Leilani.

My promise to Scarface was the only thing I thought about as my eyes slowly drifted open several hours later, and when this happened, I noticed to my horror that I was laying on a cold damp floor, on my right side, with heavy metal clasps wrapped around my ankles and wrists.

The metals burned when I moved, even though it was only slightly, and it made red burn marks sear across my skin, gleaming like red bloody streaks on snow.

My body felt so sore and so stiff, one would think I had been beaten up by a hundred rogue wolves all at once, and my head, already aching from hitting it against the headrest, throbbed with a burning headache as I tried to lift my head off the floor.

Tears burned at the corners of my eyes when I forcefully pushed myself to a sitting position, but those tears soon dried up when I saw Jarek sitting by a corner of the dark room with his head lolled to the side and his eyes closed as if asleep.

Like this, with his face covered in bruises and dried blood, he looked pitiful. His shoulders were shrunken and his chest rose and fell so slowly, one would think that he was dead if you didn’t look closely.

And not so far from me, the triplets were chained together with metal chains so heavy, they looked like something straight out of a movie I’d watched a long time ago about the slave trade.

My breath hitched when I saw the purple lines around their bodies and the blisters in their arms and wrists, and I needed no soothsayer to know that it was silver. The chain. And now, they were reacting to it badly.

"So much for trying to protect you," a soft voice suddenly slipped into my head, snapping me out of my reverie.

My head shot upward at the sound, and when I saw who it was— Keisha, who was smiling smugly at me, I frowned.

"These men... these weaklings, did all they could to save you from me, yet, this is how they end up— in my clutches and on the very edge of death." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Her words made me hostile at them one more time as if to check if she was spitting facts, and when I was satisfied with the uniform rise and fall of their chests, I turned away to look at her and drawled;

"And that’s because you didn’t have the balls to come at us directly so you had to resort to these obnoxious theatrics." I hissed back, not missing the way her eyebrows twitched.

She smiled, licking her teeth as she came to sit on the floor beside me. My body shook when she trailed her cold fingers over my arm and with a smile so cold, it made me shiver, she said;

"You came for me."

"Pardon?"

"I didn’t drag you out of your safe heaven, did I?" She sassed, "...you came out on your own and that’s all on you."

For a second after she said that, I only stared at her, unsure of how to respond. My chest burned with rage, especially since the sight of all four men tied up in uncomfortable positions burned into the back of my mind.

My breath hitched one more time when I saw Zevran stir, but because all of Keisha’s attention was focused on me, she didn’t notice this.

I muttered; "untie me."

"I would do that if you had been polite..."

"Or you can’t because you’re scared of what I would do." I clapped back.

Deep down, I knew that there was little to nothing that I could do to her, but knowing her and how prideful she could be most of the time, I knew that that was the only way to get her so riled up that she would make a mistake.

Caelum stirred.

"You and I know that I am not scared of you," she hissed as she added another finger to the one already trailing up and down my arm.

Goosebumps spread across my skin, one that I tried to shrug off but failed.

"You’re a pathetic little cunt who hides behind the backs of men— Alphas— and now, to add to your already pathetic self, you’ve lost your wolf for the second time."

Her words made me see red. It made me want to grab at her head and bash it against the wall behind me, but clamping down on my rage, I bit my tongue and looked away, sighing as I said;

"That’s right."

Kael’s eyes slowly fluttered open.

His droopy eyes met mine in that moment and I blinked quickly, as if saying: ’don’t make a sound!’

I watched him as he watched me do that. His eyes thinned slightly at me but then he closed them and dropped his head to the side, pretending to be asleep while Keisha continued to trail her cold finger over my arm as she began to say;

"For a long time, I wondered what you were. I tried to understand why you were a hybrid just like me but felt like an upgrade. Turns out you’re just there... mid. You’re nothing but an overhyped loser."

’You are the overhyped loser,’ A voice countered back but it wasn’t mine.

It was my wolf.

Hearing her voice made my heart skip a beat or several more beats and I couldn’t help the smile that tugged on the corners of my lips until Keisha pointed it out. She said;

"What?"

I frowned. "Huh?"

"Why the hell are you smiling? Is anything funny right now?"

I cast her a glance when she said that, and when she wouldn’t stop looking at me, I shrugged; "nothing. I only thought it was funny that a loser would call me a loser."

The way her face stained a bright shade of red made me almost want to laugh. I lowered my head to hide the chuckle trying to burst its way up my throat, and angry, so you know what she did?

She smacked me in the face!

She fucking slapped me!

"I said, nothing is funny!" She snarled in my face until droplets of spittle splashed across my skin, "and I am not a loser! I was not overhyped like I was supposed to be the moon goddess incarnate just to be nothing but you!"

Her words struck a chord, but clamping down on the wild feelings it evoked within me, I nodded; "you’re right."

She looked stunned.

At this point, Zevran was already struggling with the clasps wrapped around his wrists, looking for a way around it.

"You’re always right, Keisha." I drawled; "I am a loser. I always knew that, but I never was the reason your daughter died!"

"Don’t ever talk about my daughter, especially with those filthy lips of yours!" She hissed but I ignored her and continued;

"Your negligence caused her death. And as for Jarek, he would have never been able to come to your aid because he was struggling with his health as well!"

At my words, she stilled, tilted her head to the side and then as if the light that had managed to turn on in her head was suddenly snuffed out, she hissed; "That’s a lie!"

"You can check that fact out for yourself!" I clapped back defiantly, "...so while you’ve been holding your daughter’s death over his head as if any of it was his fault, he had been battling with his own failing health, you stupid selfish bitch!"

Another slap.

This one made my head fall to the side and made my blood fill my mouth.

The metallic tang filled my mouth and I smiled despite the pain. But for some reason, that seemed to rattle her even more because she then frowned, turned away from me and hissed; "You’re deranged."

"You’re the deranged one," I said, and when she turned to give me the stink eye, I continued coldly; "You blame everyone for things that are your fault and that’s shitty. Also, you were right about everything you said to me but one thing..."

"Which is?" She hissed, as she stepped back to pick up a very gigantic pair of scissors which she toyed between her fingers as if to scare me.

And that I was— I was scared.

"I am not worthless. I am not pathetic and I am not a weakling."

Her face broke into a mocking smile, one that didn’t last long because in that moment, I forced myself to my shaky feet, ignoring the pain that tore into my body due to the metal chains.

"I am not some overhyped fairytale!" I continued as I felt my wolf— hybrid— begin to stir from within me.

"And you were so wrong for thinking so lowly about me!" I finished with a loud scream, not missing the shock on her face when the chains began to rattle perilously.

Girl, even I was shocked by my own actions.