A MATE'S BETRAYAL

One day at a time

Nyx

The water felt like thorns piercing Nyx's skin as two trainers held her under the cold water. She had already been submerged for a little over 5 minutes and now they were teetering between the edge of life and death. But that was exactly what the trainers wanted. Under normal circumstances, she should be able to shift once her wolf sensed danger, effectively giving her the strength to throw off the trainers.

Sadly these weren't normal circumstances and Nyx did not have a wolf, not yet.

Nyx dared to open her eyes under the water and look for any escape, anything that would make the torture lessen for even a second. She regretted that decision immediately. How could she forget the training was taking place in the dark basement of wherever they had been transferred? She squeezed her eyes shut and decided to focus on slowing her heart rate and the dire need to take a breath.

If she passed out, and she knew she would, it would mean another proper beating, another reminder that her sleeping wolf needs a little nudging. So she did the best a drowning person would do and let go. She let her mind travel to a different universe where her wolf was awake and her mate next to her. A fantasy world that allowed her heart rate to slow, or maybe she had passed out, she dint care, the darkness and numbness was comforting.

"Wake up! Nyx! Somebody get me the f*****g t...ser !" Nyx heard the muffled voices and she could stay unconscious longer.

"Nngh!" A desperate attempt at forcing words out of her mouth were stifled by the shock of zapping energy tha went through her body. She managed to keep her eyes open just long enough for the trainer to see the was indeed, not dead before he walked over to another 'abomination' as he loved to call them. She remembered the first time she heard that word. It felt like a punch to the guts. Once the man had turned his back, Nyx rolled over to her side and dry heaved. She lay there for a hot minute, contemplating life and whether she wanted to go on living.

'Must I go through this hell just to meet you?' she desperately talked to her MIA wolf and as usual. Nothing.

She couldn't tell how long she had been locked up in solitary before the 'Awakening' attempts had begun. She hardly saw Mrs. Hawk and the others until today. With the effort of a wet and electrocuted puppy,Nyx rolled herself into a ball after managing to find a damp corner in the dark basement. She thought of her first attempt at escape and how it had failed spectatcularly, the repercussions had been... dire.

The weeks that followed were less brutal, and that was only because Nyx had steeled her mind and body to take all the pain she could manage. Thanks to that, the trainers were convinced their regimen was working. Her will to live and exact vengeance on all her torturers when she was free kept her going every day especially today when she was sure death was waiting for her on the otherside of the icy water.

Days spun into a timeless ball, pain panic and perserverence footnoting of highlinting the days. Today was no different. After barely making it to her bed, she felt movement outside their sleeping quarters moments later, she heard the steps, the crunching of leaves, twigs, pebbles - beneath the soles of whoever was approaching. It was strange that Nyx could almost see their faces, but she knew that was impossible, oxygen deprivation was proven to cause hallucinations. Even with that conclusion, she was bothered that no one in the dorm seemed to notice ore hear the movement outside .

"Can you hear tha-" she tried waking her bunkmate, the trainers- she could tell- would soon be at their front door.

"Shut it Nyx. " a voice said from above, clearly turning to cover their heads sleepsome more.

"Don't you hear them, they are literally out there." she whisper yelled.

"Hear what? Nyx? Check the clock. Why would anyone be out now. Go back to bed."

"But-" Nyx did not get to finish her sentence. She stared at the clock placed on the wall at the entrance of the dorm. "But I-" she went back to bed, eyes fixed on the digital clock.

3:27 am. Strange.

Surely she heard movement, a pair of booted feet heading towards them. Their determined steps. Quietly, she got back in bed and deduced it all to being a vivid dream, a hallucination even.

After that morning, things started becoming more and more weird. She heard voices and caught scents that only she could place not even the ice-cold submerssions didn't drown out the voices. So she did the next best thing and ignored her hallucinations whenever they manifested. She did her best to block the pain and carried out her training dutifully. If anything, she should at least learn how to live without her wolf. That was the resolve she carried with her for months on end, even when her fellow trainees were able to go home in the middle of the night after waking their wolves or 'fixing their abnormalities'. Some would be picked up by their parents. Nyx daydreamed for such days.

On day something-something – Nyx had lost count of the days, Mrs. Hawk summoned her to her office. After another brutal round of sparring with a beast posing as a trainer, she took a quick cold shower, put on the only pair of pants that seemed to fit her and threw on a large hoody she inherited from her former bedmate- it smelled of pine. It oddly comforted her. Without wasting time, she was off to find Mrs. Hawk.

As Nyx approached the building housing most of the trainers, she couldn't help but feel off. Or rather, something was off or maybe it was just her. She pulled up the hoodie and covered her head in the hopes of hiding herself.

The closer she approached the building housing Mrs. Hawks office, the odder things felt. It wasn't long after she heard it, a fluttering heartbeat among a throb of steady beats. Soon her heart began to flutter in the same frequency as the others.She arrived at the building and was surprised when the scent nearly sent her to the floor with how strong it was.

"Oh Shit." She cursed. It didn't take long after, she realized what was going on. Her ex-mate was here. Rowan, was here. Did that mean her parents were also here, to see her, after eons of not reaching out, not even calling? She was getting distracted enough that she didn't realize Mrs. Hawk was talking to her.

"Huh?" she made a sound.

"Glad you could join us." Mrs. Hawk said and it was only then that she noticed her parents weren't in the office, just Rowan and his mother, Luna of the Ulfblood pack.

Nyx took a seat- or rather attempted to before Mrs. Hawk dramatically cleared her throat, an indication for her to not sit.

"Luna, Rowan." She remembered her manners and said her greetings.

"How are things coming up? We should have heard something by now. It has been over 10 months." Luna ignored her greeting and addressed Mrs. Hawk as if Nyx wasn't in the room with her.

"If you could give us a little more time to- " Mrs. Hawk interjected.

"Time is one thing we don't have. My son, the bond never severed." Luna said, finally looking at Nyx, "What did you do?". This time it was addressed to her.

"What, I did nothing, he was the one to declare our bond broken. I agreed." Nyx, amid the confusion while still battling the senses that were overpowering her, all this while Rowan sat silently, glaring at Nyx.

"Clearly you did something, the bond is still there and judging from the scent you are giving off... its suffocating." Mrs. Hawk spoke up breaking the staring contest she was having with Rowan.

"Wait... how. How are you- Is your wolf awake?" Luna asked standing up to Nyx. One minute she was sitting by her son and the next, she was in her face, her slender yet strong fingers deathly griping her chin so she couldn't look away as she peered down her soul as if she would be able to see the non-existing wolf in Nyx.

It was when she looked over at Rowan that she felt some other emotions.