SHACKLES OF SILENCE

Veronica

I woke to sunlight cutting through the dirty window like a blade. My body felt wrong, too hot and too cold at once. Sweat soaked through my thin shirt, but I couldn't stop shivering.

The room spun when I tried to sit up. My throat burned. My side, where they'd taken my kidney, throbbed with each heartbeat. I touched my forehead and my hand came away slick with fever.

How long had I been here? One day? Two?

The door creaked open. I flinched, expecting Richard or Catherine, but it was Margaret. She slipped inside quickly, balancing a tray with one hand while locking the door behind her.

"Eat," she whispered, setting the tray on the broken chair. Soup, bread, water. Simple food, but my stomach growled at the sight of it.

"Why are you helping me?" My voice came out rough, damaged.

Margaret's weathered face softened. "I served your father for twenty years, child. Before he disappeared. I owe him that much."

My father. The wound that never healed.

"Margaret, what do you remember about the night he vanished?"

She glanced at the door nervously. "Not here. Not now. Catherine has replaced all the other maids with her own people. They watch everything, report everything." She pushed the tray closer. "Eat quickly. I can't stay long."

"Please." I grabbed her wrist. "Anything. Just tell me something."

Her eyes darted to the door again, then back to me. "Your father was investigating something. He kept saying Catherine's family was involved in something dark. The night before he disappeared, he came to the kitchen. Told me to keep you safe if anything happened to him."

My blood ran cold. "Catherine's family? What were they involved in?"

"I don't know. But two days later, he was gone. And a week after that, Catherine showed up at pack meetings on Richard's arm." Margaret pulled her wrist free. "That's all I can say. Eat. Keep your strength up."

She left as quietly as she'd come, the lock clicking behind her. I forced myself to eat the soup, even though each swallow hurt. The bread was stale but I chewed it anyway. I needed strength. If my father had been investigating Catherine's family, if they'd done something to him...

The door slammed open, banging against the wall. Richard filled the doorway, his Alpha presence crushing the air from the tiny room. He held papers in one hand, a pen in the other.

"Sign them," he said flatly.

I set down the empty bowl, my hands trembling. "No."

"This isn't a request, Veronica."

"Then it's a good thing I'm not taking orders from you anymore."

His jaw clenched. He crossed the room in two strides and grabbed my hair, yanking my head back. Pain exploded through my scalp.

"You will sign these papers. You will perform the rejection ceremony tonight. And then you will leave this pack forever."

Tears streamed down my face, but I met his eyes. "I gave you everything. Five years of my life. My body. My wolf. My kidney for our son." My voice broke. "How can you throw it all away for her?"

"Catherine gives me what you never could." He released my hair and threw the papers on the cot. "Strength. Power. A Luna who isn't broken."

"I'm not broken," I whispered.

"You are." He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. My father's ring. The gold Alpha ring with our pack's crest, covered in dried mud. "You're so broken, you cling to ghosts."

My heart stopped. "Don't."

"Your father was weak too. He disappeared because he couldn't handle the pressure of leadership. Just like you can't handle being a Luna."

"That's not true! He was investigating something, he was trying to protect the pack..."

Richard laughed, cold and cruel. "Is that what you tell yourself? That he was some kind of hero?" He pulled out a lighter. "He was a coward. And you're his coward daughter."

"Richard, please." I lunged for the ring, but he shoved me back onto the cot. My ribs screamed. He flicked the lighter. The flame danced in the dim room.

"No!" I scrambled forward, but he held the ring over the flame. The metal began to glow.

"Sign the papers, Veronica. Sign them, or I'll melt this into nothing."

"You can't," I sobbed. "It's all I have left of him."

"Then sign."

My hand reached for the pen. My fingers wrapped around it. The papers blurred through my tears. But something inside me, deep where my damaged wolf lived, stirred. A flicker of resistance.

"No," I said again, dropping the pen. Richard's face twisted with rage. He dropped the ring on the floor and crushed it beneath his boot. The ancient gold crumpled like paper. He ground it into the dirty floorboards until the crest was unrecognizable.

Then he left, slamming the door so hard the walls shook. I crawled to where the ring lay ruined. My father's legacy, destroyed. I gathered the twisted metal in my hands and pressed it to my chest, rocking back and forth. The lock clicked again hours later. I didn't look up.

"Oh, Veronica." Catherine's voice dripped with false sympathy. "You look even worse than this morning."

She circled the room like a predator, her heels clicking on the floor. She wore a flowing dress, expensive and elegant, her hand resting on her flat stomach.

"Do you know what Richard and I did after he left you?" She smiled. "We celebrated. Celebrating the future. Our future."

I lifted my head. "Get out."

"I'm pregnant," she said, her smile widening. "Richard's child. A true heir, from a strong Luna. Not like you, so weak you can barely keep yourself alive."

The words hit like bullets. Each one finding a target.

"Henry will have a real mother soon," she continued. "A real sibling. And you? You'll be forgotten. A footnote. The broken Luna who couldn't keep her family together."

"I said get out." My wolf stirred again, stronger this time. Just a flutter, but it was there.

Catherine leaned close, her breath hot on my face. "You've already lost, Veronica. Your husband hates you. Your son hates you. Even your precious father abandoned you." She straightened. "The rejection ceremony is tomorrow night. Don't make this uglier than it needs to be."

She left, her perfume lingering in the stale air.

I sat there as darkness fell, clutching the ruined ring. My body hurts. My heart hurt. Everything hurts. Then suddenly, my chest seized. That familiar, terrible pain. I doubled over, coughing. Blood splattered across my hands, across the floor, across the destroyed ring.

I'm dying, I thought. Finally, mercifully dying. But then something else happened. Through the pain, through the blood, through the darkness closing in, I heard it.

A voice. Not my wolf, but something older, deeper, stronger.

"Get up, Luna."

I gasped, choking on blood.

"Your story isn't over."

The voice reverberated through my bones, my soul. It felt ancient and powerful, like the earth itself was speaking. I looked down at my bloodstained hands, at the ruined ring pressed against my palm. And for the first time in six months, I felt my wolf wake up..