Word Count: 1941

~Lavelle

A few hours pass before another person enters the cell.

To no surprise to me, it's Caroline. She saunters in with two guards flanking her, a smug smile seated firmly at her mouth.

Elowen rises off the floor from where she was resting, glancing between my sister and I, sensing that something is about to go down.

Caroline's nose scrunches as she takes in both of us in our cells.

"Look at the state of you both," she mutters distastefully, brushing at her shoulder as if she we've dirtied her merely by being in her presence.

"I have nothing to say to you." Other than Tavrik, she is the very last person I have any interest in seeing.

She sighs shaking her head. Surely she suspected this reaction from me. She betrayed me, and now she has come to rub her success in my face.

"You think me evil."

"Not evil. Just a bitch." I smile saccharinely. "Being evil would imply a level of thinking you are not capable of, Caroline."

Her mouth tightens into a thin line. She steps so close to the cell bars that it entices me to stand, not wanting her to look down at me.

"You have gotten what you've wanted in life enough," she says slowly, sinisterly. "Isn't it time I get something I want?"

"I have gotten nothing, and each time, it's been you making sure of that. You have done nothing but get in my way my entire life," I hiss.

My words are cruel; I want her to hurt. I want her to understand all she has forced me to endure, but leaving me with our sick father, but taking what little money I had, and now this...the ultimate betrayal.

Instead of angering further, her face softens.

"I love him, Lavelle," she murmurs.

"Then you're an even bigger idiot than I thought," I mutter distastefully. I wish she would just leave. I wish I never had to see her again.

"You think Zyre is such a good guy?" Her eyes narrow.

"I know Zyre is a good guy. He is my mate."

She will not turn me against him. Her mind may have been poisoned by Tavrik's, but mine won't be.

"He will discard you to get what he wants. It will happen eventually." She smiles a little, like the thought pleases her, amuses her.

I step closer, seeing the faint scarring on her face that she tries to hide behind makeup. The hair she intricately styles and the expensive clothing she dons. All for Tavrik.

"Is that what Tavrik tells you?" I ask lowly. "Have you ever considered having an opinion of your own, Caroline?"

Her jaw hardens, a flash of annoyance sparing through her eyes.
 
"Guards, turn around," she demands.

They hesitate, exchange looks. They think she is going to try hurt me, and Tavrik needs me alive and well. Even Elowen leans forward, curious and little sceptical.

"Go on. I need some semblance of privacy with my sister," she mutters, waving at the guards.

My throat tightens as they oblige her. They remain in the room though, to intervene if my sister tries something.

At this point, I wouldn't put it past her.

"Lavelle, you need to understand something." She crouches down behind the cell bars, holding my gaze. "Tavrik is a good, intelligent male who makes all the right decisions. Being here, trying to kill him...it's not going to be enough. It was never going to be enough."

I frown, wary of where this is going.

She remains crouched, reaching into her sleek coat. She produces a tiny vial of bright green, almost yellow liquid.

"If you wanted a chance at taking him down, you would need far more than just yourself and Elowen." She glances at my friend in the other cell. "No offence."

In one smooth move, she places the vial through the cell bars, rolling it over to me. It makes almost no sound as it comes to bump against the tip of my boot.

I stare down at it, my spinning.

"You would need your mate, your friends. People you can trust." She rises, looking at me in a way that I've never seen before. "You would need them not to have abandoned you."

Elowen draws in a cautious breath, looking at me with wide eyes. We're both thinking the same thing...

Caroline hasn't betrayed me. This is part of some kind of plan that I have no idea about.

"Yet everyone has abandoned me. Everyone," I whisper, my voice hoarse. I need to speak without alerting Tavrik's guards that something is going on.

"I know." She nods once, gaze searching. "I will leave you to think about your place in all of this."

She leaves with the guards, not another word shared between us.

Something vital bleeds out of me. I sink down to my knees, taking the vial in my hand, turning it over on my palm.

"What did she give you?" Elowen peers closer, trying to catch a glimpse.

"I have no idea. It could be anything," I murmur, watching a bubble in the liquid shift as I turn the vial.

I feel a little sick.

All those words I said to my sister, and she's on our side. She's helping us. Whatever she has given me serves a purpose.

"You don't think it's poison, is it?" Elowen asks warily.

"Whatever it is, she didn't want Tavrik's guards seeing her giving it to me." My voice sounds hollow. "I think she is on our side."

Elowen doesn't look convinced. "Or this is another part of her ruse."

It could be, but I doubt it. Tavrik has me exactly where he wants me. Unless Caroline knows about another plan and wants to sabotage it, there is nothing more she needs to do than sit by and watch me suffer.

