The Bait
Selena’s POV
The dungeon door groaned shut behind me, and I was alone again.
My fingers found my throat where the shackle used to sit.
The skin there still felt strange—too bare, too exposed.
Ten years of silver against my neck, and now nothing.
Just the ghost of weight I’d carried since I was twelve.
He believed me.
I said it to myself like a prayer.
Like if I repeated it enough times, the universe wouldn’t snatch it away.
Ian Silvermoon, the man who killed my people, the man who rejected me, the man who locked me in this dungeon—he believed me.
My chest did something strange.
Something that felt dangerously close to hope.
I pressed my palm against the concrete wall.
Cold.
Solid.
Real.
Everything about this place was designed to remind you that you were nothing—white walls, steel bed, no windows.
The kind of room that swallowed your identity whole.
But I was still here.
Still me.
We never surrender.
Razor stirred in my chest.
She’d been quiet since I told Ian everything, like she was holding her breath too.
“Selena,” she whispered, “what happens now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You trusted him.”
“I know.”
She paused.
“That scares you.”
I didn’t answer.
Because yes.
Yes, it terrified me.
Trusting someone meant giving them the knife and hoping they didn’t stab you.
I’d given Ian all my secrets.
My past.
My fear.
My mother’s dying words.
And he’d stroked my hair and said he believed me.
“Your heart is racing,” Razor said.
“Shut up.”
“It’s racing because you want to believe him. You want to hope.”
I pressed my forehead against the wall.
The cold seeped into my skin, but it didn’t cool the fire building in my chest.
“Hope is dangerous.”
“Hope is what keeps us alive.”
“Hope is what gets us killed.”
Razor didn’t argue.
She knew I was right.
We’d watched too many Southerners die because they hoped the Northerners would show mercy.
They never did.
Until Ian.
I heard footsteps outside.
Heavy.
Measured.
I knew the rhythm now—the way his boots hit the stone, the pause before each door.
Ian walked like he was always calculating something.
Always thinking three steps ahead.
The iron door cranked open.
He stepped through alone.
No guards.
No audience.
His eyes found mine immediately.
That ocean blue, darkening at the edges like a storm coming in.
He crossed the room in four strides and stopped inches away.
“You’re still here,” he said.
“Where else would I go?”
“I don’t know. I thought maybe you’d find another way to escape.”
I almost laughed.
“From a dungeon? I’m good, but I’m not that good.”
The corner of his mouth twitched.
It wasn’t quite a smile—Ian didn’t do smiles—but it was close.
Close enough to make my stomach flip.
“I have a plan,” he said.
“Of course you do.”
“Cassius doesn’t know I know. He thinks I’m still suspicious of you. He thinks you’re in here, broken and terrified.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I’m not broken.”
“I know.” His voice dropped.
“That’s why I need you.”
Something in my chest tightened.
He needed me.
Not my body, not my usefulness, not my willingness to lie on my back—me.
Selena.
The stubborn slave who refused to break.
“What do you need?”
He told me everything.
The council members loyal to Cassius.
Eugene’s role in planting the poison.
The evidence they’d already collected but couldn’t use until Cassius made a move.
“I need you to pretend you’re still working with him,” Ian said.
“Go back to him. Act like you escaped. Tell him you’ll give me a stronger dose, that you’re scared I’ll execute you. He’ll believe it.”
I crossed my arms.
“So I’m bait.”
“Yes.”
“Just like that. You’re throwing me back to the wolves.”
His jaw tightened.
“I would never throw you anywhere. You have a choice.”
“Do I?”
“You always have a choice.”
I wanted to argue.
Wanted to point out that choice was a luxury I’d never had.
But looking at his face—the tension in his shoulders, the way his hands stayed clenched at his sides—I knew this cost him.
He hated this.
He hated putting me in danger.
But he trusted me enough to do it anyway.
“When this is over,” I said slowly, “you don’t send me away. You don’t reject me. I stay.”
Something flickered in his eyes.
Relief?
Fear?
I couldn’t tell.
“Selena—”
“I’m not done.” I stepped closer.
My chest brushed against his.
“You want me to risk my life for this plan. You want me to look your brother in the eye and lie while my heart pounds so loud I can barely hear myself think. I’ll do it. But when it’s over, you don’t push me away.” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
I held his gaze.
