Chapter 4

 

Selene's POV

"So why did you force Mr. Blackthorn to swear one with you?"

"I didn't." I say quickly, my voice sharper than I intend.

"Sure, you don't want to think that answer over?"

What? My chest tightens.

"I did not." I insist.

The silence that follows feels heavy. Mr. Adercrest watches me. From the corner of my eye I see Devlin lean back in his chair, his lips curled in amusement. He is watching me too, hoping for cracks. He has never seen me crack, since he started bullying me, and he won't see one, not now. Not ever.

"Then why can't I bond with him?" Cecilia's voice slices the silence, fierce and demanding. I notice her for the first time, behind the council members. She looks ready to demand my blood.

"Because the moon won't let me." She spits, answering her own question. And I almost laugh.

Of course the moon won't let them mate. It's the winter solstice, and only true-born mates can mate, and they risk punishment if the committee finds out. There's a reason why the mating committee does not arrange mating on a full moon and winter solstice.

"It's the winter solstice." I call out her dumbness, relieved. Damien's mate isn't her. There's still hope for me. I hope my wolf emerges soon.

"Do you claim to know more about the moon than the Alpha, myself, and the council?" The Luna leans forward. "Do you?"

I don't reply.

"You'll break the moon oath. Tonight." Her voice is sure, clipped, and demanding. "Vey." A masked delta elite walks forward. "She doesn't stop hurting till the moon oath is broken and the bonding has happened."

Vey signals and two guards roughly grab me, dragging me through a different door than the one I came in through. I can't pin how I feel, I can't describe the emotions running through me. My head is free of the undecipherable whispers, like my wolf knows I need to think, and if she can't help, it's better she leaves me alone.

I close my eyes for a bit, trying to think. Moon oath. Bonding. Winter solstice. Damien.

I wonder where he is. What has been done to him. I remember his nerves and anxiety about the ceremony. I should have run away with him when he asked. I should have trusted Ashur. He knew the forest better. We could have escaped. We could have...

I am dropped into a chair roughly and I tumble over with it. I barely feel the pain and I have Devlin to thank, enduring his bullying built up my pain tolerance.

I sit up, scanning the room. It's a torture room. I hear there is one in the pack house and Bloodfang Keep, but seeing it, being in it, and knowing I am about to experience it…

Dear Moon.

I sit up and curl myself, refusing to imprint this room into my memory. I stare at my toes. The guards leave. Soon their echoing double footsteps are replaced by a single one.

"Strip."

I look up. It's Vey. 

"I didn't do it." I plead.

He examines something, I have no idea what to call it. It looks like a claw but…

"We could do this easy or roughly." He says, flatly, bored even. "Your choice."

"I don't even know how to do a moon oath." I try to explain. With the moon nothing is easy, everything requires a ritual and clauses and whatnots.

"It's the winter solstice, I'm missing the bonfire and I promised my kids I wouldn't, so I won't ask you again. Strip."

"Where is Damien?"

I don't know why I ask that but he doesn't reply. He walks to me and I stand, walking back until my back hits some equipment. He picks me up with one hand, like I weigh nothing. My struggle feels like a child throwing a tantrum.

He chains me to a piece of equipment, with my back to him. He removes my scarf and strips me to just my bra and panties.

He rolls the equipment to the center of the room, then rolls a table to my front. "This is everything you need to break a moon oath. I'll bring the boy in at the last part."

He walks back to his torture table, out of sight. I hear him picking and dropping equipment. I look at the table in front of me. I recognize none of the items on it, except what looks like a moon rock. I have never seen one before.

Vey comes back into view, stabbing something in me. "Keeps the wolf at bay." I feel the trickling of the substance as it slides into my blood stream. I feel it form a block wall right in front of the link between my wolf and I. 

I've never met my wolf but the link as always been there. Like a promise of companionship. A signal of hope. A vow of forever together. Now it's gone.

I reach out to the link but the block wall bounces me out. I'm locked out. 

"What did you do?" I scream. 

I'm scared now. Very scared. I feel helpless, bound and very lonely. I scan the room quickly looking for a way out but that doesn't help. It fills me up with dread instead. This room is savage. Torture equipments hang on every inch in the wall. From siver shackles, spiked collar, restraint harnesses and...a branding rod?

My eyes catch on a cage with a massive silver-lined collar and a cruel muzzle beside it, both far too wide for any human. So it was true, they tortured wolves too.

He goes out of view again. A moment later, the first whip lands.

I don't think I've ever screamed in my life. If I have, they're all nothing compared to the scream I let out now.