Rebecca’s POV
Consciousness ca back slowly.
Like dragging myself up from the bottom of a deep, dark ocean.
Everything hurt.
My head. My throat. My ribs. Every muscle in my body scread in protest.
I tried to open my eyes. Managed just a crack. The world was blurry. Unfocused. Moving.
Wait.
Moving?
I blinked. Tried to focus.
The ground was passing beneath . Rough. Rocky. My feet dragged across it uselessly.
Soone was pulling .
Two soones.
Strong hands gripping my arms. Hauling forward like I was a sack of garbage.
My brain struggled to process.
Where was I?
What was happening?
Fragnts of mory started coming back. The wasteland. The sun. The endless walking. Collapsing.
The lights.
Soone had found .
Relief flooded through my chest. Sharp and overwhelming.
Must be Kael.
He’d sent soone. Of course he had. He’d realized his mistake. Realized that exiling was too harsh. Realized that Aria was a lying manipulative bitch who’d twisted everything.
He was coming back for .
A sound escaped my throat. Half laugh, half sob.
I tried to speak. My voice ca out as a croak.
"Is... is it Kael?"
The hands didn’t loosen. Didn’t slow.
I swallowed. Tried again. Forced the words through my raw throat.
"Did Kael send you?" My voice was hoarse. Raspy. Barely recognizable as my own. "Did he... did he realize that bitch was lying?"
Nothing.
No response.
Just the steady sound of boots on gravel. The sensation of being dragged.
"Hey!" I tried to pull my arms free. Tried to make them look at . "I’m talking to you!"
Still nothing.
Panic started creeping in. Just a little. Just at the edges.
"You’re hurting !" The words ca out sharper now. More insistent. "Let go! Do you know who I am? Do you know what Kael will do to you if you damage ?"
The grip on my arms tightened.
Pain shot through my shoulders. Made gasp.
"OW! Stop it!" I tried to twist away. "I said you’re HURTING ! When Kael finds out about this, he’ll punish you! Both of you!"
They kept walking.
Kept dragging forward like I’d said nothing at all.
My heart was pounding now. Too fast. Too hard.
"Listen to !" Desperation crept into my voice. "I know you’re probably just following orders. I get it. But you need to be more careful with . I’m... I’m important. I’m going to be Luna soday. You can’t just manhandle like this!"
No reaction.
Not even a glance.
"If you stop now," I tried a different approach. Softer. Almost pleading. "If you apologize and treat properly, I’ll forgive you. I promise. I won’t tell Kael what happened. We can just forget this whole thing."
Nothing.
"Please!" The word burst out. Raw. Genuine. "Just talk to ! Tell what’s happening! Where are we going?"
Silence.
Absolute, terrifying silence.
I started struggling harder. Pulling against their grip with what little strength I had left.
"LET GO OF !"
One of them grabbed my hair. Yanked my head back.
I scread.
The pain was sharp. Blinding. Stars burst across my vision.
"Shut up."
The voice was cold. Flat. Completely devoid of any emotion.
Then he released my hair. Shoved forward.
I stumbled. Would have fallen if they weren’t still gripping my arms.
Tears burned in my eyes. From the pain. From the fear. From the horrible, dawning realization that sothing was very, very wrong.
These weren’t Kael’s n.
They couldn’t be.
Kael’s wolves were professional. Respectful. They would never treat like this.
So who were they?
I forced myself to look around. To actually pay attention to my surroundings instead of just existing in my bubble of pain and confusion.
The landscape had changed.
We weren’t in the wasteland anymore. Weren’t in the open desert under the burning sun.
We were... inside sothing?
A cave? A tunnel?
The walls were close. Dark. Made of rough stone that glistened with moisture.
Torches burned at intervals. Casting flickering orange light across everything.
The air slled wrong. Damp. Musty. With an underlying scent of sothing I couldn’t identify.
Rot? Decay?
My stomach churned.
Voices started reaching my ears. Rough. Loud. Coming from sowhere ahead.
Laughter. The harsh, grating kind. The kind that made my skin crawl.
Then the tunnel opened up.
Into a massive cavern.
My eyes went wide.
There were... people.
Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds. All wolves. All n.
They were scattered throughout the space. So sitting around fires. So standing in groups. So leaning against the walls.
And they all looked...
Wrong.
That was the only word for it.
Scarred. Dirty. Violent.
One man had a burn covering half his face. The skin twisted and lted like wax.
Another was missing an eye. The socket empty and dark.
A third had scars crisscrossing his arms. Deep gouges that looked like they’d been made by claws.
These weren’t pack wolves. Weren’t civilized.
These were rogues.
The worst kind.
The dangerous kind.
The kind that lived outside pack law. Outside civilization. Outside any kind of moral code.
My blood turned to ice.
They noticed imdiately.
Heads turned. Conversations stopped. Eyes locked onto my body.
And the way they looked at ...
Like predators spotting prey.
Like starving animals seeing at.
Like n who hadn’t seen a woman in far too long.
One of them whistled. Long and low.
"Well, well, well." His voice was rough. Gravelly. "What do we have here?"
"Fresh at!" Another one laughed. "And a pretty one too!"
"Dibs!" A third one called out. "I saw her first!"
"Fuck off!" Soone else shoved him. "You had the last one!"
My heart was racing now. Pounding so hard I thought it might burst right out of my chest.
The n holding my arms kept walking. Kept dragging forward.
Right through the middle of them all.
The rogues moved closer. Crowding around. Reaching out with dirty hands.
One touched my hair. I flinched away.
Another grabbed at my dress. The fabric ripped.
I scread.
"GET AWAY FROM !"
Laughter erupted. Cruel. Mocking.
"Feisty!"
"I like ’em feisty!"
"Let have a turn!"
The guards yanked forward. Harder now. Faster.
Pulling away from the reaching hands. The leering faces. The voices calling out obscene suggestions.
We moved deeper into the cavern. Past more groups. More fires. More dangerous-looking n.
Until finally, we reached the back wall.
A door.
Heavy. Iron-reinforced. The kind you’d use for a prison cell.
Or a vault.
One of the guards knocked. Three tis. Sharp and deliberate.
A voice ca from inside. Muffled by the thick wood.
"Enter."
The door swung open.
The guards shoved through.
I stumbled. Fell to my knees on the stone floor.
Pain shot through my kneecaps. Fresh. Sharp.
"Kneel before the leader." One guard’s voice ca from behind . Cold. Commanding. "Show respect."
I stayed down. Too scared to move. Too scared to even look up.
My whole body was shaking. Trembling so hard my teeth chattered.
This was wrong.
All wrong.
I should never have been here. Should never have been exiled. Should never have been left in that wasteland to die.
This was Kael’s fault.
And Aria’s.
If they hadn’t...
If they’d just...
A laugh echoed through the room.
Deep. Rich. Familiar.
Too familiar.
My blood ran cold.
No.
It couldn’t be.
"Well, well, well." The voice spoke again. Closer now. Right above . "Long ti no see, little thing."
My head snapped up.
I stared.
Standing on a raised platform. Looking down at with dark, amused eyes.
Was Magnus Blood Crown.
Kael’s father.
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