Emerald green against darkening blue.
“Promise me.”
He was silent for so long I thought he’d refuse.
Then his hand came up, fingers brushing the hair from my face.
Calloused.
Warm.
Trembling just slightly.
“When this is over,” he said, “you stay.”
I didn’t let myself feel the relief.
Not yet.
That was the thing about surviving—you didn’t celebrate until you were sure the danger was past.
“Now get me out of here,” I said.
“I need to find your brother.”
Ian’s guards led me through the service corridors, past the kitchens, through the garden gate.
I moved like a shadow—fast, quiet, invisible.
The night air hit my face.
Cold and sharp.
I breathed it in and felt the shackles in my mind loosen.
I was free.
Sort of.
Free to walk back into the trap.
Wrath, Selena.
Remember who you are.
Cassius’s residence sat at the edge of the pack territory.
A sleek black building with too many windows and not enough light.
The kind of place that looked expensive but felt hollow.
I knocked three times.
He opened the door himself.
His face registered surprise, then amusement, then something darker.
His eyes crawled over me like insects.
“Scarlet,” he said.
“I thought you’d be dead by now.”
“Almost was.”
I pushed past him into the house.
My heart was slamming against my ribs, but I kept my face calm.
Neutral.
Like I’d just been for a walk and decided to stop by.
“I need your help,” I said.
Cassius closed the door slowly.
The click of the lock made my skin crawl.
“Help?” He circled me.
“You’re the one who was supposed to help me. I gave you a simple task, and you failed.”
“The poison was found.”
“Obviously.” He stopped in front of me, tilting his head.
“So tell me, Scarlet. How did you escape the dungeon? My brother isn’t known for letting prisoners walk free.”
“I told him I’d talk.”
“Talk about what?”
I met his eyes.
Held them.
“I told him Eugene did it. That Eugene planted the poison and framed me. He believes me.”
Cassius’s face didn’t change, but I saw the flicker.
The calculation.
“Eugene,” he repeated.
“Your brother is going to drag him in for questioning. He’ll crack.” I stepped closer, lowering my voice.
“Unless we do something first.”
Cassius stared at me for a long moment.
Then he laughed.
A low, ugly sound that made Razor growl in my chest.
“You’re trying to play me,” he said.
“You think I don’t see it?”
“I think you see everything. That’s why I’m here.”
His smile widened.
“Go on.”
“I can still reach Ian. He trusts me—he wouldn’t have let me go if he didn’t. I can give him a stronger dose. Enough to finish the job. But I need you to get me close to him. I need a cover.”
“What kind of cover?”
“Say you’re investigating me. That you’re suspicious. Request to question me in his presence. I’ll do the rest.”
Cassius’s eyes narrowed.
For a moment, I thought he saw through it.
Then his smile returned, sharper this time.
“You really are something, Scarlet. I’ll give you that.” He reached out, fingers brushing my chin.
I forced myself not to flinch.
“Fine. I’ll make the request. But if you fail me again…”
“You’ll kill me,” I said flatly.
“I know. I’ve heard it before.”
“Then you also know I mean it.”
“I don’t doubt that either.”
He laughed again.
The sound was like broken glass.
“Go wait in the back room,” he said.
“I have someone coming to discuss our… contingency plans.”
I didn’t ask who.
I just walked.
“Selena, that was insane. He’s going to kill you.”
“Not if I kill him first.”
“You can’t kill him. The plan—”
“The plan is to catch him in the act. I know.” I pressed my back against the wall of the back room, letting my eyes adjust to the dark.
“But I need to stay alive long enough to do that.”
“And you think he’ll let you?”
I thought about Cassius’s smile.
The way he looked at me like I was a puzzle he wanted to break.
“No,” I said.
“I don’t think he’ll let me at all. That’s why I’m not going to give him a choice.”
The minutes crawled by.
I heard voices from the main room—Cassius and someone else.
Eugene.
I’d recognize that whining voice anywhere.
They were arguing.
“You should have told me she was out,” Eugene snapped.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? If she goes to the Grand Alpha—”
“She won’t.”
“You don’t know that!”
“Eugene.” Cassius’s voice was ice.
