ログインDays passed. The Ashford pack had welcomed me more than I’d ever been. They accepted me and gave me more than I had expected. I was truly safe.Until—I smelled him before the door burst open.That was the worst part.I had been standing at the small mirror in the corner of the room the Ashford pack had given me, doing something I hadn’t done in longer than I could remember. I was looking at myself, really looking. Not a reflection in still water, not the distorted version of myself I carried in my head built entirely from other people’s contempt.This.Clean skin from bathing whenever I liked. Wild dark hair that someone had plaited while I slept. Probably one of the Ashford women, quietly, without waking me. Clothes that fit. A face that was mine and looked, in the pale morning light coming through the small window, like it might belong to someone worth something.I had smiled at my own reflection.I couldn’t remember the last time I had done that either.I was still smiling when hi
At every single moment, the same thought crossed my mind despite the panic eating away at my chest. I chanted to myself. This is it.The day I leave.The day I don’t come back.It didn’t come with hope. Hope was too soft for the disappointment I faced in my life. It came sharper than that, like instinct. Like something that had been waiting for the right crack in the world and I had finally found it.The dungeon had been chaotic for hours.The screaming hadn’t stopped. It had only changed shape. Some had gone hoarse. Some had gone quiet. Some had turned into the kind of sound that didn’t feel human anymore.No one came.No enforcers. No footsteps. No keys.I could feel it in the way the walls trembled, in the way the air tasted sour and heavy, like something buried had decided it was done staying buried.At first, I stayed where I always stayed.Low. Still. Small. Old habits sat in my bones.But something else sat there too now.Something that had been growing in the forest. Since th
“You locked her in a cage.”Damon’s glare found the elder across the room. Eli was wise enough to have put distance between himself and the alpha before speaking — wise enough to know that the wrong word at the wrong moment could close that distance faster than he could blink.“The omega stays in her cage.”“Alpha, I beseech—”“The omega will rot in her cage.”He tightened his fist. Ground his teeth. Why did her name keep finding its way into every room he stood in? Every crisis, every problem, every moment the pack teetered on an edge — somehow she was always in the middle of it.She was a problem. Not a solution. And he was done pretending otherwise.“What exactly do you expect our alpha to do?” Rosalind turned on Eli with the particular sharpness of a woman who had run out of patience for theatrics. “Drag a nameless slave from a dungeon and seat her beside him? Tell the other alphas — tell Orion — that the moon goddess chose a nobody for the most powerful alpha alive?”“The goddess
A scream woke me.At first, I thought my nightmare hadn’t ended, then a rat raced past my ear and the smell of rot welcomed me back to consciousness like an old friend that had been waiting patiently by the door. The scream came again from different angles, louder this time, sending a quaking uproar through the cells, which bounced off stone walls and doubled back.“Shut the hell up!”“Some of us are trying to sleep!”“What is wrong with you?!”The screaming came again. This time from beside me. From the man the enforcers had carried in days ago, the one with the familiar scent I still hadn’t been able to place no matter how many times I turned it over in my mind.My palms flew to my ears. Even the rats had stopped scavenging, their frantic squeaking filling the gaps between screams as though they too could feel whatever pain was bleeding through the walls. Animals always knew before people did. I had learned that much.I couldn’t take it anymore.I dragged myself upright, every joi
Skylar had come for me exactly when she said she would. After hiding for what felt like hours, Damon retreated but not after laughing darkly at whoever he thought was hiding from him. Immediately he was gone I ran senselessly and had been back in the cage, waiting, the cloth bundle pressed to the worst of my injuries, the food I’d wrapped in my dress already half gone. She had looked at me once, confirmed I was where I was supposed to be, and left without a word. I had not slept. First, it was the dead wolves – eyes open, fixed on the sky, the smell of them – that moved through my restless dark. Then the forest, the battle, and everything else disappeared. Only he remained. He was more terrifying than the dreams filled with death and blood. Nightmares in a cage. Congratulations Aurora, you just began a premium sentence. I scoffed, annoyed at how foolish and careless yesterday had been. There was nothing about Damon Bane worth losing sleep over, I told myself wit
I jumped back. Almost staggering against my feet as my heartbeat stomped faster. Faster. He saw me. No. Not possible. Yes, he did, run. No wait. Keep watching. I yanked my fingers through my hair, feeling the evidence of heat that oozed from my scalp – maybe from fear or something else. The crack was too tiny, and I nursed my fear. Don’t worry there was no way he saw you. I wasn’t thinking straight, it was very hard to. His eyes, blue as lightning held still in a storm, crossed my mind again. And before I could help myself, I was back at the door. Something moved at the corner of his mouth. Not a smirk. Not quite. He seemed like a god. From hell. Daring me with his gaze. I didn’t look away. Despite the fear crawling in my skin, or the pounding of my heartbeat, and–the other thing. I wasn’t sure what to call it. I kept my gaze on his. He didn’t know who, but he knew somebody was watching. I didn’t care. The full and devastating weight of his att







