Chapter 3

Over the next two days, I received videos from Victoria. Damon was in every one.

One video showed him sitting by Victoria's bed late at night, holding her hand.

One showed him feeding her soup, blowing on the spoon to cool it before bringing it to her lips.

One showed him walking slowly in front of the fireplace with his daughter in his arms, his features soft and tender.

I watched them all, my fingertips trembling.

Each video stabbed my heart like a knife.

But at some point, the pain stopped. Maybe my heart had died the night they threw me in the dungeon.

I was about to turn off my phone when another message came.

A video. Victoria stood in front of a mirror, playing with my mother's pendant. She smiled at the camera.

The caption said, "Want your mother's pendant? Come find me."

I stood up abruptly. My vision went dark for a moment. But I didn't care. I grabbed my coat and ran.

In the VIP room, Victoria was holding her child and humming softly.

She looked up and saw me. Her smile widened. "You came fast."

"Give me back the pendant."

Victoria held the pendant up to the light, examining it casually. "You know, I've never seen anything so cheap. A pendant? Do humans even deserve to wear these?"

"Give it back."

"Do you really not understand, or are you pretending?" She stood up and looked down at me. "You're just a human without a Pack. Damon keeps you around because he feels sorry for you. Do you really think he'll leave with you?"

I dug my nails into my palms and said nothing.

"A human doctor," she laughed. "In this Pack, you're lower than an Omega. Do you know what they call you behind your back? The Alpha's pet. A dog he can call whenever he wants."

"Are you done?" My voice was flat. "Give me back the pendant."

Victoria smiled and opened her fingers.

The pendant fell to the floor and shattered.

"Oops. My hand slipped."

I knelt down to pick up the pieces. The edges cut my fingers. Blood dripped onto the floor.

Victoria looked down at me like I was something dirty.

The door opened.

Damon stood there. He looked at me on the floor, then at Victoria.

"What happened?"

Victoria's eyes reddened instantly. "Damon, I don't know what happened. She suddenly came in and started hitting the child."

She pulled open the child's collar. There were red marks on the skin.

"I didn't," I said, looking up at Damon. "I never touched her child."

"The evidence is right there." Damon's voice was cold. "Lena, when will you stop causing trouble?"

"I said I didn't do it."

Luna Catherine's voice came from the hallway. "What's going on here?"

Alpha Conrad and Luna Catherine walked in. Luna Catherine looked at the broken pendant pieces on the floor, then at the blood on my hands.

"You again," she said flatly. "The dungeon last time wasn't enough to teach you a lesson?"

Alpha Conrad spoke. "The Bloodmoon Pack does not keep people who cause trouble. Since you have so much free time, go to the silver room. Clean all the silver waiting to be processed."

The silver room. The most avoided place in the entire Pack. Silver is poison to werewolves. The silver items stained with rogue blood give off a scent that makes werewolves sick to their stomachs. Forcing a human to clean silver was not a punishment. It was humiliation.

Luna Catherine looked at Damon. "Any objections?"

Damon was silent for a long time. "Fine."

In the silver room, knives and arrowheads were piled on the floor. Someone threw me a rag and a bucket of cold water. "Finish by dawn."

I crouched there all night. The silver edges cut my fingers. Blood turned the rag dark red. Every time I finished one piece, another was brought in.

I do not know how long it took. I finished the last piece, stood up, and stumbled to the door.

The hallway was empty. I leaned against the wall and walked step by step.

I saw a figure at the end of the hallway. Damon walked toward me. "Lena."

I tried to speak. Then everything went black.