~ ROSELLE ~

Footsteps after footsteps, each movement making my heart thrum faster. I might have pictured a lot of things going wrong, but hiding under a flower wasn’t in my forte.

Slowly, the guards pass us without seeing us.

I don’t know how. Mara’s hand is clamped over my mouth, her body shielding mine beneath the flowering bush, the heavy footsteps moving so close I can feel their vibrations through the earth beneath us. My heart is beating so fast I’m certain they can hear it, certain the sound of my terror is loud enough to register as a distress signal.

Even as they walk away, their footsteps echoing in the distance, my brain keeps praying that for some reason they don’t turn back and catch us. Time seems to drag on, and isn’t it funny how, whenever you’re desperate for something to be over, that’s when every second suddenly decides to last a lifetime?

Finally, I can’t hear any more footsteps. They seem to have been swallowed back into the darkness of the pack grounds, and slowly, Mara’s hand releases me. Then she urges me to keep moving without speaking, her hands signaling as we make our way through the dark.

We come to a stop right in front of a vehicle, and it hits me that this must be the car she was talking about.

Mara opens the back door for me. "Get in," she says.

I climb inside, and the door closes behind me with a soft click that sounds far too final.

There are two men in the front seat. Drivers. Professional-looking. Neither of them turns to look at me. Neither acknowledges my presence. They just start driving, pulling away from the pack grounds with a smoothness that speaks of practice.

Mara leans into the window from outside. "This is where I leave you," she says.

I stare at her, confused. "You’re not coming?"

"I can’t," she says simply. "I need to be back before anyone notices I was gone. Sena is expecting you, just give her my name and she’ll take care of you." She pauses. "You’re going to be fine, Roselle."

Then she steps back, and the window closes before I can say anything again. The vehicle starts moving, and she bids me goodbye, a smile planted on her face.

The walls and streets of Black Shadow Pack, passes by as they keep driving.

Hours stretch out in a way that makes time feel unreal. Cold shivers race across my skin, every nerve prickling in a way that screams this is wrong. I don’t know if it’s something about the silent drive, or the way the men in front don’t even acknowledge me, or the direction we’re driving in—which is away from the main roads and deeper toward the woods—but all of it is setting off alarms in the back of my head that I keep trying to ignore.

Stop it, I tell myself. You’re just anxious. Mara said Sena would be expecting you. Mara said you’d be fine.

The vehicle finally comes to a stop, and I look through the window. Even through the darkness, all I can see are thick woods, the chirping of insects and birds.

The sound of the engine cutting off makes me alarmed.

What’s going on? My eyes are fixed on the men. They still have their seatbelts strapped on, and they don’t seem to be getting out or doing anything.

"Get out," one of them says without turning around.

What? This doesn’t look like a pack or somewhere the said Sena would stay.

I reach for the door handle with a hand that’s shaking, pushing it open. The night air sends cold shivers down my spine as I step out.

The moment my feet touch the ground, both men emerge from the vehicle.

They’re larger than they looked in the shadows of the car—burly, ripped. Even though it’s dark, I can feel their eyes moving over me with the kind of assessment that makes my skin crawl.

This is the way meat gets assessed before butchering.

"So you’re the mute," one of them says.

I don’t respond. I can’t respond.

"We heard you can’t talk." The second one smiles, and the smile is the worst thing I’ve ever seen. "That you’re completely helpless."

My spine goes rigid.

"What—"

My brain is finally screaming abort mission. Sounding every alarm and telling me I’m fucking in trouble.

"Mara said you’d be easy," the first one continues. "Said you wouldn’t cause any trouble, and that we could do whatever we want and you couldn’t even scream about it."

The world tilts. This is not a rescue. This is not safety. This is a trap, and I walk straight into it because I’m so desperate to believe Mara is telling me the truth that I don’t ask the right questions.

"We’re going to have a little fun with you," the second one says, taking a step forward. "And then we’re going to make sure you don’t cause any more problems for people who matter." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

I’m already moving before I finish thinking the thought.

I turn and start running into the woods, away from the vehicle, away from the voices calling after me with amusement rather than urgency because they don’t think I can actually escape.

I’m running blind through the darkness, branches tearing at my skin, my lungs burning, my legs barely able to carry me because my body is still weak and recovering, and I’ve pushed it too hard...

A hand grabs my shoulder. Spins me around.

"Not so fast," one of them says.

My eyes widen, my chest freezing as my breath comes out in ragged gasps. His hand is calloused and rough, and... fuck, I’m going to br cooked.

Mara deceived me, she fucking betrayed me.

There’s something in his other hand, when he lift it, a gasp as i saw a syringe filled with a clear liquid. He’s bringing it toward my arm, and I’m thrashing, screaming silently the way I’ve screamed silently my entire life, the way my throat produces no sound even as I’m begging for help that isn’t coming

"This is going to make you sleep," he says almost gently. "You won’t feel anything, the pain, or the ending. It’ll be peaceful."

The other trails his hand slowly down my thighs, fingers digging in possessively. "Fuck, these thighs look so fresh... perfect for ruining. Imagine the level of cum and paint I could cover them in."

Hot tears find their way down my face. Hell, I thought I could trust her. I thought... Turns out Ronan wasn’t the danger I should have been worried about. It was her. Does that explain the smile she gave me? I mean, I should have noticed when she walked into my room dressed as Celeste. And when she masked her scent.

Hell, yeah. She was trying to make sure Ronan wouldn’t figure it out.

And fuck, I’d been dumb enough to fall for it.

Despite my struggles and pleas, and my scream, the needle breaches my skin.

I feel the cold liquid entering my veins like ice water, spreading through my bloodstream, and I’m fighting with everything I have , clawing at his face, kicking, using my entire body as a weapon because my voice has never been a weapon and it never will be...

My vision starts to blur.

The edges of the world are going soft and distant and I’m trying to run, trying to move, trying to do anything but I can’t feel my legs properly anymore and the sky is spinning and...

I should have stayed. The thought lands with perfect, terrible clarity as the darkness closes in.

I should have stayed with him. I should have trusted him. I should have...

But I can’t finish the thought because the injection is pulling me under and all I can see now is the face of the man standing over me, and he’s smiling, and I’m screaming internally with a voice that has nowhere to go, and everything Mara said about Ronan being dangerous was a lie designed to push me toward the only thing that actually was dangerous all along.

And worse nobody knows where I am.

Nobody except the two men dragging my unconscious body deeper into the woods. Nobody except Mara, who is probably already back at the pack house, crafting whatever story she needs to come up with to explain my absence.

"Ever heard of a threesome?" one of them murmurs, voice filled with lust.

I can feel them peeling my clothes off layer by layer, fingers brushing over my skin as the dress falls away. I’m too drowsy to object, too lost to stop them, or to... Moon Goddess, help me...

I hear a loud growl in the distance, shaking the woods and reverberating through the night, sending chills racing down my spine.

Their hands stop. "Did you hear that?" one of them asks.

That’s all I hear before my body finally gives way to unconsciousness.