Chapter 28 · No Moon in the Basement

The cuffs dig into my wrists. Vera's. Standard Guild issue. Derek keeps looking at me in the rearview like I'm a present he can't wait to unwrap.

"You got so much thinner," he says. His voice is soft. Concerned. Like he didn't put me in a basement for eight months.

I don't answer. My wolf is pacing under my skin, hot and angry and way too close to the surface. The bond mark on my wrist is burning. Cain's out there somewhere. Vera let him go. I saw it. She cuffed me, shoved me in Derek's car, and turned her back long enough for Cain to vanish into the trees.

I don't know if that was mercy or strategy.

Derek turns off the highway. I know this exit. My stomach drops.

"We're not going to your place," I say. My voice cracks.

"No." He smiles at me in the mirror. "We're going home."

Home. He means the house. The one with the basement door that locked from the outside. The one where I learned that screaming just made him come down faster.

I pull at the cuffs. They don't budge. Vera made them tight.

"Don't do that," Derek says.