ERIC
The belt buckle sliced through the air before striking.
Crack.
Leather tore across my back hard enough to send pitching forward onto the cold wooden floorboards.
A scream clawed its way up my throat, but I swallowed it back violently, biting down on my tongue hard enough to taste blood.
"You worthless, wolfless piece of shit!"
"Get up!"
My father’s voice thundered through the dim cabin.
I scrambled upright imdiately, breathing raggedly while my entire body trembled uncontrollably.
Moonlight spilled weakly through the dirty cabin windows, pale against walls stained with years of smoke and dampness.
The room reeked of whiskey, blood, and wolfsbane. My father’s preferred combination whenever he decided punishnt was necessary.
He stood across from , broad shoulders blocking half the light. The belt hung loosely from one hand now, fresh blood sared across the silver buckle.
Mine.
"Your brother shifted when he was only eight," he seethed. "So why the hell can’t you do the sa? Not even the most basic thing?"
Fear crawled instantly up my throat. My chest tightened painfully as I stared at him.
My jaw trembled. I tried to answer. My mouth opened but no words ca out.
"Answer !" he barked.
"I tried," I whimpered weakly, exhaustion and pain finally crushing down on my small body after hours of punishnt.
Wrong answer.
The buckle ca down again. This ti it struck my shoulder.
White-hot pain exploded through instantly.
"You think trying matters on a battlefield?" he roared. "Weak wolves don’t survive because they try!"
Another strike landed.
My knees slamd hard against the floorboards, skin scraping painfully against the rough wood.
I bit down hard against another scream clawing its way up my throat.
No crying. Crying only made things worse. Father hated weakness. I wasn’t allowed to cry.
Suddenly, his hand clamped around my jaw and forced my face upward.
"You feel it, don’t you?" His voice dropped into sothing far more dangerous. "The rage."
I shook my head imdiately. "No."
His palm cracked violently across my cheek.
My ears rang. Tears spilled profusely down my face while my vision blurred at the edges.
Then Father’s hand wrapped around my throat. I wheezed, clawing frantically at his wrist as he choked .
"I’ll ask again," he growled. "Did you feel it?"
I had. I always did.
Sothing burning beneath my skin. Sothing alive. Sothing terrifying.
His grip tightened painfully.
"You keep resisting the wolf," he said, "and eventually it’ll tear its way out of you."
Then he shoved backward hard enough that the back of my skull slamd against the wooden floor.
Stars burst violently across my vision. The ringing in my ears intensified. Darkness crept at the edges of my sight while Father’s voice faded into the distance.
Part of welcod it. But the darkness never ca.
Instead—Sothing inside snapped.
Not emotionally. Physically.
A sickening crack tore through my body.
Pain exploded everywhere at once. I scread.
My fingers curled against the floorboards as claws ripped through skin and nails. Bones twisted beneath flesh. Ribs breaking.
My spine arched so intensely that agony completely consud my vision.
"No..." I groaned.
Father didn’t move. Didn’t help. He simply watched struggling with my wolf.
"Good," he muttered.
I heard fur tearing through skin. Heard my own growls strangling themselves beneath my screams.
Then—
Silence. Not around . Inside . The pain disappeared. And sothing else replaced it.
Hunger. I slowly lifted my head. Everything was sharpened. I could hear my father breathing. Sll the sweat beneath his skin.
Hear the rapid pounding of his heartbeat. Fear. He was afraid. Afraid of . A darkness I couldn’t control unfurled inside my chest at that realization.
My father smiled. "There you are," he whispered.
The wolf surged as scent flooded my nose. Blood. My claws sank into flesh. A roar exploded through the cabin.
Then another. Screams. Begging. Pleas—
"Well done, son. Your first kill." My father’s voice echoed proudly through the chaos. "Now you’re a true wolf."
—
My eyes snapped open.
I lurched upright with a sharp gasp, chest heaving violently. Cold sweat soaked through my shirt.
My hand shot to my throat as I looked around wildly with wide, unfocused eyes.
Darkness. Cold stone walls. Silver bars. The suffocating stench of wolfsbane.
The Hollow Vault. Right.
That was where I was.
"One... two... three... four..." The voice dragged from my thoughts.
