The den was not just a fighting ring. It got its name originally for its purpose of housing troublesome werewolves. There were only a few holding cells in the basement of the old building. Yet, each cell was occupied.

Jax took his time walking over to the cell furthest down the hallway. All was quiet until he came to a stop and faced the newest occupant.

From behind the shadows of the tall iron bar cell, chains rustled against the cement floor. A low chuckle swept up from it as muscle tested the strength of the iron-clad shackles.

Jax frowned seeing the feral could still move after his recent interrogation. He had been clawed-up and beaten senseless before entering his cell.

It was the only way they could detain him.

"Hello...where is my mate?"

Jax folded his arms hearing the twisted smile in the man's voice. He finally met Ulrich's stare. Red eyes bore into his own accompanied with a crooked toothy smirk that grew into a wide grin as Jax stepped closer to the bars.

He ignored Ulrich's question and pulled out a syringe from behind his coat. It was time for the animal to be sedated again.

The feral couldn't be kept awake too long after each beating. He shouldn't have been strong enough to recooperate so quickly, but he was. The alpha of Frost Lock wasn't so certain anymore that Ulrich was a pure werewolf.

Jax opened the cell.

"Time to go night-night," he muttered.

But before the sedation, Jax knelt down by the feral's face. Bodily harm did nothing to remove the sinister feral's ego. Jax wanted to take away something from him. Something that would make him suffer, permanently.

He pulled out a pocket knife from his coat pocket.

"You know, you bastard, those eyes of yours are going to haunt Olga forever. Maybe the moon goddess brought you to me for a reason...so I can fix them."

Jax was a little peeved Ulrich appeared to be ignoring him by instead staring straight up at the ceiling.

He grabbed Ulrich's jaw with a bruising hold.

"I'm talking to you!"

A noise left the feral. It was something mixed between a scream and a sharp grunt. Ulrich's mouth twisted. His body shook wildly in shock as Jax finished slashing both of the man's eye sockets in one quick and strong arm movement.

Jax stood up and looked down on the psychopath's misery.

Blood pooled down Ulrich's eyes. Jax wasn't done though. He gritted his teeth seeing Ulrich's mouth still curve up into a devilish smile. The blood dripped down into his mouth staining his teeth red.

"Nothing...you do...will control me," Ulrich gurgled out through dark blood pouring from his mouth.

A wheezy laugh left the animal.

Fernando growled in irritation. He moved by his alpha as he was handed the pocket knife next.

"White devil," Fernando muttered.

Ulrich screamed as the beta drove the knife into Olga's claim mark and cut it out, severing the bond.

Fernando scoffed, stepping back, he mocked the feral's pain as Jax sedated the man.

As the drug kicked in, Ulrich became still and quiet as Jax extracted the needle from the man's arm.

"We can't kill him yet."

"Why not?" Fernando asked, impatient.

"Olga must agree to it. Besides, we follow order, we minimize the problem."

Jax watched Fernando linger by the sedated feral's body.

"Have fun...but don't stab the heart."

After his alpha left, Fernando continued cutting up Ulrich's skin. When he finished, he made sure to close and lock the barred sliding door.

Fernando looked down, then wiped the blood off his hands onto his pants.

Water dripped from the old stagnant copper pipes above. In the darkness, Ulrich counted each drop and each drop's exact location around Fernando's breathing.

He was still close. To a feral, sight was a privilege, not a necessity. He could smell the fresh meat lurking just outside the cell. There was power in a good meal. Energy and excitement ripping a corpse up between his fangs.

A greater rage simmered within the recesses of the animal's mind. Jax had destroyed his chance of love and security. There was no undoing a severance. Olga would feel nothing for him.

And Ulrich would feel no remorse.

***

Sun filtered into the pack's house through the windows. Olga woke up in bed with a groan.

"Shit," she grumbled feeling how sore her stomach was. She hissed as she pulled her shirt up finding the ugly bear claw laceration across her gut having turned an infected green-yellow color.

