I feel numb. This can't be happening. I mean I suspected him all along, but there was a part of me that didn't want to believe this was true. There was a part of me that thought I wouldn't find Daniel in those dungeons.

I didn't want to believe that Zyon would choose to punish an innocent. Someone who had no idea or knowledge about our world- who didn't know what he had done. Someone who wasn't even slightly at fault.

But now, looking at those blood-stained hands, and the efforts he went through to hide Daniel's scent from me- I had to believe that he was capable of being that cruel.

My heart-rate quickens as his gaze snaps to me. I look away from his hands, onto my plate. Trying to push back the feelings of paranoia and fear that he could feel through our bond.

His blood-stained hands envelop mine, as he gently asks,

I say, softly.

He nods his head, concern etched out onto his face. But his concern is the last thing I want to see and almost seems fake to me.

If he was really that concerned about me, he wouldn't imprison someone important to me and subject them to torture.

Xander's voice booms from the corner of the table,

I fake a smile. Great. Another conquest. But if it takes Zyon off my hands and gives me the time to search for Daniel, I'm more than happy for him to leave.

With that, I walk out of the room.

I hear the scraping of a chair behind me, and I hope, more desperately than ever, that it's not Zyon following me. I really need the space and I'm not sure how much longer I can repress my feelings of paranoia.

I'm surprised when I hear Xander's voice echoing down the hall,

My footsteps come to a halt. I turn around, and grace him with a small, but fake smile.

He says. Though, his words seem nice, there is an echo of insincerity behind his words. I get a weird vibe, almost as if he doesn't like me.

I say, turning to walk away.

He continues, not letting me walk away, He says, lowering his voice, taking a step closer to me,

I raise an eyebrow at him. Who does this man think he is?

I say, disregarding his title.

He says.

I say, turning away from him.

He graces me with a small smile, and turns to walk away as well, but as he turns, I call out to him.

I spit out.

I stomp up the stairs as fast as possible, thinking about how the former Alpha and Luna raised massively disrespectful men, but Xander's disrespect is the last thing on my mind right now. I'm focused on finding Daniel. Not only is he being held here, he is being tortured by a werewolf for no fault of his.

Throwing open the door to the Alpha's wing, I remember that Zyon had completely trashed our room in a temper tantrum so I go into the other bedroom, changing quickly into a t-shirt and shorts. Throwing back the covers, I get in, tucking myself in. Trying to get myself to calm down.

My mind is racing with thoughts. Where could Zyon be holding him? And how do I get him out?

Zyon leaving couldn't come at a more convenient time. I'm relying on Zarah to get some information out of Nathan, so we at least have a lead.

I hear the door to the wing swing open, just as I swing my eyes shut, trying to level my breathing. The last thing I'm in the mood for is to have a conversation with Zyon.

I'd rather pretend to be asleep, which is exactly what I do, as I angle my body away from the door and the other side of the bed. I level my breathing, taking slow breaths, as I hear him open the room door.

The room fills with the intoxicating scent that fulfills and satisfies me, more than I care to admit, but the thought of Daniel's scent on him never leaves me. I hear him discard his clothing, as the bed covers are pulled back and he settles himself into bed.

All at once, I feel an arm snake around my waist and pull me back into him, so my back is against his chest. He snuggles closer into me, placing his leg onto mine.

I desperately try to maintain my breathing, especially when his hand on my stomach sets my body aflame. My wolf doesn't make it easier as her returned presence in me, amplifies the mate bond. Keeping her under control, the continued presence of the mate bond that pushes us to mate and my pretense of being asleep is increasingly challenging.

He whispers into my ear.

I don't reply, keeping up this façade.

He says.

In my mind, I'm so relieved. For once, I'm thankful for one of Zyon's reactions.

He says.

And just like that, Zyon is back. I should know by now, anything nice he does is accompanied by a threat, but I was willing to regret anything that came my way, if it meant Daniel would be out of his clutches. He could do what he wanted to me.

