1. TORTURE

RAVEN

“I’m sure he didn’t ask you to kill me… to torture me like this. I am your Luna, how can you treat me in this manner?”

But the assigned warriors just laughed and folded their belts once more. This time, when the belts landed across my back, I didn’t scream. Instead, my entire body shook so violently, I thought I would combust.

My wolf had been subdued with silver chains and wolfsbane, more than she could handle, but I could still feel her somehow. She had not disappeared completely. She was stubborn, that was for sure. She was not going down without a fight, but she still yearned for our mate and the pack’s Alpha—even if he had not still come for us… she still yearned for Kieran.

I yearned for him too. I needed to talk to him. Probably scream at him for letting them keep me here as the culprit/spy who had a hand in the assassination of his mother and brother.

I just needed to talk to him. Kieran would believe me when I explained to him, they didn’t let me talk to him because they knew Kieran would never let them treat me like this.  

After hours of going through a series of gruesome punishments, I was finally allowed to wallow in my pain. My body was a mess of pain. Every inch ached, my skin stung from deep welts, and my muscles throbbed so badly I could barely move. Breathing was agony, like knives stabbing my ribs with each inhale. My limbs were weak and shaky, my wounds burning as blood stuck to my skin. The pain was endless, I kept trying to mindlink Kieran to come save me, but I just could not reach him.

I could not bring myself to believe that he had actually shut his mind off to me. Kieran loved me. He would never do that, maybe Ana, my wolf, was just too weak for the mindlink. It had to be that.

Just as the last warrior was about to shut the door, I managed to ask with a raspy, almost non existent voice,

“I haven’t had anything to eat for four days, please. Can I just get water? Please?”

It was quiet after my request, but then I started to hear footsteps towards me again until finally, the guard stood right in front of me. My eyes struggled to stay open, and I checked his hands, confused about why he was walking up to me without the water I had asked for.

Then he grinned widely and after a quick glance around, he began to unbuckle his belt. I looked up with a start, but it was too late. His frail member was out already and he was pointing it at my face, peeing all over my mouth.

I was so thirsty. Goddess, I was so damn thirsty, I thought of opening up my lips to take the liquid in. But it smelt so bad, like he had a disease, and I was not that desperate to die yet. So I pressed my lips and eyes shut, and let him pee on me until he was satisfied.

I heard him laugh and tuck himself in, and then I looked up… memorizing his face.

“How’s that for a drink, traitor?”

His laugh faded as he walked away and my head lolled to the side, my heartbeat slowing a little more with each passing second.

The stench of filth and blood hung thick in the air as I lay motionless, my body too weak to do anything but exist. My skin burned where the guard had defiled me with his piss and the humiliation searing deeper than the welts on my back. My throat was raw, my lips cracked from thirst, and yet, the only thing that mattered was the dull ache in my chest—the lingering hope that Kieran would come.

He had to.

But as the seconds stretched into minutes, and the minutes blurred into something endless, my hope dimmed. Maybe I would die a little sooner then I had thought.

The door groaned open again. My muscles tensed instinctively, bracing for another round of pain. But instead of the usual warriors, a familiar scent drifted toward me—lavender and something faintly metallic.

Selene, Kieran’s twin.

I barely managed to lift my head as she knelt beside me, her delicate fingers brushing strands of matted hair from my face.

Tears gathered in my eyes. She had stopped them from torturing me for long on the second and third day, and she had given me my first cup of water while I was here.

She also cried with me just yesterday and had assured me that they were working to get me out of here. She was literally my solace, always around to check on me even if the other members of the pack frowned at it.

They hadn’t really liked me from the onset…

“Oh, Raven…” Selene whispered, her voice thick with something I couldn’t place—sorrow? Guilt? “You look terrible.”

I let out a breathless, humorless laugh. “Thanks.”

She hesitated, then reached into the folds of her cloak, pulling out a small vial. She lifted it to my cracked lips, tilting my head so the cool liquid trickled into my mouth. Water. Blessed, pure water.

I choked on the first swallow, then greedily took another before she pulled it away.

“Slowly,” she murmured.

I nodded quickly, then latched my lips onto the vial and finished the rest of the water quickly. I caught the flicker of something unreadable in her violet eyes as she traced a cut along my arm, her fingers lingering on the dried blood. My body was too weak to react, but my mind screamed at me to pay attention.

“Listen to me…”

I looked up at her.

“Kieran still loves you. I know I always say this. Kieran cares about you so much to leave you here. The pack is angry at you. We have to keep up the charade. You have to be here.” She reassured me for the umpteenth time.

“So why wouldn’t he come see me? If he still cares for me like you say, why won’t he come here?”

Selene let out a sigh, her eyes full of pity for me, but she had not yet answered when the door slammed open again and this time, it was really the warriors who trooped in.

I gasped, fear and trepidation overcoming my entire being as I hid behind Selene by crawling by my butt across the floor. “Please. Please, do not let them take me…”

She smiled a bit warmly at me, “Don’t worry, Raven. They won’t hurt you. They are here to get you out.”

I blinked over and over, “I’m… I’m free?”

She only smiled, before getting up to her feet and basically exposing me to them.

“Get up.” They barked at me.

I couldn’t. I tried, but my legs refused to obey. The warriors didn’t wait. Hands grabbed my arms, yanking me to my feet. Pain shot through my body like fire, and I barely held back a scream.

Selene stepped back even more, watching silently as I was dragged forward.

“Kieran will kill you all. Kieran will kill everyone of you for daring to treat me like this…You are taking me to him, right?” I rasped, my head lolling forward.

No one answered.

I barely registered the journey. My feet scraped against the cold stone floor as they hauled me through dark hallways and up a winding staircase. It was only when the scent of fresh air hit me that my sluggish mind began to clear.

Joy and relief filled me. Finally, it was all over.

The moment I stepped outside, the roar of a crowd shattered the silence. I blinked against the brightness, my vision adjusting slowly to the sight before me.

And then my heart stopped, my sense of relief shattering to the ground.

A platform. A stage. Two figures bound and kneeling before a large, waiting crowd.

My parents.

Mother’s tear-streaked face turned toward me, her lips trembling as she whispered my name. Father’s head was bowed, his shoulders rigid. If they were here, it only meant one thing—they were waiting to be killed. For what?

I tried to lunge forward with a new strength, but the warriors held me back.

“No,” I gasped, my voice breaking. “Please, no.”

Selene’s words echoed in my mind.

‘Kieran still loves you.’

If that was true, why was this happening?

Then I saw him.

Kieran stood at the edge of the stage, his expression unreadable, his icy blue eyes locked onto mine.

“I’m innocent. My parents are innocent too, what’re they doing here? Please tell everyone we are innocent, please,” I begged, struggling against the warriors’ grip. “Kieran, please!”

He didn’t move. He didn’t even blink.

It was then I realized—he wasn’t here to save me.

He was only here to watch.