Charlotte POV:
The photo vibrated on my new phone. It was a selfie of Kalia, wrapped in a white fur coat, sitting on Bryant's lap. The caption read: Alpha only belongs to the strong.
I deleted it.
I had been discharged from the hospital with a limp and a cane. My leg was healing, but slowly. The bone knit crookedly because they hadn't set it right.
I was packing my bag in the penthouse, preparing to leave for good, when the front door exploded inward.
"Where is she?" Bryant roared.
He stormed into the bedroom. He didn't look at my cane. He grabbed me by the throat and slammed me against the wall.
"What did you do with her?"
I gasped for air. "Who?"
"Kalia! She's gone! She sent a distress signal from your location!"
I laughed. A dry, rasping sound. "I've been in the hospital, you idiot. Or here. I can barely walk. How could I kidnap your mistress?"
"Liar!" he screamed. "You have resources. That company of yours... that little hobby."
He dragged me. Again. Always dragging me like a sack of grain.
He pulled me down to the basement of the estate. Past the wine cellar. Into the old holding cells used for rogue interrogations during the war.
He threw me into a cell.
The moment my skin touched the bars, I hissed. Smoke rose from my arm.
Silver.
The bars were coated in silver dust. For a werewolf, silver is poison. It burns the skin and poisons the blood, halting all healing and causing excruciating pain.
"Bryant!" I screamed. "It's silver! It burns!"
Even wolfless wolves have the allergy. It's biological.
"Tell me where she is!" he yelled, slamming the gate shut.
"I don't know!"
He reached for a dial on the wall. The thermostat. This deep underground, it was naturally freezing. He cranked the AC down to maximum.
"Think about it in the cold, Charlotte. Maybe when you're freezing to death, you'll remember."
He turned off the lights and left.
I curled into a ball in the center of the cell, trying to stay away from the silver-coated walls. The cold seeped into my bones. My broken leg throbbed with a dull, aching rhythm.
Time lost its meaning. Was it hours? Days?
The cold made me hallucinate. I saw my mother, who had died when I was young. She looked sad.
Then, the darkness shifted. A figure appeared. Not a ghost. A woman made of moonlight.
Child, she whispered. Her voice sounded like wind through trees. To be reborn, you must first be destroyed.
I'm already destroyed, I thought.
Not yet. The fire is coming. Endure.
The vision faded as the heavy iron door creaked open.
Light flooded in, blinding me.
Bryant stood there. And beside him, Kalia.
She was wearing the fur coat from the photo. Her skin was glowing. She held a shopping bag.
"Oh, honey," she cooed, looking at Bryant. "I told you, I was just at the spa. My phone died. I didn't mean to worry you."
She looked at me, shivering on the floor, my lips blue. "Oh my god. Is she... is she in the silver cell?"
She feigned shock, covering her mouth with a manicured hand.
Bryant let out a breath of relief, hugging Kalia. "Thank the Goddess. I thought... I thought she had hurt you."
He looked at me. There was no apology in his eyes. Just a flicker of annoyance that he had overreacted.
"Let her out," he told the guard behind him.
He didn't help me up. He didn't offer a coat. He just walked away with his arm around Kalia's waist.
"You poor thing," I heard him say to her. "You must be exhausted from your massage."
I lay there for a moment, unable to move. The guard, a young warrior who looked guilty, offered me a hand.
I slapped it away.
I used the wall to pull myself up, hissing as the silver dust burned my fingertips.
I limped out of the cell.
I went straight to the penthouse. Bryant was there, sitting on the sofa, holding my old phone-the one they had confiscated.
"Your birthday party is next week," he said, not looking up. "The pack elders are insisting we celebrate. It's the annual Pack Gathering too."
I snatched the phone from his hand. Adrenaline gave me strength.
"I will be there," I said, my voice sounding like gravel.
"Good," he said. "Try to look less... like a corpse."
I walked to the door. I stopped and looked back at him.
"You locked me in a silver cage for a woman who was getting a facial."
Bryant shrugged. "I did what I had to do to protect my pack. Alphas don't take chances."
I nodded slowly. "I understand."
I understood perfectly. He wasn't an Alpha. He was a fool. And fools shouldn't wear crowns.
I dialed Jaden's number as soon as I was in the elevator.
"I'm sending you an invite to the Gala," I said.
Jaden's voice was dark. "I'll be there."
"And bring your lawyers," I added. "I'm taking back my company. And my life."