I know I could keep my eyes closed for as long as I wanted, but sleep would not come easy to me tonight.

I stayed awake, still in Zyon's arms, as he slept, till 6 A.M in the morning, when he woke to leave for his conquest. As he removes his arm and stands up, I turn onto my back, stretching my legs that had been trapped under his for about five hours.

His sleepy eyes gazed down on me,

I say, softly.

He sits back down onto the bed,

During my life, it was in Zyon's gentlest moments that I loved him most- moments like these. In ordinary moments, when he passed a genuine smile to someone in the high school hallways, or protected someone from being bullied.

It was a simple question, nothing out of the ordinary, but something gave me the sense, that if there was something he could do to make me more comfortable, perhaps he would.

But there was nothing he could do to ease my current discomfort. He was the reason for my discomfort.

And that's when the conflict of loving him came in. So I lied, I told him nothing was wrong and even kissed him back before he left, knowing that the moment he had left these pack borders I could get to work. When he kissed me, he left a lingering promise in the air- one he didn't voice, but I could just tell- that when he was back, we would try to move on, try to be like normal mates. I'm not sure how he would feel about me once he was back and realized what I had done.

But those were matters I needed to worry about later. Running straight into the study, I asked Lita and Rita to send Zarah up to me, as I scoured his office, for papers, documents, anything I could get my hands on to find where Daniel was.

I left things littered all over the floor, not caring that I was slowly destroying the orderliness of his study.

The help in this packhouse would surely hate us. He destroyed his room, now I'm destroying his study.

As Zarah enters the room, I ask her to shut the door, quickly filling in the events of last night, but as I rush through my version of events, I can see she is anxious to say something.

She says, with the biggest grin on her face.

I chuckle a little. I can tell she's happy, and I'm more than overjoyed that she's happy.

She continues,

I go silent. There would practically be no ventilation underground.

I ask.

She says.

I say.

She says.

I say.

She shrugs,

I grin, slightly amused at what I have to say.

Zarah rolls her eyes,

I say.

Zarah takes a moment to lull it over.

I snap my mouth shut.

I say.

She chuckles, She says sarcastically.

When I don't reply, her gaze snaps up to me and I nod my head in affirmation.

She yells.

I grimace at the description.

Zarah sighs, running her hand through her hair.

Five hours later, Zarah and I have scoured every document in Zyon's study and hacked into Nathan's laptop for a second time, which he conveniently left behind. In Zyon's study, we found a basic layout of the prison and in Nathan's laptop a list of the prisoners. We decided to release the ones with minimal crimes- robbery, hold ups, and some rouges, Zyon had captured for no reason at all. I tried to justify my actions by telling myself that they at least deserved to be free.

The prison cells were electronically activated and Zarah would have to find her way into the room with controls and the cameras, while I entered the prison on the pretense of a tour. I was fully prepared to hurt whichever wolf got in my way.

At 2 P.M, Zarah and I stood outside the Hoxditch Prison, staring at the huge building, at the barbed wire that lined its fence and the wolves that patrolled along its borders. The building really did look very gloomy, painted grey with steel bars along the windows, I could tell that this pack really sucked the light out of its prisoners. They excelled not only at physical torture, but also at mental torture.

She says. Her hand shakes a little as she clutches onto my shoulder. It mirrors the way my heart palpitates. We know there will be consequences for what we are about to do.

I nod, as she walks away from me. Her nails transition into claws, ready to take down wolves to get to the control room as I take fast paced, sure footsteps to the front of the prison. I know I needed to take on this role of a regal, cold Luna, to match Zyon's demeanor.

I was surprised my wolf had not objected to this. To freeing Daniel. Perhaps she knew my only intention was to free him. If he left, it would finally allow Zyon and I to move on with our lives but if he was still here, my thoughts would stay around him. Perhaps, it was also my mark that gave her a sense of security- that I belonged to Zyon and could not escape him now. My mark would draw me back to him, even if I did run. I was tired of running - I wanted to give my life with Zyon a chance.

