Born To Be Your Apocalypse

They Will Pay

Sabrina's POV

The days that followed were worse than death.

They threw me into a damp cell that reeked of mold, piss, and old blood.

My body became a map of bruises…fresh purple blooms over fading yellow ones. Without my wolf, I couldn’t heal the way the others did.

Guards took turns delivering kicks to my ribs that left me curled and coughing blood, the copper taste thick on my tongue. Slaps split my lip and made my ears ring. Every morning they dragged me out to scrub floors on my hands and knees while former friends spat on me.

“Murderer’s daughter!” they yelled, throwing whatever they could find.

“Look at the Quinn w***e!” an elder’s wife shouted as I scrubbed the pack hall floors. “Thought you were so special, close to the Alpha’s family. Now you’re nothing but garbage.”

Laughter echoed even when someone kicked dirt into my face. It stung my eyes, mixing with tears I refused to let fall. The cold stone scraped my palms raw. I bit my lip until it bled and kept scrubbing, because stopping meant the whip.

Grief clawed at me every second…Mom’s scream, Dad’s roar, Kyle’s eyes as they died right in front of me. The images never stopped. Underneath the sorrow, hatred simmered hotter every hour.

I wanted death. I pleaded for it with every shred of dignity I had left, hoping to reunite with my family. But, Zane never allowed me that mercy.

The first time he caught on to what I was trying to do, his voice was colder than death itself when he told me clearly… “You’re not permitted to die until I say so.”

From that moment I became a prisoner in every sense. Guards shadowed my every step. Every blade, every shard of glass, every object that could end the nightmare was taken.

Meals arrived on dull plastic trays. There was no escape…not through the door, not through the windows, not even through death.

Each morning I woke with crushing disappointment that I was still alive. Still trapped. Still forced to endure another day in the hell he had created. And the worst part? He knew exactly what I wanted. Denying it was just another way he enjoyed making me suffer.

The day I broke, it wasn’t in front of the guards or the pack. It was in front of him.

My knees hit the floor in his presence as my body finally gave out.

“Where are they buried?” I screamed, tears burning down my face. “Where did you put my family, Zane? What did you do with their bodies? Did you even give them a proper burial? I just want to see them one more time… please. I want to see my mother.”

For the first time I wasn’t asking for death. I was begging for the last piece of my family. Zane only stared down at me with that same ruthless emptiness.

“How would I know?” he asked coldly. “By now, whatever is left of their bodies has probably been devoured by vultures and wild animals. Nature has already claimed them. It would be a sin against Mother Earth to bury them beneath her. They don’t deserve that luxury.”

Hearing those words, something inside me shattered as the grief turned violent. I laughed, but the sound was broken.

“You really believe that?” I whispered. “You took everything from me, and I will return that favor one day.”

He watched me unravel, face unreadable, and I hated him more for how calm he looked while I drowned.

One gray afternoon they shoved me into his quarters. Lyria Ravenwood lounged across his lap like she belonged there. Her family had stepped into the Beta position that once belonged to mine.

She kissed him slow and deep, moaning loud enough to echo, hands sliding possessively under his shirt as she glanced at me and smirked.

“Look at this, little fat traitor,” she purred. “This is what a real Luna feels like. Zane f****d me so passionately last night. Couldn’t keep his hands off me. You think he’d ever want a weak, wolf-less murderer like you?”

Compared to the nightmares that clawed me awake every night, these two playing happy couple should have been nothing.

But the mate bond didn’t care about my hatred. It made sure I felt every pull, every flicker of awareness whenever he was near. It disgusted me.

The fact that any part of me could respond to him felt like a betrayal of my family. More than anything I wanted to reject him…to look him in the eye and sever whatever twisted connection fate had forced between us. But he never let me.

Every time I got close to the words, he knocked me unconscious before I could finish. I would wake hours later with the bond still shackled to my soul.

Later, when he came to my cell alone, I begged again. My voice was a broken rasp.

“Reject me, Zane Grayson, or let me reject you. End this. Give your precious pack the happy ending they want.”

Silence.

“Why?” I demanded. “Why won’t you reject me? Don’t tell me… after everything you took from me… that you have feelings for me?”

His growl filled the cell, vibrating through the stone walls. It wasn’t the growl of a wounded mate. It was pure, cold hatred.

“Feelings?” he repeated, eyes narrowing. “For you? I would rather claw out my own heart and crush it beneath my feet than ever feel anything for you except hatred.”

The words should have broken me. They didn’t. There was nothing left inside me he could destroy.

“Good,” I whispered. “Because I don’t need your feelings. I don’t need your pity. And I don’t need your mercy. Kill me if you want. Keep me trapped here. Refuse to reject me. But mark my words…I will have my vengeance. If not in this life, then in the next. One way or another, every debt will be paid.”

He laughed, low and empty of humor.

“You really think death is waiting for you? You think you get to choose when this ends? No, little wolf. I’m not done with you yet. After everything your family took from mine? After the grave your mother left behind? You don’t get an easy ending, traitor. You’ll live long enough to understand every debt she left unpaid. And as for death… death should be the least of your worries.”

He gripped my throat hard enough that I hoped he would finish it. Then he released me and wiped his hands like touching me had contaminated him.

Weeks later, on a moonless night, Zane’s best friend Uriel slipped into my cell. The faint jingle of keys shattered the silence and my head snapped up.

“Sabrina,” he whispered urgently. “They’ve made their decision. At sunrise, they’ll stone you to death. You need to run. Now. Leave this place,” he said as he shoved the door open. “This is all I can do for you.”

I didn’t ask why he helped me. Barefoot, back still raw and bleeding, I slipped out through the back door and ran.

The forest swallowed me whole instantly. Branches whipped my face, roots grabbed my ankles while my lungs burned like fire.

Every step hurt, but freedom tasted sharper than pain. Growls echoed behind me…low, vicious. They had realized I was gone. But I didn’t dare look back.

I ran blindly into the darkness, bare feet pounding the cold ground, vision blurring, body screaming, yet my only thought was escape.

I barely noticed when the forest gave way to another road. I didn’t see the vehicle approaching… Didn’t see the headlights until they blinded me.

Tires screeched as the impact lifted me off my feet. Sharp, unbearable pain tore through me as metal collided with bone.

The world spun as I crashed onto the cold asphalt. Everything started fading and darkness creeped closer.

But before it took me completely, my eyes caught movement on the other side of the road, just beyond the trees.

A wolf stood there in the shadows of the forest…watching.

And I knew exactly who it was.

Even as my vision closed, even as the pain swallowed everything else, one promise burned through the dark.

I would make them all pay.

Every single one of them.