Stop it!
Walking into the office, she forced herself to confront the past. A layer of dust covered the desk where Alastair preferred conducting pack business. Her father had been a tidy Lupine, always keeping his surroundings clean. The framed photo of her mother was next to a bowl filled with small blue packets, the artificial sweetener Alastair enjoyed in his coffee.
She picked up the frame, checked the back and saw the money tucked there. Kara sighed, fingering the bills. The $2,000 would barely make a dent in Aiden’s debt.
As she set down the photo, a white coating came off on her fingers. Frowning, she brought her fingers to her nose and inhaled. The powder had an odd scent.
Next, she went to the conference table, remembering how he’d hit her over and over, then placed the heated iron against her cheek…
Enough.
Sucking in a breath, she left the office and continued down the hallway until reaching a room at the very end. She went through the archway and flicked on the light. The room was stacked with furniture and boxes. Her family had used it for storage as long as she could remember.
Kara crossed the room until reaching a stack of crates against the wall. This wall was brick, not masonry.
After moving the crates, she pushed on the wall and it moved, creaking inward, the sound like old bones rattling. Blackness stretched endlessly as she shone her flashlight down the corridor.
The entrance to the tunnels.
Kara drew in a deep breath and crossed over.
Here the brick floor gave way to rock and soil as the hallway turned into an old mining shaft. The mine was a dark and dangerous maze, she remembered her father saying.
Support timbers shored up the tunnel. The rough-hewn pylons were sturdy, but aged. A few crates were stacked against the wall. Curious, she opened one and saw several sacks within. Pulse racing, she opened one. Silver coins.
No gold.
Kara replaced the sack and closed the crate.
The stones beneath her soles grew rockier and uneven as she pressed onward. Finally the narrow shaft widened to a large cave her father had turned into a crypt. The stench of death and disuse assaulted her delicate senses.
Her mother was entombed here.
Fishing the golden key from her jeans pocket, Kara walked to the rock wall on her left. Shadows danced in the dim light, concealing a narrow slit in the cave. Dank, cool air brushed against her exposed skin.
The slit was barely wide enough to admit an adult Lupine. A slender adult.
It seemed wide as a house when she’d wriggled through it as a child.
Kara glanced down at her big breasts, the gentle slope of her belly and ruefully touched her bottom.
Damn.
She hated tight spaces, the darkness clawing at her, making her want to shriek and shriek. If she got stuck, she’d remain down here until turning into a ghost, only the bones of her dead mother for company.
But she thought of the despair in her brother’s face as he’d stared at the sheaf of bills piled on his desk, and how hard he’d worked to make a new home for them.
She thought of the determination on Ryder’s face and how he’d fight to the death to keep her. Was it love? It didn’t matter, now.
“Suck it in, Mitchell,” she said aloud. “No more excuses.”
Drawing in a deep breath, she turned sideways to squeeze into the slit.
And stumbled inward, nearly falling into the tunnel. Gripping the flashlight, she righted herself and shone the beam into the gloom, down a tunnel wide enough to admit three Lupines walking shoulder-to-shoulder.
“I’ll be damned,” she murmured. Someone, her father perhaps, had changed the lighting to make the access way seem much narrower.
Directing the powerful flashlight into the thick darkness, Kara walked on stony ground, her feet splashing puddles as water dripped down the rock walls. Stale, cold air filled her lungs, but the mine was ventilated and did not contain dangerous gases.
The tunnel narrowed until she was forced to walk hunched over, her lungs bellowing as she fought her panic. Dim light showed ahead.
The Shadow Forest entrance.
About 100 yards from that entrance, the tunnel widened and another shaft appeared to her right. She turned, following it a short distance until reaching a thickset door with a tarnished keyhole.
Kara unlocked the door with the golden key and pushed it open, the hinges squealing in protest. Heart beating fast, she shone the flashlight over the small, secret chamber.
Concrete lined the walls and floor, like a cold, gray prison cell. No electricity here. Instead, two oil lamps rested on a shelf.
She lit both, yellow light flooding the small chamber.
The room contained a wooden trunk resembling a pirate’s chest. Please, oh please, she thought. Setting down her flashlight, she knelt before the trunk, struggling to lift the heavy lid and finally flung it open.