The Queen's Conquer

Chapter 5 : Home

Ikigai • [ik-ee-guy]
A reason for being; the thing that gets you up in the morning.

🖤

~+~

I'm carried by Liam the majority of the way to where they stationed their cars, falling in and out of consciousness the entire time. The journey isn't long, and Sterling doesn't seem to mind that her mate has to haul me back after collapsing when attempting to walk on my own. I knew my hunger and exhaustion would eventually catch up to me, the only question was when. Somehow, they managed to get vehicles all the way out here without much trouble from the forest or surrounding wildlife. An unmarked road—one that's covered by snow that I had never noticed before—is where I spot the first cluster of cars.

The two other wolves—the ones who had initially attacked me—are both apparently a pair of teenage boys training to become future warriors. They were brought along to shadow Sterling and Liam—learn the ropes of these kinds of 'missions', I suppose. The trek's minimal conversation is filled with them profusely apologizing for being so harsh on me despite the orders Liam specifically gave them to wear me down. He wanted me to be immobile—unable to run away anymore. But he didn't realize I was already on the verge of blacking out at that point.

As we approach the vehicles, at least half a dozen of them sit running on the side of the barely visible road. Only tire tracks reveal the route they took to get here. Dozens of other wolves—Phantomridge warriors and those who were a part of this operation—stand near the black-colored cars. They chat with one another, seeming unbothered with being out in these ancient woods as we approach.

Among the crowd, my eyes settle on a familiar figure with black hair—Max. My heart stutters at the sight of him—at the fact that he was working with them this entire time. I lift my head from laying against Liam's shoulder to get a better look. "Why the hell is Max...?" I breathe but lose my words in the process.

He and Sterling glance over at who I'm referring to. "It's a long story," is all Liam huffs out.

"Actually, it's not," Sterling butts in. "We found him and other Mylithian soldiers working with rogues out in the Ancient Forest a few months ago when your ransom was first announced. And when they attacked our borders, we threw them in our cells for questioning." I gape at the two of them with nothing but utter shock and slight rage. But my gaze hardens on Liam's unchanged expression, knowing damn well he was likely more responsible.

He cuts her a lethal glare. "I told you to wait until we got back to tell her," he mutters with annoyance.

"She was going to have to find out eventually," Sterling replies with a feline grin.

"I can't decide if I should hate the both of you for using my friend to lure me out of that damn cabin or if I should slap you senseless for kidnapping him in the first place," I grit through frozen teeth.

"In our defense, he and his companions did violate the Treaty rules," Liam says.

I continue to watch Max carefully until his dark eyes find mine and return an apologizing look, likely because of what had happened earlier. I faintly smile in response, yet can't help but still remember how our encounter was so...tense. He doesn't seem fond with the fact that I've turned into one of them—the very enemy of our kind. There's so much I need to explain to him unless someone else already did the courtesy of revealing everything for me. After all that we've both been through, I want there to be a mutual understanding. I need him to know that these creatures are not our rivals in this war.

"Who's responsible for his face?" I finally ask, still able to see the bruises spotting his skin from this distance.

Liam looks again at Max before sighing out, "Either Xander or Killian. But it was only because they were trying to pry information out of him. Samuel became so desperate to find you that he thought your friend might know something about your whereabouts."