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The thing that came through the entrance wasn't human anymore.
Ivy pressed her back against the cold rock wall and tried not to breathe too loud. The creature in the tunnel had arms that dragged on the ground and a jaw that looked like it'd been broken and healed wrong three times over. Its eyes were milky white. No pupils.
Cain didn't move. He just stood there between her and it like he was bored.
"Rex sent a feeder," he said. His voice was flat. "Didn't even send someone good."
The creature lunged.
Cain sidestepped and drove his elbow into its skull on the way past. The crack echoed down the shaft. The thing hit the ground and didn't get up.
Ivy's heart was still trying to climb out through her throat. "What the hell was that?"
"Failed wolf." Cain rolled his shoulder and winced. "Someone who couldn't handle the bite. Body keeps changing but the mind's gone." He glanced back at her. His eyes were still a little too gold. "They're easy to point at someone and forget about."
"That's what's going to happen to me if you bite me, isn't it."
"I'm not going to bite you."
"You said your wolf—"
"I said it might kill you. Killing's faster." He turned away and started walking deeper into the mine. "We're moving. They know we're here now."
Ivy looked at the body on the ground. Its fingers were still twitching. She swallowed hard and followed him.
The tunnel sloped down for a long time. Cain didn't use a flashlight. She had to stay close just to see where her feet were going. The air got colder the deeper they went and it smelled like rust and something rotten.
"There's a junction up ahead," Cain said. "Old supply route. We can rest there for an hour."
"Then what?"
"Then we keep moving until we hit the east shaft. There's a way out on the other side of the ridge."
Ivy tried to do the math in her head. Thirty days to get her across the border. Hunters on her trail. A wolf that might snap and rip her throat out on the next full moon. Her legs were already shaking and they'd barely started.
She was so screwed.
The junction turned out to be a wider section of tunnel with a collapsed side passage and some old crates stacked against the wall. Cain shoved one of the crates aside and sat down on it like his body weighed twice what it should. He tilted his head back against the rock and closed his eyes.
Ivy stayed standing. "You're bleeding again."
"I know."
"The silver's still in there, isn't it."
His eyes opened. They were back to that pale gray but there was something sharp underneath. "What makes you say that."
"You're not healing. I saw the wound when we signed the pact. It should've closed by now if you're really what you say you are."
He stared at her for a long moment. Then he laughed. It wasn't a nice sound. "You calling me a liar?"
"I'm saying you need to get it out or you're going to be useless before we make it a mile."
Cain's jaw tightened. "It's fine."
"It's not fine. You're sweating and you look like you're about to pass out."
"I've had worse."
"Great. You want a medal or you want to live long enough to get rid of me in thirty days?"
That got him. He looked at her like he was deciding whether to throw her out of the mine himself or let her keep talking. Finally he let out a long breath through his nose. "You know how to dig a bullet out?"
"It's not a bullet."
"Same principle."
Ivy crouched down next to him. "Take off your shirt."
He pulled the torn fabric over his head and tossed it aside. The wound in his shoulder was ugly. The edges were blackened and the skin around it looked like it was trying to rot off. She could see something metallic glinting deep in the muscle.
"Jesus," she muttered.
"It's silver. It doesn't kill us but it stops us from healing. You leave it in long enough and it poisons the blood."
"How long have you had this."
"Three days." He leaned his head back again and closed his eyes. "There's a knife in my belt. Use that."
Ivy pulled the knife out. It was heavy and the blade was dark with old blood. She wiped it on her jeans and tried not to think too hard about what she was about to do. "This is going to hurt."
"Everything hurts. Just do it."
She pressed the tip of the blade into the wound and he went rigid. His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist hard enough to bruise. She froze.
"Cain—"
"Keep going." His voice came out rough. Strained. "Don't stop."
She dug deeper. The silver fragment was lodged in there good. She had to pry it loose with the edge of the blade and his grip on her wrist got tighter. She could feel his pulse hammering against her skin. His breathing was coming faster now and when she glanced up his eyes were open again.
Gold. Bright gold.
"Almost got it," she said. Her own voice sounded too high.
She hooked the blade under the fragment and pulled. It came free with a wet sound and a fresh gush of blood. Cain's hand released her wrist and his other hand slammed into the wall behind him. He sucked in a breath through his teeth and she saw them.
Fangs.
Long and sharp and way too close to her face.