I looked around the darkness, trying to locate him, but the shadows swallowed everything.
Still, I recognized the voice in an Instant.
"Four nightmares now?" he asked mockingly.
I swallowed hard and refused to answer. My hands trembled as I looked down at them.
Human. I was still human. Though faint claw marks had already begun splitting through the tips of my fingers.
"Ugh," the voice groaned dramatically. "Honestly, I’d gladly take your nightmares over what I’m dealing with right now."
I’d take anything over those nightmares. Anything over seeing my father’s face every single ti I closed my eyes.
Anything over reliving that torture again and again just to prove I deserved the Callahan na.
I shoved a hand roughly through my hair before dragging my fingers down my face.
"I hate when you go quiet," the voice spoke again from sowhere in the darkness.
"What do you want?" I grunted, glaring toward the dim light fixed high on the wall.
A scoff echoed back. "I should be asking you that."
I didn’t want to hear him. My thoughts were still tangled from the nightmare.
I didn’t even know how long I’d been trapped down here or when Headmaster Alaric intended to release .
Though honestly, I wasn’t stupid enough to expect freedom anyti soon.
"I was enjoying the silence," he continued lazily, "until you started screaming like so kidnapped princess and ruined my peace."
Heat crept instantly into my cheeks.
Damn it.
"And if you’re wondering how many tis you scread, don’t worry. I counted—"
"Shut up," I cut in.
A low chuckle rumbled through the darkness, carrying easily into my cell.
Ignoring him, I pushed myself to my feet. Only for the chains around my ankles to yank back down.
"Silver," I muttered through a grimace as the tal burned against my skin.
I tried standing again. The pain only worsened. Eventually, I stopped fighting it altogether.
There was no point.
Drawing my legs closer to myself, I rested my head back against the cold wall and started counting silently in my head while waiting for release.
At the sa ti, my thoughts drifted toward Elyse. I wondered if she was okay.
"Why are you here anyway?"
"Can’t you just leave alone?" I grunted, irritation sharpening my voice.
"If you answer my questions," he replied lazily.
"I’m not obligated to."
"I’m not obligated to leave you alone either."
My teeth clenched tightly.
"Oh," he continued in a high-pitched voice. "Is little Callahan angry?"
"Shut the fuck up, Woods," I sneered.
"Or what?" he challenged casually. "You’ll shut up yourself?"
That’s right.
My fists tightened instinctively as violent images flashed through my mind.
Driving my fist repeatedly into his face. Feeling bone crack beneath my knuckles. Watching blood spill.
The thought alone made sothing dark twist pleasantly inside . The idiot snickered again, dragging from the fantasy.
"So you really fought your friends over so girl who’s apparently slept with half the academy."
If he already knew, then why the hell was he asking questions?
And more importantly, who even spread this crap to him?
I thought gossip barely survived in a place like the Hollow Vault.
"And apparently," Woods continued with obvious amusent, "the whore is your mate. Your best friends’ mate too."
He burst into loud laughter like he’d delivered the funniest joke imaginable. I wanted to hit him so badly.
But that could wait.
It wasn’t like he was lying anyway. Everything he said had happened. And the reason I was trapped down here was because of that fight.
Sure, Lance and Kol received punishnt too butI was the one thrown into the Hollow Vault.
A dungeon built for criminals. Killers. People with minds dangerous enough to break others.
A place specifically designed to destroy whatever sanity remained in you.
Why?
Because Headmaster Alaric believed this place would suppress the bloodlust inside .
The violent part that still wanted to rip Kol and Lance’s hearts straight from their chests.
The part that wanted to watch them choke on their final breaths before leaving their bodies out in the fields for vultures to tear apart.
But this confinent wasn’t helping. Not even close. Those thoughts were still there. Hungry. Waiting. And sooner or later, I was going to act on them.
Of course I would. I couldn’t share Elyse. I never would.
"Stop thinking so loudly..."
"Stop trying to crawl into my fucking head," I snapped.
But he ignored .
Sothing brushed against my mind again. Like invisible fingers digging through dirt searching for buried secrets.
I winced sharply, teeth grinding together. "I said stop trying to fucking read !"
"Is she really worth all this trouble?" he finally asked.
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