Liam must have stared for a long time. The tall man sitting in between his parents tilted his head and said, "this has shocked you quite a bit."
Liam only realised his mouth hung open when he tried to find his words.
"A- A bit? Just a bit?" He leaned forwards, recognising the intenseness to his dark eyes. "You're Xavier Malik?"
The man nodded. "A bit of a pathetic version of myself, I must admit."
Liam shook his head to scatter his thoughts.
"I-" Liam wanted to cry again. "You have no idea what your death has done to him."
Xavier's face hardened as Liam's parents looked to the man between them. "I imagine he spiralled."
Liam was back to gawking and blinking hopelessly. He struggled to find words at the best of times. Now questions wanted to spew from him so fast, he crashed.
Eventually, Liam stuttered, "H-He did. A
few times!"
Xavier's eyes lowered to his thin legs crossed beneath him. "And Solana, has she spiralled?"
"Yes," Liam whispered. Almost for the last time.
"How badly?" Xavier's voice lowered too.
Liam didn't want to tell him that she very nearly ended it all, so he used Zayn's famous way of avoiding topics. "How are you not dead?"
Xavier shifted weakly, unsettled. "Well, I don't know the details, but the last thing I saw was Zayn leaning over me, then I woke in the back of a van. I assume Jaiden ushered me out of the building rather quickly. I'm sure he and Mira had planned to bring me back to life. I was in one of those vans the government send to take away dead wolves."
Xavier hadn't yet looked up from his lap. "I just remember Mira being thrilled when I freaked out about not feeling my wolf. For the longest time, she let me believe that Solana was dead." In the sharp shadows, his jaw clenched. "Evil bitch."
"That's why we're all here together," Sylvia whispered. "Xavier was here before us, though his wounds were months old by then, so maybe Mira thought she would get to you sooner. What was happening two years ago?"
"Uh.." Liam really had to think about it. His mind was mush. "Mira's Pack invaded the annual meeting, and because Ethdellin Pack came to rescue Zayn, Mira's pack invaded Ethdellin Packhouse, so we went to Sea Claw Packhouse. Junes was killed and me and Niall had to run. We were almost caught a few times. I guess Mira was desperate because she lost Jaiden."
"And you said Zayn killed him?" Xavier asked.
Liam nodded.
Xavier perked up. "Good lad."
Liam had heard stories of Zayn's father over the years, stories of him being a great leader, a fair leader, and a calm and considerate Alpha who took the time to care, but a distant father. He had also heard that Xavier started off a little rough around the edges, like Zayn, and still had moments of sternness.
"If you and Solana are still alive, why do you not have your wolves?" Liam asked.
"We're too far to reconnect, if that's even possible. I love her, and we'll reconnect in our own way." Xavier nodded curtly.
Liam had watched Solana deteriorate over the years. Hopefully he would get the chance to watch her grow again. He shook his head, staring at all three prisoners in utter disbelief. His father, Zayn's father, and his mother all stared back. The situation was crazy enough to be a dream, a bittersweet dream that was just on the brink of a nightmare.
"This changes everything." Liam tried to think of how Zayn would react. He couldn't bear to imagine his breakdown. "Your death has been so hard on so many people."
Xavier looked away again. "Some days I willed for Zayn or Solana to get caught so I could see them. I'm glad they never did. This has been hell, sitting here for almost two years. Mira is the definition of bedlam, but she's been our only visitor. It's hard to stay sane when insane is all you've had."
"We'll get out" Liam sat up straighter. He had to get out to see Zayn, and for his parents to see the sun again, Xavier to see his family again, and for the Pack he had lived with for almost two years to reconnect.
"I think Zayn is close," he whispered, forgetting that Mira's Rogues lurked in the dark corners.
The werewolves shared a nervous glance, and one left the room.
"Can you feel him?" Xavier asked.
Liam rubbed his chest. He was too calm for Zayn to be at the other end of England. "I feel a lot of things right now, b-but I think he's not far away."
******
Zayn needed a way into the cave without Mira knowing, and without causing a scene. Mira wanted Zayn to go back North, but why?
"What will she do when I'm back North?" he asked Leo, the Rogue who was proving to be very useful.
