The Weight of Chains
(Evania's POV)
The silver cuffs bit deeper every time I breathed.
Raw flesh. Old scabs that split and wept. The metal was so cold it burned. My wrists had stopped looking like wrists weeks ago.
I sat on the stone floor the way they left me, legs twisted uselessly to the side. Ocean wind slipped through the open balcony doors and dragged across my bare shoulders. It still carried the faint scent of jasmine.
On the bed, Jezebel moaned.
High. Fake. The same performance she always gave when she wanted him to forget the broken thing chained in the corner. Avidan’s answering growl rolled through the mate bond and sank low in my belly. Unwanted heat flared. Shame followed it, thick and familiar.
I turned my face as far as the chains allowed and stared at the black water outside.
That night — the night of my public marking — I still believed the Goddess had finally been kind.
White dress. Wilted lavender-lilies. His mouth on mine in front of the whole pack. The mark burning into my neck while everyone howled. I had stood on this same balcony afterward, touching the fresh mark and whispering that I would end slavery for every girl who still carried the same brand on her palm.
Then the silver door in the corner of the room opened.
Four bodies. Same brands. Same hollow eyes. And Avidan hard for the first time that night, smiling like he had been waiting for the exact second my world caught fire.
I fought. Of course I fought. He broke my lower spine against the wall and called me talisman. His lucky charm. The only reason the pack still ate well. It didn’t take long to understand what he meant.
The bond made sure I felt every night that came after.
Jezebel’s moan pitched higher. I didn’t look.
When they finished, Avidan sat on the edge of the bed. I felt his eyes on me through the bond — heavy, satisfied, faintly disgusted. He stood, wrapped a sheet around his hips, and left without a word. The door clicked shut.
Silence settled.
Jezebel pulled the blanket over her chest. I watched her do it.
“Why do you still bother covering yourself?” My voice came out rough. “We both know you have no shame left.”
She was off the bed in a second, naked and furious.
“Shut up.”
“He’s getting tired of you,” I said. “I can feel it through the bond. Longer sessions. Less noise from him. Any day now your replacement will walk through that silver door.”
Her face tightened. She muttered something under her breath. I only caught the shape of the words: “I know.”
Then her hand flew up to slap me.
I still had a little strength in my right leg. I kicked the side of her knee as hard as I could. She went down with a sharp cry. A short, broken laugh scraped out of my throat.
She scrambled up and lunged for my throat. I jerked back. The cuffs tore fresh lines into my wrists—
Footsteps on the stairs. Heavy. Fast.
Jezebel froze, then bolted back to the bed and yanked the sheet over herself. She wasn’t allowed to touch me when he was watching.
The door slammed open hard enough to crack against the wall.
Avidan stood there breathing hard. Through the bond I felt the sudden cold tightness in his chest before he even spoke.
“He has never wanted to set foot in this pack,” he said, voice low and shaking. “Now he does. I can’t prove it, but I know you have something to do with this.”
I didn’t answer.
“You’re going to be there tomorrow night when he comes. If my Luna is missing, people will talk. I’ve already called the cleaners and the bone-setter. They’ll make you presentable. You will stand beside me. You will smile. You will lean on me like a devoted mate who simply prefers the quiet of her tower.”
He stepped closer.
“Zayan Argider. The Fire Wolf. The rogue who killed his own slave-addicted father and now burns every pack that keeps slaves. If a man like that is coming here, it means he already suspects something.”
The name landed and stayed. Something small and sharp lifted behind my ribs — the first real lift I had felt in sixty-three days. I tried to push it down, but it was already too late. Avidan had felt it.
His mouth twisted.
“Try anything — anything — and your mother will not receive a proper burial. I’ll leave her bones for the gulls. Same as I’ll do to you.”
The words sat heavy. He still had that leverage. The woman who had dragged me out of slavery as a child. The woman who died while I was chained to this wall, calling for me.
I folded. For now.
Avidan turned and left. Jezebel stayed on the bed, quiet for once.
The cleaners would come soon. They would unlock the cuffs, scrub the filth from my skin, and force my broken body into something that looked like a Luna again.
I sat in the sudden silence and let the black thing inside my chest lift its head.
The Fire Wolf was coming.
And for the first time in two months, I wanted to live long enough to see what happened next.
