“What did I do to you?” I screamed, my voice hoarse, desperate for some answer, some flicker of humanity from my father’s Beta. But David’s face was stone-cold, void of any trace of empathy. He didn’t even glance at me.

With mechanical indifference, he took a briefcase from the bearded man and turned his back, as if I were already a distant memory. I clenched my teeth, vowing silently that if I survived this, I would come back for him. One day, I would make him feel every ounce of betrayal he had given me.

I felt the unyielding bite of silver on my wrists and ankles, binding me, draining any chance I might have had of escaping. The men shoved me into the back of the truck, where two other strangers held me down with callous strength. I knew I didn’t stand a chance against them. I was helpless, forced to endure whatever came next.

The journey dragged on, and the air grew colder with each mile. I had no clothes to shield me from the chill, no wolf to heat my blood. Eventually, my body began to tremble uncontrollably, each shiver cutting deeper into my bruised skin.

One of the men seemed to take pity on me, tossing a filthy, tattered blanket over my shoulders. I clung to it despite its grime, grateful for any small comfort. My skin burned from the wounds I had collected, and I knew they would take longer to heal without my wolf’s power. I prayed silently, my only hope that they wouldn’t fester and worsen.

At a gas station, they yanked me from the truck and threw me onto the cold ground. The bearded man approached with a bottle of vodka, and before I had a moment to brace myself, he poured the stinging liquid over my raw wounds. A blinding, searing pain tore through me, and I bit down hard on my lip to stop myself from screaming.

“Can’t take damaged goods to my Alphas,” he sneered, his grin revealing a row of yellowed, rotting teeth. I turned my head away, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing my reaction. The other men with him remained silent, their faces impassive, as though this was just another task to complete.

I was paralyzed with fear, an emotion that clawed at me every time I thought of the possibility that I might never escape. The farther we traveled, the more impossible that hope seemed. The silver was searing into my skin, each second marking me deeper, and even without a wolf, I could feel its relentless sting.

Finally, the truck lurched to a stop, and one of the men barked at me to get out. My legs were numb and shaky as I stumbled from the truck, and the sudden sting of cold against my bare feet shocked me. Snow. I was standing on snow.

The bitter cold cut through me, sharper than anything I’d ever felt. The world around me was bathed in the eerie glow of a full moon, casting pale shadows across a landscape stripped of the lush greenery I’d known at home. Here, the trees stood sparse, their branches bare and twisted like skeletons against the night sky.

Then, without warning, someone yanked harshly at the chain wrapped around my wrists, and I fell forward, hitting the frozen ground. The impact jarred me, my knees scraping painfully against the icy surface. I looked up, swallowing hard, tasting the iron tang of fear in my mouth.