Chapter 3. A voice like night

Willa’s POV

The sight of the heavy shackles had me screaming, kicking, and fighting. I could not understand why they were blaming me for things I knew nothing about. I was terrified beyond my wits, especially when the cold metal bit into my sore wrists, ankles, and around my neck.

I was a prisoner once more.

I was not sure what I was expecting, but what happened next sent me to new heights of agony. A grunt, the leader grabbed the end of my chains and began to drag me along the thorn-riddled ground.

I cried, trying to scramble to my feet, but I was weighed down by the shackles.

The guards took turns dragging me down the rocky terrain, my screams roaring. Eternity passed, and I had retreated somewhere extremely dark and ugly in my mind.

Until a voice cut through my bloodied daze.

“We caught the wench, Alpha!” I was thrown across a distance, sliding across surprisingly smooth floors. “With all that dried blood from escaping previously, we smelled the filth from a mile away!”

I coughed out the dust and blood in my mouth, spitting in on the pristine black floor. Thorns were spiking out of my hands, trickles of blood flowing out. Slowly, I looked sideways, opening my eyes wide enough to take in my surroundings.

“She was found trying to get through the borders, Alpha Nox.” The guards flanking me on both sides suddenly fell to one knee, heads bowed. “She’s rabid, daring to draw blood from some of us.”

There was a tense silence.

“One of the men lost an eye.”

“This little thing took an eye from one of my heavily trained guards?” A voice like night responded. It was like dark silk, leaving shivers in its wake. “Are you incompetent, or is she impressive?”

Slowly, I raised my head forward.

Sitting on an obsidian throne, framed by mighty sculptures of black wolf heads, was a deceptively relaxed figure. He seemed more devil than mortal, with an untamed dark gaze that pierced right through my mind.

My breath held.

He was devastating. The handsome features of his face were chiseled like glass and rugged like stone, framed by ink-black hair that was slicked back from his forehead. He was a tower of toned muscle, every inch a predator about to pounce, even as he relaxed on his throne.

I tried to swallow, but the action itself was too hard for me to manage, so I tried to stagger to my feet.

“You—”

I felt a hand club me down back to the earth.

“Stay down!” A guard roared behind me. I wheezed, trying to draw in breath, but at that moment, another guard, who I knew was previously bowed and kneeling, jumped to his feet, the metallic shing of his sword as he drew it out of its scabbard a chilling whisper in my ears.

“Let me end her now, Alpha. I cannot bear to watch her a second longer as she grovels in your presence.”

I don't even know these people.

A slow-burning anger took hold of my chest and my breathing became labored as my fists clenched beside me.

I struggled to rise. Another guard shoved my face again into the ground with so much force that I thought I was going to pass out.

I chanced a glance at the guard’s face, saw the cold impassivity in his eyes, and my anger flared even more.

After all I had done to escape from my Uncle. After—

“I fear that somehow, somewhere…” the Alpha said as he watched me from his throne, eyes unfeeling, “…I have failed in my duties as Alpha. I would have thought by now, that you were all more than well-trained enough to know my heart.”

“Alpha—!” the guard who had drawn his sword said loudly, knees hitting the tiles. “We—“

“Marcos.” The Alpha shushed. That was all it took for the guard to go silent, unmoving… he could have been dead for all I knew, for how still they stood… they could all have been dead.

“My Beta is grasping at the threads of life, struggling… dying; you bring in this woman before me that I may pass judgment, and now your zeal drives to execute her in haste before me…”

I heard the sound of his slow descent as he approached us, and then he was before me.

My injuries were horrible, to say the least, and I thought that I might pass out from the pain as the Alpha clutched my face and lifted it up to his. I stared with difficulty at him through half-open eyes.

“What is your name?” he asked.

I hated myself for the way that my lips moved sluggishly and my thoughts focused on how slippery and smooth his voice was.

“Mor.” I squeezed out through gritted teeth. “Morrigan Thorne,” I lied.