"I don't know. She never discussed that part of the plan with us. Thea's Beta might know, but this is where my knowledge runs out. Sorry."
Zayn had to believe him. Accusing him of lying probably wouldn't squeeze out the truth. He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes.
"We need more wolves. We're so outnumbered."
Thea's Beta had brought double the Omega's Zayn had with him, and he didn't yet know how much he could trust the rest of Thea's pack.
"If you pretend to go back North, Mira might kill Liam, or she might kill him if she realises you lied," said an Omega, nervously glancing all around. "But we need to find a way of getting rid of Thea's Beta."
"Kick her into the ocean, like you said," another Omega offered.
"Then her Omega wolves will attack us." Zayn gripped the front of his hair. "I don't know what to do. The longer we stand here, the more at risk everyone is."
"At least Liam is close."
"But not safe."
"Is he on his own in the caves?" Zayn asked Leo, who stood awkwardly with his head down.
"No. There's prisoners in there. I don't know who they are. They've been in there a long time. I don't even know if they're still alive."
Zayn had a horrid image of Liam sitting alone in the dark, surrounded by bodies. "We have to get him out of there now. He might not have enough time for us to wait for backup."
Zayn didn't know the state of the cave, though his chest wasn't tight with fear. Liam was not okay, but he wasn't yet breaking down.
His shifted Omega's suddenly lifted their heads, sniffing the air and trying to peer up to the top of the cliffs. Zayn looked up too, and that's when he saw gold glowing eyes peering down at him.
A grey wolf looked over the clif, a healthy, clean and strong wolf. Zayn's first thought was that Thea had sent backup, but the longer he looked, the more heads popped into view, and the overwhelming scent of werewolves wafted down in the salty breeze.
Zayn looked left and right along the cliff's edge. From the smell, he was willing to bet that hundreds of wolves stood above them.
"What's going on?" he asked. Thea's pack wasn't that big.
"Alpha" Reena said, clutching her phone, looking up too. Her eyes swelled with relief. "I phoned allies. They said Ethdellin Packhouse had already phoned yesterday asking for help." She blinked back her shock. "I think... I think this is our help."
"I don't have this many allies, do I?"
A bewildered Zayn climbed up the side of the cliff, carefully and quietly, wanting to see for himself.
He was out of breath when he got to the top, but the sight of so many wolves took his breath away completely. As far as he could see in the thick woods, hundreds of wolves stood, sat, sniffed, but all of them, brown, black, grey, white, all the wolves stood together and stared right at him.
The closest one shifted into a tall muscular woman, wearing black leggings and a green hoodie with the words, Eastly Howl Pack on the front.
"Malik," she said, tying up her long brown hair. "Got your mate back yet?"
Zayn, so perplexed, shook his head to say no.
"Right then, what can we do to help?"
The hairs on Zayn's neck prickled as wolves quieted down to listen. Another wolf shifted into a person. He was from Sea Claw Packhouse. All the wolves before him stood together, but they were from different Packs. Zayn had never seen anything like it. The North and South had been divided for
too long, but he had put a rift between Northern Packs because of his young and foolish desire for power.
Now, because of Zayn, the wolves were together again. He would have stared in disbelief if he didn't look like an idiot, opening and closing his mouth.
"We need to kill Mira."
"The Bedlam Alpha's mate, human, and mad. We were briefed over the phone. Where is she?"
"In a cave with my mate, if we get near, she'll kill him."
"Then we need to think of a plan. I'm sure two hundred of us can think of something, How do we get in?"
"There's a way in through the caves, and a way in somewhere else, but we can't get there with the tide in."
Zayn stopped tensing his shoulders. With so much help, he could storm into the cave and kill anyone who put themselves between himself and Liam, but was that too much of a risk?
"What if we camp out and wait for Mira to come out of the cave?"
"Something tells me that she'll realise all of you are here in the meantime and kill my mate anyway."
"Why hasn't she killed him already? If her main goal is to destroy your life, Zayn, then why are you not on a Rogue killing spree because you've lost your mate?"
"She's trying to lure me back North, probably so I'm not close enough to direct my killing rampage towards her." Zayn clenched his fists. Regardless of what happened in between, everything would end with Mira's death, and he could barely wait.