As I near the steps, the warrior's eyes snap up to me. A large, burly warrior steps up to me, halting me in my steps.

He acknowledges, with a thick accent.

He doesn't.

I raise an eyebrow at him. I command.

His eyes widen. He snaps his head back at a manager, I suppose who also seems to be baffled by my presence. The manager nods and the warrior steps aside.

I walk with calculated, confident footsteps towards the manager. Barely acknowledging his presence, I say,

I can see the wolves are distracted from their posts, peering down to where I'm standing. Perfect for me. Just what I needed. This would make it easier for Zarah to get in. I'm taken in through the entrance of the building. My eyes narrow in on the back door. It's far away from me, but I need this floor to be clear for Zarah to get in.

Right next to the back door are stairs that lead directly to the control room, but I need the wolves clear from their posts on this level. According to what I can see, there are just four here.

Putting on the biggest temper tantrum I can concur, I shout, Narrowing my eyes at the wolves, standing at their posts.

The wolves stutter.

I say.

Goddess, I know these wolves must think I'm some sort of prissy airhead. They probably can't understand why their Luna is acting like a spoiled five year old.

I don't really care what they think in this moment, and I'm even a little amused by how well I've managed to pull this off.

The wolves scramble to do the tasks assigned for them, as I walk up the steps to the Warden's office. I don't bother knocking, knowing that he by now, would already have been informed of my arrival as I storm into this office.

He greets me.

I nod in his direction and make a bit of small talk with him. I can see after five minutes he's starting to get impatient as I ask him the twentieth question about his mate and pup. I am after all distracting him from the all-consuming task of running this prison. I know any minute, Zarah would let the prisoners loose, setting of the alarm, that is, if she has reached the control room. Just as I'm thinking that, the loudest siren I have ever heard starts to go off.

I immediately jump into action, faking shock,

The warden jumps up from his seat, in terror and panic.

I say, feeling quite evil and guilty inside for making him freak out the way that I have, but I remind myself this is for Daniel.

The warden runs out. I wait a couple of minutes and then make my way out of the room as well, with the a spare key card in hand to give me access to the levels. I know the wolves are most likely all out trying to re capture ten loose prisoners.

Taking off at full speed, and running through the prison levels, I make my way down the lowest level. Five floors below ground level.

The last floor is dark and stuffy, and I can already tell this level is for their worst prisoners. Daniel did not deserve to be here. If it wasn't for my wolf, I would barely be able to see in this place.

I pass cell after cell with prisoners, most passed out on the floor, drained of energy, or chained to the wall. Some were even in wolf form, with collars around their necks. The whole scene was completely horrific. Wasn't prison meant to be some form of a rehabilitation center?

I make my way towards the end of the hallway, towards the last cell. As I turn my head to the right, I come face to face with Daniel. He's chained to a wall- his head dropping down, his eyes barely open.

Blood pools at his feet, and there are bruises on his face. He looks so weak that I know he hasn't been fed.

Tears pool in my eyes. This is all my fault.

A/N- Hello everyone! Please don't forget to vote and comment. Not a lot of Zyon and Katherine interaction in this chapter because I believe that her process of saying goodbye to Daniel is particularly important. He is integral to her story and her character development.

Also, I'm sorry for the late update. Uni has been particularly tough and I have a lot of deadlines. I'm making a promise of monthly updates, however I will try to post two to three times a month. Even if I don't post two to three times, I will definitely at least post once.

I hadn't checked back in a while because I'd been so occupied with deadlines, but checked back yesterday and saw the boost in reads, votes and comments. It honestly means so much to me, so please don't forget to do that!

Thank you also for all the sweet messages. Will reply to everyone soon, I promise.

Let me know what you want to see more of. xx