37. Elisabed

37

Elisabed

When I woke up, the world was blurry and everything hurt. I tried to sit up, but my body wouldn’t cooperate. The harsh scent of damp earth and blood filled the air, and the cold bit through the thin fabric of my clothes, making me shiver involuntarily.

I had fallen asleep at some point, exhaustion having claimed me after everything that had happened. But the moments once we reached Raol’s pack were hazy. I was awake, but where was I? The flickering light that filtered through the wood slats told me I was in some sort of cage, and the realization hit me like a punch to the gut.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t escape. My hands were bound behind me with rough ropes. My feet were restrained the same way at my ankles. The air felt thick with the weight of what I had lost. My mind struggled to make sense of everything that had happened—the fight, the capture, the brutal reality of what Raol would do to us.

And then I heard her—my sister, Mily. Her muffled sobs broke through the fog of my memories, and I turned to her. She was on the other side of steel bars dividing our already small space in half. She looked so small, huddled in the corner of the cage, her chin dropping to her chest as she cried silently. It was unbearable to watch, but the sight of her brought a sense of clarity to my scattered thoughts.

She was here, with me. They hadn’t taken her yet.

“Mily,” I whispered, my voice hoarse and cracked from the exertion and the terror. “Mily, what happened?”

She looked up at me, her eyes wide and filled with a desperate mixture of grief and confusion. “I...it’s all my fault, Lis,” she said, her voice barely audible. “Everything was fine at home for a few days until Raol came. He showed up out of nowhere, demanding... demanding me.” She shuddered, the words trembling out of her mouth. “He tried to take me, Lis.”

I felt the world crash down on me. I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms as the helplessness gnawed at me.

“But Father...” Mily continued, voice shaking with the effort to hold herself together. “Father finally...he finally did something right. He wouldn’t let Raol take me. He asked Raol why he wanted me, but Raol wouldn’t answer. He...he just said he had the right, and he punished Father. He hurt him, Lis. Father’s hurt.”

The horror in her voice was too much to bear. My heart twisted, a deep, aching sadness flooding through me. For all his faults and failings as a protector and parent, our father had finally tried to do something. But it hadn’t been enough. Raol didn’t care. Raol never cared.

“That’s when Mother helped me escape.” Mily continued, her voice faltering. “She told me to run. She said she’d hold him off, keep him distracted while I got away. She—she told me to go and find you, Lis.” She paused, biting back a sob as she wiped her tears on her sleeve. “But I didn’t know where to go. I couldn’t find you.”

I wanted to reach out, to provide any sort of comfort, even if it was through the bars, but my hands clenched into powerless fists at my back. “Mily...you found me. You did it.”

Her eyes locked with mine, and for a moment, it felt like we were the only two people left in the world. But the silence that stretched between us was heavy and suffocating because neither of us knew what would come next. We didn’t know if we would survive this.

“I didn’t know how to find you at first,” she whispered, her voice full of regret. “But I had some money saved up, money you used to give me. I bought a horse and I just...I followed the trail. Your scent was still fresh, so I knew I was close.”

I stared at her, my heart breaking for everything she’d gone through, everything she was carrying alone. “You did great, Mily. You’re here. You’re with me. I’ll keep you safe, I swear.”

She nodded, tears still running down her cheeks. “When I finally found the settlement, I didn’t know how to approach you. I didn’t know if it was safe. I didn’t know what had happened. Then August found me, and everything happened so fast, I didn’t even have time to explain or warn you.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I should have been there for you. I shouldn’t have let them take you.” My voice broke. “I’m sorry, Mily.”

She shook her head violently, her whole body trembling. “No, Lis. You didn’t do anything wrong. Raol did this.”

“You two are too much trouble,” a cold, calculating voice said.

Raol .

“I should have known better than to think you’d be any different from the others,” he continued as I froze, my heart hammering in my chest.

He came closer; his figure looming ominously in the dim light. His eyes gleamed with a sickening mixture of disdain and triumph.

“You should have learned by now, Elisabed. You’re nothing but a burden to me. You’re the lowest form of omega to exist, defective and defiant. I’ll deal with you the way I should have from the beginning. I’ll sell both of you to the humans down south. They won’t care that you can’t shift; maybe they’ll even get more pleasure from you that way.” Raol sneered, stepping closer to the cage, his face twisted into an expression of satisfaction.

I froze at his words. The dread I had been feeling turned into a sickening fear. He was going to sell us, just like that. I’d known it was coming, but hearing him say it so coldly made it so real and impossible to deny.

Raol chuckled as if savoring the moment. “But before that,” he continued, his tone sharp and cruel, “I think I’ll have my own fun with you first. You’ve made things so difficult for me, Elisabed. I think it’s time you learned your place.”

I gritted my teeth, my fists trembling. I couldn’t let him do this. I couldn’t let him hurt Mily. I wouldn’t let him.

But there was nothing I could do. I was trapped. We both were. My dagger was lying somewhere on the forest floor. All I could do was stare at Raol in hatred, helplessness flooding me. He had taken everything from us.

“What about my alphas?” I asked, my voice hoarse but defiant. “What did you do to them? August, Marshall, and Finn. Are they dead? Did you kill them?”

Raol’s expression flickered for a moment, a hint of something—something I couldn’t place—passing through his eyes before his lips curled into a smile. A twisted, smug grin that made my blood run cold. Raol was incredibly influential in the council but wasn’t part of the official pact, meaning he could hurt them and walk away with his mind intact.

As intact as it usually was, anyway.

“The traitors?” he said venomously. “They’ve been taken care of. They’re no longer a threat.”

The room spun around me as my world dissolved into pieces.

My alphas. They were gone. Raol had killed them.

August, Marshall, and Finn—gone.

And I hadn’t even been able to say goodbye.

“No...” I whispered, shaking my head. “You...you killed them.”

Raol’s smile only widened. “I always deal with traitors swiftly. They won’t be bothering you anymore. You, however...” He leaned in closer, his face twisted with malice. “You’ll get to experience the same fate as all the others. You and your little sister will be sold off, and I’ll make sure to get my use out of you before that.”

I recoiled, a feeling of helplessness drowning me. My alphas were dead, and now we were nothing more than property to be sold. I wasn’t able to protect anyone. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. I could only stare at Raol as the world around me crumbled.