Cherished: True Mates Book 5 (BBW Wolf Shifter Romance) (A Craggstone Paranormal Romance) by Olivia Arran Page B

exploration. Pushing me back, she took a ragged breath, her cheeks flushed and chest straining. “I need to see him. Just once, then I can walk away.” Cupping my cheek, she pressed her forehead to mine, her breath feathering across my lips, a sweet torture. “I don’t know what this is between us, or whether I want it to be anything. I don’t know. But I do know that I can’t think about us while he still hangs over my head.”
    I let her slide down my body, my sadistic side loving the way her curves caught and dragged against me. Yeah, this woman was my penance, my perfect form of torture for everything I had ever done.
    I slid the first bolt open, the metal protesting the effort. “Just remember, you promised you wouldn’t judge.” I slid the next bolt free, all the while holding her gaze.
    She slipped her hand into my free one, squeezing in reassurance.
    She was reassuring me?
    I reached up onto tiptoe and slid the final bolt free.
    I now needed her to do a fuck-load of not judging. Not letting go of her hand, I swung the door open, bracing myself.
     
     

CHAPTER TWELVE
    Ana
    The door swung open revealing a room encased in shadows, the blackness thick and uninviting. Oliver slipped past me, disappearing into the depths. A second later a flame flickered, catching, before spluttering to life.
    Oliver’s face was bathed by the candle, his harsh features softened in the flickering light. Taking a step forward, I hesitated, my nose wrinkling in disgust as a stench rolled over me. If my human nose couldn’t stand the smell, what must it be like for a shifter?
    I had asked to come in here, so I’d just better suck it up. Or better yet, breathe through my mouth! Resisting the urge to pinch my nose, I forced myself to enter the room, my mind screaming at me not to go there, to turn around and leave. But I had to see him, I had to have my say.
    My eyes slowly adjusted to the low light, the room sharpening into focus. It was a small area, with stone walls and a bare floor. No windows, and I was guessing no air vents either. The perfect holding cell for prisoners.
    Oliver stood by a low wooden table, his face closed off, though his eyes gave him away, anxious and searching as they watched me look around the room.
    “Ana,” he started, cutting off when my gaze darted past him, riveted by the table and what it held.
    Walking over, I stopped, trying to make out what the hell I was looking at. Metal tools? The kind you would use for wood turning? Or carving?
    Or torture? A shiver ran down my spine, Oliver’s earlier words echoing in my head. I fix problems…
    This wasn’t what I had come for. Turning my back on the macabre offerings on the table, I squinted across the room, trying to spear through the shadows and see what I knew they had to be hiding.
    It was no good; I had to go closer. Grabbing the candle from Oliver, I strode across the room, the light dancing in front of me illuminating each step, revealing a little more.
    My heart thudded in my chest, my eyes widening in shock. Three men were slouched, stripped naked, and bound to chairs by cuffs and thick chains, their bodies littered with bruises and blood.
    I recognized all three of them.
    Balling my hands into fists to resist the urge to lash out at them, to scratch and scream, I sucked in a deep breath, immediately regretting it as my stomach rebelled against the unwashed smell invading my nose. Retching, I pressed a hand over my mouth, water stinging my eyes.
    Jacob’s eyes flickered open. “Ana!” His voice was hoarse, his lips cracking as he struggled to talk. “You have to free us, quickly, before—”
    “The bitch is working with them, you fool.”
    I stifled the need to take another deep breath and turned in the direction of the voice. One I would recognize anywhere.
    “They rescued me.” I didn’t want to explain, but the compulsion was so ingrained I couldn’t fight it.
    “Of course they did. Look at you, prime whore! I bet you’ve already