Chapter 23
I stood up slowly, my legs aching from sitting on the cold wooden floor for so long. My body was stiff, but my mind was racing. I needed to find a way out of this room. There had to be something—a crack in the wall, a hidden door, anything. I scanned the room again, but it was just as empty and bare as before. The wooden walls were solid, no windows, not even a small crack to let in the daylight. I had no idea if it was day or night, and that made the room feel even more suffocating.
I stumbled over to the small toilet in the corner, but there wasn’t even a sink. No water, no way to clean myself, no way to drink. My throat was dry, my lips chapped from the lack of water. I groaned in frustration. There was nothing in here. Nothing but me.
But I wasn’t going to betray my family. That much I knew for sure. There was no way in hell I’d give Jeremiah what he wanted. My father, my mother—they didn’t deserve to be hurt because of this. Whatever grudge Jeremiah had against us, it was his problem, not theirs.
I walked to the door and banged on it with both fists. "Let me out!" I screamed, my voice hoarse from thirst. "I need water! Somebody, please!"
I banged and shouted until my hands were sore, but nobody answered. Nobody cared. I collapsed against the door, my legs too weak to hold me up anymore. I was hungry—so hungry I could eat anything. My stomach growled angrily, and my wolf stirred restlessly inside me.
Even my wolf was starving. She was angry, pacing in my mind, and I could feel her frustration building. She was as trapped as I was. And worse, tonight was a full moon. I could feel it creeping up on me, the pull of the moon getting stronger.
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. My chest rose and fell in slow, shaky breaths. I tried to calm my wolf, to tell her not to shift tonight. I wasn’t strong enough. Shifting would drain the last of my energy, and I didn’t have the strength to heal afterward. Shifting was hard enough when you were strong, but without food or water? It was going to be agony.
“Please,” I whispered to my wolf, “not tonight. Don’t shift.”
But it was too late. I felt the familiar tug deep in my body, the way my bones began to strain and stretch under my skin. My back arched painfully as my spine started to shift. The first snap of my bones made me scream, the sound ripping through the silence of the room. My arms twisted, bones breaking and reforming as they grew longer. The pain was unbearable, like being torn apart from the inside.
"No,no,no,no please!"
I collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath. My nails elongated, turning into sharp claws that dug into the wooden floor. My teeth sharpened, my jaw cracking as it extended into a snout. Blood filled my mouth as my gums split open, the taste of iron making me gag.
Every inch of my body hurt. My legs snapped, the bones breaking in several places before reforming into their new shape. My dress tore into shreds, falling off me as my wolf took over. I screamed again, but the sound was garbled, half-human, half-wolf. My spine twisted one last time, and I spat out blood as the final bones shifted into place.
I lay there on the floor, panting, my body trembling from the effort. My wolf whined, her pain mirroring mine. She was weak too—too weak to even stand. She dragged herself into a corner of the room and curled up, her body shaking. I could feel her hunger, her desperation, but there was nothing I could do to help.
Everything went black.
When I woke up, I was human again. I didn’t remember shifting back, but my naked body was sprawled out on the cold wooden floor. My limbs felt like lead, every muscle aching from the strain of the shift. Blood trickled from my nostrils, my ears, even my mouth. I could taste the metallic tang on my tongue, my body struggling to heal itself.
I tried to move, but the pain was too much. My whole body felt broken, like I’d been torn apart and put back together wrong. My hair was soaked with sweat, dripping down my forehead and into my eyes. I felt cold, so cold that I couldn’t stop shivering.
I curled up into a ball, trying to make myself smaller, trying to hide from the pain. My skin was slick with sweat and blood, and the wooden floor was hard beneath me. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the pain to go away, but it didn’t. I was too weak, too exhausted to do anything but lie there and wait.
Suddenly, the door creaked open.
I blinked through the blurry haze that clouded my vision. Alpha Jeremiah stood in the doorway, his eyes wide with surprise. For a moment, I thought I saw something like concern flash across his face, but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared.
He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. His eyes scanned the room before landing on me, naked and bleeding on the floor. His face hardened, and without a word, he shrugged off his large blazer and tossed it over my exposed body.
"Everyone, leave," he ordered, his voice low and sharp. The others who had followed him into the room quickly turned and left, shutting the door behind them.
Jeremiah moved toward me, his footsteps quick. I tried to speak, to tell him to stay away, but my throat was too dry, my voice too weak. He knelt beside me, lifting me gently off the ground. The warmth of his blazer surrounded me, but my body was still shaking.
I didn’t have the strength to fight him. My eyes fluttered shut as he held me, cradling me in his arms. For a moment, I felt safe—then the darkness took over again.
And I drifted off.
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