“I know exactly who she is. I know everything about her. Her pack, her family, the names of every person she’s ever lost. If she betrays me, I’ll destroy everything she’s trying to rebuild. She knows that.”
My fingers curled into fists.
“She’s a Wrath,” Cassius continued.
“They never surrender. But they also never betray their people. And her people are the Southern packs. She’ll do whatever it takes to protect them.”
I pressed my knuckles against my mouth.
The rage was hot and thick in my throat.
Breathe, Selena.
Breathe.
That was the worst part.
He was right about everything except one thing.
My people weren’t just the Southern packs anymore.
They were Ian too.
They left after an hour.
I heard the door close, and then Cassius’s footsteps approaching the back room.
He swung the door open.
“Ready to meet your maker?” he asked.
“I’ve been ready for ten years. The question is, are you?”
He stared at me.
For the first time, something like uncertainty flickered in his eyes.
“Get out,” he said.
“I’ll summon you tomorrow. We make our move at dawn.”
I walked past him without looking back.
The night air hit my face again, and I let myself breathe.
Just once.
Just enough to keep moving.
I made my way back to the pack house.
Through the garden.
Past the guards who recognized me and stepped aside.
Up the stairs to Ian’s chambers.
He was waiting.
“You’re alive,” he said.
“Obviously.”
He crossed the room in two strides, hands cupping my face like I was something precious.
His thumbs traced my cheekbones.
“What happened?”
“I planted the seed. He bought it. We move at dawn.”
Ian’s eyes searched mine.
Looking for lies, looking for cracks.
He found nothing but exhaustion.
“You’re exhausted,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. You’re shaking.”
I looked down at my hands.
He was right.
My fingers were trembling like leaves in a storm.
I didn’t even feel it.
“I’m scared,” I admitted.
The words came out before I could stop them.
“I’m scared he’ll figure it out. I’m scared I’ll do something wrong. I’m scared—”
His arms wrapped around me.
Pulled me against his chest.
His heartbeat was steady under my ear, slow and sure.
“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” he said.
“I won’t let it.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“I can. And I am.”
I closed my eyes.
Just for a moment.
Let myself feel the warmth of his body, the weight of his arms, the impossible comfort of being held.
“Ian?”
“Mm?”
“When this is over, you owe me dinner.”
He laughed.
It was a small sound, barely more than a breath, but I felt it vibrate through his chest.
“Anything you want,” he said.
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
“I’m counting on it.”
Razor’s voice was soft when she finally spoke.
“You love him.”
“I don’t—”
“Don’t lie to me, Selena. I’m inside you. I feel everything.” She paused.
“You love him, and you’re terrified.”
I didn’t deny it.
Because she was right.
The man who’d killed my people, the man who’d rejected me, the man who’d locked me in a dungeon—he’d also believed me.
Protected me.
Held me like I was something worth keeping.
And I’d fallen for him anyway.
“Tomorrow,” I whispered.
“We survive tomorrow. Then we figure out the rest.”
Ian’s fingers found my hair.
Stroking through the tangles like he had all the time in the world.
“Rest,” he said.
“I’ll keep watch.”
I should have argued.
Should have said I was fine, I could stay awake, I needed to plan.
Instead, I closed my eyes and let myself fall.
We never surrender.
But sometimes, we let ourselves be held.
CLIFFHANGER
I was drifting, hovering between sleep and waking, when I heard it.
Footsteps.
Multiple sets.
Moving fast.
My eyes snapped open.
Ian was already on his feet, pushing me behind him.
His body went rigid, muscles coiling like a wolf about to spring.
“Stay behind me,” he said, his voice barely a growl.
“What is it?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
His eyes were fixed on the door.
The footsteps stopped just outside.
Then the handle turned.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Ian reached for the blade on his nightstand.
His fingers wrapped around the hilt.
The door swung open.
And standing in the doorway, flanked by six armed warriors, was Cassius.
His smile was sharp enough to draw blood.
“Brother,” he said, his voice dripping with false sweetness.
“I thought I’d find her here.”
His eyes landed on me.
And the smile widened.
“Scarlet. I’m so glad you’re still alive.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
We’d been caught.
Before we’d even begun.
END OF CHAPTER 23