Alec was out of the cage and walking down the corridor of Kade's estate. The house was massive, some parts looked older than others though, so Alec assumed that this property was built upon with layers. The foundation was strong as a castle and then it was turned into a modern mansion, which was probably Kade's influence because the decor and design was sleek and powerful just like him.

He walked a bit further when he stood in front of an arched window overlooking the dark forest behind the house. A breeze swept through the tall trees taking Alec back to the past where he was locked in a tormented home with monsters feeding off him. The blood in his veins lost its purity as a blade was put in his hands to kill whoever stepped in front of him. He looked down at his palms where the scars from holding the blade were everywhere. Pale, white scars on his bronzed, taut hands weren't hidden from anyone.

Alec stared out the window wondering when he'd be able to run free from this name attached to his own like a plague. And now, Mikhail returned after years in exile. He wasn't sure why his uncle was back because it wasn't just for revenge for Lucas. The plan was to get the weapons that they stashed away for a day like this one. But, he doubted if it was going to be enough to stop his uncle. Waldorf's never gave up their vendetta and Mikhail was the worst of them all.

Although, Alec wasn't concerned about that as much as he was about his mate. What was he going to do about Kade? They were bonded, it was clear as day to him, but Kade wasn't sensing the bond at all.

Unless he had and he was ignoring it, Alec thought to himself. He was going to help take down Mikhail but he needed to win Kade's trust first before anything else. Why did that seem harder than killing his own uncle?

Standing in front of the window, he almost smashed his own head against the glass hoping it'd solve all his problems or kill him first. On top of that, Vadik's mate was Kade's little sister. Fate really loved to challenge Alec and this time it was a fucking tournament with all odds against him.

He turned away from the moon shining in the sky because it was as if it mocked him. The moon glowed freely in the sky with no burden or scar, that tainted its beautiful white form. There will be a time when this moon will turn crimson red with all the blood that's spilt on this planet.

Alec drowned in the blood of all the people he killed, it was impossible for him to yearn for anything good. Perhaps, he should forget Kade and take Vadik far away from here now that they weren't locked up. They could return to Russia and save themselves from this inevitable hatred that just kept dragging him deeper into this dark void.

Suddenly, the grim cloud over the moon shifted from the view allowing its bountiful light through the glass onto Alec. The power coursed through his body, thickening the bond between him and his wolf. However, it also heightened the need to hunt his mate down and claim him all for himself.

The dangerously rich scent drifted to him. Alec could smell that fiery scent from a mile away, like it was a hypnotic trail of blood beckoning a predator to feed his hunger. The throbbing sensation of heat pumped through his body as continued down the hallway and found himself in front of a single door. He didn't bother knocking before he put his hand around the cold handle and pushed it open. He strode into the room that was a huge office space and Kade sat behind the table.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kade's tone was lashed with an icy tone.

Alec studied Kade's appearance that wasn't in a suit this time nor was his hair perfectly groomed that sat raked away from his face. The stubborn dark strands fell over his forehead and in front of his jewel green eyes. He sat with his shirt sleeves rolled up and the buttons undone around his collar. Dark tattoos peeking from under the shirt on his chest and forearm.

Alec stepped ahead, his tracks being followed by Kade's furious expression. He reached out to touch the book on the shelf.

"Don't touch that," Kade snapped.

Alec moved his hand elsewhere.

"Don't touch that either," the man said dourly.

"Can I at least pour myself a drink?" he asked as he approached the crystal decanter set on a table with two glasses to use.

Kade gave a sigh. "Fine," he answered.

Alec shot him a smirk. "You agreed to that pretty quickly," he said. "It's not poisoned, is it?"

"Might be," Kade said wickedly.

Alec felt a hot pit sink in his gut like he could find himself giving in to the temptation. He took his gaze off Kade's face and poured himself a drink, when he caught the small portrait on the table. A man and woman stood with Mia, Kade and another man that Alec did not recognize. However, it was clear that this was a family photo and these must be Kade's parents.

"Tell me about them," he said.

Kade looked up and saw Alec holding the frame. "They were good people, probably too good for this world," he answered.

"Which become the easiest target," Alec added as he drank the whiskey washing away the bitter taste in his mouth.

