shackles and shadows
1351 Words
Chapter 3: Shackles and Shadow
I woke up groggy, my body sinking into the mattress like it was trying to hold me down. My limbs were sluggish, my mind fogged and disoriented. The ceiling above me was high, wooden beams crisscrossing like skeletal fingers. It wasn’t the sky. I wasn’t outside. I wasn’t in the forest anymore.
Then I heard it.
A soft clink. s**t I was still in the chain I didn't want that I didn't want to be changed like a monster
My wrists.
Cold. Tight. Metal.
Chains.
Panic stabbed through me like a blade. I jerked up, but the shackles yanked me back. Pain flared in my wrists as the iron bit into my skin.
“What the—?”
My body reeked of lavender soap. Clean sheets. White linens. This place was too still. Too perfect. The chaos of last night was gone, scrubbed away like a bad dream.
But it wasn’t a dream.
No.
The memories came crashing down all at once, a tidal wave of fire and blood.
My mother’s scream.
My father’s roar.
The scent of burning fur.
The flames devouring everything.
A sob tore out of my throat, raw and trembling. “No. No, no, no.”
My body started to shake, heat pulsing beneath my skin like lava. My pulse pounded in my ears. The air grew thick, electric. I tugged harder against the chains, breath hitching. My vision blurred—and then sharpened into something not quite human.
Claws erupted from my fingers.
My eyes flashed gold.
The beast inside me stirred.
Not gently.
Violently.
I screamed. The sound wasn’t human—it ripped from my chest like a banshee’s wail, shaking the walls, the bed, the air itself. A vase on a nearby table shattered into glittering dust.
The door slammed open with a thunderous bang.
Lucian.
Tall. Calm. Commanding.
But something in his expression wasn’t just alpha authority—it was worry. It was… softness.
His scent hit me first: pinewood smoke laced with something ancient, something darker. My breath hitched. That scent did something to me—slowed my panic, like it spoke to the creature inside me. As if it knew him.
“Eliana,” he said, voice low, hands up in surrender. “You’re safe now.”
Safe?
I was chained to a bed like a prisoner.
I screamed again, golden fire flickering in my eyes, the beast thrashing beneath my skin.
Behind him, his Beta stood rigid. A guard hovered like he was ready to shoot. But Lucian didn’t flinch. He stepped forward, slow and sure, like you would approach a wounded animal on the edge of snapping.
“Eliana, look at me.”
I tried to fight it—the sobs, the fury, the memories tearing through me like claws—but his voice was an anchor in a sea of grief.
My eyes locked on his.
“You’re not a monster,” he said gently. “You’re grieving. I know.”
I choked. “They’re dead. My mom… my dad… I saw them—”
Tears blurred my vision.
“I should’ve stopped it. I should’ve been stronger!”
Lucian knelt beside the bed, his jaw clenched tight, something breaking behind his eyes.
“You couldn’t have stopped it,” he said, voice cracking. “And neither could I.”
I stilled.
His words sliced through me.
“I got there too late. I would’ve burned the entire world for your parents. For you. But I failed them.” He looked away for a second. “And I will never forgive myself for that.”
The pain in his voice wasn’t performance. It wasn’t obligation. It was… real. Grief. Regret. It mirrored mine.
Tears streamed down my face. “Why did this happen?”
His hand inched forward, hesitating near my face. “Because monsters like the ones who did this don’t care who they destroy. And because people like us—people with power—become targets.”
“What’s wrong with me?” I rasped. “Why do I feel… wrong? I feel like there’s something inside me. Like I could hurt someone. Like I want to.”
Lucian exhaled slowly. “You’re not just a shifter, Eliana. There’s something more. I don’t know what yet—but it’s old. It’s powerful. It’s angry. But it doesn’t own you.”
I stared at him, trembling. My claws retracted. My body shook with the effort of calming it.
“You’re not a prisoner,” he whispered. “I chained you because you were in danger of hurting yourself. Not others. I had to protect you… from you.”
His voice lowered to a whisper. “I couldn’t lose you too.”
The fury inside me loosened, like a knot unraveling.
He reached for the cuffs, his fingers brushing my wrist.
“My princess…” His voice cracked, almost reverent. “I’m going to free you now. But I need you to promise you’ll try. To control it. To trust yourself, even just a little.”
My throat burned. I nodded.
The locks clicked open.
And I collapsed into him.
Lucian caught me, arms wrapping around me like armor. I sobbed into his chest, clinging to the only solid thing I had left in the world. His scent wrapped around me, grounding me as I shook with grief.
“I want my mum,” I whispered, a broken whisper in the silence.
“I know,” he breathed, voice raw. “I know.”
He didn’t speak after that. He just held me. Long after my sobs faded, long after my tears soaked his shirt. He stayed. Warm. Still. A wall between me and the storm I had become.
Eventually, sleep claimed me—not soft or sweet, but heavy. Like drowning.
And I didn’t fight it.
---
Lucian closed the door quietly, the click echoing too loud in the hall.
He stood there for a long moment, hand still on the knob. The hallway was dim, the guards silent as statues. His face was blank, but his eyes… haunted.
He moved through the manor like a ghost, his strides heavy, his expression unreadable.
When he reached his office, he paused. Then stepped inside.
The room was vast and dark, lined with books older than empires. The curtains were drawn, the fireplace crackling low. But none of it soothed him.
He dropped into the chair behind his desk, pressed his elbows to the polished wood, and buried his face in his hands.
“She’s our mate,” the wolf inside him rumbled.
Lucian didn’t answer.
“You know it,” the wolf hissed. “You felt it. When she cried. When she screamed. When you touched her. That power—it called to us.”
“She’s sixteen,” Lucian said aloud, each word like gravel in his throat.
“She’s ours. She’s hurting. And we will protect her. Until she’s ready. We will wait. But we will not deny what she is.”
Lucian raised his head, staring at the fire like it held answers. His chest ached.
“She just lost everything.”
“So did we,” the wolf snarled. “When we saw her in that clearing, blood on her skin, screaming into the night. Something inside us broke.”
Lucian closed his eyes.
“I’ll protect her,” he whispered. “Even from myself.”
The wolf growled low. In agreement.
A knock interrupted the silence.
It was the Beta.
“She’s asleep,” he said. “But… something strange happened earlier. Her vitals, her energy—they spiked right before you entered the room. Then dropped. Like something calmed the storm.”
Lucian said nothing.
The Beta added, “She’s not just a shifter, Lucian. She’s something else.”
Lucian’s gaze darkened. “I know.”
He turned back to the fire, jaw tight, heart heavier than it had ever been.
And outside, in the woods beyond the manor, something ancient stirred.
Something that had been waiting for Eliana to wake up.
To be continued…
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- Writer
