C3

"Get up, placeholder! You belong at my feet!"

Cynthia’s shrill voice echoes off the damp stone walls as a bucket of icy silver water slams directly into my open wounds.

The silver burns like liquid magma entering my skin, searing through muscle and bone. I scream internally, my jaw locked so tight my molars ache, but I refuse to let out a sound. I lie on the freezing floor of the silver dungeon, my arms tied above my head with heavy rusted chains. My wolf is completely silent behind the dark seal, locked away in a dark cage, unable to heal my broken body.

"Look at her, Jessica," Cynthia sneers, tossing the empty wooden bucket onto the floor. "She looks like a dead rat."

Jessica laughs loudly, stepping forward in her thick leather boots to kick my bruised rib cage.

"She really thought she was special," Jessica mocks, leaning down until her face is inches from mine. "Meanwhile, Cecelia is upstairs in the Alpha suite, sleeping in Micheal’s bed, carrying his new pup. A real heir. Not a cursed bastard like yours."

My eyes snap open, burning with cold rage despite the excruciating pain radiating through my spine.

"Cecelia’s wolf is barren," I say, my voice raspy and dripping with pure poison. "Everyone at the academy knew it. She has been on barren suppressants since she was sixteen. That pup isn't Micheal's."

Both of them freeze instantly.

Cynthia’s nasty smile vanishes from her face, her eyes widening in momentary shock. Jessica drops her hand, her expression hardening into absolute panic for a split second before her face turns red with rage.

"Shut your mouth!" Cynthia screams, stepping forward and kicking me hard in the stomach.

Jessica grabs a silver whip hanging from the wall and cracks it viciously across my bare back. "Keep talking and I will make sure you don't survive until morning!"

They strike me over and over until my vision blurs into crimson and my skin drips red onto the dirt floor. Satisfied with my silence, they spit on my body and turn toward the heavy metal door, slamming it shut and locking the heavy iron deadbolts from the outside.

I lie in the dark, gasping for air, the cold stone freezing the blood on my skin.

My wolf remains silent, but my mind races back to the courtyard. I saw Micheal’s face. I saw the absolute terror and realization in his eyes when the true moonlight broke through the storm and lit up my mark. He knows. He knows the black stone was fake. He knows I am his true mate chosen by the Moon Goddess.

The heavy iron door creaks open again hours later.

Thick, heavy footsteps echo through the corridor. The dark scent of pine and burning wood fills the damp air, instantly triggering a painful, thumping ache in my chest.

Micheal steps into the dim cell, his dark eyes looking down at my broken body.

He does not carry keys. He does not step forward to unlock my chains. He just stands there, towering over me, his Alpha authority crushing the small amount of air left in my lungs.

"You should have died in the rain, Ada," Micheal says, his voice flat, emotionless, and cold.

I pull myself up slowly, my chains rattling loudly against the damp floor. I lean my back against the cold stone wall, forcing my head up to look straight into his dark eyes.

"I saw your face when the moonlight hit me," I say, my bloodied lips curling into a sharp, painful smirk. "You saw the true mark. You know I’m the true mate, Micheal. You know Cecelia is a liar."

Micheal’s jaw tightens into a rigid line. A dark vein pulses violently on his neck, his hands clenching into tight fists at his sides. He steps forward, closing the distance between us in a single violent stride.

He raises his heavy boot and kicks me hard in the stomach.

The impact shatters the remaining air in my chest. I collapse onto my side, coughing up a spatter of dark blood onto his polished shoes. My abdomen burns with a tearing, agonizing pain that reaches deep down into my lower belly.

"The pup inside you is worthless," Micheal growls, leaning down until his shadow completely swallows me. "Just like its mother."

He turns around without a second glance and walks out of the dungeon, slamming the heavy iron door shut behind him. The lock clicks into place, leaving me in total, suffocating darkness.

A sharp, unbearable wave of pain slices through my lower stomach.

My breath hitches. A hot, warm rush of liquid flows rapidly down my inner thighs, staining the cold stone floor beneath my hips. The smell of copper fills my nose, thick and heavy.

The silver water Cynthia poured into my open wounds is seeping into my bloodstream. It is poisoning my body. It is killing my unborn child.

"No..." I gasp, my fingers clawing at the dirt as I roll onto my back. "No, please..."

The agony tears through my womb like sharp knives, turning my stomach into a burning furnace. I squeeze my eyes shut, tears finally breaking free and mixing with the blood on my cheeks. The life inside me is slipping away, fading second by second as the silver poison destroys everything in its path.

I look down at my lower body in the pale moonlight filtering through the tiny barred window near the ceiling.

My dark red blood pools rapidly on the pale stone floor, spreading out from between my legs. But instead of running wild into the dirt cracks, the blood moves with an unnatural fluid force. It swirls, curving into tight, elegant lines on the ground.

My blood pools into a perfect, flawless crescent moon on the stone floor right beneath my hips.

A sudden, freezing wave sweeps through the dungeon. The temperature drops instantly, turning my desperate gasps into thick white mist in the air. Frost forms over the iron bars and spreads across the damp stone walls, turning the entire room into an icy tomb.

Inside my veins, the agonizing burn of the silver suddenly vanishes.

The liquid fire in my blood stops burning entirely, replaced by a soothing, ancient coldness that washes over my shattered organs. The dark, locked seal on my wolf shivers, a strange, ancient pulse of ancient magic radiating directly from the blood moon pool on the floor, sinking straight back into my womb.

Something ancient and terrifying wakes up inside the deep darkness of my core, wrapping a protective barrier around my lower belly.

I press my shaking hand against my wet stomach, my heart pounding wildly against my ribs as I lie frozen in the icy dark.

I hold my breath, waiting for a miracle, waiting for a sign.

Deep inside my lower belly, beneath the thick layer of skin and blood, I feel the quick, tiny flutter of a soft kick.

My pup is alive.

I close my eyes, letting out a ragged breath as the ancient chill settles into my bones. I lie back against the stone, staring up at the black ceiling, my fingers gripping my belly tightly.

Then the tiny flutter stops entirely, and everything inside my womb goes completely, terrifyingly still.