The three Ellington brothers stood before Amelia, their commanding presence swallowing what little space the prison cell had. They looked as though they had been carved from marble. Sharp jaws. Broad shoulders. Powerful builds.
Faces that could have belonged to gods.Anyone seeing them for the first time would have mistaken them for noble men. But Amelia knew better.Beneath those impossibly handsome faces were men whose names alone filled people with fear.
Men capable of unimaginable cruelty.
Enzo, the eldest, stepped forward first. His polished shoes came to a stop in front of her before he slowly crouched, bringing himself to her eye level.
His grey eyes were cold. Not angry. Not impatient. Simply empty.
They studied her with unnerving precision, making her feel as though every thought inside her mind was being peeled apart. "You still don’t want to talk?"
Amelia’s throat burned. Her lips parted slightly before pressing together again. She slowly turned her face away.
Don’t look into his eyes.
Don’t let him see anything.
Silence was the only answer she could afford to give. A low scoff broke the quiet. Reid folded his arms across his chest, his expression filled with irritation.
"We’re wasting our time." His gaze swept over Amelia’s battered body. "She’s endured the torture for two weeks now."
Two weeks. The words echoed inside Amelia’s head.
Two weeks...? Her breathing caught.
It couldn’t be. It had felt so much longer. The endless pain... The darkness...
The moments she drifted in and out of consciousness... Time had completely disappeared. Her chest tightened.
Dylan...
Have you been looking for me all this time?
Or...
The thought refused to finish itself. No.
She pushed it away immediately.
He’ll save me. He promised.
Dean remained silent until then.
Standing slightly behind his brothers, his long silver hair caught the faint torchlight as he tilted his head ever so slightly.
His expression never changed.
His voice detached.
"We might as well use her for what we want to use her for."
Amelia froze. Her heartbeat slammed painfully against her ribs. A violent shiver ran through her weakened body.
Use me...?
Her mind immediately wandered somewhere darker than she wanted. Images she desperately tried to suppress flashed through her thoughts. Her breathing became uneven.
No...
Please don’t...
She had survived the whip. She wasn’t sure she could survive whatever they meant by that. The stories surrounding the Ellington brothers had spread across every territory.
Merciless.
Unforgiving.
Monsters wearing expensive suits. Very few people ever crossed them. Even fewer lived long enough to regret it. Enzo slowly rose to his full height. His expression remained unreadable, but his thoughts drifted back to the night that had started all of this.
Two weeks ago.
The memory remained vivid.
An enchanted spell had wrapped around him and his brothers, forcing their bodies to move against their own will. No amount of strength had broken it.
Then...
A scent. Sweet and Potent.
Completely unlike anything he had ever encountered.
It had sliced through the spell as if it had never existed. The moment it reached them, the magic shattered. They had followed that scent without hesitation.
Straight to her.
A wolfless woman.
Hidden deep inside the heavily guarded Moonfist estate. Even now, none of it made sense. Every entrance had been secured. Every camera had been operational. Every patrol had reported nothing unusual.
Yet somehow...
She had been there.
How? Someone had helped her.
He was certain of it. And he was equally certain that her appearance and that mysterious spell were connected.
Yet after two weeks of torture... She hadn’t spoken a single useful word.
Not one. Amelia pressed herself tighter against the cold stone wall.
Every muscle in her body tensed.
Here it comes.
She waited for another lash. Another beating. Another cruel order.
Instead...
The brothers exchanged a silent glance. Now words or visible signal. Yet they all seemed to reach the same decision. Enzo turned first. Reid followed. Dean walked behind them. The heavy prison door opened. Then slammed shut.
Silence returned.
Amelia stared at the closed door. Her breathing remained shallow.
That’s it?
Confusion settled where fear had been moments ago.
What are they planning?
The uncertainty gnawed at her far worse than the whip ever had. Several minutes passed.
Then the iron door groaned open once again. A group of maids entered the prison cell. None of them spoke. Their movements were practiced. Efficient.
One stepped behind Amelia and unlocked the chains around her wrists.
Clank. The heavy iron restraints crashed onto the stone floor. Her arms immediately fell to her sides. Pins and needles shot through them after being suspended for so long. Another maid gently tried to help her stand.
The moment Amelia’s feet touched the ground, her knees gave way. She nearly collapsed.
"I’ve got her."
Two maids caught her before she could hit the floor. Without another word, they lifted her between them.
Her feet barely brushed the stone corridor as they carried her away from the prison. Amelia couldn’t stop looking around.
The familiar walls disappeared behind her one corner at a time.
What’s happening? Her pulse quickened. Are they... releasing me?
The thought vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. No.The Ellington brothers don’t show mercy.
There had to be another reason. A far worse one. She swallowed hard. Not a single flicker of relief reached her heart, only dread. Being taken out of that prison cell didn’t feel like freedom. It felt like the beginning of something even more terrifying.