Chapter 016
1095 Words
Sienna's POV
"Duke," I gasped.
The name felt like a jagged stone in my throat.
As he sat upon the dais, the floorboards groaned beneath my knees. This wasn't the roaring dominance of an Alpha. It was ancient, silent, and yet he seems calm.
Duke sat high above us on a makeshift throne of scavenged metal and dark velvet. We knelt on damp earth, looking up like ants.
To my left, a rusted gate groaned on its hinges, vibrating with the muffled sounds from the business area. I caught a glimpse of a girl my age, her hair the same tangled copper as mine, staring blankly at a water-stained wall while a wolf counted a stack of bills.
The market wasn't just a place. It was a tally of trading.
My heart hammered. I stared at the dirt, my mind spiraling back to a memory I had buried years ago. My father reaching out through a dying mindlink after he had been framed.
I was twelve, terrified, but his voice had been steady.
"I am alive, Sienna," he had whispered through the pack stone. "The man who saved me... his name is Duke. He will notice you once he finds the mark on your forearm. Remember the name. Duke."
The memory died as a wolf stepped forward, bowing so low his forehead nearly touched the grime-streaked floorboards.
"Lord Duke, the new girls have arrived," the wolf said, oily with subservience.
Lord Duke.
The title suggested a hybrid power that existed outside the laws of any Alpha. We were set in a straight line, our wrists bound with cold, heavy iron that bit into my skin as the guards pushed us toward the front hall.
A guard uncoiled a thick wire from his belt, the copper tip sparking a jagged violet light that hissed in the damp air. I kept my gaze fixed on the ground, but I couldn't escape Duke's voice.
It didn't boom. It simply emptied the air out of the room.
"Are these the ones?" Lord Duke asked.
"Yes, Lord Duke. Kael also brought a fresh human—no abilities. You may take a look."
The guard’s hand found the back of my neck, bruising my skin as he shoved me toward the foot of the dais.
Immediately, Lord Duke’s eyes collided with mine.
I was forced to my knees with a sickening thud that vibrated through the hall. I tasted blood on my lips as his presence pinned me to the floor.
I held my posture rigid, my spine screaming in protest against the invisible weight. To stay upright, I bit the inside of my cheek until the metallic tang of blood filled my mouth. My vision tunneled as I refused to bow to my instincts.
"Interesting," Duke murmured.
He didn't move.
A fly landed on the back of his pale hand, crawling across his knuckle, and he didn't blink. His eyes didn't look at my face. They tracked the frantic pulse jumping at the base of my throat, measuring my terror like a scientist.
For a second, the crushing force lifted. I was back on my feet, stable, but the marrow in my bones felt compressed.
"What of the she-wolves?" Duke asked, his tone turning clinical. "Are they here for training or business?"
I looked at my empty hands, the skin pale and trembling. I remembered the warmth of the silver band, the way it had felt like a piece of Damien's soul.
I searched the shadows beneath me, desperate for a tether, and then I saw it. A glimmer of silver in the dirt.
The ring.
It was floating an inch above the mud, hidden in the shadow cast by my own body. It hummed with a rhythmic pulse that matched my own blood.
"I can help you," a voice drifted from behind me.
A young woman with reddish hair and tattered wolf ears was standing directly behind me. She was trembling, but her eyes were fixed on the silver glow.
"Just cover me," she whispered. "My sister was inventory here too. I won't let them take what's yours."
I widened my stance, trying to block the line of sight from the guards.
She bent low, her fingers trembling as they neared the shimmer. A guard turned. She froze, breath held, until he barked an order and looked away.
Then she lunged, fingers closing around the metal.
She snapped upright, her face a mask of neutral terror.
"Something is wrong," she breathed.
Before she could answer, the electrified wire smashed into her back. The surge of power was so violent I felt the static jump to my own skin.
She screamed—a raw, agonized sound that made every person in the warehouse tremor.
The guards swarmed her, dragging her toward the dais. In that frantic moment of contact, our hands met. I felt the humming weight of the silver ring slide into my palm, a secret heat against my skin.
Then, she was ripped away.
I tucked the ring into my sleeve, my heart nearly stopping. I watched them drag her toward Duke, her heels digging furrows into the dirt.
I felt the crushing arithmetic of this place. One girl in, one debt cleared, the books always balanced.
"She’s suspicious, my Lord," the guard barked, throwing the woman at the base of Duke's throne like refuse.
Duke steepled his fingers, looking down at her with a clinical curiosity that was more terrifying than anger.
"Is that true?" Duke asked.
"Yes, my Lord," the guard insisted. "The human helped her."
The air grew cold.
Before Duke could answer, a silhouette stepped fully into the light on the left side of the throne. Her midnight silk gown hissed against the metal. A sound like a snake in dry grass.
Clara.
My blood turned to ice.
She was standing at Duke's side, dressed in fine silk while I bled in alley dirt. She wasn't just an enemy. She was the handler who managed the selection.
I felt small, outmaneuvered by a woman who had dressed for my destruction.
"Yes, my Lord," Clara said, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "I sensed the shift myself. They’re hiding something. Specifically, the human."
Our eyes met, and Clara’s lips curled into a slow, victorious smile.
Duke leaned forward, his gaze returning to me.
The ring hummed in my sleeve, pulling toward a man miles away, while Duke's gaze pulled me somewhere closer. Somewhere deeper.
My father had knelt before this man.
I had thought he was begging.
Now I knew he was measuring the drop.
- Writer
