Chapter 2 The Basement

Aria's POV

The basement smells like rot and blood.

Marcus throws me against the wall. Stars explode behind my eyes. The silver chains drag across concrete, burning deeper with each movement.

"Sit. Don't move." He points to a rusted chair. "The Alpha will deal with you after his celebration."

Kade is upstairs with Miranda. Planning their future while I bleed in his basement.

Marcus pauses at the door, studying me. "I thought you'd cry more. Beg harder. Most omegas do."

"What do you want? You already took everything."

His smile spreads. "Not everything." He holds up his phone, recording. "Those burns? That reaction to silver? Very valuable to certain buyers."

Ice floods my veins. "Buyers?"

"You've been sold to Crimson Auction House for five hundred thousand dollars. You're not pack property anymore. You're merchandise."

My throat closes. "Kade wouldn't..."

"Kade signed everything I put in front of him. He's been very agreeable lately. Especially after his evening tea."

The pieces slam together. His blank eyes. Trembling hands. Marcus always appearing when Kade hesitated.

"You're poisoning him."

Marcus's smile widens. "Poisoning is such an ugly word. Let's call it... influencing. Guiding. Alpha Kade has been under tremendous stress since his father died. The debts, the Council pressure, the pack's survival hanging by a thread. I'm simply helping him make the difficult decisions. The necessary ones."

"Someone will find out. The pack will realize..."

"Who?"

He crouches in front of me, close enough that I can smell his sour breath. See the madness dancing behind his eyes. "You? The wolfless omega nobody wanted? You'll be in a cage by morning, sold to the highest bidder. Maybe a breeding program that wants to see if your... condition is hereditary. Maybe a research facility that'll cut you open to find out why silver affects you." His fingers brush my burned wrist, and I jerk away. "They're always curious about anomalies. Always willing to pay premium prices for something unique."

"I'm not an anomaly." The words come out desperate, pleading. I hate how weak I sound.

"No?" He grabs my wrist suddenly, squeezing exactly where the silver burned deepest. White-hot pain explodes up my arm. I bite my tongue so hard I taste blood, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream. "Then explain this. Explain why silver affects you when you have no wolf. Explain why your grandmother spoke in ancient languages before she died, languages that haven't been used in three hundred years. Explain why she told everyone you were special, that you had a great destiny."

"She was sick." My voice breaks. "Dementia. Everyone said so."

"She was right." He releases me suddenly, and I cradle my wrist against my chest. "And that makes you dangerous. Or profitable. Personally, I prefer profitable."

Heavy footsteps echo on the stairs. Marcus straightens immediately, composing his face into something almost respectful. Almost human.

A woman emerges from the shadows wearing all black. Her silver hair is pulled into a severe bun, her face a map of wrinkles that somehow doesn't make her look frail. She moves like a predator. Like something that's forgotten how to be prey. When her eyes sweep over me, I feel stripped bare. Exposed. Like she can see every secret I've ever kept.

"This is her?" Her voice sounds like dry leaves scraping over stone.

"Yes, Priestess Mara." Marcus actually bows his head. I've never seen him show deference to anyone except Kade. "Just as you suspected. Silver burns her skin. Melts through it like acid."

Priestess. The word hits me like ice water. My grandmother's stories flood back in a rush. Warnings about fallen Moon Priestesses who turned away from the Goddess. Who hunted special bloodlines, tried to steal power that wasn't theirs, consumed the gifts of others to make themselves immortal.

I thought they were just stories. Fairy tales to scare children.

The woman circles me slowly, and I track her movement like prey watching a circling hawk. "Aria Moonstone." She says my name like she's tasting it. Testing it. "Granddaughter of Celeste Moonstone, last known survivor of the Silver Creek bloodline." She stops directly in front of me, so close I can see gold flecks in her pale eyes. "Do you know what you are, child?"

"Wolfless." The word is barely a whisper. "Broken."

She laughs, and the sound is like breaking glass. Sharp enough to cut. "Oh, you foolish, ignorant girl. You're not broken." Her gnarled finger traces the air above my forehead, never quite touching, and I feel something shift beneath my skin. Something ancient and sleeping. "You're not wolfless. You're sealed. Your grandmother bound your wolf before you were born to protect you from people like me. But bindings don't last forever. They crack. They break. Especially under extreme stress."

"I don't understand..."

"You will. Soon enough." She nods to Marcus without taking her eyes off me. "Take her to the van. The buyers are waiting at the border. And bring extra chains. Strong ones. If the seal breaks during transport, if her wolf emerges, we'll need something more substantial than silver to contain her."

"No." I try to stand, but my legs won't cooperate. The bond breaking has left me weak as a newborn. "Please, I don't know what you think I am, but I'm not..."

"Your begging bores me." The priestess turns toward the stairs, dismissing me like I'm nothing. Less than nothing. "You should have stayed forgotten, little omega. Should have died quietly in obscurity like your grandmother wanted. Now you'll serve a greater purpose. Your power will be harvested, studied, and distributed to those worthy of wielding it."

Marcus hauls me up by my arm, fingers digging into bruises. This time I fight. I kick and scratch and bite, anything to break free. My nails rake across his face, drawing blood. For one beautiful second, I see shock in his eyes.

Then his fist connects with my stomach.

I fold like paper, gasping for air that won't come. He has me pinned against the wall before I can recover, his forearm crushing my throat.

"Keep struggling," he hisses into my ear. "Please. Give me an excuse to do more than just bruise you."

Black spots dance at the edges of my vision. My lungs scream for oxygen. I'm going to die here. In this basement. Rejected, sold, forgotten. Just another omega who didn't matter.

Then I hear it.

A voice. Not out loud. Not in my ears. Inside my head, echoing through my consciousness like a bell ringing in a cathedral.

Fight. Don't let them take you. FIGHT.

My grandmother's voice. Impossible. She's been dead for five years. I watched them bury her.

But the voice is real. I know it's real because I feel something else stirring in response. Something that's been sleeping deep inside me, wrapped in chains far stronger than the silver on my wrists. Something wild and furious and mine.

My wolf.

The burns on my arms start to glow. Faint silver light pulses beneath my torn skin, matching the frantic rhythm of my dying heartbeat.

Marcus notices. His grip loosens just slightly. "What the hell..."

The light explodes outward in a wave of pure energy.

I don't see what happens next. Only feel the impact as Marcus is ripped away from me, his body thrown backward like a ragdoll. He crashes into the far wall with a sickening crack. The priestess screams something in that ancient language, but it's drowned out by the ringing in my ears and the rushing of my own blood.

The silver chains fall from my wrists, the metal melted clean through.

Run, my grandmother's voice whispers, urgent and desperate. Run now, and don't look back. They'll kill you if they catch you. RUN.

So I run.

My legs shouldn't work. My body should be broken. But something inside me has woken up, and it floods my limbs with strength I've never possessed. I take the stairs three at a time, burst through the basement door, and sprint down the hallway.

Behind me, I hear the priestess shrieking orders. Hear Marcus groaning as he struggles to his feet. Hear footsteps pounding after me.

But I'm already gone, running toward the forest like my life depends on it.

Because it does.