Elena POV:
I tried to scramble back, but the cage was too small.
Sophia thrust the silver dagger through the gaps in the bars. She didn't aim for my tongue. She aimed for my arm, which was raised to protect my belly.
Shkth.
The blade buried itself deep into my forearm.
"Ahhh!"
The pain was unlike anything else. Silver doesn't just cut; it cauterizes and poisons simultaneously. It disrupts the magical biology that keeps us alive.
Sophia yanked the dagger out.
Blood sprayed onto the concrete. But it wasn't the bright red of a normal human or a low-level wolf.
It was dark. Almost black, with shimmering flecks of gold in it.
*It was the blood of the Alpha Prime bloodline. But Sophia, blinded by her own prejudice and the dim lighting of the dungeon, didn't see the gold. She only saw the darkness.*
*"Black blood?" Sophia gagged, stepping back. "You really are rotting from the inside out. Disgusting."*
She grabbed a pouch from her belt-powdered silver-and dumped the entire contents onto my open wound.
"Purify the evil!" she shrieked.
My body convulsed. The silver entered my bloodstream, racing toward my heart.
My vision went white.
The connection to my womb... it was fading. The frantic kicking of the baby had slowed down to a weak flutter.
*Baby... stay with me,* I prayed to the Moon Goddess. *Take me. Take my life. Just let him live.*
Sophia, satisfied with her work, turned and strutted out of the dungeon, leaving the door slightly ajar.
I lay in a pool of my own strange, dark blood. The cold was creeping up my legs.
"Mommy..."
I hallucinated. I saw a little boy with Damien's eyes and my silver hair, standing just outside the cage. He was crying.
"I'm sorry," I whispered to the empty air. "I'm so sorry."
Heavy boots crunched on the floor.
I didn't have the energy to look up. I just waited for the final blow.
"Holy Moon Goddess."
The voice was deep and unfamiliar.
A Warrior, dressed in the pack's patrol uniform, stood there. He looked at the blood, then at me. His nose twitched.
I was dying. My scent was fading. But underneath the smell of blood and rot, my true scent-the scent of the White Wolf-was leaking out because I was too weak to maintain my disguise.
It was a scent of pure power, of ancient royalty.
The Warrior's knees buckled. He didn't know why, but his wolf instincts were screaming at him to submit.
He tapped his earpiece.
"Alpha," the Warrior said, his voice trembling. "The prisoner... the Rogue. She's bleeding out. There's... there's too much blood."
*He shone his flashlight on the puddle beneath me. The beam caught the metallic sheen.*
*"Alpha, her blood... it has gold in it. It's shimmering."*
I could hear Damien's voice through the Warrior's earpiece. It was tinny and distant.
*"Don't be an idiot, Marcus. It's probably just the silver dust reflecting. She's trying to distract us from Victoria. Leave her."*
"But Alpha," Marcus stammered. "She smells... she smells like..."
"That's an order!" Damien roared.
Marcus looked at me. He looked at my swollen belly, which was now terrifyingly still.
Wolves cherish children. It is our most fundamental law. To let a pup die is a crime against nature.
Marcus gritted his teeth.
"Forgive me, Alpha," he muttered.
He grabbed the lock of the silver cage. He didn't have the key. He shifted his hand into a partial wolf claw, groaning as the silver burned him, and ripped the door off its hinges with brute strength.
He scooped me up.
I was limp in his arms.
"Stay with me," Marcus grunted, running toward the exit. "I'm taking you to the Pack Hospital."
The movement jostled me. Pain flared, keeping me tethered to consciousness by a thread.
We burst out of the basement into the cool night air. The moon was high and full. It mocked me.
Marcus ran faster than a human vehicle, his wolf speed eating up the distance to the medical center.
"We made it," he panted, kicking open the double doors of the hospital. "Help! We need a doctor!"
Silence answered him.
The lobby was empty. The reception desk was abandoned.
"Where is everyone?" Marcus yelled.
I let out a weak, dry cough. "Victoria..."
"What?"
"They are all... with Victoria," I whispered.
Damien had stripped the entire hospital of staff to attend to one woman, leaving me and his unborn son to die in the dark.
