Calix POV
The hidden passage collapses behind us.
I slam my fist against solid rock where the door used to be. "No!"
Kieran grabs my shoulder. "Calix, we need to move. The fortress is compromised."
"They took her!" I spin on him, rage and panic warring in my chest. "The Nightborn Council took Sable!"
"I know." His face is grim. "And if we don't get out now, we'll be captured too."
Around us, my wolves are regrouping. The battle in the throne room is over—Corvin's forces retreated when the explosions started. But the damage is done.
Sable is gone.
My rejected mate. My partner. The girl I just swore to protect.
Gone.
"How did they even know she was here?" I demand.
"Someone told them." Vesper appears, blood on her hands from treating wounded. "The Council doesn't move without intelligence. Someone in this fortress is a traitor."
The words hit like ice water. A traitor in my court. Someone I trust.
I look around at the faces of my wolves. People I've saved. Protected. Given second chances.
One of them sold us out.
"Find them," I order Kieran. "I don't care what it takes. Find the traitor."
"What about Sable?"
What about Sable? The girl who rejected me but still made my wolf howl with need. The Nightborn heir who could change everything.
The woman I'm not supposed to care about but can't stop thinking about.
"We're getting her back," I say.
"The Nightborn Council has been hunting our kind for centuries," Vesper warns. "They have resources we can't match. Fortresses hidden across the world. If they took her to one of their strongholds—"
"Then we burn every stronghold until we find her." My voice is steel. Final.
A wolf I don't recognize stumbles through the debris. One of Stellan's soldiers. His face is bloody.
"The Alpha wants to speak with you," he gasps. "Stellan Thorne. Says you both want the same thing now."
I want to refuse. Stellan abandoned his daughter for fifteen years while I've known her for three days. He has no right to her.
But he also has an army. Resources. Information.
"Where is he?"
They lead me to what's left of the throne room. Stellan stands among the rubble, looking like he's aged a decade in the last hour.
"They took my daughter." His voice is hollow. "Again."
"I know."
"You're the Rogue King." His storm-grey eyes—so like Sable's—study me. "The exiled heir. Calix Mordane."
"Yes."
"And you offered Sable protection. Why?"
Because she's my mate. Because the bond snapped between us the moment I saw her. Because even through the rejection, I can't stop feeling her absence like a missing limb.
But I can't say that.
"Because Corvin Hale is my enemy," I say instead. "And anyone who hates him is useful to me."
"Liar." Stellan moves closer. "I saw how you looked at her. How you protected her during the attack. She's more than useful to you."
I don't answer.
"The Nightborn Council took her because she's awakening," Stellan continues. "Her power during the battle—that was just the beginning. When she fully transforms, she'll be unstoppable. They'll either try to control her or kill her."
"Not if we get to her first."
"We?" Stellan raises an eyebrow. "You're willing to work with me?"
"For Sable? Yes." The admission costs me. "What do you know about the Council?"
"More than anyone alive." Stellan pulls out a tablet, brings up a map. "I've spent fifteen years tracking them. They have five confirmed strongholds. But there's a sixth. A hidden facility where they take newly awakened Nightborn wolves for 'processing.'"
The word 'processing' makes my skin crawl. "What kind of processing?"
"The kind that breaks their minds and turns them into weapons." Stellan's hands clench. "They did it to Vivianne—Sable's mother. Took her as a child, tortured her, made her into their perfect soldier. By the time I found her and freed her, she was barely alive."
Horror crawls up my spine. "They're going to do that to Sable."
"Unless we stop them." Stellan looks at me. "I have the location of the processing facility. But it's heavily guarded. I need your forces combined with mine to breach it."
"Then you have them."
We're planning the assault when Vesper bursts in, her face white.
"Calix. You need to see this. Now."
She holds up her tablet. A video plays—live stream, judging by the timestamp.
Sable appears on screen.
She's strapped to a metal chair in a white room. Her wrists are bound with silver that burns against her skin. Her face is defiant despite obvious pain.
A woman in white enters the frame. The same woman from the passage. Ice-blue eyes and a cruel smile.
"Hello, world," the woman says. "My name is Elara Frost, High Councilor of the Nightborn Council. We've recovered a very important asset today."
