The Lycan King's Second Chance Mate: Rise of the Traitor's Daughter Chapter 194: Caged Wolf

Cassandra~

I was drugged.

Darkness clawed at the edges of my vision like sothing alive. Hot. It burned behind my eyelids, twisted in my gut, and pulled down like chains in a lake. I struggled to surface. Every ti I did, I was dragged under again.

But voices—low and taunting—pierced through the fog.

"She bewitched him. Had to. There’s no other way Lord Sebastian would ever... choose her."

That voice—male, haughty—flicked against my mind like a whip. I blinked slowly, catching slivers of light slicing through the tal slats of a van—no, a truck. My body shifted with every bump in the road, my limbs sprawled like broken branches.

"She’s not even a vampire or a real werewolf. She’s a rogue. A hunter. She kills our kind, and sohow he... marked her?"

Laughter, sharp and bitter, followed that.

"She used demon magic," one of them snarled, voice dripping with disgust. "There’s no other explanation—she reeked of it."

Another vampire nodded grimly. "Props to Brent. If he hadn’t caught the scent on lord Sebastian and raised the alarm, we’d still be in the dark while she played puppet master with our lord."

Brent. My mind latched onto the na. The youngest. The observant one. My brain, though thick with whatever they injected into , managed to stitch the pieces together. Brent must have been watching Sebastian. He noticed the change. Then he followed the trail and found .

I had underestimated Sebastian’s coven. And now, I was paying for it.

My tongue felt like sandpaper. My hands were numb. The silver-coated cuffs around my wrists dug into bone, and every jolt of the vehicle was like a slap to my insides. I tried to focus. Tried to will my body to obey. I couldn’t let them see like this—weak, strung out, helpless.

They kept talking. They liked the sound of their own outrage.

"Lord Sebastian is our future. An upright, noble leader. If she had succeeded in turning him fully, we’d have lost everything."

"And now, because of this thing," the voice sneered, "we almost did."

The truck screeched to a stop.

My body rolled slightly, and a sharp heel jamd into my ribs as soone stood.

"Let’s get this witch underground before the sun finds us."

Rough hands gripped my arms, hauling like trash. My bare feet dragged through dirt, gravel biting into my knees when they let fall. There was a rusted iron hatch hidden beneath a crumbling shed. They pried it open, revealing a steep staircase spiraling into shadows.

"Welco ho, Slayer," one hissed.

They carried —half-dragged, half-tossed—downward. The air grew thick, damp, cloying. The walls closed in. The flickering torchlight barely lit the stone tunnel as we descended deeper into hell.

And then they threw in.

The cell door clanged shut behind , steel and old magic locking in place. I crumpled against cold stone, pain ricocheting through every limb.

A mont passed.

Then another.

I breathed. Shallow. Ragged.

Silence.

Until—

"You should’ve stayed away from him," a deep voice growled.

Footsteps echoed on the stone, heavy with purpose.

I forced myself to raise my head.

He stood behind the bars—tall, broad-shouldered, his black coat fitting too perfectly, his features carved from marble and shadow.

"Luca," I croaked.

His eyes narrowed. "You know ?"

"You were in the pictures. His old journals." My lips twitched into a dry smile. "Sebastian wrote about you."

He flinched. Just slightly. Like I’d thrown a dagger that nicked skin.

"Don’t say his na." Luca’s voice dropped, dangerous and simring. "You don’t deserve to."

I said nothing.

Luca gripped the bars, his knuckles bone-white. "Do you know what you’ve done to him?"

My heartbeat thumped—uneven, fearful, guilty.

"I watched him unravel," Luca said coldly. "He stopped feeding from the coven. Stopped communicating with us often. He laughed too much. Smiled too easily. He started staying away from us like so foolish fledgling in love."

He spat the word like poison.

"Lord Sebastian," he continued tightly, "isn’t just our Master. He is hope. Order. A future. And you—you—slithered in with your pretty eyes and demon stench and ruined him."

"I didn’t—"

"Spare your lies," Luca snapped. "Do you think we don’t know who you are? Cassandra of the Crescent pack. Demon’s blade. The Bloodless Bane. We know your tally, witch. Fifty-two dead. And those are just our coven alone."

My fingers curled into fists. "I was bound to the demon. You think I wanted to do those things?"

"You chose to kill."

"I was surviving!"

"You seduced him," he seethed. "You laid with him. Got under his skin. Into his mind. And now, he’s a shadow of who he was."

I lowered my gaze. "If he’s changed... it’s not because I made him."

Luca’s eyes glittered dangerously. "You admit it, then. You word your way in. Used magic. Let him mark you."

I hesitated.

This was it.

The lie that might save Sebastian from the hatred and wrath of his coven.

"Yes," I whispered.

Luca stilled.

"I ca to kill him," I said slowly, every word like shards in my throat. "The demon sent . I was supposed to earn his trust, weaken him... and take him out."

A horrified silence settled over the corridor.

I kept going. "But I underestimated him. He was strong. Clever. And yes... I used demon magic to make him care for ."

Luca stepped back, his face a mask of disgust and betrayal.

"Thank you for confirming," he said tightly. "Now we know for sure."

Good.

Let be the villain.

Not him.

Not Sebastian.

Luca turned his back to , fists clenched at his sides.

"You’ll never see him again."

Sothing sharp and cold stabbed into my chest.

"You’ll stay here," he growled, "until the earth forgets you ever existed. Until even the stones forget your voice."

I wanted to scream. But I bit it back. I couldn’t give them the satisfaction.

The cell door sealed with a low hiss of ancient magic. Luca disappeared into the dark without another word.

And I—

I collapsed.

I laid there on the stone floor, my silk shirt ripped and clinging to my skin, still faintly slling of him. The air was freezing. My body throbbed from whatever cocktail they’d given . My wrists burned. My stomach twisted in knots.

I curled into myself and stared at the wall.

He wouldn’t co. He couldn’t.

If they found out he’d taken in willingly—loved —they’d destroy him.

So I stayed silent.

I let them believe I tricked him.

Even if it ant I never saw him again.

Even if it ant dying in this pit.

I let them believe it was all my fault.

Because if I could spare Sebastian their hatred... then maybe it was worth it.

Maybe.

A tear slid down my cheek and disappeared into the stone.

I felt alone. Utterly, achingly alone.

I closed my eyes and whispered, to no one, "Be safe, Seb."

Even if I never got to say it to him again.

Even if I’d already lost him.