Happy Twentieth Birthday
1104 Words
Thalia
I don’t know how long I lay on the cold floor after Raleigh left. My eyes were swollen from crying. My wrists and ankles were raw and bleeding from the silver chains. Everything inside me felt dead.
The sound of heavy footsteps made me flinch.
The door opened again.
Mavin stepped inside. He stood there looking down at me. He was still wearing the same black suit. He looked handsome.
Calm. Like nothing had happened.
For one stupid second, my heart fluttered. Maybe he’d apologize. Maybe he finally realized what he’d done.
“Mavin…” I whispered, my voice weak and scratchy. I tried to sit up. The chains rattled loudly. “Please… tell me Raleigh was lying. Tell me this is all a prank.”
He didn’t say anything at first. He just stared at me with cold eyes. No love. No pity. Nothing.
Finally, he spoke.
“Raleigh wasn’t lying.”
The words felt like another punch to my chest. I shook my head slowly.
“I’m your fiancee… You promised you would never leave me. Was everything between us just a lie?”
Mavin let out a short, bitter laugh. He crouched down in front of me so I could see his face clearly.
“Lie?” he echoed softly. “Every word of it. I stayed because you were useful. The future Alpha of Shadowfen Pack.”
His mouth curved coldly. “But look at you now.”
“Then the tables turned. Raleigh became the better choice. Stronger. Smarter.”
He glanced at me in disgust.
“She understands what power means.”
Fresh tears burned my eyes. But I refused to let them fall.
“All this time…” My voice broke. “I gave up everything for you. My dreams. My future. I endured Father and Mother’s coldness. I smiled through it all because I thought I had you.”
My breath hitched. “And it was all… a lie?”
Mavin said nothing.
Instead, he slipped a hand into his coat and pulled out a small glass syringe. A dark liquid rested inside, thick and almost ink-like as it shifted slowly behind the glass.
“The alpha has decided what to do with you.”
My breath caught.
He lifted the syringe slightly. “Do you know what this is?”
I shook my head immediately, unease creeping through my chest.
“It’s concentrated wolfbane,” he said in a calm voice. “Enough to completely suppress your wolf.”
Cold dread spread through me.
I tried to pull away, but the chains held me in place.
“Mavin, don't,” I begged, my voice shaking badly. “I’m already broken. I’ve lost everything. Don’t take my wolf too. She’s all I have left.”
Something cold flickered in his eyes.
Before I could pull away, he grabbed my arm roughly and forced it still.
Nyra surged upward the moment his hand touched me, wild with fury, and I thrashed so hard the chains cut deeper into my wrists.
I slammed my shoulder into him, nearly knocking him back. A sound tore from my throat that wasn’t quite human.
But I was weak.
I’d been in silver chains for hours. I was starving, bleeding.
He pinned my arm down.
“Stop,” he said flatly. “You’re only making it worse.”
“Get off me—”
“You should be grateful,” he murmured. “You don’t need that monster you call a wolf.”
Then he pushed the needle into my vein.
The black liquid burned the instant it entered my bloodstream.
Agony tore through me.
A scream ripped from my throat as my body jerked violently against the chains.
“Stop—!” My voice broke apart. “Please… make it stop…”
Mavin continued pressing the syringe down slowly, his expression cold and unreadable.
Fire spread beneath my skin.
It felt like my body no longer belonged to me. Every breath burned. Every movement felt worse.
And through the agony, memories kept surfacing.
I saw myself as a child racing through the pack grounds without a single fear in the world. I remembered the people who once smiled at me so warmly.
Mavin kissing me beneath the oak tree flashed through my mind next—back when I still believed I mattered to him.
Then Raleigh.
The day I shoved her out of the road and took the impact instead.
The night I nearly died after giving blood to save my mother.
I had given them everything.
My loyalty. My trust. My love.
And this was what they gave me in return.
The agony twisting through my body mixed with the ache in my chest until I couldn’t tell which one was destroying me faster.
Nyra howled inside me—a long, broken cry. Then her voice started getting weaker.
“Thalia… it hurts… I can’t…”
“Nyra!” I screamed. “Stay with me! Please don’t leave me!”
“I’m sorry… I’m trying…”
But she was fading. The fierce presence that had awakened inside me was slowly being smothered by the poison.
Mavin finally pulled the needle out and stood up. He wiped it clean like nothing important had happened.
“You were never going to be Luna,” he said coldly. “Raleigh will take your place.”
His gaze swept over my chains.
“As for you…”
He looked down at me with contempt.
“You’ll rot down here.”
My body trembled as the poison spread deeper through my veins.
“I hate you…” I whispered through clenched teeth. “I hate all of you.”
Mavin smiled for the first time. A small, satisfied smile.
“Good. Hate keeps people alive longer sometimes.”
He turned and walked toward the door. Just before leaving, he glanced back at me one last time.
“Happy twentieth birthday, Thalia.”
The door slammed shut behind him.
Another wave of agony tore through me. I collapsed against the floor, chains rattling violently as the poison burned deeper inside me.
“Nyra…” My voice cracked. “Please… don’t leave me…”
Nothing answered.
I curled against the cold floor, struggling to breathe through the pain burning inside me.
The darkness swallowed the cell again.
Nyra’s voice was gone.
So was everyone else.
They had taken everything.
Tears slipped silently down my face as I stared into the darkness.
“Moon Goddess…” my voice cracked weakly. “Please… just let me go.”
How much longer was I supposed to endure this?
- Writer
