6

Andrea’s POV

Cold.

Freezing cold.

That’s the first sensation I felt before I had the courage to open my eyes and find out if the coldness was coming from my after life or from miraculously surviving death at the hands of the rogues that were running after me.

I tried to remember the last thing that happened before regaining consciousness.

We were being chased by five very huge wolves.

Clara was able to keep a decent distance for about ten minutes before they caught up and surrounded her from all sides.

I remember the immense fear we both felt then, the great fear of getting ripped brutally to shreds right on that snowy ground. Our blood staining the white canvas in a gruesome scene. Our unimaginable pain that we were going to feel as they all sink their sharp teeth on various parts of Clara’s body.

Despite that crippling fear we felt, Clara refused to cower and give up this easily.

As soon as one of the wolves charged in our direction, she started fighting him viciously. I was left quite stunned at her display of power because she held her own against a wolf twice her size quite well. She even managed to bite one of his legs deeply, causing him to crumble down, howling and twitching in pain before we were knocked out from behind with a great blow to the head, causing us to pass out immediately.

That’s it, that’s the last thing I remember.

“Clara?” I called out to her in my head before getting the courage to open my eyes and discover where I was or if I was even still in the land of the living.

I always used to wonder.

If I die, will my wolf join me wherever I go after death?

It was a question I always thought about but didn’t want to seek its answer. Not for a very very long time.

“Ah! Andy… it hurts” Clara whimpered very weakly in my head. I could barely hear her voice let alone feel her presence in my head. She was barely there, I felt like I’m going to lose my connection to her at any second. The connection that was constantly stable and strong for as long as I remember since she woke up in my head on my 16^th birthday; except the period we entered the La Crosse territory, was now very weak and faint. It caused me to panic and feel like I was about to lose a part of myself, like an organ of sorts.

I searched inside me for a pain of my own but aside from freezing my ass off in my naked human form, I didn’t feel anything else.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her in worry.

“Wolfs bane” she whispered softly.

I cursed silently.

Yeah, that answers the alive or dead question.

If we have wolfs bane in our system, we’re definitely still alive, and are definitely going to suffer and wish for death without getting that wish. Not for a very long time.

Wolfs bane is very toxic to the wolf but it does nothing to the human body. It numbs the connection and prevents the wolf from shifting or lending its powers or healing ability to its human host.

The only reason I am not dead is because the rogue alphas wanted me alive to set an example out of me. That’s the only explanation for remaining alive till now. They are very well known for setting great examples for the whole werewolf community to hear about and be scared of standing up to them or going against them.

I finally gained the courage to open my eyes and find out where I was being held.

A name comes to mind immediately to the exact place I was left in. There was no confusing what it was

It was a holding cell.

With metal bars you can see through to the other side; which was also another holding cell separated by a dimly lit corridor. It was the only source of light in this place.

I slowly lifted my head up and squinted my eyes to make sense of what I was seeing.

I wasn’t the only person locked up.

The opposite cell had five girls locked inside it. All naked and in a dire condition.

Two of them were laying on their sides with their backs facing me. I stared in horror as I realized that their backs were full of whipping marks.

Where the hell am I?

“Good, you woke up right on time. A few more minutes and I would have had to wake you forcefully” a girl’s voice said from behind me.

I jumped away from it in fright and hit my bare back against the metal bars. I hissed in agony as I felt the bars burning my skin off and scurried away from it instantly as my eyes watered with the intense pain I felt at that brief moment. I crouched against the parallel wall while wrapping my arms around myself in fear.

The bars were made of silver. It’s the only metal that can burn us and cause this much pain when it comes to contact with our skin.

With wide, terrified eyes, I looked at the girl who spoke to me earlier and realized that I wasn’t alone in this cell either.

I was locked up with three other naked girls.

However, these girls looked almost intact. They weren’t in such a horrible condition as the girls in the opposite cell. Still, they also showed signs of exhaustion and malnourishment.

“Where am I?” I whispered in a very low voice, I wasn’t sure if the girl I addressed my question to heard what I said or not. It was the same one who talked to me.

She had jet black, long, straight hair that looked like it hasn’t been combed or washed in days. One side of her face was fully hidden by her hair. There was a thin, black headband on her forehead. It gave her a very creepy appearance.

“Unofficially… you’re in hell. Officially, you’re in the King’s pack” she said sympathetically.

I stared at her in confusion, unable to understand her words. Not really registering what she meant exactly by in hell, but it seemed like my heart got the message clearly as it started slowly to sink.

“How did I get here?” I asked her in shock.

She furrowed her eyebrows “What’s the last thing you remember?” she asked curiously.

“I was being chased by…rogues” I said slowly trying to make sense of the connection between the rogues and this pack.

“They attacked your pack?” she tried to guess.

I shook my head.

“I….they…uh…I was being chased by them because I sort of turned against them during a battle and saved someone I should have killed. I thought they were taking me back to the rogue pack but…this is not… this pack wasn’t involved in the battle” I said in a lost tone, still trying to connect the dots. I knew the names of the rogue packs that participated in the battle and the King’s pack wasn’t one of them, I was certain.

“Oh so you betrayed them. I guess this is their way of killing you without actually doing it. Death would have been too merciful for your betrayal. I mean that’s what whoever sold you to this pack must have been thinking” she said sensitively.

Death would have been too merciful? Sold me? What does that mean?

She saw me starting to panic at her words and spoke quietly “You’re a slave now”