RHEA’S POV They dragged me through the bitter, freezing snow like a bag of useless trash and threw me onto the cold ground of a dark, smelly cell.
The heavy iron door slammed shut with a terrifying bang that echoed down the long stone hall.
Through the thick iron bars, the Pack Elder stood waving the big ring of keys in front of my face.
A cruel, ugly smile stretched across his face.
“Why?” I asked, my voice shaking as I pushed myself up from the wet stone floor.
The heavy metal chains around my wrists made a loud noise as they scraped against the ground.
“Why would you risk your Alpha’s life like this?
Why would you rather let him die than let a human doctor save him?” The Elder let out a loud, mean laugh.
“You think far too highly of yourself, girl.
Do not forget what you really are.
A weak, pitiful human.
An insignificant creature I could break with a single snap of my fingers.
You are nothing to this pack, and your dark magic will not save you here.” He turned his back on me and walked away, leaving just one large guard standing outside my door.
I sank back against the wet, freezing wall, wrapping my arms around myself as best I could.
I counted every single passing second with small, frantic breaths.
One…
two…
three…
Time was running out fast.
Kael’s heart was slowing down out there, his deep chest wounds tearing open again from the inside out.
If I didn’t do something right now, he would be dead before the morning sun came up.
And if he died here, my only chance of getting back home to protect my sweet little boy, Elias, would die right along with him.
I looked down at my hands and pulled hard on the heavy iron binds wrapping around my skin.
They weren’t even made of silver.
In their silly pride, the pack elders had thought a simple human girl was far too weak to ever fight back.
They had made a huge mistake.
I might have been born without a wolf spirit inside me, but growing up as an unwanted, disgraced daughter in the dangerous Voss Pack meant I had been forced to train twice as hard as every other warrior just to stay alive.
I remembered a painful joint-snapping trick I had learned almost ten years ago during the survival training.
I held my breath, twisted my left hand at a sharp angle, and popped my thumb bone right out of its socket.
A sharp spike of terrible pain shot straight up my arm, but I bit my lip hard and did not make a single sound.
I slipped my narrow, bloody hand right through the iron loop, then popped the bone back into place with a small gasp.
A second later, I did the same to my right hand, slipping it free as well.
The loud, heavy clatter of the iron chains hitting the stone floor alerted the guard immediately.
“What’s going on in there?” the guard grunted, stepping away from the wall.
He walked over to the bars and peered into the dark cell.
Through the heavy shadows, he saw a lump lying totally still on the cold floor.
“Hey.
Get up,” The guard pulled out his keys, unlocked the heavy latch, slammed the cell door open, and rushed inside to my side.
He bent down low, reaching out to check my neck for a pulse.
It was the exact chance I was waiting for.
I spun around fast on the floor, formed a spear with my hand my hand and struck him hard right on the side of his neck.
It was a special pressure-point strike I had practiced a hundred times during my medical training in the city.
The guard’s eyes rolled back into his head instantly.
He dropped like a sack of grain, completely knocked out before he even realized what hit him.
I reached down and grabbed the big ring of keys from his leather belt.
I snuck out of the cell, closed the door behind me, and ran up the damp stairs as fast as I could go.
I remembered the path Garrett had taken when he brought me into the castle earlier.
I moved through the dark, twisting halls, hiding in the shadows whenever I heard footsteps, and finally burst out through a side door into the freezing night air.
“Stop right there,” A strict voice shouted through the howling wind.
A pack warrior, a large man who had stood in the courtyard earlier and watched me heal that tiny, dying baby, stepped out from behind a tall stone pillar, blocking my path.
“It’s you,” the man said, pointing a heavy finger at my face.
“Tell me the truth, girl.
What kind of spell did you use on that baby?
What dark, forbidden magic are you hiding from the pack?” “Get out of my way!” I screamed back at him.
I didn’t waste another second talking or trying to explain.
I ducked right under his reaching arm, shoved past him with all the strength left in my body, and ran as fast as I could into the biting mountain wind.
I was wearing only my thin linen shirt and pants, no coat, no gloves, and no boots or socks to protect my feet from the deep, freezing snow.
The sharp wind cut through my thin clothes, turning my bare skin completely numb within seconds.
My lungs burned with every messy breath I took, and my head started to feel strange and light.
Just a little further, I kept telling myself, even as my legs began to shake out of control.
Just a few more steps.
You have to reach him.
My knees locked up, totally out of strength, and began to collapse right beneath me into the snow.
“Dr.
Clara!” A loud, desperate voice called out through the blowing storm ahead.
Maybe the freezing cold was making my brain play tricks on me, but he sounded a lot closer than I thought he would be.
I shivered violently, wrapping my numb, freezing arms around my chest as a big shape ran toward me through the dark.
Garrett.
“Take me to him,” I gasped out, my teeth clicking together so hard I could barely form the words.
“Please…
take me to Kael…” Garrett didn’t ask a single question.
Seeing my bruised, bloody hands and my shivering body, he scooped me up into his big, warm arms without waiting.
He turned around and ran up the giant stone stairs leading back into the main house, taking three steps at a time.
He kicked open the big wooden doors of the main bedroom and carried me right inside.
The moment we stepped across the doorway, before my eyes could even look around the dark room, the strong, awful smell of fresh blood hit my nose first.
