Chapter 30: The Depths of the Last Hole 2

Moon sat on the rock cross-legged and closed his eyes. He circulated his Qi and took a deep breath to calm his violently surging blood.

Moon picked up Leo in his arms from Ugo. His hand touched Leo’s pulse point, and he pressed his forehead to Leo’s. The red fur was slowly losing its radiance.

Moon sent a strand of his fire essence from his core silently, hoping this would keep their forcibly awakened spirits alive for some more time.

He put him down on his left thigh and picked up Rio. As he pressed his forehead to the frosty white, cold fur, his blood shuddered.

’When was it? Was it yesterday when he fainted, or was it this morning that they shifted into full form? This should not be this easy. This could not be this easy unless...’

He didn’t want to think, but he already knew. They took a forbidden potion to force awake their wolves.

No wonder he was feeling so much pain on the gibbet.

No wonder they were so desperate to gouge tunnels to steal potions from the Grand Witch.

They were planning all along to make this suicidal attempt behind his back.

His Qi almost went berserk thinking this... What if it had failed? They would have been dead by now.

"How much potion did they take?"

Nox and Ugo kept silent, and so did Axe. After the long hurdle and running, this silence felt more pressing than peace.

"Not much." At this moment, suddenly another voice came from a dark corner.

The candle didn’t illuminate the full cavern, and Moon did not spread his divine sense to save energy.

He whipped his head around to see the source. This voice is very familiar and very irritating to him. This voice had hunted him down in the Last Hole for almost a month before dying.

"Chika!" he muttered, his eyes wide open.

Axe took out a pearl and leisurely threw it into the air, illuminating the full cavern. The pearl hung in the air.

Moon’s eyes widened in surprise. There was not only Chika, but also Chimera and Goritti.

Their clothes were muddy, dirty, and scraped. There were shovels, mattocks, spades, chisels, buckets, and ropes. A cart full of dirt, mud, rock, and some iron nails was spread all over.

Moon’s brows twitched. "How...?"

Nox suddenly threw some clothes at Moon. "Put the cloak on first."

Only after hearing Nox’s words did Moon look down, and a chilling cold ran over his body. He had been too busy fleeing to notice that he was almost naked. The trousers were completely burnt to the thigh, with only some scraps hiding his skin, while his tunic was filled with gaping holes and tears.

He shrank back, crossing his arms, while Axe stood in front of him, shielding him from the others. Axe helped Moon to cover up with the cloak, wrapping it tight around his shoulders.

"He was not dead entirely, though his life force is almost gone. But we needed his help, so we gave him the elixir." Axe whispered.

Chika sneered, while Goritti was emotionless.

Chika stood up from where they were resting. "The east line is cleared up. You remember the deal, right?"

He looked at the two wolves and clicked his tongue. "They didn’t take much, didn’t you already help them to shift? It’s just forcing their energy into their full form. They will not die."

His voice was laced with jealousy.

"Chika, I don’t have the power to shift anyone, and even if I did, I wouldn’t just sleep with all the defectives," Moon said coldly.

He knew that even if Axe helped them to heal, they were holding a grudge against him, and he was not going to forgive their brutality either.

Chimera chuckled.

His gaze ran around the space with amusement.

Chika’s gaze shifted to the two wolf pups in Moon’s hands.

"Don’t look at them, they are different. They are my fated mates!" Moon’s voice rose, his arms tightening around the two little pups.

Suddenly, all eyes turned to him. Moon’s hair stood up under their intent gaze. This was the first time Moon himself announced that these five brothers were indeed his fated mates.

Moon flinched.

Ugo’s eyes fluttered while Nox suddenly got closer. Before Moon could read their mind, Nox cupped Moon’s face and planted a kiss on his lips.

His eyes welling up with tears. "Baby...." Nox whined.

Moon went still, his brain froze for a moment, and then he freed one of his hands to wipe his lips slowly with his palm. His entire being heated up in shame.

Wet and sticky.

His palm slimed from the smearing saliva.

And then he erupted, "What the hell..."

But before he could curse more, Ugo planted another kiss on his cheek.

And Axe’s face came down right after.

"No way." Moon slammed that face away.

"We are in danger. Don’t fool around," he bellowed.

"Tch, So biased!" Axe grumbled.

"We need some courage to face what we are going to do," Ugo chuckled, though his smile was more mournful than happy.

"What we are going to do?" Moon frowned.

"Of course, escape from the Vaelis pack territory," Axe shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Well, we can’t go the direct way, so we need some shortcuts."

Just by looking at the raft and waste water tunnel Moon knew this path will not be any good. His gaze shifted to the raft to the water stream to the little bit of assets they had collected and he was not sure if they really could survive later.

Then he asked the most critical question he was thinking, "What about the others?"

Vadira came forward. "I will stay here. Chika is dead from others, so he has to follow you out and hide. But the problem is he has a slave mark, though it’s very faint after his injury. Chimera and Goritti will fill up this tunnel as soon as you leave. We can’t afford to be found out by the Alpha that we dug another water dispenser line here."

"When are we leaving?"

Axe rubbed his machete. "As soon as we remove the mark."

"Are you planning to dig out your heart or anything?" Moon felt this was a clear nuisance.

"We will cut the surface and use a potion to burn the imprint. But we don’t know which one is the right potion," Axe said.

Nox spread out the potions onto the floor from his satchel. "Can you check? If there is any?