Chapter 4
979 Words
AURORA
"Let me go!"
I struggled violently against the warriors holding me, but their grips only tightened.
"Easy there, Aurora." Kael's voice carried a cruel amusement. "They're only taking you to the dungeons. You know, the same place where rogues have always been thrown without a second thought."
A sinister smile curved his lips.
"This isn't you, Kael," I whispered desperately. "I know who you are—"
"You'd be amazed by how little you actually know about us." Sage cut me off sharply, her glare filled with contempt.
Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks as they dragged me from the grand hall.
I looked back one final time.
The Elders lay motionless… dead. The very people I had sworn to lead and protect.
My heart shattered all over again.
How had they managed this?
The masked warriors. The betrayal. The takeover.
How had nobody stopped them?
My question was answered immediately when I saw Kael speaking to the new guard I'd spotted when coming in. He nodded to Kael’s words and walked away, after giving me one cold glance.
The truth struck me immediately.
This had been planned for far longer than I realized. Kael had planted his own men throughout the pack. Perhaps even throughout the entire territory.
Desperate, I reached out through the mindlink, searching for anyone. Anyone at all, but all I got was silence. No one answered.
A chilling emptiness greeted me.
“Don't try to mindlink anyone, Rory. I already took measures to make sure you can't.” Rhys said ahead without facing back.
My trembling lips parted. "How?"
He chuckled. "You'd be surprised how many ancient substances exist that your privileged upbringing never taught you about."
Soon we reached the dungeons, and the warriors immediately shoved me through the iron gate.
A cry of pain shot out of my lips as the cold stone floor scraped my skin.
"This is your home now," Kael said casually. "At least for the moment. Trust me, where you're going next is much worse."
A shiver ran through me. I lowered my head, regret welling inside me.
Father was dead. The Elders were dead. The pack was gone.
Everything had been taken from me.
I tried to speak, but only a broken sob escaped. Slowly, I lifted my eyes toward Kael. The man standing before me felt like a complete stranger, as though I had never truly known him at all.
"Why?" I asked quietly, my voice sounding hollow even to my ears.
"Because I'm tired of being a rogue, Aurora." He crouched in front of me. "Surely you understand that much."
His fingers gripped my jaw, forcing me to look directly at him. A smile spread across his face, twisting my stomach.
"I want power," he continued. "I want influence. I want to create a better future for people like me."
His eyes darkened.
"And before this is over, you're going to experience suffering unlike anything you've ever known."
Fear seized my heart.
His voice dropped lower. "When I'm done with you, Aurora Blackthorne, you'll wish you had never been born into a pack at all."
The tears came harder.
I jerked against the restraints binding me.
Inside me, my wolf raged and howled, but neither of us could escape. Hours seemed to pass. Perhaps it was only minutes.
The pain blurred everything together.
The warriors struck me again and again until I could barely remain conscious.
Every inch of my body screamed.
My muscles burned, and my bones felt shattered to the extent pain became my entire existence. Yet through it all, my wolf remained beside me, encouraging and refusing to let me completely break.
Through swollen eyes, I looked up at my tormentors.
"P-Please..."
The word escaped before I could stop it.
Humiliation flooded me.
I shouldn't have been begging. I was an Alpha-born female. I was supposed to command others, not plead for mercy.
Another brutal strike landed across my back.
My strength finally gave out.
I collapsed onto the floor.
"That's enough." Kael's voice echoed through the dungeon. "Inject her with wolfsbane."
A wave of panic surged through me.
No.
Not that.
I watched helplessly as one of the warriors approached with a syringe.
The needle pierced my skin, but my body was so numb I barely felt it. Inside me, my wolf cried out. Yet she endured.
One of the men frowned. "I can still sense her wolf."
"Then give her another dose."
A second injection followed.
Then a third.
And another.
Each dose weakened the bond further.
My wolf's cries grew fainter. Softer. More distant. Until eventually—
Nothing.
The connection vanished.
The place she had occupied inside me became an empty void.
A hollow space.
Silence.
For the first time in my life, I was truly alone.
"It's done."
The warrior stepped back.
Tears streamed down my face as I lay motionless on the stone floor.
I had failed.
Failed Father.
Failed the Elders.
Failed my pack.
I had broken every promise I ever made.
And now I couldn't even lift a finger.
"Take the underground passage," Kael ordered. "Get rid of her. Throw her into the sea."
Strong hands lifted me from the ground.
As they carried me away, my blurred vision found Kael and Sage standing together.
The man I had loved.
The woman I had considered family.
They had betrayed me.
Destroyed me.
Taken everything.
The warriors carried me through hidden tunnels and eventually emerged at the edge of the sea.
Without hesitation, they hurled me into the dark water.
The icy depths swallowed me whole.
As I sank deeper and deeper beneath the waves, one final thought echoed through my fading consciousness.
If fate ever granted me another chance...
Kael would pray for death long before I was finished with him.
If only I could live again.
If only I had a second chance...
- Writer
