Mate Mysteries

Chapter 57

"K-Krey won't leave." Pip was cold and frightened and alone. Those chained opposite stared through their overgrown hair. Pip couldn't see their faces, but he felt their eyes on him. He wondered why they were in this part of the cave, and whether they were still alive for Debra's amusement. "He won't go North."

"Krey Graymer loves his power!" Debra yelled, and Pip hugged his knees tighter to his chest. "He'll go home to protect that damned Packhouse. My Pack have been instructed to tell him that I'm taking you North. He'll never smell you out if you're in here."

Pip tried not to look around, but he couldn't help it. He stared at the firelit walls, slimy and a little sparkly, chiselled for his containment. He stared at the uneven floor with small holes hiding all sorts of creatures. He stared at the bleak dimness to it all. Daylight had never touched this place. Pip shivered uncomfortably. When would he next see the sun?

One of the prisoners had lifted his head the most. He was tall, thin, with long dark greasy hair and a beard. His exposed rib told Pip that he was probably fed every other day, and never bathed. The room smelt of fish and salt, but nothing too vulgar which meant that they went to the toilet somewhere else.

Maybe I can escape. Pip did his best to stay positive, even in a room where sun had never graced its walls.

The man stared through the dark eyes, but in the shadows of the flames, everything was dark and distorted. "He'll feel me close," Pip whispered. "I know he'll feel me."

Debra's face twisted with jealousy. "Just you watch, he'll go home, and I'll kill you, and he'll think you're dead."

"W-What do you mean by that? You'll kill me, and he'll, um, think I'm dead?"

"I'll bring you back to life, obviously." Debra stared down at him with empty, faraway eyes. Pip knew she no longer saw him as a friend. She no longer saw him as a human being.

"Why not just let me die?"

"Because I want to watch you suffer how I have suffered. He took my mate away. It's time that Krey Graymer knew exactly how I felt by taking you away from him."

"Jordan was trying to kill me." Pip's lip trembled. Hot tears pooled his eyes and he simply let them fall.

"Well he should have succeeded. Now he's dead, and I'm this." Debra tugged on her hair as if Pip had taken her soap away, her food, and her life.

The night Jordan died was a night of madness. Pip could have died. After spending almost two years with Krey, Pip understood why Jordan died the way he did. Krey was impulsive and had no self-control, but Pip would also do whatever it took to keep Krey safe. In the face of such fear, who knew what he was capable of. "Revenge won't bring him back."

"No, but what's that saying... Revenge is sweet?" Debra trailed him up and down, then turned towards the three prisoners on the other side of the room. She suddenly clasped her bony hands together. The noise echoed sharply around the cave room. "So, we have a new person joining us today." Debra grinned wide. Her eyes gleamed with pride as the chained people lifted their weary heads. "This is Krey Graymer's mate, so finally, after all this time, Krey will know what it's like to be me."

Debra then left. She climbed through the hole and walked the opposite way from where the large boulder hid the entrance to the cave full of Rogues. There's another way out. There must be another way out.

Pip studied the room again, and his eyes landed on the prisoners. He couldn't not look. He felt them watching him, despite not being able to see their eyes.

I have to get out. The captives looked like they had been in the cave for a very long time. If there was a way out, they surely would have found it. Pip felt the panic clawing up his chest, resting heavily on his lungs and twisting round his throat. Don't panic. Krey will find me.