Chapter 353: She Escaped
’Zosime is not here. She escaped.’
Zagan stared at the text on his phone from Seth, the words dead and unmoving on the screen. They stared blankly back at him, though their meaning vibrated with the fear of his second and of the Alpha who had allowed this to happen. She had escaped.
For the first time in over sixty years, he didn’t know where Zosime was. Why did this fact bother him so much?
He squeezed the phone in his palm, feeling the satisfying crunch of metal as the device crumbled into shards of its vital parts and onto the floor of the greenhouse. What a worthless pack. He clenched his teeth around the name of the one in charge, wishing he could crush the alpha there within his mouth like he had crushed the phone in his hand.
Alpha Kane in Appalachia. He had not been back there in quite some time. The pack was small and floundering, having not produced any alyko in easily over a decade. They should have at least been able to control one alyko who was already imprisoned. How hard could it possibly be? Unless this newly awakened Zosime was so powerful...
Zagan recalled the moment his eyes alighted on her at the Hallowell’s—her precious flesh torn apart and crudely stitched back together with black nylon. When Andreas bit her, she should have been reduced to the alyko she was prior to her transformation. It didn’t make any sense as to why she would have suddenly been powerful enough to launch Zagan through the air and then go on to restrain him against the floor.
Andreas hadn’t marked her—a process that could have conceivably passed the lycan’s strength to her, effectively enhancing her own natural alyko abilities. Instead, she was badly injured—her face sewn and swollen. She should have been weakened considerably. And yet the threat against that mutt who had stormed toward the room to try to save her was all it took for the caged power within her to break free and successfully dominate Zagan.
That strength was certainly impressive. Maybe it wasn’t surprising that she had escaped from the mountain cells they had in Kane’s territory. The emotional dread of having returned to the pack that had treated her so poorly as a pup could have created the same release of power that he had felt her use against him. And if she was able to best a vampire, then a lycan was no problem. He should have gone to retrieve her himself instead of sending the mutts to do it. Fucking lycans.
He wanted her back. She was his—he had kept her, he had created her, he had invested all of that time and energy into her. She was like a daughter.
Zagan rose from the bed in the greenhouse where Emmett was still working on returning the plants.
"Leave this bed where it is," he spoke with the emotionless authority that was his character.
Emmett looked as if he wanted to object or ask a question, but the male was reluctant to do so. Zagan groaned internally. Couldn’t they figure the details out themselves? Must they always be told precisely what to do?
"It is only a small displacement. You can surround the bed with what was here originally. Just keep the bed. But make it fit the space better. These white sheets are blinding," he added and then swiftly left with the unnamed book in hand. He tucked it back into his jacket for further study later.
First the maddening, indirect words within this book he had received from Nelo and now this. This was proving to be a most trying day.
When he was back in the hall leading to his office, he paused recalling that the two alyko were also on this floor. He was going to have to keep himself away from the Winter. Her blood volume would still be low from when he drank from her, her body not yet having had enough time to replenish its supply. If for some reason he couldn’t control himself around her, the Winter would be dead. And while killing her was not entirely out of the question—in fact, he would prefer it if she was his mate—he didn’t have enough information on this questionable situation yet to allow that to happen.
He was going to have to figure this out—how to be around her. How was he supposed to study the Luna if the two females were in a room together? How was he supposed to communicate with Penelope about the Luna if he couldn’t stand to be around the enticing scent of her blood. Hopefully the wounds on her hands and knees were fully covered.
Saliva suddenly pooled in his mouth as his thoughts strayed to her injuries, and he cursed himself inwardly. He had satiated himself at the blood river in Gray Vale—he should not be drooling over anyone like a mere juvenile. He was centuries old. He was controlled in his hunger. He had spend decades amongst the humans acquiring that control. And yet here he was, ceasing the breath in his lungs in order to avoid encountering a female’s scent as he walked by the room where the two alyko were.
As he walked past that heavy wooden door that had been shut to the hallway where he might have stolen a quick glimpse, his ears searched for her—for any movement that would give an indication that she was in there. He reminded himself to check with Brandt about whether or not she had eaten.
Once he was safely within his office with the door shut, he allowed himself to breathe again, but his thoughts were still with her. He remembered the dreamy affect of her compelled state—how she gazed at him without fear, awaiting his next words as if the universe itself relied on them. He bit into his lip, releasing a small amount of blood from where the fangs punctured it. But the taste was nothing compared to hers.
