CHAPTER 3: POWER AND CONTROL

VAL

Opening my eyes, I blinked into the darkness, disoriented. Nothing looked familiar, and my vision wouldn't sharpen. I groaned, realizing something was wrong.

Reaching inward, I tried to feel Blaze, but I couldn’t feel my Lycan. Instead, a cold, hollow void sat where his presence had been, and for the first time in my life, I felt cold. I attempted to lift my head but choked as something bit into the skin of my neck, holding me down. That’s when I realized I was strapped to a metal table, and just then, a voice spoke.

“It’s no use. The chains are bonded with magic. You’re only hurting yourself more by trying to move,” the voice came from the unlit part of the room, and I squinted into the darkness, trying to place it. There was something familiar about it, and blood ran colder. My lips moved, but the words died in my throat as just then, she came into the light.

“Hello, Val,” Elysia entered the dim light, holding a bucket in one hand and a large knife in the other.

“Elysia?”

"The one and only," she spat, and my eyes widened as I demanded to know what she was doing. Growling, I jerked against the restraints, but the more I moved, the deeper the sharp wire sank, getting closer to severing my head.

“I told you, you’re only making it worse.”

“What the hell have you done to me?! What am I doing here? Why can’t I feel Blaze?!” I writhed, my fury rising, but she didn't even flinch. Instead, she calmly set the bucket beside me with a sigh before clicking her tongue disapprovingly.

"Mind your tone, capo," she hissed. “This isn’t the round table. You don’t call the shots here. I do.” She leaned in, wagging her finger at my face, but I didn't let her finish.

“Get these fucking things off me, Elysia!”

"Or what?" she exclaimed, slamming her forehead into mine. "What, Val? You’re going to hurt me? You’ll call on your men? Your brother? You can’t do shit!”

“So, this is what this is all about? To incapacitate me?! Am I drugged and bound in some cursed shithole because you don’t want me to tell my brother what happened? Get me out of these fucking things, you crazy bitch!”

She laughed at my outrage before straightening up, and I started yelling at her again to untie me, but the sound didn't make it far as she slammed the bucket on my face, shattering my nose. Pain erupted across my face, but I could barely feel it as rage flared up inside me.

“Don’t you dare speak to me like that! Didn’t you hear what I just said? Don’t you see where you are? You’re in my house now, Val, and you better watch your fucking tongue, or I swear I’ll gouge your eyes out before taking your stupid heart!” Her words stilled me for the first time.

What did she mean by "taking my heart"?

“You think I did this to keep you from running to Mel and telling him you fucked me?” She stepped closer, knife glinting under the dim light. “Oh, poor Val. You really have no idea, do you?” Her laugh was low and cruel. “No, Val. This isn’t about your guilt. This is about legacy... power... control.”

She crouched beside the table, her eyes gleaming. "You and your father have ruled Rosavelle long enough. The city doesn’t need another capo who flinches over loyalty and conscience. It needs someone who takes what they want... like Mel's doing.”

Her hand wrapped around the table's edge as she leaned in. "With you out of the picture, Mel takes your seat at the table. He gets the empire… and I get him.”

Clenching my jaw, fury rushed through me like fire. “You played him!”

“No, I didn’t; he played you.” She laughed, shaking her head. “You think Mel doesn’t want the throne? You think he enjoys standing in your shadow, always second-best?” She stood, smoothing her dress as she regained her composure."I offered him something you could never do: a future in which he is the king rather than the spare.” She smiled. "And I will be right by his side, free to do whatever I want. Free to bring my sisters back and undo the damage you arrogant, self-righteous beasts caused.”

She turned her back to me as she paced the room, speaking with certainty, as if it were already done. "Besides, you Lycans have had your fun; it's time for new rulers. It’s time for the few to step down and the many to take the lead. Why should all these thousands of wolves bow to one Lycan? Why should they bow to a dying species, huh? No one being should hold that much power."

She paused, laughing as she turned to me while I watched her through the haze of blood and confusion. “What are you talking about? Who are your sisters? What do you mean by 'free them? Which wolves are behind this?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she lifted her hand, which held the ring she always wore on her ring finger next to Mel's engagement ring, and began to slowly slide it off. A cold dread settled in my chest as I watched.

“Elysia...” I whispered, unsure why I was suddenly unsettled, only that I was. But the second the ring left her finger, I understood. Elysian began to wither before my very eyes. Her skin became dry and grey, sinking into the sharp lines of her bones while her cheeks collapsed inward as the shimmer of her youth faded like mist in the sunlight.

Her dark hair had bleached into coarse silver, falling in lifeless strands around a sunken, skull-like face, and her spine hunched as if gravity had accelerated her age by centuries.

She stood before me, the same woman, but old, demonic, and my breath caught as the cool air from somewhere in the dark room moved her brittle hair.

“What the fuck are you?” I choked, yanking at the chains in horror. But she didn't respond; she just laughed, a high-pitched, hysterical sound that scraped against my ears like claws on steel.

Then, just as quickly, she returned the ring to her finger, and in the blink of an eye, the nightmare reversed. Her skin smoothed, the color returning to her cheeks, and her hair regained its lustrous, dark sheen. The young woman I knew, or thought I knew, appeared before me again, smiling.

But before I could say anything, she strode forward, smile fading, holding the knife in one hand and the bucket in the other. Whatever softness once lived in her gaze had turned to iron. "Elysia, wait-" I began, but the words died in my throat as she pressed her forefinger against my lips.

"Shhh... it will all be over soon," she whispered before ducking beneath the table. And I let out a sharp cry as the blade sank deep into my back. Blinding pain ripped through me as she yanked it out, only to drive it back in again and again, each thrust stealing more of my strength, more of my blood, until I could feel it pooling beneath me, warm and sickening.

“I’m sorry, Val. I truly am," she whispered almost tenderly. "But I need your heart for the next phase." She said, straightening up to press a soft kiss on my forehead while my body trembled beneath her. “I promise not to break it.”

"Elysia..." I croaked, my eyes drooping as the world shifted sideways. But she shushed me softly. “Hush now. Don’t fight it... you’ll only make it worse for both of us.”

The blade rose one final time, and I screamed as she buried it in my chest. The cold metal saw through skin, and my body convulsed, every nerve igniting in unbearable agony.

Chanting in a foreign language echoed throughout the room like a curse, the last thing I heard before darkness descended.