"Targets for men like your father," Kade seethed.

Alec closed his eyes as he turned away. "You're right," he laughed briefly. "Lucas fed off the good in people." He put the glass down and went over, standing ahead of the table as he watched Kade ignore him. Kade stayed focused on the papers that were orderly laid out in front of him.

The urge to reach out and fix the strand of hair that fell over Kade's forehead overcame Alec. He almost fulfilled that wish but the pain he purposely caused by stabbing his nails into his palms subsided his desire.

"Do you only hate me because of my father?" Alec asked.

Kade stiffened, his gaze that was only on the papers lifted onto him. "Why are you asking?" he retorted.

Alec circled the table, he swerved the chair back and leaned down on the arms as he faced Kade. "Is hatred all you feel for me?" He kept his voice soft as he spoke to his mate.

Kade's jaw tightened as he gritted his teeth together and glared at Alec. He looked as if he could slice Alec's throat right here and happily drink his blood. He didn't answer though, instead he shifted and got to his feet. Alec moved back but only enough that they stood inches away now. The way the fire lit beneath his green eyes and his jaw that locked sternly.

Fuck, this man is mine, Alec thought.

"You really do have a death wish, don't you?" Kade's voice sent a hot slither of desire through Alec.

"And you really know how to talk dirty to me," Alec remarked.

Kade shoved him back against the shelf so hard that a few books fell onto the floor. Kade wrapped his fist around Alec's throat and gripped it until his knuckles turned white. Alec couldn't breathe and his throat was crushing in on itself, but he still grinned at the man that was furiously standing in front of him.

"God, I just want to-" Kade grip tightened as he restrained himself from speaking any further.

Alec felt the air leave his lungs just before Kade released him and all the blood rushed back to his head. He gripped the shelf behind him as he straightened to his height and faced Kade, as the piercing pain lingered around his neck.

Alec grabbed the glass and drank the remaining whiskey. "Thanks for the drink," he baited with a smirk.

"Just because I let you out from the cage doesn't mean I trust you," Kade retorted.

An ache ran through him. "I know," he said. "But you will one day."

Kade scoffed. "Don't make bets you can't win, Waldorf."

"Then let me enlighten you-" he watched Kade's blazing eyes falter in their resolve- "I always fucking win." He walked out the door and left to return to his room.

Alec was driving Kade to the old house where the Waldorf pack resided when Lucas was still alive. It had been a few years since Alec visited that place. He thought he left it behind after he freed the entire pack from his father's reign. Not sure how to feel, Alec drove silently contemplating his own thoughts over and over again.

Escaping the city traffic, a long road through the forest revealed. He kept the speed minimal as this terrain was hard to navigate without experience. Another thing he never thought he'd had to remind himself of again.

Alec was tempted to turn this car around and leave but that wasn't possible either. He couldn't run from this not matter how much the desire to do so ached through him. This was the only way to get Kade to trust him, which was what he told himself.

"You were talking a lot last night. So, why's your mouth shut all of a sudden?" Kade said but Alec didn't hear him. "Waldorf?"

Alec stared ahead without realizing that he was being addressed. His own thoughts consumed him to the point that he had gone deaf to his surroundings. Demons did that to you. They haunted every moment of your existence, leaving you unable to respond to reality with enthusiasm.

Suddenly, the car swerved on the empty road almost crashing into the large pine trees on the side. Alec snapped out of his head and steered the car back onto the path, when he realized that it was Kade who grabbed the steering-wheel and pulled such a risky stunt.

Alec gaped at Kade. "What the hell?" he astounded.

"You should've answered my question," Kade remarked as he removed his hand and brought it back to his lap.

"I didn't know you were talking to me," he admitted.

"No one else is in the car," Kade said sardonically.

Alec knew that no one else was in the car, it was just them alone. Frankly, he was surprised that Kade didn't bring his bodyguards. Either Kade did trust Alec or he wasn't afraid of him at all. Alec had a feeling it was the latter option.

"What's on your mind?" Kade raised the question.