RHEA’S POV They dragged me through the bitter, freezing snow like a bag of useless trash and threw me onto the cold ground of a dark, smelly cell.
The heavy iron door slammed shut with a terrifying bang that echoed down the long stone hall.
Through the thick iron bars, the Pack Elder stood waving the big ring of keys in front of my face.
A cruel, ugly smile stretched across his face.
“Why?” I asked, my voice shaking as I pushed myself up from the wet stone floor.
The heavy metal chains around my wrists made a loud noise as they scraped against the ground.
“Why would you risk your Alpha’s life like this?
Why would you rather let him die than let a human doctor save him?” The Elder let out a loud, mean laugh.
“You think far too highly of yourself, girl.
Do not forget what you really are.
A weak, pitiful human.
An insignificant creature I could break with a single snap of my fingers.
You are nothing to this pack, and your dark magic will not save you here.” He turned his back on me and walked away, leaving just one large guard standing outside my door.
I sank back against the wet, freezing wall, wrapping my arms around myself as best I could.
I counted every single passing second with small, frantic breaths.
One…
two…
three…
Time was running out fast.
Kael’s heart was slowing down out there, his deep chest wounds tearing open again from the inside out.
If I didn’t do something right now, he would be dead before the morning sun came up.
And if he died here, my only chance of getting back home to protect my sweet little boy, Elias, would die right along with him.
I looked down at my hands and pulled hard on the heavy iron binds wrapping around my skin.
They weren’t even made of silver.
In their silly pride, the pack elders had thought a simple human girl was far too weak to ever fight back.
They had made a huge mistake.
I might have been born without a wolf spirit inside me, but growing up as an unwanted, disgraced daughter in the dangerous Voss Pack meant I had been forced to train twice as hard as every other warrior just to stay alive.
I remembered a painful joint-snapping trick I had learned almost ten years ago during the survival training.
I held my breath, twisted my left hand at a sharp angle, and popped my thumb bone right out of its socket.
A sharp spike of terrible pain shot straight up my arm, but I bit my lip hard and did not make a single sound.
I slipped my narrow, bloody hand right through the iron loop, then popped the bone back into place with a small gasp.
A second later, I did the same to my right hand, slipping it free as well.
The loud, heavy clatter of the iron chains hitting the stone floor alerted the guard immediately.
“What’s going on in there?” the guard grunted, stepping away from the wall.
He walked over to the bars and peered into the dark cell.
Through the heavy shadows, he saw a lump lying totally still on the cold floor.
“Hey.
Get up,” The guard pulled out his keys, unlocked the heavy latch, slammed the cell door open, and rushed inside to my side.
He bent down low, reaching out to check my neck for a pulse.
It was the exact chance I was waiting for.
I spun around fast on the floor, formed a spear with my hand my hand and struck him hard right on the side of his neck.
It was a special pressure-point strike I had practiced a hundred times during my medical training in the city.
The guard’s eyes rolled back into his head instantly.
He dropped like a sack of grain, completely knocked out before he even realized what hit him.
I reached down and grabbed the big ring of keys from his leather belt.
I snuck out of the cell, closed the door behind me, and ran up the damp stairs as fast as I could go.
I remembered the path Garrett had taken when he brought me into the castle earlier.
I moved through the dark, twisting halls, hiding in the shadows whenever I heard footsteps, and finally burst out through a side door into the freezing night air.
“Stop right there,” A strict voice shouted through the howling wind.
A pack warrior, a large man who had stood in the courtyard earlier and watched me heal that tiny, dying baby, stepped out from behind a tall stone pillar, blocking my path.
“It’s you,” the man said, pointing a heavy finger at my face.
“Tell me the truth, girl.
What kind of spell did you use on that baby?
What dark, forbidden magic are you hiding from the pack?” “Get out of my way!” I screamed back at him.
I didn’t waste another second talking or trying to explain.
I ducked right under his reaching arm, shoved past him with all the strength left in my body, and ran as fast as I could into the biting mountain wind.
I was wearing only my thin linen shirt and pants, no coat, no gloves, and no boots or socks to protect my feet from the deep, freezing snow.
The sharp wind cut through my thin clothes, turning my bare skin completely numb within seconds.
My lungs burned with every messy breath I took, and my head started to feel strange and light.
Just a little further, I kept telling myself, even as my legs began to shake out of control.
Just a few more steps.
You have to reach him.
My knees locked up, totally out of strength, and began to collapse right beneath me into the snow.
“Dr.
Clara!” A loud, desperate voice called out through the blowing storm ahead.
Maybe the freezing cold was making my brain play tricks on me, but he sounded a lot closer than I thought he would be.
I shivered violently, wrapping my numb, freezing arms around my chest as a big shape ran toward me through the dark.
Garrett.
“Take me to him,” I gasped out, my teeth clicking together so hard I could barely form the words.
“Please…
take me to Kael…” Garrett didn’t ask a single question.
Seeing my bruised, bloody hands and my shivering body, he scooped me up into his big, warm arms without waiting.
He turned around and ran up the giant stone stairs leading back into the main house, taking three steps at a time.
He kicked open the big wooden doors of the main bedroom and carried me right inside.
The moment we stepped across the doorway, before my eyes could even look around the dark room, the strong, awful smell of fresh blood hit my nose first.