Jax stood up from the chair in the corner of the room.

"He left you for dead in a cabin up in the woods. You're lucky we found you in time. What do you remember?"

"That Ulrich is a psychotic asshole," she said quickly. Jax laughed and smiled in relief. "Where is he? How did you find me?" Her voice rose a little, "Why can't I remember?"

"Well, that may have something to do with us finding you half dead and bleeding to death. He bit you, again, and...and we think you bit him-"

"What? No!"

"It's not your fault, Olga. He took you away when you were most vulnerable. Which, unfortunately, is lawful since he is your mate. He probably breeded with you and who knows what else. The good news is, you can tell us exactly where to find him so we can make him pay for everything," Jax finished firmly.

Olga shuddered.

"Where is he?" Jax asked.

He needed to know if they were still able to communicate.

"What do you mean?"

"You should be able to ask."

"You mean the mind-link?"

"Yes."

Olga was starting to feel nausous. There was no way she was going to use the creepy wolf airwave thing with Ulrich. The last thing she wanted to hear was him in her head.

"I can't do it," she whispered.

Jax watched her lay back down. He pulled the blankets back over her with pity, but even so, he couldn't entirely hide his satisfaction.

"Can you try tomorrow?" he asked through a smirk.

"Okay," Olga complied.

His face brightened as he turned toward the door.

"Get some rest. The doctor will be in shortly. I don't want you using the mind-link until you feel up to it. I know everything," he paused by the door, "...and he is going to pay."

Olga blushed a little after Jax left. He really was a handsome man. She felt guilty for wanting him when he had a daughter with Sashka. But was it wrong to want him when the couple had already admitted their relationship was going downhill?

"Why do I always feel so needy around him? I don't need a man," Olga grumbled to herself.

Something else was irritating her. She knew it was wrong but it must have been the bond. She had expected Ulrich to be pestering her through their mind-link but all she heard was radio silence since waking.

Maybe that's why Jax was getting antsy for me to reach out, the young woman thought.

"Screw it," she muttered while glaring into her pillow.

Ulrich? she tried.

Nothing.

A few moments passed.

Listen, angel, came a deep voice. Olga's heart hammered, he sounded irate. He continued, I have one of Jax's betas. Come alone to the mill. Then, I will let him go.

They won't let me leave, Olga shot back.

Tell them visiting uncle grave, Ulrich suggested without missing a beat.

No, Olga's voice shook. You bring the...the beta here! I don't trust you-

You trust Jax?

You'll have to come here and find out yourself, Olga spat.

Ulrich chuckled. She was always surprising him with her attitude. Even betas didn't have the nerve she did.

So, you are staying with him?

N-no, Olga replied quickly.

If I come to you, surely, you know more complications will result. Come to me, Ulrich suggested.

Go to hell, Olga growled back. I'll figure this out myself.

***

"Do you think she will come for you?" Ulrich chuckled.

He remembered the man's screams. Ulrich didn't bother torturing Fernando himself. He let his pack fight over the man's body. He had been eaten alive just as he would have in the wild.

Nature was merciless.

Instinct was law. It breathed life into the living. Instinct was pure as far as Ulrich was concerned.

It was how the strongest packs survived.

So badly, Ulrich wanted his mate to understand it. To agree.

He thanked the moon goddess he was blessed to see his mate and her beautiful body. Long ago, Ulrich embraced hunting in the night. There was a certain thrill in being sightless. It made hearing and feeling so much more enticing.

His face pinked as he remembered the first night he was able to cradle Olga's body with nothing between them.

There was still hope he clung onto that would mend what Jax had removed. After all, they still shared the mind-link.

Ulrich continued walking while lost in distorted memory.

Behind him, Fernando's dead body hung among a row of butchered meat. The young man's face was still wide with terror but the rest of his body had been eaten having been fed to the wolves.

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