جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

The stone floor of the servant quarters was ice-cold, a brutal contrast to the heated marble of the dais I had just been dragged from. I sat on a moth-eaten mattress, the smell of damp earth and neglect filling my lungs. Every time I closed my eyes, I didn’t see the darkness; I saw Caleb’s face from three years ago."You’re shaking, Elara," Sarah whispered, slipping into the small, cramped room with a stolen piece of bread."I'm fine," I snapped, my voice cracking. "I don't need pity.""It’s not pity. It’s a reminder. Do you remember how you got here? How did he bring you here?"I leaned my head against the weeping stone wall. How could I forget? The smell of burning silver and the sound of iron chains clinking against my wrists was a permanent haunting."He saved me from that pit," I muttered, the memory rushing back with violent clarity.“Kill her! She’s a defect! A useless breeder!” The Alpha of the Iron-Claw pack had screamed that day, his hand wrapped in my hair as he dragg

The clock in the bell tower chimed two in the morning, the sound vibrating through the hollow ache in my chest. My hands were raw, the skin puckered and bleeding from hours of scrubbing the kitchen floors with caustic lye. Seraphina had made sure I had no mop—only a hand brush and a bucket of freezing water."Still working, little breeder?"I didn't turn around. I knew that voice. It was one of Seraphina’s personal guards, a man named Silas who seemed to take a sickening pleasure in watching my fall from grace."The floors don't scrub themselves, Silas," I muttered, moving my bucket an inch."Alpha says you’re to have the entire east wing finished by dawn. If there’s a speck of grease left, you’ll be lashed. Luna’s orders." He kicked my bucket, splashing the gray, soapy water over my tattered skirt. "Oops. My foot slipped.""Get out," I hissed, my eyes burning."Or what? Will you cry? You’re a servant now, Elara. Get used to the dirt. It’s where you belong." He laughed, the soun

The silver collar around my neck pulsed with a dull, rhythmic ache, dampening my senses and making every step toward the servant quarters feel like wading through chest-high mud. Caleb and Marcus had left me with a final warning: Stay in your room or lose your tongue. But the fire burning in my gut wouldn't let me sit still. If Caleb was complicit in Seraphina’s "stabilization" efforts, then the man I loved had died years ago in the ruins of the Iron-Claw pack.I didn't go to the kitchens. I didn't go to my cell. Instead, I ducked into the shadows of the grand staircase, heading toward the guest wing—the suite currently occupied by the "Luna-to-be."The hallways were suspiciously quiet. Most of the guards were at the perimeter, preparing for the upcoming eclipse ceremony. I slipped into Seraphina’s suite, the scent of those lilies and that chemical poison hitting me like a physical wall."Looking for a way out, Elara?" a voice didn't say. The room was empty.I went straight for he

The velvet of the stage curtain felt like a shroud. My emerald gown had been stripped away, replaced by a thin, translucent white shift that left me feeling more naked than if I’d had nothing on at all. The silver collar around my neck hummed with a low, agonizing vibration, a leash keeping my very soul anchored to the floorboards."Smile, Elara," Seraphina’s voice hissed from the wings. She looked radiant in gold, her hand resting possessively on Caleb’s shoulder. "You’re the star of the evening. Don't ruin the price.""You’re a monster," I rasped, my voice barely audible over the roar of the crowd in the Great Hall."I’m a businesswoman," she countered, her eyes flashing that eerie violet. "And right now, you’re the most valuable asset the Silver-Moon pack owns. Do you have any idea how much a high-line breeder brings in on the open market? Enough to fund a war."The curtains swept open. The light blinded me, but the scent hit me first—a toxic cocktail of musk, testosterone, and

The high tower was a cage of whistling wind and freezing iron. My head throbbed in sync with the silver collar, the world tilting every time I tried to focus on the jagged note in my hand. Run. How? I was trapped in a birdcage five hundred feet above the jagged rocks of the Silver-Moon territory, and the man I loved was being dragged into the bowels of the earth in silver chains.The iron door at the base of the stairs groaned. Heavy, rhythmic footsteps approached. I scrambled to hide the note in my bodice just as the Head of the Obsidian Crest, Seraphina’s father, stepped into the moonlight. Behind him followed a man in a white coat—Dr. Aris, the pack’s oldest physician."Look at her," Seraphina’s father sneered, gesturing toward me with a gloved hand. "The great 'Queen' of the Silver-Moon, reduced to a shivering rat.""She looks ill, My Lord," Dr. Aris said, his voice flat, professional. "The silver collar is reacting poorly with her physiology. If she dies before the ritual, the