Alec glanced at Kade who sat in all black, his hair a bit tousled and the tattoos on his bronzed chest exposed. The tough line of his corded neck caught the light of the sun and it played on his skin mesmerizingly. Alec could lean in and lay his lips on the man's throat and not give a care in the world for anything else.

"Right now, just one thing," he confessed as his eyes stayed on those perfect lips. "I'll tell you if you're curious."

Kade's jaded green eyes darkened as he frowned at Alec. "I think I preferred it when you were quiet," he remarked and Alec managed a laugh.

They soon arrived outside the gates of the old Waldorf residence, which was a large field with a massive fortress sitting majestically at the top of the sloped hill. He pressed his foot down on the brakes and the Range Rover came to a halt at the large metal gates that hung open. Alec wasn't sure why he was hesitant. No one lived here and nothing survived but memories at this house.

Memories, he thought. They haunted him even though he always turned his head away. This was never a home, it was a prison.

"Do you need an invitation?" Kade commented.

Alec's hand gripped the steering-wheel. "I never thought I'd come back here," he admitted before he pressed his foot down on the gas and drove through the gates.

"Where are the pack wolves?" Kade asked.

"Most of them probably moved further into the woods for their own protection," Alec answered.

"Why didn't you take the seat for pack alpha?" he asked.

Alec parked in front of the estate. "This was never a pack to begin with," he confessed as a nauseating sickness rose in his stomach. He got out of the car and laid his feet down on the rocky path wondering if the past really left him behind. He grabbed the sledgehammer from the back of the car and took it with him.

Kade joined his side as they went up to the massive doors. Alec didn't bother with a key because this house wasn't locked in the first place. There was nothing precious here nor did he try to preserve anything. This place was rotten to the core, anyone in their right mind should ignore this house. A sickness laid here, it filled these hollow halls with the screams of tortured souls.

Alec lingered at the entrance hearing his father's voice in his head. Days and nights passing one by one as the warmth inside Alec was killed at the end of a gun while any shred of humanity left his soul. Forgiveness was not granted in this house, it was considered disgraceful. The sign of true strength was only with holding a weapon and killing as many people as he could.

Kade was the one who pushed the door open and stepped into the cold, desolate foyer. "Are you coming?" His voice calmed the twisted knots in Alec's heart.

The bitter air reminded him of his father's cologne. Swallowing the disgust in his throat, he stepped forth into the house and let the door shut behind him. The door clunked into place and echoed into the endless halls. The old furniture, paintings and weapons were all still here. Nothing had been moved, but only years of dust layered onto every surface. Spiders had made this their haven and spent years covering each corner or shelf with their intricate webs.

Alec walked ahead of Kade towards the back of the house where his father conducted all his business. As they treaded down the hall, frames with pictures hung. Unlike other houses, that had family portraits or special memories on the walls. This house, Lucas loved to hang photos of his hunts, and it wasn't always animals that were smothered under his boot.

"He really was an animal," Kade scorned.

Alec looked away from the photo. "No, he wasn't an animal," he said. "Animals know compassion, they know mercy. Lucas was a disease, a sickness that plagued anyone he touched."

The marks that marred Alec's body were remnants of Lucas. I may have survived, but with what cost? he thought to himself.

They walked into the massive room where there were large leather lounge chairs, an oak desk and a stag's head hooked over the mantle like a prize. Alec ignored the demons that lingered in this room reminding him that this was where he made his first kill. A target had been captured that was his father's enemy and Alec was called in to kill him.

He went over to his father's desk and clicked the button underneath the counter. The bookshelf on the wall split right through the middle, a bit of dust fell off the shelves as a gust of breeze filled the empty space. Right behind the bookshelf was an elevator that pinged open and the light flickered inside.

Alec wasn't even sure if anything was down there. He knew that the weapons he made himself would be hidden in the room where Natalia suicided. Lucas never went there, so it was the perfect place to hide anything.

Alec and Kade walked into the elevator and he clicked the button that led them to the underground level. A few moments later when the doors opened, a large, grim hallway appeared. The light from the elevator spilled onto the concrete floor ahead before the florescent bulbs above them flickered alive. The dark grey walls caved in on them.

"What is this place?" Kade asked.

"Purgatory," Alec answered as he led them out. "This was my father's place to commit all the sins he could. Torture chambers, prisons, the list goes on."

