I pressed my face against the cold iron bars, trying to peer into the darkness of the adjacent cell. The silver shackles on my wrists hummed with a low, agonizing vibration, draining the strength from my limbs.
"Who are you?" I whispered, my voice trembling. "What do you know about Selene?"
A low, raspy chuckle emerged from the shadows. A woman stepped forward into the sliver of light cast by the hallway torch. She was thin, her hair a matted silver tangle, but her eyes—bright, piercing gold—held a lucidity that didn't match her haggard appearance.
"They call me Hala," she said, her voice like dry leaves skittering on stone. "I've been in this hole since Kaelen's father wore the Alpha's crest. I've seen many things, little bird. I saw the way your sister looked at Kaelen when she thought no one was watching. It wasn't love. It was hunger."
My heart skipped a beat. "Selene loved him. Everyone said so. She was the 'Golden Luna' of the North."
"Gold is just lead with a prettier coat," Hala spat. "She was a shadow wrapped in light. She didn't want Kaelen; she wanted the Obsidian throne. And she was working with the very enemies who burned your home to get it."
"You're lying," I breathed, though a cold dread began to settle in my stomach. I remembered Selene sneaking out of the pack house at night, the way she would return smelling not of our forest, but of sulfur and scorched earth. I had thought she was meeting a lover. Could it have been... a conspirator?
"Believe what you wish," Hala said, retreating back into the darkness. "But ask yourself this: why was the 'Golden Luna' in the east wing during the attack, when the escape tunnels were in the west? Why was she there alone?"
Before I could press her for more, the heavy iron door at the end of the corridor groaned open. The sound of heavy, rhythmic footsteps echoed through the dungeon—boots clicking against stone with lethal precision.
Kaelen.
I scrambled back from the bars, my heart hammering. Hala vanished into the depths of her cell, becoming nothing more than a pair of glowing eyes.
Kaelen appeared before my cell, his presence so massive it seemed to suck the oxygen out of the room. He had changed out of his suit into a black tactical shirt that clung to the hard lines of his chest. He looked tired, his jaw shadowed with stubble, but his eyes were sharp with a cold, focused cruelty.
He didn't say a word. He simply unlocked the cell door and stepped inside.
The space was too small for both of us. The scent of him—ozone and cedar—hit me like a wave, triggering a primal, desperate pull in my chest. My wolf, the one everyone said didn't exist, gave a tiny, pained whimper in the back of my mind.
"Get up," he commanded.
I tried to obey, but my legs, weakened by the silver, buckled. I slipped, my knees hitting the stone with a dull thud.
Kaelen didn't help me. He reached down, grabbed the front of my tattered tunic, and hauled me up until my toes barely touched the floor. His face was inches from mine. I could see the flecks of silver in his icy blue eyes—the mark of a powerful Alpha.
"I spent the afternoon looking at the ruins of your pack," he rasped, his grip tightening. "I saw the spot where Selene's ribbon was found, soaked in blood. Your father is demanding your execution as justice for her soul."
"Then do it," I choked out, a sudden spark of Leo's defiance flickering in my chest. "If you hate me so much, Kaelen, kill me. End this."
His eyes darkened, a flash of something—desire, rage, or perhaps both—crossing his features. His gaze dropped to my lips, and for a terrifying second, I thought he might kiss me. The bond flared, a hot, white light behind my eyes.
"Death is too easy for you," he whispered, his thumb brushing roughly against my jawline. "You are my mate, Elara. The Moon Goddess gave you to me to own. And I intend to use every bit of that bond to make you feel my pain."
He dropped me, and I collapsed into a heap.
"Tomorrow is the Feast of the Fallen," Kaelen announced, looking down at me as if I were a stain on his floor. "A night to honor those lost in the war. You will not be staying in this cell."
Hope flickered for a brief second, only to be crushed by his next words.
"You will be brought to the Great Hall. You will wear the collar of a slave. You will stand beside my chair and serve the wine while I toast to the memory of the woman who should have been standing where you are."
"Kaelen, please... don't do this. Don't humiliate me like that."
"Humiliation is the least of your debts," he said, turning toward the door. "By the time the sun rises, the entire pack will know what you are. My plaything. My puppet. A living reminder of the traitor who survived while the innocent died."
He slammed the door shut and locked it.
I slumped against the wall, the silence of the dungeon returning, heavier than before.
"Little bird," Hala's voice drifted from the darkness. "Do not weep for your pride. Weep for the truth. For when the truth comes out, the Alpha won't just burn the world... he will burn himself to ashes."
I curled into a ball on the cold stone, clutching my arms. The silver shackles hissed, and for the first time, I didn't just feel the pain of the metal. I felt a strange, humming heat deep in my marrow.
Deep inside, something was starting to wake up. And it was hungry.