Page 78 of Tenebrous

I don't know where we are, or how many miles of forest separate this mine from Deadfall. Mary might know I was taken but even if she tells someone, what the hell are they supposed to do? Call the police and report that a giant cryptid broke into her house and kidnapped me?

Nobody's coming. We're trapped underground with something strong enough to tear a grown man apart with his bare hands.

My hand settles over my stomach again without conscious thought, a sudden instinct to protect swelling inside of me. Somewhere out there, Orion is alone. The tether between us still faintly pulses in my middle as I grab hold of it with every ounce of strength I have left.

Help. Please.

I don't even know if he can hear me. I don't know if this bond works that way, or if desperation has finally snapped whatever remained of my sanity, but I close my eyes anyway and think his name in desperation.

Orion, I am here. Please. Save us.

Because if anyone can find me miles away, trapped beneath who knows how many layers of rock...

It's the monster I never should have left behind.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

Orion

This side of the mountain feels wrong.

Every instinct I possess screams at me to turn back the higher I climb. The trees grow twisted and sparse, their roots clawing through cracked stone as though trying to escape the mountain as well. Moss no longer blankets the forest floor. Instead, bare rock juts from the earth like broken teeth, slick from a steady drizzle that has begun to fall. The air itself tastes acrid.

Yet, Benjamin's scent cuts through it all.

I kneel beside a patch of mud, brushing my claws over deep grooves left behind by Father's feet. He passed this way not long ago, dragging a… corpse.

Panic seizes my lungs, but the thread tying me to my mate thrums through my veins. It is weak enough that I cannot tell where he is, only that he lives, and relief swells for the briefest of moments before dread quickly squashes it.

If Father has not killed him yet, he must want something. And that thought frightens me far more than anything else.

Rising, I continue climbing upward. The mountain grows quieter with every step. No birds or insects chirp, only rain striking stone and the distant moan of wind whipping through narrow passages ahead.

My pace slows when the scent of smoke and human flesh fills my nostrils. I follow it, revealing a cavernous opening in the mountain between two towering slabs of granite. Unlike my home, this tunnel is wide enough for three creatures my size to walk side by side.

Scratches etch the stone near the entrance. Some are fresh, others have weathered with age. I brush my claws over one of the deeper grooves as a memory stirs from long ago.

“Stay back.”

“You will not touch him again.”

This cavern… it is familiar. It is the place of my birth.

The realization renders me momentarily frozen. I have stood at this entrance before, but I simply cannot recall when.

A sound drifts from somewhere deep inside: terrified human screams that flatten my ears, and every muscle tenses.

Benjamin.

Without another thought, I burst into Father's mountain, intent on reclaiming my mate.

Benji

The sickening crack of bone echoes throughout the cave, followed by the squelch of flesh being torn apart.

Orion's father strips away a thick piece of meat and holds it over the flames. Fat drips onto the fire with sharp hisses, sending the smell of roasting flesh into the air.