Chapter 2 — “Sold to the Shadows”

The mud was freezing against Elena's face.

Cold rain poured from the night sky, hitting her skin like tiny needles. Every drop washed away a bit of the blood soaking her white wedding dress, turning the clear puddles around her body into light red pools.

"Throw her down here," a guard's voice barked from above.

Elena couldn’t move her arms. She couldn't even raise her chin out of

the wet dirt. Her body felt heavy like lead.

Rough hands grabbed the lace of her gown and shoved her over the edge of

the steep hill. Elena rolled down the mud-slicked ravine, crashing into

sharp rocks, wet pine needles, and broken tree branches until she slammed hard into the bottom of the ditch.

"Is she moving?” the second guard asked from the top.

“No," the first one replied with a short laugh. “The silver dagger

did its job. Let's get out of this storm before the rain washes out the

road.”

Their heavy footsteps faded into the roaring sound of the rain.

Elena lay trapped in the dark. The pain in her chest no longer a sharp stab but a deep, burning fire that spread through every vein in her body. Silver poison was a nightmare for wolves. It burned away their

strength, chained their inner wolf, and melted their organs from the inside out.

“I'm dying," she thought, her sight fading to gray. "This is where my story ends.”

Her heart gave a weak, slow thump.

Then another.

And then... nothing.

Her breathing stopped. The rain kept falling on her closed eyes, but inside her cold chest, everything went still.

Deep within her blood, something old woke up.

It was the ring, or the blood behind it — her mother's line, a power that had slept for a generation and only answered when death was already at the door. Instead of fighting the poison, her blood cooled. Her pulse dropped to a whisper. Her inner fire shrank to a hidden ember, small enough that the silver mistook her for already gone.

The poison stopped spreading. It settled into her veins and waited, and her body hung suspended between life and death.

Hours passed. The storm thinned into a cold morning fog over the pines.

"Hey! Over here!" a voice called through the trees.

Twigs snapped in the small canyon.

"What'd you find, Cole?" a second voice asked, raspy and dry.

"Looks like a dead wolf." Cole poked Elena's shoulder with a stick. "Wait. Look at the cloth. That's Highborn silk she's wearing.”

Heavy boots sloshed through the mud toward her. Hands grabbed her by the

shoulder and flipped her onto her back. Elena's head rolled to the side,her pale face covered in mud and dried blood.

"She's pretty," the raspy-voiced man muttered, leaning down. He had a

dirty leather coat and smelled like cheap booze and wet fur. "Look at

those silk clothes. Some rich Alpha must have dumped his unwanted trash out here."

"Check her pulse," Cole said, wiping cold rain from his eyes. "If she's fresh, her ring or teeth might be worth something.”

The dirty man pressed two rough fingers against Elena's neck. He waited for five long seconds, about to pull away, when he froze.

A tiny, weak beat tapped against his fingertip.

“She's breathing," he gasped, his eyes going wide." Cole, the girl is still alive! She survived a silver blade to the chest!"

Cole leaned in, looking closely at her jagged wound. How is that possible? No normal wolf can survive silver poisoning out in the open for this long.”

“It isn't," the dirty man grinned, showing yellow teeth.

“You know how much the black market will pay for a Highborn female that can take a beating like this?"

“The Pit,” Cole whispered, a greedy smile spreading across his face. "The traders down there will pay top coin for a girl like this. She won’t need a name where she's going.”

Elena's mind floated in a dark haze. She could hear their rough voices, but her mouth felt full of dust, and her limbs refused to move. She wanted to bite them. To scream her name and tell them that her family would hunt them down.

But her family was gone. Her pack signed off and Marcus was sitting on her father's throne right now, drinking her wine and wearing her family’s crest.

"No..." she told herself, forcing her spirit to cling to that burning seed of rage. "I have to live. I have to stay alive to destroy him.”

"Pick her up,” Cole ordered, pulling a heavy iron chain from his sack. “Bind her legs so she doesn't try anything if she wakes up."

Rough hands lifted Elena off the muddy ground, throwing her over a man's

shoulder like a sack of grain. Her vision bounced with every step as they carried her through the thick woods toward a hidden dirt road.

At the edge of the forest stood a dark wooden wagon pulled by two giant,

dark horses. Iron bars covered the back of the wagon, and from inside came the sound of low whimpers and rattling chains.

"Got another one!" Cole called out to the wagon driver.

"Is she clean?" the driver shouted back.

“She's blooded and scarred, but she's breathing," Cole laughed.“Throw her in the cage!"

Elena was dumped onto a cold metal floor inside the dark wagon and a heavy pair of cold metal bands slammed around her wrists.

A sharp wave of shock rushed through Elena's arms, the familiar sting of

silver made her hands go numb. They were anti-shifter silver cuffs, designed to suppress a shifter's strength completely.

Through her blurry vision, she saw Cole

standing outside the iron cage, holding a heavy ring of brass keys.

He grabbed the thick iron door, met her gaze, and gave a cruel smirk.

“Welcome to your new life, little bride," Cole sneered.

The iron cage door slammed shut with a deafening bang.