Whatever is going on, Tavrik doesn't have my sister as firmly seated under his thumb as he thought.

"I don't think so," I say. "I think there is something else going on here than neither of us know about. A bigger plan."

"Then why not tell us?" She's annoyed, a little betrayed. She's been kept so close to this mission, and yet now, she has been cast to side.

I stroll through my mind, considering the possibilities.

"Perhaps our naivety is what sells it," I guess. "Caroline wanted us in these cells. It's why she told Tavrik about her and I's conversation."

"So?"

"So, I think she wants us in here so the plan can be conducted, and we haven't been told anything because they want to make sure we don't get tortured for information." It's a guess, but it feels plausible.

Guilt spills through me once again. Caroline is keeping us safe, out of harm. She might even be the reason hot meals have been sent down to the cells, along with fresh water.

Elowen eases back down to sit, a vacant look in her eyes. "Or she put us in here to keep you from Tavrik, so he can't..."

She drifts off, looking pained.

"Right. It's possible," I whisper, shuddering at the thought.

"Either way, this is good, right?"

"It is." I nod. "But I've never been good at sitting around."

We have to do something. If everyone is risking their lives for us, then I must do—

"Well then I hope you trust in your mate." A deep voice cuts through the shadows, stealing my attention.

I'm on my feet so fast, my vision swims. Elowen jumps up to, rushing the edge of her cell.

"Zyre!" She exclaims brightly.

He emerges from the direction of the hidden passage, meeting my gaze. My legs almost buckle under the weight of my relief.

He's here...he's okay.

Since his escape from prison, he's cleaned himself up again. Scrapes and bruises still mar his skin, but they are beginning to fade.

"What are you doing here?" I whisper, so shocked to see him, my brain has to take a moment to catch up.

This is the first time seeing where I know he is my mate, and now that such information has been revealed to me, it feels obvious. Our eyes lock, and my entire souls for him. It is so overwhelming, I could almost be strong enough to pull the steel bars apart to get to him.

It's clear he feels the same. He moves right to my cell, reaching through to take my hand.

"I wanted to tell you to hold still for a moment. Both of you." He looks between Elowen and I. "You're getting out of here alive, okay? And then we're going to end this."

He squeezes my hand. A quiet comfort.

"You shouldn't be here...it's dangerous." I look anxiously up the stairs where the prison meets Tavrik's manor. At any moment, his guards could come do their usual sweep.

"It's all under control," he assures me.

"What is the plan?" Elowen asks.

"It's best you just go along with everything that happens for now," he says. "And use that when the time comes."

He nods at the vial still clenched in my hand. I unfurl my fingers until it sits on my palm, the uncanny liquid glowing faintly in the dim light.

"What is it?"

"Poison. I'm glad Caroline got it to you, since she was able source it from Tavrik's private collection," Zyre explains.

I look up at him, hopeful. "So she is working with us?"

"She has been this whole time," he tells me softly.

Both relief and guilt crash into my at once. Relief, because I haven't lost my sister forever, and guilt, because I am the reason she is in this situation, and for all the cruel words I threw at her in my anger.

"What?"

"I'll explain it all later," Zyre tells me. "For now, I need you both to stay put, and stay safe."

Elowen sighs, not satisfied with that, but she won't disobey her Alpha.

Zyre's eyes flick back to me, his eyes soft. "Caroline told me you knew. About your mate bond."

"Tavrik told me. He's trying to break our bond," I exclaim, desperately hoping Zyre won't let Tavrik go through with this.

His grip on my hand tightens.

"That won't happen," he vows. "Lavelle, he's going to die for ever trying."

There is enough veiled anger in him, enough resentment, that I believe him. No one is going to take his mate from him. Especially not his brother.

"I know." I smile faintly, hardened by his resolve.

"I cannot wait to be with you, when this is all over," he murmurs, thumb tracing over the top of my hand.

"I cannot wait either." That life feels so close, yet so far out of reach. So much stands between us and our happy ending.

"You won't have to very long. Just another day or two, okay?" He reluctantly slips his hands back through the cell bars. "Okay, Elowen?"

She nods, reluctant. "Yeah. Okay."

As he backs away, he holds my gaze. "I love you."

"I love you too," I breathe, my heart sinking as he slips back into the shadows.

💜••💜

If you want to read ahead, you can find this story COMPLETED on Inkitt! The first five chapters are available for free (:

(Just search up my profile 'Midika' and you will find it under the stories tab!)

Check you my latest 18+ werewolf novel out now on Wattpad!!

P.S I have a new story on Inkitt called Three Alpha King's. First five chapters are free! Check it out if you want (:

~Midika 💜🐈‍⬛