Chapter 489: TRAITORS.

Noah.

A sharp, metallic burn scraped against the back of my throat as my eyes snapped open.

The sensation was so harsh that I nearly coughed, but I forced the reaction down. My lungs seized painfully, my chest heaving as I dragged in a cold, ragged breath that seemed to scrape its way through my throat and settle heavily in my chest. The bitter stench of blood and dark wolfsbane hung thick in the air, clinging to every breath I took.

Pain radiated through my ribs like a spreading fire, sharp and relentless, making every muscle in my body lock up beneath the sheer weight of exhaustion. Even the smallest movement felt impossible. My body felt heavy, drained of strength, as though every ounce of energy had been stripped away.

I didn’t move, and I didn’t let my breathing change.

I kept my eyelids heavy, refusing to open them fully. Instead, I narrowed my vision through the darkness, allowing my eyes to adjust slowly without revealing that I was awake. The room around me remained blurred at first, shadows shifting faintly at the edges of my vision.

Firelight flickered across the rough, rotting wooden beams of an unfamiliar ceiling. The weak orange glow stretched and disappeared with every movement of the flames, revealing patches of worn wood before plunging them back into shadow.

I was lying on a bed of dry furs spread across a dusty wooden floor. Their coarse texture pressed against my aching body, while the heat from a nearby hearth warmed my left side. The warmth should have been comforting, but I remained tense, every instinct warning me to stay still.

Slowly, carefully, my eyes shifted toward the two dark silhouettes standing near the fire.

I held my breath for a moment as the flickering flames outlined their familiar forms.

Damien and Adrein.

My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ground together. My hands curled into tight fists against the furs. My Alpha instincts flared red-hot, screaming at me to tear into the space between us. They were the ones who had put me in those subterranean cells. They were the ones who had ordered the guards to chain me down in the dark, isolating me from the rest of the pack while Daniel pulled the strings.

As far as I was concerned, the people standing in front of me were traitors.

A floorboard creaked under Damien’s heavy boot. He turned around, his sharp grey eyes dropping down to meet mine. He didn’t smile, nor did he offer a hand. He just stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, his broad frame blocking the light from the hearth.

"Look who finally decided to join the living," Damien said, his voice flat, stripped of any warmth or welcome.

Adrein stepped up beside him, wiping dark, dried blood off his hands with a dirty rag. His face was pale, dark circles hollowed out beneath his eyes, but his expression was just as cold, guarded, and distant as Damien’s. He looked at me like I was a liability.

"Take it easy," Adrein muttered, his tone icy. "You nearly choked to death on your own blood five minutes ago."

I didn’t answer, as I just stared at them through narrowed eyes, my body tense as a coiled spring, ready to fight if either of them made a sudden move toward me.

Damien took a step closer, resting his hand casually near the blade at his belt. He didn’t give me an inch.

"Where the hell were you?" Damien demanded, his voice hard as iron. "We locked you down in the subterranean pack cell, as we gave strict orders to the guards to keep you chained deep underground, completely isolated." He paused. "How did you get out of the pack? How did you end up half-dead in the mud by the riverbank?"

Silence stretched between us. The wind howled softly against the cabin’s outer wooden walls, but inside, the air was suffocatingly tense.

I locked my jaw and glared at Damien, my lips pressed into a tight, hard line as I held his gaze without flinching. Every part of me wanted to demand answers, but I refused to give him even a single word. I kept my expression cold and unreadable, letting my silence speak for me.

Why would I tell them anything?

Why would I give intel to the very Alphas who had locked me in a hole and left me exposed to Daniel’s poison? The memory alone made my anger burn hotter, tightening something deep inside my chest.

They had betrayed me.

They had chosen to leave me there, knowing exactly what could happen to me, and now they expected me to cooperate as if none of it mattered. No. I wasn’t going to make things easy for them.

I wasn’t going to give them a damn thing.

Adrein let out a sharp, frustrated breath, stepping forward and pointing a finger at me. "Don’t give us that silent, arrogant look, Noah. We pulled your heavy ass through a mile of dense underbrush while the Lycan prince’s mercenaries were patrolling the ridge. The least you can do is open your mouth."

I kept my glare fixed on Adrein, my breathing slow and deliberate. I let the silence heavy between us, treating them like the enemies they had proven to be.

Damien scoffed, shaking his head. "Forget it, Adrien. He’s too stubborn to speak. Let him sit there and brood."

Ignoring their glares, I slowly turned my head, refusing to let their stares distract me. I kept my movements careful and quiet, using the shadows filling the room to observe my surroundings without drawing unnecessary attention to myself.

It was an abandoned ranger cabin.

The place looked old and forgotten, its rough timber walls worn with age and its dusty floorboards covered in a thin layer of grime. Ancient warding stones had been built into the rock face outside, their presence barely visible from where we stood inside. We were high up on the ridge, far from the main valley roads, hidden away from everything below.

My eyes continued moving across the small room, and then they passed Damien’s hip and landed on the far corner.

My heart completely stopped, and for a second, I couldn’t breathe, because lying on a dusty leather cot against the stone wall was Maria.

My eyes locked onto her.

She was wrapped tightly in a heavy fur blanket, the thick material covering most of her small frame. Her dark hair was scattered messily across the flat pillow, strands spread around her face in complete disarray.

She looked painfully still.

Her skin wasn’t just pale—it was ghostly, almost translucent beneath the dim orange glow of the hearth fire. The flickering light only made her look more fragile, making her small frame appear frighteningly delicate against the rough stone wall.

I stared at her, unable to look away. She wasn’t moving, not even slightly. My chest tightened as I watched her carefully, desperately searching for the smallest sign of movement. Her chest was barely rising, as the movement was so faint, so shallow, that I almost couldn’t see it beneath the heavy fur blanket.

My stomach twisted as I continued staring at her fragile form, my heart pounding painfully against my ribs.

A surge of pure, blinding adrenaline exploded through my blood, completely overpowering the agonizing burn in my limbs.

Forget the poison in my lungs. Forget the tearing muscle pain in my chest.

I shoved myself up off the floorboards. A sharp, violent pain shot through my ribs, making my vision go black for a split second, but I forced my heavy legs under me. I stumbled forward, my boots dragging heavily against the wood as I pushed past Damien and Adrein, brushing right through the space between them.

"Noah, what the hell are you doing?!" Adrein shouted, startled as he reached out to grab my shoulder.

I ripped my shoulder out of his grip with a low, lethal growl, my eyes flashing dark gold. "Don’t touch me!" I snarled, my voice raspy and choked with dried blood.

I stumbled the last two steps to the cot and dropped hard onto my knees beside Maria. The impact rattled my sore bones, but I didn’t care.

My shaking hands reached out, carefully gathering her freezing fingers into my broad palms. Her hand felt so small, so terrifyingly cold in mine. I squeezed her hand gently, leaning over the cot, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped animal as I searched her face for any sign of life.

She didn’t flutter her lashes. She didn’t turn her head. She just lay there, locked deep under the suffocating weight of an unnatural sleep.

The rage in my chest detonated, hot and absolute.

I spun my head around, my eyes blazing with dark, venomous Alpha aura as I glared up at Damien and Adrein.

"What did you do to her?!" I roared, my raspy voice tearing through the quiet cabin like thunder. "What the hell did you do to her?!"