He just stared, like he could tell, then smiled darkly. “You assassins have the strangest names. Always so beautiful, and yet so strange. I find that I cannot refute my awe of you. Listen now—”

His words swirled around me. “That someone so small, so weak… could find a way to not only make an attempt at my life—but to incapacitate my Beta…? Now that is a miracle that not even the most skilled warriors from the neighbouring packs have been able to achieve. If I were not so impressed, I would have already had you executed before your next breath.”

“I did not kill your Beta—”

“—He’s not dead.” A flash of anger quickly drew itself across his face. Then he was composed again as he let go of my face. “He will not die.”

He rose and stepped away from me, his movements fluid. “How did you manage it?”

“Manage what?” I snarled. A guard's hand cracked across my face, filling my mouth with the bitter tang of blood. The Alpha stared.

"I've done nothing.” Words slurred through swollen lips. "Your assassin isn't me. I've never set foot in this territory before today—"

"—Alpha Nox,” A guard butted in, “May I please silence her lies?”

"It's the truth!"I barked, desperation clawing at my throat. "Torture me if you must, but know this – the real culprit still runs free while you waste time on me!"

"If that's so," he said, voice deceptively soft, "then why were you fleeing?”

My breath caught, words dying in my throat.

The Alpha’s eyes narrowed to slits of midnight. "Your silence is... intriguing."

I was panicking more now. I couldn't reveal the truth – not if I wanted to avoid being handed back to my uncle or worse. But before I could cobble together a response, he turned away.

"Confine her, Marcos," he commanded, ascending his throne. "She stays until the Beta awakens to identify her."

An overwhelming scent oozed from him – power, danger, and something else I couldn't name. Even with the lack of my wolf’s presence, every instinct screamed that this man was more than he appeared.

"Consider yourself fortunate," he added, settling onto his seat. "Few who harm my pack live long enough to see the inside of a cell."

I should have raged. Should have fought. Instead, as rough hands dragged me from the cold floor, I let them take me.

————

“Pray the Beta wakes soon," Marcos had sneered, shoving me into the cell hours ago. "This cage will be a greater nightmare than your execution. And don't delude yourself – the Alpha won't grant you the mercy of execution until he has your master's name."

Since then, I'd tried desperately to reach my wolf, just as I had back in my pack’s dungeon. But there was nothing. I was hollow just as I have been since Kael’s death, barely qualifying as a werewolf now, let alone an Alpha. My pack, my people, my birthright – all lost.

The sudden clang of metal jolted me from my brooding. A guard entered, a bottle clutched in his meaty fist. He exchanged low words with his comrade, whose hunting gaze hadn't left me since I'd arrived. And my stomach knotted as they approached. I knew that look.

I scrambled backwards until my spine pressed against the cold stone wall. They entered the cell, twin grins stretching their faces in a way that made my skin crawl.

"Thirsty, little killer?" One guard grunted, while the other laughed.

"You're not permitted to—" I began, voice hoarse.

"Listen to her!" The second guard chuckled cowardly. "She thinks she has rights!"

"Stop," I commanded, summoning what little strength I had left. "Don't come any closer."

They ignored my words, advancing, making a mockery of me! Their smell was awful, yellow teeth peeking out in a lustful grin.

Before I could protest further, rough fingers dug into my jaw, wrenching my mouth open. I thrashed wildly as bitter liquid poured down my throat. When I tried to resist swallowing, a punch to my stomach forced the air from my lungs.

I choked and sputtered, more of the foul substance flooding my mouth. The cell seemed to shrink around me, the ceiling threatening to collapse and crush me.

"That's it," one guard crooned, his voice sickeningly gleeful. "Drink up."

Tears blurred my vision as their grips finally loosened. I crumpled to the floor, body wracked with violent coughs as I tried to oust the liquid. It had tasted of water at first, but as fire spread through my veins, it was clear.

Fuck… wolfsbane.