there.
"Thinking about the other cages."
"Always." She leaned into him as he sat beside her. "Dozens of wolves, Kael. Still trapped. Still suffering. And we just left them."
"We didn't leave them. We chose to come back with more resources." He pulled her close. "That's not abandonment. That's strategy."
"I know. It just... hurts."
"Good." His voice was gentle. "If it didn't hurt, you wouldn't be the queen they need."
She looked at him. At this fierce, broken, wonderful Alpha who'd rejected her and then chosen her and then knelt for her. Who'd fought beside her and died for her and come back for her. Who loved her with an intensity that still took her breath away.
"I love you," she whispered. "I don't say it enough."
"You say it enough." He touched her face. "I feel it. Every moment. Through the bond. Through everything."
She kissed him then—slow and deep and full of promise.
When they broke apart, his silver eyes held hers.
"Tomorrow we go back to Ashfang. We gather allies. We plan the rescue." He smiled—that rare, beautiful smile. "And then we free every wolf in those cages. Together."
"Together." She leaned her head on his shoulder. "Always together."
---
End of Chapter 31🐺