Roselyn pov
I make it back to pack territory just as the sun starts to rise.
Every part of my body hurts, my movement make it more worse.
But the worst pain is inside my head.
*"Let me out!"* Cicilia roars in my mind. *"Let me out and I'll kill them all!"*
"Please stop," I whisper. "Please just be quiet."
*"Quiet? QUIET? I was sleeping for twenty years and you woke me up by mating with a VAMPIRE!"*
"I didn't know you were going to wake up!"
*"Well I'm awake now. And I'm hungry, and angry. I want to RIP SOMETHING APART!, especially that blood sucker."*
I stumble forward, clutching my head.
Having a wolf was supposed to be a blessing, but now I know I don't know what I'm wishing for, this is a consistent migraine.
The pack house appears through the trees, relief wash over now I just need to get to my room, and clean myself up.
But the moment I step into the clearing, something feels strange.
That is when I see armed warriors everywhere. They are all watching the tree line.
One warrior spot me immediately.
"There!" He shouts. "It's her!"
Before I can run, they're already on me. They grab me roughly tearing my injuries.
"Let go!" I scream. "What are you doing?"
"Shut up, traitor," a warrior snarls in my face. It's James, one of the Alpha's personal guards. "You're under arrest."
"For what?" I try to pull away but there are too many of them. "I didn't do anything!"
"You didn't do anything?" James laughs. "The whole continent saw what you did. The blood moon, ring any bells?"
My stomach drops, how did they know.
*"Fight them!"* Cicilia screams in my head. *"Shift! Kill them!"*
"I don't know how to shift!" I think back desperately.
*"Just let me take control!"*
"No! You'll kill everyone!"
*"Good!"*
The warriors drag me toward the pack house. I try to dig my heels in but it doesn't matter, they're stronger than me.
"Where are you taking me?" I demand.
"Where do you think?" James says. "The holding cells. Where traitors belong."
They haul me through the pack house doors, everyone stares as we pass, wearing the same expression of disgust.
"Freak," someone spits at me.
"Continent destroyer," another voice hisses.
"Should have drowned you years ago," an old woman says.
We go down the stone stairs into the basement, then down more stairs into the sub-basement.
Finally, we reach the holding cells. I've heard about this place but never seen it. It's where the pack keeps prisoners, traitors. and others waiting for execution.
The cells are around six feet by six feet, the bars are made of silver.
*"No!"* Cicilia roars. *"Not silver! Silver burns! Silver hurts!"*
"Wait," I say, panic rising in my throat. "Please, not silver. I'll go in a regular cell, just not silver."
"You have a wolf now," James says. "Which means you need silver to keep you contained."
"But I can't control her yet! The silver will hurt!"
"Good," James says flatly. "You deserve to be hurt."
They throw me into the cell, the moment my skin touches the silver bars, pain explodes through my body. It's like being burned alive.
I scream and jerk away from the bars, but the cell is so small, there's nowhere to go without touching silver.
The door slams shut.
"The Alpha will decide what to do with you," James says. "Until then, you stay here, please try to escape so we'll kill you on sight."
Their footsteps echo up the stairs until I'm alone in the darkness.
I huddle in the center of the cell, trying not to touch the silver walls, but it's impossible. My elbow only brushes a bar and I gasp as pain roast my arm.
*"This is your fault!"* Cicilia snarls. *"If you hadn't been with that blood sucker , I'd still be sleeping! Now we're both going to die in this cage!"*
"I'm sorry," I whisper.
*"Sorry doesn't help us! We need to get out! We need to hell hole!"*
"How? The bars are silver, we can't touch them without turning to barbecue"
*"Then let me shift! I can break through the pain!"*
"You'll kill everyone upstairs, including the innocent"
*"I don't care! Those faggot threw us in here! They deserve to die!"*
"No, I won't let you kill innocent people."
*"You won't LET me?"* Cicilia's laugh. *"You don't control me, girl. I'm older and stronger than you, taking over you is a child play."*
"Then why don't you?" I challenge.
Silence. *"Because... because I can feel what you feel. you're terrified and sad. I don't... I don't want to make it worse."*
I'm shocked. "You care about my feelings?"