Ivy jerked back and the knife clattered to the ground. Cain was staring at her. His pupils were blown wide and his chest was heaving. For a second she thought he was going to lunge. Her heart was doing that thing again where it tried to break her ribs.
Then he turned his head away and she heard him swallow. Hard.
"Get back," he said.
"I—"
"Get. Back."
She scrambled to her feet and put the crate between them. Cain stayed where he was. His shoulders were shaking. She watched the wound on his shoulder start to close. Slow at first, then faster. The blackened edges peeled away and fresh skin grew in to replace it.
He didn't look at her. He kept his face turned toward the wall and his hands were clenched into fists on his knees. She could hear him breathing. In and out. Deliberate. Like he was counting.
Ivy's mouth was dry. "You good?"
"No."
At least he was honest.
She waited. The silence stretched out and the only sound was water dripping somewhere deeper in the mine. Finally Cain's shoulders loosened and he let out a long breath. When he looked up his eyes were gray again. Tired.
"That's twice now," he said.
"Twice what."
"Twice I should've ripped your throat out and didn't." He stood up and grabbed his ruined shirt off the ground. He didn't put it back on. Just held it in one hand like he'd forgotten what it was for. "My wolf knows your scent."
Ivy's stomach dropped. "What does that mean."
"It means you smell like mate and it's trying to make me claim you." He said it like he was talking about the weather. Flat. Matter-of-fact. "It's why I didn't kill you on sight. It's why I'm not killing you now."
She didn't know what to say to that. Her brain had stopped working somewhere around the word "mate."
Cain wiped the blood off his shoulder with the shirt and tossed it aside. "It doesn't matter. I'm not claiming anyone. The bond's a mistake. We finish the thirty days and you disappear and my wolf can shut the hell up about it."
"And if it doesn't shut up?"
He looked at her. Really looked at her. His expression was unreadable. "Then one of us doesn't make it to day thirty."
That should've scared her more than it did. Maybe she was too tired to be scared anymore. Or maybe she'd already accepted that she was going to die in these mines one way or another.
She bent down and picked up the silver fragment. It was small. Maybe the size of her thumbnail. The metal was dark and pitted. "Who shot you?"
"Does it matter?"
"You said someone named Rex sent that thing after you. Is he the one who wants you dead?"
Cain's jaw tightened. "Rex wants a lot of things. My territory. My pack. My throat between his teeth. He's not picky about the order."
"He was your second."
"He *thought* he was my second. I never named him anything." Cain grabbed a canteen off his belt and took a long drink. "He challenged me six months ago. I beat him. He didn't like losing. Now he's got half the pack thinking I'm too dangerous to lead and the other half's too scared to tell him no."
"So you left."
"I was exiled." He capped the canteen and clipped it back on his belt. "There's a difference."
Ivy turned the silver fragment over in her fingers. "If you go back—"
"I'm not going back."
"But if you did—"
"They'd kill me. Or I'd kill them. Either way the pack's done." He looked past her toward the dark tunnel ahead. "We need to move. Rex won't stop at one feeder."
Ivy nodded. She started to pocket the silver fragment and then stopped. There was something else in her pocket. She'd forgotten about it until now. She pulled it out.
Her mother's pendant.
It was old. Tarnished. The chain was broken and the clasp didn't work anymore but she'd kept it anyway. The pendant itself was small and round with a symbol etched into the surface. She'd never known what it meant. Her mother never told her.
Cain went very still.
Ivy looked up. "What."
He was staring at the pendant like it'd just grown teeth. His face had gone pale under the blood and dirt. "Where did you get that."
"It was my mom's. Why?"
He didn't answer. He just kept staring. Then he crossed the space between them in two steps and grabbed her wrist. Not hard. But firm. His eyes were locked on the pendant.
"What's your mother's name," he said.
Ivy's pulse kicked up. "Why does it matter?"
"What. Is. Her. Name."
"Iris Crowe. She's dead. She died when I was ten."
Cain let go of her wrist. He took a step back and dragged a hand through his hair. He looked like he'd just seen a ghost.
"That's not possible," he said.
"What's not possible?"
He pointed at the pendant. "That mark. I know what that is."
Ivy looked down at it. The symbol was worn but she could still make it out. A circle with three lines cutting through it. "So what is it."
Cain met her eyes. His expression was grim. "It's a bloodline seal. The kind that died out twenty years ago when the hunters burned the last of them alive."