Rescued

Eliana Hart’s POV

The cell door opened before dawn.

Two guards pulled me to my feet. My legs were stiff after a night on the freezing stone floor, and I stumbled between them as they dragged me down a narrow, torch-lit hall. Every breath sent pain through my ribs.

“Where are you taking me?” I whispered.

They didn’t answer.

They pushed me into a small, bare room with a single chair bolted to the floor. Beta Marcus stood waiting, arms crossed, his face hard. I had known this man for two years. He’d eaten dinner at the same table as me. He’d once thanked me for staying up all night with his sick daughter until her fever broke. None of that showed on his face now.

“Sit.”

I obeyed, shaking. The guards tied my wrists behind the chair, rope cutting into skin that was already raw from the cell floor. My whole body still ached from the night before, and the rope only made it worse, but I didn’t cry out. I had learned already that crying out only seemed to please them.

“Who gave you the power?” Marcus asked.

“What power? I don’t have any. I’ve told you, I’ve never—”

“Don’t lie to me.” His eyes burned. “A dark witch. Who taught you to bewitch our Alpha?”

“No one.” Tears slid down my face, hot against skin that already stung. “Marcus, you’ve known me two years. You’ve seen me heal this pack, care for the pups, stand beside Kai every day. I would never hurt him.”

“I don’t know you at all.” The words landed the same way Kai’s had, tearing the same wound open again, deeper this time. “Selene warned us you’d deny it. She said you were good at playing the victim.”

“Selene is the liar,” I choked out. “Ask her why she really left two years ago. Ask her—”

His hand cracked across my face. My head snapped sideways. Blood filled my mouth.

“Who gave you the power,” he said again, cold and slow.

There was no answer they would accept. Only the truth, and the truth had never been enough.

They hit me again. And again.

Each blow blurred into the next. My ribs screamed. My face swelled until I could barely see.

Stay with me, El, Gemma said, her voice faint and scared. Please stay awake.

I lost track of time. The questions and the pain kept coming until my body went limp in the chair. Eventually the guards dragged me back to my cell and dropped me on the cold stone like something already used up.

I curled into a ball, shaking, silent tears mixing with blood.

- - -

The pack had watched Kai give the order. They had watched the guards drag me from the altar. Word didn’t need to spread. Cruelty traveled fast on its own.

They came to the cells all day and into the night. At first they only stared through the bars and spat insults.

“Witch.”

“Traitor.”

“Fake Luna who never belonged here.”

Then they brought things to throw.

A rock hit my shoulder. I cried out and curled smaller. Another cracked against the wall by my head. Someone threw something sour that burned the cuts on my arms. I recognized a few of the faces at the bars — people whose fevers I had sat through the night with, whose children I had carried home when they were too tired to walk. None of that seemed to matter now. It was like it had never happened at all.

“She doesn’t deserve to breathe our air!”

“You stole our Alpha from his true mate!”

I pressed my forehead to the dirty floor, arms over my head, body flinching with each hit. For two years I had bandaged their wounds and swallowed their disdain with quiet grace, hoping that one day it would be enough to earn me a place among them. Now they watched me break like it was entertainment, like I was something to pass the evening with.

Why did I try so hard, I thought. What was the point of loving him, if this was always how it would end?

He didn’t fight for us, Gemma whispered, her voice hollow. Not even once.

I had no strength left to argue with her. I knew she was right, and that was almost worse than the pain.

- - -

The beatings and the visits didn’t stop. My body became a map of pain — swollen face, cracked ribs, raw wrists. Hunger and thirst made every hour worse. I stopped flinching when footsteps came near. I stopped hoping for mercy.

So when the cell door creaked open late one night, I didn’t lift my head. I had stopped believing anything good could come through that door.

“Get up.” The voice was quiet and urgent. A young man knelt beside me, a mask covering most of his face. His eyes looked haunted, like whatever he was doing cost him something too. A key caught the light in his hand.

“I’m getting you out. Now, before someone sees.”

“Why?” My voice was barely a whisper. I didn’t even recognize it as my own.

“Because what they’re doing to you is wrong.” He slipped an arm around me and helped me stand. My legs shook so badly I almost went down again. “There’s a path through the east border. Follow it till the trees thin out. It leads to the human world. Once you cross, they can’t follow. Run, and don’t look back.”

I didn’t have time to thank him, and even if I had, I’m not sure the words would have come. He half-carried me through the dark halls, past a guard slumped unconscious against the wall, and out into the cold night air. The full moon hung bright above us, huge and silver, like it had been waiting for me all along. We quietly got the border without being seen by the guards. I guess he knows his way around or he’s a guard also…

“Go,” he said, pushing me toward the tree line. “Run.”

So I ran.

Every step hurt. My ribs screamed with each breath. Stones tore at my bare feet. Branches whipped my skin. But I kept moving, lungs burning, tears streaming down my face.

I didn’t look back.

Something built inside my chest — hot..

The full moon pulsed above the trees, calling to something buried deep inside me.

El, Gemma said, suddenly strong and clear. It’s happening. Let go.

Pain tore through my spine. I fell to my knees, screaming, as bones shifted and silver-white light poured out of me. The scream turned into something wild and powerful, something that wasn’t human at all.

When it stopped, I stood on four legs.

Silver-white fur glowed under the moonlight.

A Lunar wolf.

Two years of being called wolfless. Two years of waiting. It had taken losing everything to finally set her free.

I threw my head back and howled, letting every ounce of heartbreak pour into the night.