Chapter 2

I was thrown into a water cell, where a ring of silver bars surrounded the pit. The filthy water was ice-cold, rising all the way to my chest, with rats and snakes slithering and swimming around me.

Butcher stood at the edge of the pit, a sack of coarse salt in his hand.

“Take this time to reflect, little princess,” he said with a vicious grin.

Then, he dumped the entire bag into the water.

When the brine touched the whip wounds on my back, pain exploded through my body. I bit down hard until my lip split, forcing myself not to scream. I knew my suffering would only excite him more.

After Butcher finally left, I began thinking about how to save myself. I carefully reached out and touched one of the bars. The moment my palm made contact, it felt as if my flesh were burning. Cold sweat soaked my body, but I didn’t dare make a sound.

Using my feet, I slowly felt around beneath the water. Suddenly, my toes brushed against something solid. I picked it up and saw that it was a rusted piece of iron. I used it like a crude saw, scraping at the silver bars bit by bit. The gaps between the bars were wide. If I could cut through even one, I could escape.

After three days of effort, one bar finally began to loosen, and a fragile spark of hope ignited in my chest. That was when the door to the water cell suddenly opened.

Butcher’s face appeared in the doorway. His eyes flicked to the nearly severed bar, and a cruel smile curled across his lips.

“Still got plenty of spirit, huh?”

He ordered the werewolf guards to drag me out of the pit and throw me onto the ground. I was soaked through, shivering uncontrollably from the cold.

“It looks like the water cell wasn’t enough for you.”

Butcher reached into a brazier and pulled out a branding iron, glowing red-hot. Etched into the metal was a string of numbers: A734. It was the mine’s identification number.

“Don’t move,” he said. “It’s time to mark you. From now on, you’re my pet dog.”

Two werewolf guards pinned me down. I could only watch as the branding iron drew closer and closer to my lower abdomen.

“Hiss!”

The stench of burning flesh filled the air. I let out a scream, and then everything went black. When I woke up again, I was lying on a filthy pile of straw. The pain in my abdomen made my entire body spasm.

A thin female werewolf walked in carrying a bowl of water. She was Amina, one of the female workers responsible for delivering food at the mine. Seeing the brand on my stomach, a trace of pity flickered through her eyes. She held the bowl out to me, and instead of taking it, I stared at her without blinking.

She looked a little frightened under my gaze, but she didn’t leave.

“Drink,” she said. “It’s clean.”

I searched her clear eyes for a long moment before finally taking the bowl.

After that, Amina began secretly giving me extra food and clean water. Once, while the werewolf guards weren’t paying attention, she slipped me an anti-inflammatory pill.

I grabbed her hand, my eyes filled with desperation.

“Please help me,” I begged. “I can’t die here. My brother came with me, but he’s disappeared. I have to get out and find him. I’m begging you.”

“I… I can’t help you escape. You won’t make it out of here. But I can tell you this: Butcher isn’t the one who planned all of this.” She leaned in and said it quickly by my ear before hurrying away.

Her words exploded in my mind. Was someone behind Butcher? Who? The person who sold me? And was my brother being controlled by them, too?

Questions flooded my mind one after another. I had to find the truth.

Later, I pleaded with Amina again and again. In the end, her heart softened. She agreed to help create an opportunity—one that would allow me to get close to Butcher’s office.