Selara's POV
"Where are you taking me? Who are you?" I asked, staggering on my feet, as one of the new pack of wolves pushed me across the road into a waiting van.
I had barely had a glance at the corpses of the previous crew littering the side of the road.
The asphalt was cold against my bare feet, while the cold night air did nothing to thaw the heat in my heart.
Like most male wolves, he was big, brawny, and tall. And all that came with raw strength that jarred my shoulders when he pushed me again. I staggered again.
"Just move," he scowled, jaw ticking with irritation. A couple of lazy chuckles flashed around us as the others laughed. They stayed a few feet back, muttering to themselves like this was all routine for them.
"Just tell me where you're taking me. Or take me back to my place. I need to see my husband, I need--"
"And I need to sleep," The wolf pushing me growled. His eyes hardened to balls of fire. "Stop bombarding me with questions, lady. This isn't a rescue."
"Then what is it?" I asked, breath heaving as I waited for an answer. I needed to know if I would get the chance to see Sylas again, to bury him. "Just tell me where you are taking me, I deserve to know."
"Don't worry, you will find out." Another irritated grunt, and he hurled me up with his powerful arms. The next moment, I was slammed roughly against the cold metal of the van, every nerve in my back a conduit of pain, my breath hissing out of me.
He climbed in after me, together with a few of his colleagues. While I whimpered in pain, my teeth jarring, the vehicle shook to life, tossing me about as I lay in a heap on the van floor. The duct tape they'd bound me with tore into my wrist behind me.
For what were the longest minutes of my life, the car continued until it stopped. The wolves pulled me out. I had to squint my eyes to see the lights that flooded what seemed to be a powerful manor.
I barely glimpsed the three grand stories of pale gray stonework and balconies framed with wrought iron before the men steered me towards a smaller building. Soon, we were heading down a long corridor with dark, windowless cells on both sides.
"Can you tell me what you intend to do with me now. Can you give me an answer, anything?" I asked, shifting as they turned me around, replacing the duct tape with chains.
As soon as the cold steel slapped against my wrist, the wolf pushed me into a cell.
"You will soon get your answers..." He said, "...when our Alpha returns."
I got a grip on my balance after staggering into the cell, and I spun around to the wolf. I grabbed the cell bars, shaking them vigorously to get his attention. "Who is your Alpha. I am a Luna of the Night Fang pack. I can assure you, I will compensate you and your Alpha if you let me go. I need to get to my husband. They shot--"
"Shut up, woman, and stay put." The wolf snapped, face strung in a snarl. He grunted with his teeth and walked away.
Each stomp of his boots against the cement floor felt like he was stomping against my heart.
I collapsed to the floor, the chain biting into my wrists.
Around me, the smell of damp stone and something sour like accumulated urine clung to the air and refused to leave.
But I didn't think of all of that. All that came to my mind was Sylas's dead body lying beneath the boots of the bastard that killed him.
His last cry of pain rang in my head again and again in loud, ominous, ear-splitting notes. I threw my hands to cover my ears, hoping I wouldn't hear the cry again, hoping I would get silence, but the cry only grew louder, confined in my mind, barrelling against every bit of my sanity.
I buried my hands in my face and let my heart out.
I had no idea I had cried myself to sleep until the steel bars of the cell rattled behind me.
I shifted, and a little streak of pale sunlight spilled in from the hallway, making my eyes sting.
Two large men stood before the cage, sunlight denting their details a little. One I recognized from yesterday, the other one was new.
Relief surged like a tonardo in my chest. For a moment, one blinding hopeful moment, I thought he was their Alpha.
If their Alpha could recognize me as the Luna of the Nightfang pack, then we could bargain, or he could let me go free.
I dashed for the cell bars. Hope and relief collided into nothing in my chest when I traced the man's features harder, and it screamed delta at me. There was no single air or authority around him, no commanding aura working for him.
He leaned against the bars lazily, an animal scent clinging to him like a curse.
"Well, look at that," he said. "Trying to break the chains, huh?"
I stared down absently, and then back up. I hadn't realized my fingers were still pulling against the chains.
I'd tried to tug at it last night, hoping I could get out of it and escape, and get back to Sylas. But turns out the chains were reinforced, and no one could get them off without the key.
The other man chuckled. "You're wasting your time if you did that."
I said nothing, but retreated to the rest on the stone. I wasn't defeated yet. I had to get out of here somewhere, I had to give Sylas a befitting burial and find everyone still living that was involved in the attack that took his life, and then make every one of them pay.
The man leaned low and pushed a plate of something that looked almost edible in. "Eat," he drawled lazily. "Our Alpha would be back in two weeks from his expedition. Once he returns, then he can decide your fate."
I started, kicking away what should have been a plate of food, but was a soggy mess. "So you mean I will be here for two weeks," I demanded.
"I don't see anywhere else you can be." The new delta grunted.
Before I could get a sentence out, both men left the cell, leaving me to the silence and the chaos in my head.
So I will have to stay in here for two weeks, while Sylas's body rots to nothing like the carcass of an ordinary animal.
The maids and what was left of the guards could bury him, but not with as much love as I can. My eyelids were wet with the suppressed tears that stung like hell. Sylas didn't deserve to die, especially not like he did.
I needed to escape. I needed to find a way to get back to Night Fang Manor. I tested the chains again, carefully.
The iron was old, but it wasn't weak. My wrists burned where the metal had scraped the skin raw.
But I pulled, again, and again.
Yet, the chains didn't move.
Eventually, my arms gave out, and I slumped against the wall, breathing hard, and staring bleakly at the moss-riddled ceiling.
The days progress slowly, and all I got for company was the silence of the cells, echoes of voices. The only time I ever got to glimpse another life was when the deltas brought soggy foods, which I forced myself to shove down, no matter how horrible they tasted.
By day four, I'd exhausted every supply of tears I had in me, and by day seven to ten, I'd learnt the deltas routine, their names, the number of footsteps required to lead to the entrance of the dungeon, and then get out to the sun, and even their shifts. Escape was impossible. Still, I memorized everything. Because if even the smallest opportunity appeared, I would take it without batting an eye, no matter the cost.
By day fifteen. My body had grown weaker. But my mind was strong as ever.
Then that night, while I was still watching for a way to escape. I heard the dungeon door open, and then harsh footsteps echoed against the floor.
I ducked quickly into the darkness and rested my head on the wall until the men came into view.
The lamp they came with shone bright. I had to adjust my eyes from the darkness to the light to see them, four of them.
The gates unlocked after a rattle of steel, and then the deltas came in.
"Get up," one of them yelled.
But I didn't move. "Why?" I demanded.
"Get up," he repeated, his voice sharper now. "Our Alpha wants to see you."