*"Don't get used to it,"* she grumbles. *"I'm still angry at you."*
"I know, I'm angry at me too."
We sit in silence for a while. The cell is completely dark except for a thin line of light under the door at the top of the stairs.
"Cicilia? Why did you attack Stark? He wasn't hurting me,we were... we were happy."
*"He's a blood sucker,"* she says simply. *" They are our enemy. It's instinct, the moment I woke up and smelled him, I had to attack, I couldn't stop myself."*
"But he's not our enemy," I insist. "He saved my life, and taught me how to fight. He... he loves me."
*"Love doesn't matter when instinct takes over, that's what you don't understand, you can love him all you want. But the moment I'm in control, I'll always try to kill him, that's just how it is."*
"There has to be a way," I say desperately. "There has to be a way for us to coexist with him."
*"Maybe,"* Cicilia admits. *"But we'd need time, right now, you can barely hear my thoughts without getting a headache. How are you going to control me in a fight?"*
She's right. I can feel her overwhelming presence in my mind like a weight. I don't know how to merge with her, I can't even shift.
"Will you teach me?" I ask. "Will you help me learn?"
*"Why should I?"* she counters.
"Because if we don't learn to work together, they're going to execute both of us. And then neither of us gets to live."
Cicilia is quiet for a long moment. *"Fine. I'll teach you. But not because I like you. It's for survival."*
"That's good enough for me," I say.
The door at the top of the stairs opens, opening floodgate of light down. I hear multiple footsteps Climbing down
My heart starts racing.
*"Stay calm,"* Cicilia says. *"Don't show fear. Wolves respect strength, not weakness."*
Alpha Dante appears, behind him are Beta Marcus, Elder Gregory, and Elder Margaret. All of them look at me like I'm something they found at the bottom of their shoe.
"Roselyn," Dante says coldly, "We need to talk about what you've done."
"I didn't mean for any of this to happen," I say quickly. "I swear, I didn't know the moon would turn red. I didn't know–"
"Didn't know?" Dante interrupts. "You didn't know that sleeping with a vampire was wrong? You didn't know that betraying your pack would have consequences?"
"I wasn't betraying anyone," I say. "I was just... I was just trying to be happy."
"Happy?" Margaret's voice is sharp. "Your happiness has doomed the entire continent, do you understand that? The blood moon is a sign, it's a warning that the prophecy is coming true."
"What prophecy?" I ask, even though I'm afraid of the answer.
Gregory steps forward. "When the wolfless one finds love in the fangs of darkness, the blood moon shall rise, and the continent shall burn in eternal night. Only death can break the curse."
The words hit me hard "That's... that's not about me right?"
"Who else would it be about?" Dante says. "You were wolfless freak, he's a vampire. You fell in love, and now the blood moon has risen against us."
"But I have a wolf now," I protest. "I'm not wolfless anymore."
"That doesn't matter," Margaret says. "The prophecy was set in motion the moment you were born without a wolf. It's been waiting for this."
"What happens now?" I whisper.
"Now?" Dante smiles, but there's no warmth in it. "we have contact the vampire kingdom and arrange a meeting, we have to decide how to stop the prophecy before it destroys us all."
"How do you stop it?" I ask, though I already know the answer.
"Only death can break the curse," Gregory repeats. "Either yours, or the vampire's, or both. The elders are still debating."
My blood runs cold. "You're going to kill us."
"We're going to save the continent," Dante corrects. "Your death is simply the price."
He turns to leave, but he pause. "Oh, and Roselyn? The vampire kingdom is sending representatives tomorrow night. They'll want to question you too, I suggest you think very carefully about what you're going to say."
They walk away, leaving me in darkness.
I sit in the silver cell, pushing back my tears, and avoiding the bars.
I do not want to think about the fact that in less than two days, I'm going to die.
*"We're not going to die,"* Cicilia says fiercely. *"I didn't just wake up to get executed, we're going to find a way out of this."*
"How?" I ask. "They have us trapped. They're going to kill us."
*"Then we fight,"* she says simply. *"And if we die, we die fighting, not cowering in a cage."*
I'm about to respond when I hear something. A sound from somewhere above. Quiet and Careful.
Someone is in the pack house.
And somehow, I know exactly who it is.
Stark.
He came back for me.