Broken

ARIA

It had been a week, a week of endless suffering. All the rogue wolves in the prison cells had died, and I wasn't certain if I was still alive either. Perhaps I had died and entered the worst kind of hell, where my process of dying was locked up in a loop, and I was forced to relive it over and over again. I stopped caring about my nudity. I couldn't even imagine what vicious kind of pain my body would experience if the cuts on my back, arms, and shoulders were suddenly covered with a piece of dirty cloth.

My wolf turned silent, and yet she kept lending me her healing powers, preparing me for the next day of torture even against my will. I want this to end. I knew that she was trying to keep me alive, fighting for both of us, but I had already surrendered.

My brother stopped coming to watch me being tortured. Other pack members also decided to stay as far away as possible from Alpha Kestrel and his new favorite toy. I guess they figured that it wasn't their problem.

"She deserved it." I heard a few of them repeating those words while my flesh had been torn and poisoned over and over again.

Maybe they were right. Maybe I didn't deserve happiness. Maybe my deed was the worst kind of sacrilege, and only dying multiple times would wash my sins away...

I was going insane. I was either suffering from whip shots or I was healing, but the time of the healing was equally as painful as the torture itself. My broken ribs regrew, and the raw flesh was covered with new, delicate, and sensitive skin, and it all had been happening during the night, depriving me of any sleep.

I wasn't sure how I still had the strength to take those few steps from the dungeons to the courtyard, where the whole ground had already been colored red-brown with my dried blood. I became numb, indifferent to what was happening to me. Alpha Kestrel might have killed every ounce of emotion inside me.

"Beautiful!" Kestrel's voice was filled with elation after his whip cut my skin for the thousandth time.

I stopped screaming. My reactions decreased to reflexes as if my whole body was prepared to save my strength to live a little longer, even if my mind was ready to die.

That day's torture lasted from the early hours until sundown. Once Kestrel got tired, he passed his whip to one of his warriors. I lost consciousness a few times, but those blissful moments had been taken away from me with a splash of cold water. I sent a silent prayer to the Moon Goddess so she could take my life away, but she didn't. I think she had just abandoned me.

"I think I've seen enough." Kestrel's words sounded oddly calm. He walked in front of me and lifted my chin to look into my eyes. "If you live through the night, I will take you with me. Once your body heals, I can make use of it." He chuckled coldly, walked away, and like that, my punishment ended.

The prison guards untied my hands and dragged me back to my cell. It took me a while to process what he said. Did he stop his torture only to continue it endlessly in his own territory? At that moment, I decided that I would wait until my body regained a little bit of its strength and I would end my life. If I was forced to live in hell, I might as well kill myself and go to the real one.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps, the sound of high heels hitting the stone path by the row of cells. I was lying on my stomach on the dirty ground of my cell. I could barely lift my head to see who it was.

"Damara?" I muttered, my voice barely making any sound.

"Don't worry, I got rid of the guards," she said with a cold grin on her face.

Confusion painted all over my face. She was wearing a black sequin dress and high-end shoes. Her blond locks were tied up in an elegant bun. She blinked her fake lashes and crouched down a few inches away from the bars of my cell, looking at me with disdain. She seemed nothing like the friend I knew...

"You did a great job, Aria. The whole pack is proud of you." She said it while widening her smile, but I could easily sense mockery in her tone.

"I'm… dying…" I mumbled. "There's… nothing great… about it."

"Oh, honey," she sang. "Alpha Kestrel likes you, and that means you will contribute to the pack. The Silver Bloods will become richer than ever."

"Money…" I coughed out blood. "All this pack cares about…"

Damara chuckled and took out a cigarette from her purse. A second later, her smiley mask fell off, revealing cold annoyance. "You're so fucking righteous even now," she huffed. "You've always had everything without knowing anything. Do you even know where Seymours' wealth comes from?"

I widened my eyes, wondering what she was talking about.

"Drugs! Our pack raised a fortune thanks to drugs we sell to people!" she burst into wicked laughter.

I shook my head. "No… that's not true," I said hoarsely; the panic in my voice only made her laugh more.

