His Moonsilver Mate (Abby and Kade) novel Chapter 71

10:59 Mon, Nov 2 M0.

Chapter 71

Kade

The passage dropped steeply beneath the ruins before widening into an old stone corridor.

Whatever this place had once been, someone had made it livable again.

Modern lamps had been fixed to walls carved with symbols worn almost smooth by time. Electrical cables ran along the floor. Wooden crates filled old alcoves, and farther ahead I caught the smell of food, weapons oil, wolfsbane, and too many unfamiliar wolves.

This wasn’t a temporary hideout.

They had been here for a long time.

Knox pressed against me, restless enough that holding my human form took effort.

Abby was somewhere inside.

I still couldn’t hear her through the mind-link, but the certainty that she was close had settled into

both of us.

Liam moved beside me, with Tiernan, Cole, and several warriors behind us.

Ryan had stayed nearer the entrance with another team to secure the passage and get the prisoners out once we found them.

A door opened farther down the corridor.

Three men came out.

Everything happened at once.

The first shifted before he reached us. Liam met him halfway, driving him into the wall before the transformation was complete. Cole took the second, while I caught the third by the front of his shirt and slammed him to the floor before he could draw the knife at his belt.

“Where is Abigail Hayes?”

He stared at me.

Recognition moved across his face.

That was enough.

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I hit him once.

His head snapped sideways.

Before I could ask again, the floor shifted beneath us.

Dust fell from the ceiling….

Everyone went still.

A second tremor followed, stronger than the first.

Cole looked down.

“What the hell was that?”

A deep crack rolled through the structure somewhere ahead of us.

I released the rogue.

“Move.”

Two Ravenwood wolves stayed behind with him while the rest of us continued deeper into the

complex.

The shaking returned before we reached the next junction.

One of the lamps tore loose from the wall and shattered against the floor.

Liam glanced upward.

“This place is coming down.”

“Then we find her before it does.”

The corridor split.

Voices echoed from the left.

Then someone screamed.

We followed the sound and found the first locked room.

Four women were inside.

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For one moment, I could only stare.

l the missing girls.

All the rumors.

They had been here.

Ryan and the team behind us caught up.

I looked at him.

“Get them out.”

He nodded immediately.

“I’ll take them.”

Tiernan sent two Ravenwood warriors with him.

I wanted to stay long enough to make sure every door was opened.

I couldn’t.

Abby was still somewhere ahead.

Liam seemed to understand without me saying it.

“Go.”

We kept moving.

The passage climbed gradually through the mountain, twisting between sections that looked older

than the corridors below.

Another tremor hit.

This one threw me against the wall.

Liam grabbed my arm just as part of the ceiling collapsed in front of us.

Stone crashed into the corridor where I had been standing seconds earlier.

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There was no opening large enough to climb through.

Other way,” Liam said.

We doubled back and took the remaining corridor.

Then I smelled her.

I stopped.

Honey and vanilla.

Faint beneath blood, dust, wolfsbane, silver, and old stone.

But unmistakable.

Knox surged.

There.

I ran.

Liam followed.

The scent strengthened as the corridor climbed.

Another crack sounded somewhere above us, followed by shouting.

Then the passage opened into a circular chamber filled with moonlight.

For one second, I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.

Diana stood in the center of the room.

Or what looked like Diana.

Her fur had turned almost completely silver-white beneath the moonlight, glowing so brightly that the stone around her seemed pale by comparison. Broken chains lay around her paws, and one iron ring had been torn straight out of the floor.

Her eyes were white.

A girl stood near the edge of the chamber, staring at her.

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“Abby.”

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Diana’s head snapped toward me.

The light around her surged.

Knox slammed forward inside me.

Mate.

A broken sound came from Diana’s throat.

I stepped into the chamber.

“Kade.”

Liam’s warning followed me.

I barely heard it.

A woman stood near the far wall, dark hair streaked heavily with silver.

The witch.

She looked at us, then at Diana.

Whatever she saw made her turn and run through a side passage.

Tiernan started after her.

“Leave her.”

He stopped.

I didn’t take my eyes off Diana.

“Abby first.”

Diana tried to move.

Her front legs shook.

That was when I saw past the light.

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I moved closer.

jana growled.

The sound wasn’t aimed at me so much as everything around her.

The chamber.

The pain.

The people who had kept her here.

I slowed.

“It’s me.”

The temple shook again.

A crack raced across the ceiling.

Liam shouted something behind me.

I kept going.

Diana’s eyes stayed fixed on mine.

“I’m here.”

Her breathing came fast.

I reached her just as her front legs gave out.

I caught her head between my hands before she hit the stone.

Silver light moved over my skin.

Warm.

Almost electric.

Diana trembled beneath my palms.

“You don’t have to fight anymore.”

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