Goodbye, My Mate

Chapter 194

Lucas' POV

Dim light bled through the cracks in the door, striping the girl's face as she scrambled backward, her boots kicking over jars of pickled things that rolled like severed heads. Her eyes were wild - a rabbit's stare, all whites and panic.

"Don't," I hissed, slamming the door shut behind us. The lock clicked, too loud.

She lunged for a rusted shovel leaning against the wall. "Stay back!" The blade trembled in her grip, but her voice didn't. "Alpha Finn's already got me cleaning piss-pots. You think I'll let his whore add to the list?"

The word stung, though it shouldn't have. I'd been called worse.

"I'm not here to hurt you," I said, edging closer. The room was a cage, shelves cluttered with burlap sacks and broken tools. A single bulb swung above, casting jagged shadows.

"Right. You dragged me in here to chat?" Her gaze dropped to my chest. "Take off your shirt. I want to see your branding."

I froze. I didn't have any branding. If she found out, she would know that I wasn't a male whore as I pretended to be.

"Can't," I muttered.

"Can't?" She swung the shovel sideways, smashing a jar. Vinegar and glass sprayed. "Or won't?"

I lunged, grabbing the shovel's handle. She fought. I twisted, pinning her against the wall, my forearm pressed below her throat.

"Stop. Moving," I growled. Her pulse hammered against my skin. She smelled like lye soap and fear-sweat, her body coiled tight. Too thin. Too young.

Her free hand clawed at my wrist. "Let go of me!"

"Listen," I snapped. "Leo's lab. Where is it?"

Her nails dug deeper. "Don't know any Leo."

Liar. The flicker in her pupils betrayed her. I leaned in, close enough to count the freckles dusting her nose. "You served Finn at the banquet. You cleaned his study."

Her throat bobbed. "So?"

"So you hear things." My grip tightened. "Lab. Underground? Over the rainbow? Tell me, and I walk out. You never see me again."

She stared at me in anger.

"I don't know anything!" she said.

I looked down into her eyes, jaw clenching. "They're experimenting on rogues. Draining them. Tearing them apart. You want that?"

Her voice was brittle. "You think I care about rogues?"

"You should." I lowered my voice and pulled her blouse off, exposing the branding mark on her chest. "You're one."

"'Let go of me!" she struggled to pull her blouse up.

"Lab's death," I said. "You help me find it. Then, we're both free."

"Free?" Her voice cracked. "You're Alpha Finn's whore. He'll skin you either way."

The bulb above us buzzed. Shadows deepened the hollows of her cheeks. How old is she? Too old for this hell, too young to know how to leave it.

"I'm not his whore," I said.

She sneered. "Then who's?"

My patience was starting to run out.

"Tell me the location of the lab right now," I said.

"Or what?"

"Or I'll use that shovel to smash your brain out. Right here, right now," I said in a plain voice.

Her body was trembling.

She stared at the door, then at me, then at the shovel.

Eventually, she gave up. "I heard Alpha Finn talking about 'old lab' on the phone the other day. That was the only time I'd heard about it."

"Good. Now we're having a conversation," I said.

"I'm done talking to you. Could you please just let me go now?" she asked, looking desperate.

"Not really," I said. "You have to stay with me for a while. I can't let you walk around, telling people about our little chat tonight."

Then, before she could protest, I grabbed that shovel and knocked her out.

When she leaned unconsciously against my chest, I felt so relieved.

Now she's not going anywhere. She's safe with me.

I carried her up on my shoulder like carrying a sack, walking out of the room.

You're better off with me. You'll see. I thought to myself.

Somewhere, a wolf howled.

Or maybe it was just the wind.

--

The couch had been a torture rack. My spine screamed when I stirred at dawn, neck stiff as a rusted hinge. Yet somehow, it was the deepest sleep I'd had in years—dreamless, thick, the kind that leaves gunpowder on your tongue.

Steam from the shower thawed my muscles. I took the stairs two at a time, the girl's whimpers guiding me like a lodestone.

She lay spread-eagled on the bed, iron cuffs biting her wrists. Morning light carved hollows under her eyes—bruised plum, sleepless. When the door creaked, she erupted like lit dynamite.

"Where—" Her chains shrieked as she thrashed. "Let me go! Let me go!"

Moonlight pooled in the hollow of her throat. Too pale. Too still between convulsions.

"First time chained to a stranger's bed?" I leaned against the doorframe, tasting copper. Fear-sweat drenched the room.

Her sob hitched raw. "Please let go of me."

"Begging's useless." I kicked off the wall, boots crunching glass shards from last night's… festivities. "But rage? That's currency here."

The linen sheet slipped when she kicked. Milky thighs flashed, scarred with old cigarette burns. Finn's calling cards.

I dragged the fabric back up, slow as a confession. Her tears fell hotter now, silent.

"Why…" She turned her face to the wall, voice frayed. "Just take what you want and end this. Alpha Finn returns in a few days. He'll—"

"Flay you? Carve you? Break you?" My knuckle grazed a cuff's inner lining—velvet. Always velvet with Finn. "You'd rather his blade than my bed?"

She shuddered. Not denial. Recognition.

At that moment, I realized that Finn ruined her so badly that she wasn't even able to have any other feelings other than fear.

She just needs more time to recover. I thought to myself.

"Do you want to have some breakfast?" I asked.

The girl bit her lips with eyes wide open. She nodded.

The kitchen smelled of scorched wheat and regret. Three blackened toast soldiers lay massacred on the counter, yolks bleeding across tile. I stared at the carnage. How does one burn water?

I brought the tray up anyway—carbonized bread, jam bleeding through chipped porcelain, orange juice glittering with eggshell confetti.

She eyed it like a poisoned chalice. "There's… debris in your hair."

A shell fragment plinked into her juice. Her chuckle startled us both—harsh, disused.

"Chain me to the stove," she said. "I'll feed us."