"Dear, foolish Aria." She leaned closer, looking down at me while I tried to keep my head up to see her. "Even now, we are right below the chemical lab where the drug is produced. Do you know how I found out about all of it? Well, sex is the answer. I slept with many stupid men from our pack. They all think with their dicks, and that makes them so easy to manipulate. They bought me presents. They protected me. They were giving me priceless information. This is how I learned that your precious grandfather developed a drug based on wolfsbane and silver. He experimented on humans and wolves and finally found the right dosage that wasn't poisonous to humans and gave them the high of their lives. Of course, he killed many wolves and humans in the process. Your father continued developing the drug business, but it was getting risky. Fortunately, your father saved the life of the Alpha King, Luther Venard, once, and the King decided to ignore the pack's illegal procedure. But now things have changed. The King is old and soon his son will take over the throne. Luckily, Alpha Kestrel has a high position in the royal council, and from now on he will protect us, protect our business."

Was that all of my suffering for? For drugs?! Damara's words added to the pain I had already felt in my heart. How naïve I was! I'd never considered what kind of lucrative business was bringing our pack money. It was blood money, and I became sick at the thought that I had been using that money as well…

"Aria, did my words make you sad?" Damara chuckled, lighting her cigarette and blowing the smoke in my face. "Poor little princess. How does it feel to have your fabulous life taken away from you?"

"W-why are you… doing this? We are… friends…" I mumbled, searching for the remains of the Damara I knew in the one standing before me.

"Friends?! Don't be ridiculous!" She laughed coldly. "I only got close to you to enter the packhouse and seduce your brother... And by the way, he hates you just as much as I do!" Her laughter spread across the prison corridor.

The rage within me fought off some of my pain. "So you did it… because you wanted to become his Luna?" I squeezed through my teeth.

She blew the cigarette smoke my way and snorted. "Yes. I also convinced him that he has to get rid of you so that everyone stops questioning his position as an Alpha and the head of the Seymour family."

My blood started to boil. "Bringing Alpha Kestrel here and selling me to him... was it his idea... or yours?"

A spiteful giggle escaped her throat. "Of course, the idea was mine! It was like killing two birds with one stone! Even if you tried to ruin it for us, it came out perfectly. Alpha Kestrel called you his most exciting trophy!"

Something within me snapped. I rose to my knees, stretched my hand out between the bars of my cell, and curled my fingers around Damara's throat. Her eyes widened in surprise. She started to choke, struggling to release herself from my grip. I squeezed harder, driven by the rage within me. Finally, she took her cigarette and burned my hand. I hissed, freeing her throat and knocking the cigarette out of her hand.

"You crazy bitch!" She coughed, rubbing her neck. "I hope that Kestrel tortures you for the rest of your life!"

"That's not going to happen," I said icily. "I won't let you have it your way." I let out a low growl, adrenalin fueling my sudden strength.

Damara stepped back from my cell and laughed. "And what will you do? Escape? Good luck! Those bars are made from titanium and silver." She corrected her sequin dress and smirked. "I have to go back to the party. I'm Alpha Blaze's plus one. We need to celebrate our alliance with the Blood Shadow Pack properly, after all…" She giggled and walked away, leaving me alone with my rising fury.

My wolf roared within me. I could sense her for the first time in a week. She was giving me courage. She was silencing my pain and lending me her strength. I could feel the power growing within me; the power I had never felt before. I knew I had to use it to escape. Damara sent the guards away, but they could be back any minute. I had to hurry. I grabbed one of the bars, ignoring the burning pain from the silver coating when suddenly I felt smoke...

"Shit…"

Damara's cigarette landed on the pile of litter, which was slowly starting to burn. The guards could have put it down easily, but calling them would have ruined my last chance to escape. I curled my fingers around the silver bar and tried to move it even a bit, but nothing seemed to work...

The fire spread to the second little stash on the ground, but then I realized something... There were drops of some liquid running down from one of the walls near the fire. Those drops smelled like alcohol.

"The chemical lab…" I muttered in panic before pushing the bar even harder.

The fire reached a trickle of liquid and the whole wall turned into flames. I gasped and cursed under my breath. I growled, finding a new level of my strength. I pushed through the pain and roared even louder. Finally… one of the bars bent just enough for me to squeeze through.

Almost the whole corridor was on fire. I had to run as fast as I could to get out of there, but how could I? I barely had the strength to walk... I clenched my jaw, ignoring my broken ribs and wounds. I ran as the flames licked my skin until I found myself upstairs. I had one more corridor to run before I got to the exit.

"Hey! The prisoner is escaping!" I heard one guard yelling behind me.

Surrendering wasn't an option. The adrenaline triggered every muscle in my body, urging me to speed. I slammed the door open without looking behind at the guards who chased me. I ran outside and took a deep breath, almost tasting my freedom when the ground shook underneath my feet. The explosion came a split second later.

The blast of fire made me fly several feet. I hit the ground and instantly felt the pain from each of my wounds. My world went black.