Lana’s POVClick.The metal shifted, grinding heavy bolts into place.He held my arms tightly.I screamed as loud as I could, shaking, trying to break from his hold.“You’re dead,” he hissed, yanking me around. His teeth bared. “When I finish with you, you’ll beg me to drag you back in chains.”Panic clinged to me , squeezing me until it felt like I could no longer breathe. My free hand shot to the splintered piece of wood I still clutched. Without thinking, I shoved it backward straight into his stomach.He grunted, his body shook, but his hold didn’t loosen.I twisted the shard, screaming, letting fear drive every movement.That did it.He fell, groaning in pain,his grip on me loosening just enough for me to escape , I didn't pause moving straight towards the open door straight into the night, forest air.The forest stretched ahead, black and endless.I ran.“YOU CAN’T RUN FROM ME!”I didn’t dare look back…. I couldn’t. Seeing him close would make me falter.The woods roared with s
Lana’s POVFear twisted in my gut at the thought. I wasn’t a warrior like Max, not a seasoned fighter. But I wasn’t helpless either. I was Max’s wife.And I refused to be his weakness.If I let despair root itself in me now, I’d never get out. Survival demanded motion. I was trying my very best to catch my breath, my mind sharpening. To him, I meant nothing… nothing but bait, a sacrifice waiting to be thrown to the wolves.But I wasn’t just going to sit here and wait.I stood up carefully, feeling the ache in my muscle drag on with every movement, each bruise spread like shadows across my arms and ribs. I tested the rope around my wrists again, it was very tight, but not impossible. The fibers had cut into my skin from hours of struggling, but they’d loosened a fraction with every twitch. My captor had been confident, but over confidence made people careless.I observed the room slowly… The walls were made of stones, and there was only a single barred window, too high to reach. The doo
Lana’s POVHe let the door crash behind him, the metal echoing through the room… the kind that crawled straight into my bones and just sat there, echoing long after the sound was gone. For a long time I didn't even move..I didn't feel like. I just stayed tied up against the chair, my arms wrapped around myself like I could fold into nothing and disappear deep into the shadows.His words were still hanging in the air, heavy and suffocating. Max lives the life that was stolen from me. The way he said it… cold and sharp, like I’d already lost before I even got a chance to say a word.These words made me feel less like a person and more like a weapon waiting to be used in some war I wanted nothing to do with.But with the silence now prolonged, something shifted in me…Panic had its claws in me, holding me down, but I knew if I gave in…if I just sat here and shook…I was done. If he really planned to use me against Max, then I had to survive long enough to stop it. To warn him. To fight ba
Lana’s POVHe never blinked, his eyes never softened. He kept his gaze fixed on me. claws digging in, unrelenting. His words dripped with venom, but under the rage I caught something else…old wounds, something that had been festering for years.“I've quietly waited” He said, in a low, tough voice that sounded like anger had been running through his whole vein into his very being. “Do you know how many nights I stood in the shadows, watching him? Max, the golden heir. Max, the untouchable. Walking with his head high, commanding men, adored by his pack. I watched him laugh with friends, fight alongside brothers, feast in the halls his father built from the ashes of my life. Every smile on his face was a knife in mine. Every victory he claimed was another nail driven into my mother’s coffin.”He stepped back, jaw tight like it was about to crack, pacing a few steps before his eyes swung back to mine. “I thought… Maybe fate would punish him for me. Maybe he’d stumble, maybe the pack woul
Lana’s POVThe ropes cut into my wrists no matter how I squirmed, and every little move made it worse. My shoulders ached, my throat felt raw, and the air in the room was thick… wrong. Like a silence that didn’t belong anywhere but a dungeon.He sat across from me, calm. Too calm. Like this was just a chat over coffee and not… whatever this was.I forced myself to hold his gaze. “Why are you doing this? What did Max ever do to you?” My voice shook, but I didn’t drop my eyes.He leaned back slowly, lacing his fingers together like he had forever to sit there. A thin smile pulled at his mouth, but there was nothing warm in it… just sharp, cold amusement.“Why?” he echoed, as though the question amused him. “You think this is just about Max? About some petty grudge?” He leaned in, his voice dropping low, and I felt it press down on me, heavy.“No, Lana. This… it goes deeper. Way deeper.”I swallowed hard. My pulse was hammering in my ears.There was something in his eyes… dark, sharp… bu
Max’s POVThat was the final straw. Her eyes widened in shock as my hand tightened around her throat. The bass from the club thudded through me, but all I could focus on was her gasp... the rough, desperate sound of air catching in her throat.“You think I feel like playing games right now?”I muttered it under my breath, just for her. Her perfume… it was thick, clinging, almost too much. She came closer to me, her skin bare, like she was trying to patch up something that had nothing to do with her. Around us, people laughed, shouted… didn’t notice a thing.The lights painted everything in flashes of red and blue, but all I saw was her neck beneath my hand and Lana’s face burning in the back of my skull.The girl clawed at my wrist, legs shifting as panic started to kick in. She wasn’t Lana… She wasn’t even close. And yet she had dared to reach for me, dared to think I could be distracted.My grip tightened.I could end this. One twist, one jerk, and her breath would never come back.