Their footsteps echoed as they crossed the space. Although, Kade stopped in front of a pair of huge doors.

"Arena," he read aloud.

"Lucas would kidnap rogue wolves and hosted fights here," Alec told him as he opened the large doors and the massive concrete room with a balcony circling the top appeared. "Whoever won would be recruited to the pack. Most of my father's followers joined through this method."

"Were you forced to be a part of this?" Kade asked.

Alec didn't know how to answer that. "I watched as wolves shred each other to pieces just to save themselves," he replied. Kade's eyes didn't falter as they stared at Alec. "That was the life here, no one was safe and nothing was worth more than bloodshed."

He walked on ahead to the last room in the corner, it was a solemn door that held the mark of his greatest failure. Natalia, his little sister, that was as innocent as a dove but born to a monster. She was tormented under Lucas and his unforgiving ways. Alec couldn't protect her, he couldn't save her smile and let her succumb to the monsters in this hellhole.

"Is it locked?" Kade asked beside him.

Alec drew in a shaky breath that felt as if a chain wrapped around his throat choking him. "This is where Natalia died," he said softly.

"Your sister," Kade said.

Alec gave a curt nod.

"I can go in myself," Kade said. "Just wait out here." He pushed open the door and entered the vacant room, that was just how they left it. A bed in the corner and the light fixture on the roof with the rope hanging from it.

Kade saw the rope the same time Alec had and he turned looking at him. He didn't bother using words to console Alec. He just grabbed the chair and got up on top of it before he untied the rope and dropped it on the floor away from Alec's eyes.

"Where did you hide it?" Kade asked then.

Alec tried to lift his foot and step into the room, but he just couldn't do it. "There's a safe kept under the bed in the floor," he answered.

Kade pushed the bed out of the way since it was only made of metal scraps and an old mattress laid on top. He lifted the rug too and only saw concrete.

"You're going to need this," Alec said as he held out the sledgehammer.

Kade shrugged off his jacket and threw it on the chair revealing the black shirt that clung to his muscular body and the holster of weapons as well. He took the sledgehammer and got to work. He slammed it multiple times until the concrete cracked into many pieces. Sweat beaded on his brow and neck as he finally finished. Dropping the hammer, he bent down and threw the slabs of concrete out of the way revealing a metal safe tucked beneath the rubble.

Suddenly, something clattered to the floor. Alec glanced over his shoulder at the empty hall wondering what that strange sound was from the arena. Something must have dropped, but there was no windows or doors in that room. Perhaps, he imagined it.

Alec watched as Kade pulled out the metal safe from the ground. "The combination is 4234," he told him just as he looked back behind him.

Instinct was never wrong and right now it was like a blaring red signal in front of Alec. He knew they weren't alone anymore. However, only Waldorf's knew about this basement and Mikhail wasn't the one that Alec sensed. This putrid scent was rogue as if it was rotten flesh mixed with a nasty acidic aroma. From the arena, emerged a scrawny wolf, his eyes maddened with hunger. He was limping as his mouth held back in a sneer with foam dripping onto the floor.

How did a wolf survive down here? Alec wondered. Well, from the looks of it, this wolf was close to death while only dieting on bugs or rats. He was about to warn Kade when another two wolves appeared.

"I got the bullets," Kade said from the room which garnered the rabid animals' attention right away. He walked up to the door when the man's eyes caught the three hungry wolves inching closer to them. "What in the devil-" he gaped.

Alec wasn't going to let anything happen to Kade. "I'm sorry," he said as Kade looked confused. Alec shoved him into the room and shut the door barring it shut with a small metal piece lodged under the space at the bottom, so it wouldn't open.

"Open this fucking door right now, Waldorf!" Kade barked as he pounded his fists against the door.

"I'm trying to protect you," Alec reasoned.

"Fuck you!" Kade snapped. "I'm going to break this door and kill you!"

"Stop freaking out," Alec said as he slammed his hand on the door.

Alec faced the three wolves that looked at him like he was a prized piece of meat. He couldn't blame them after everything they'd been through down here. However, there could only be one survivor and Alec wasn't the one dying today.