She circles Sable's chair. "This is Sable Thorne. Daughter of Vivianne Hartwell-Thorne, last pure Nightborn queen. Carrier of the royal bloodline. And as of today, property of the Council."
"I'm not property," Sable spits.
Elara backhands her. Blood drips from Sable's split lip.
Rage explodes through me. Beside me, Stellan makes a sound like a wounded animal.
"We're broadcasting this for one reason," Elara continues. "To send a message to Stellan Thorne and Calix Mordane. The two thorns in our side for far too long."
She pulls out a syringe filled with black liquid.
"This is refined wolfsbane mixed with Nightborn suppressant. Enough to permanently cripple her wolf and strip her powers." Elara holds it up to the camera. "Unless you both surrender yourselves to Council custody within twenty-four hours, we inject her. She lives, but as a broken, powerless human for the rest of her miserable life."
"Don't you dare!" Stellan roars at the screen.
But Elara isn't finished. She leans close to Sable, speaking loud enough for the camera to catch. "Your father abandoned you once. Your mate rejected your bond. Why do you think either of them will come for you now?"
Sable's eyes meet the camera. Those storm-grey eyes that flash violet when she's angry.
"They won't," she says clearly. "And I don't need them to."
Then she does something impossible.
The silver restraints explode outward.
Sable stands, power crackling around her like lightning. Her eyes blaze full violet now.
"You want to see what a Nightborn queen can do?" Her voice echoes with that otherworldly resonance from before. "Let me show you."
The feed cuts to static.
The room erupts in chaos. Stellan is shouting orders. Wolves scramble for weapons and gear.
But I just stand there, staring at the blank screen where Sable's face was.
She freed herself. Broke through silver restraints that should have been impossible to escape.
Pride swells in my chest. Fear too. Because Sable just declared war on the Nightborn Council alone.
And they will destroy her for it.
"We move now," I command. "Full assault. No prisoners."
"We don't even know if she's still at that facility," Kieran argues. "They could move her—"
"She's there." I don't know how I know. But I feel it. Through the rejected bond, through some connection that shouldn't exist anymore, I feel her.
And she's fighting.
We're suiting up for the assault when another video arrives.
This one isn't a broadcast. It's a direct message to me.
I open it.
Sable appears, alone in what looks like a cell. No restraints now. Just her, sitting on the floor, looking directly at the camera.
At me.
"Calix," she says quietly. "If you're watching this, don't come. It's a trap."
My hands clench.
"They want you to rescue me. Want you to walk into their facility so they can capture you too." She takes a shaky breath. "I'm not worth it. I rejected you. Threw your offer back in your face. You don't owe me anything."
"You're wrong," I say to the screen, even though she can't hear me.
"But I need you to know something." Her eyes shimmer with tears she won't let fall. "When I rejected the bond, it wasn't because of you. It was because I'm broken. Because everyone I've ever trusted has hurt me. Because I didn't think I deserved a second chance."
A tear escapes. She wipes it away angrily.
"I was wrong too. About a lot of things." She stands, moving closer to the camera. "They're going to kill me, Calix. I know that now. But before I die, I wanted to say thank you. For saving me in the Wastes. For offering me partnership when I had nothing. For treating me like I mattered."
"Sable—"
"And I wanted to say I'm sorry. For the rejection. For—"
The door behind her explodes open.
Guards flood in. Sable spins, power flaring, but there are too many. They swarm her. Pin her down.
Elara appears in the doorway, holding that syringe.
"No!" Sable struggles. "No, please—"
The needle plunges into her neck.
Sable screams.
The video cuts out.
I'm already moving. "Get everyone. Now. We're burning that facility to the ground."
"Calix, wait—" Vesper grabs my arm.
I shake her off. "She's my mate. Rejected or not, she's mine. And I will raze the world to get her back."
Stellan steps in front of me. "Then let's raze it together."
We clasp forearms. Two broken fathers. Two wolves who failed to protect what matters.
Not anymore.
"Move out!" I roar.
My wolves mobilize. Stellan's army joins them. Within minutes, we're loaded into vehicles, armed to the teeth, ready for war.
The facility is four hours away.
Four hours until we reach Sable.
Four hours to pray we're not too late.
I stare out the window as we drive, my hand pressed over my heart where the rejected bond still aches.
"Hold on," I whisper. "Just hold on."
Somewhere, I swear I hear her voice.
Hurry.