Chapter 5: The Devil’s Cage

The wire bit into my ankle, cutting deep. Blood trickled down as I dangled upside down like a rabbit caught in a hunter’s trap.

Damon stepped into the moonlight, that calm, predatory smile stretched across his face.

“You’ve always underestimated me,” he said, crouching beside me like he had all the time in the world. “That’s your first mistake.”

“I should’ve killed you when I had the chance,” I hissed.

His laugh was low and unbothered. “Maybe. But you didn’t. And now here we are.”

The clearing around us was dead silent, as if even the forest refused to bear witness to what came next. Damon reached into his coat and pulled out a blade—curved, obsidian black, humming with faint energy.

“Do you know what this is?”

I didn’t answer.

“Ancient werewolf iron. Soaked in the blood of an Alpha god.” He raised the blade to my throat, letting it graze my skin. “It’s meant to subdue power like yours. The Luna Star can’t be allowed to run wild, after all.”

I swallowed hard, refusing to let him see the fear tightening in my chest.

“You’re not going to kill me,” I said, voice steady. “You need me.”

“True,” he murmured. “But I can hurt you. And trust me, Elara—I’ve become very good at that.”

The blade pressed harder, a thin line of blood trailing down my neck.

I gritted my teeth and stared him down. “Kael will find me.”

“I hope he does,” Damon whispered. “I’d love to kill him in front of you.”

He didn’t kill me, though.

Not yet.

He cut me down, let me crash to the ground, then dragged me through the woods by my arms like I was nothing more than a rag doll. I fought. Bit. Kicked. He didn’t flinch. His strength was unnatural, enhanced by whatever deal he’d struck with that creature.

By the time we reached the edge of the pack territory, I was too sore to stand. My ankle throbbed from the trap, my wrists were raw, and blood stained the leaves behind us.

Still, I didn’t beg.

Damon hauled me into one of the old bunkers near the mountain base. Reinforced with silver-laced stone and spellbound locks, it was where the pack used to keep rogues during war times.

Now, it was my cage.

“Get comfortable,” Damon said, tossing me onto a straw-strewn cot. “You’ll be here a while.”

I spat at his boots. “Rot in hell.”

He crouched low, cupping my face. “We both will, love. That’s the beauty of it.”

I don’t know how long I was trapped.

There were no windows. No clocks. Just the hum of the wards in the walls and the ache in my bones.

Sometimes, he came to talk.

Other times, he just watched me.

Always calm. Always calculating. Like I was a puzzle he was close to solving.

“You’re changing,” he said one night, sitting on the other side of the iron bars. “You feel it, don’t you? That hunger. That pull. You think Kael can save you from what’s coming, but he can’t.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

He smiled. “I know your scent changes when you think of him. You forget what that makes you? Weak. Feral. Dangerous.”

I looked away. “You’re wrong.”

“No,” he said. “I’m the only one who sees you clearly. You were born to stand beside a god. But you’re playing house with a broken Alpha who can’t even protect his mate.”

My fists clenched. “Kael is twice the Alpha you’ll ever be.”

“And yet, here you are. In my cage.”

His words sliced sharper than any blade. But I refused to let them root in my heart.

Because Kael would come.

He had to.

On the third night, I felt it.

A whisper of magic in the air. A thread of something that wasn’t from Damon, or this place. It was familiar, warm… lunar.

I pressed my palm against the wall and closed my eyes.

“Kael?” I whispered.

Silence.

Then… faintly… “I’m coming.”

My heart slammed into my ribs.

He’d found me.

But Damon felt it too.

He stormed into the cell, eyes glowing red, shadows curling at his fingertips. “You’re drawing him to you.”

I stood, defiant. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t lie to me!” he roared, grabbing my throat and slamming me into the wall. “The bond—you’re using it against me!”

His power surged, dark and heavy, pressing against my chest like a vice.

“You’re going to break this connection with him,” Damon snarled. “Or I’ll make you watch him die.”

“Do it,” I spat, choking. “He’d still be more of a man than you’ll ever be.”

He raised the blade again.

But this time, I didn’t flinch.

And something inside me snapped again.

Light exploded from my chest.

White. Pure. Blinding.

It flung Damon across the room like a ragdoll, slammed the door shut behind him, and shattered the chains that held me.

I collapsed, gasping, as the magic fizzled around me.

Footsteps echoed above.

Too many.

Damon would recover in seconds, and reinforcements were already coming.

I had to move. Now.

Limping, I made my way to the broken door, stepped into the corridor—

And found Kael standing at the other end.

His chest was heaving, his eyes wild with relief and fury.

“Elara,” he breathed.

“Kael—”

But just as I took a step toward him—

A silver dart shot out of the shadows and hit him square in the chest.

He fell.