Chapter 77 No Way Out But Blood

Chapter 77 No Way Out But Blood
The stinging pain in my scalp was the only thing keeping me conscious. My hair was twisted tightly in someone’s fist, yanked again and again until my neck burned with stiffness as I was dragged across the uneven ground. Pebbles and dirt scraped against my skin while my body lurched helplessly with every step he took.
A rough cloth was tied over my eyes, scratchy and damp, pressing into my eyelids until darkness felt heavy and suffocating. My mouth was crammed with a wad of filthy rags, so thick I could barely breathe around it. Each shaky inhale tasted like dust and sweat, and every swallow threatened to choke me on my own saliva.
I was crying. I hadn’t meant to, certainly not in front of this bastard, but tears were the only thing my body seemed capable of now. They slipped helplessly beneath the blindfold, soaking the cloth as a broken sob rose in my chest, muffled and strangled by the gag jammed into my mouth.
In the distance, the sound of Skai’s cries was slowly fading, swallowed by the wind and the growing space between us. But inside my head, my baby’s screams still echoed, sharp and desperate, bouncing endlessly against the walls of my cracking consciousness.
Damn it.
I hadn’t clawed my way out of the Black Fang’s hell only to end up dragged back into another pit like this.
Where had it all gone wrong?
Shax's face flashed in the darkness of my eyes. A sudden heat exploded in my chest, overpowering my fear. This was all his fault. Because of that man, because of my ridiculous desire to exploit that amnesiac man, I'd neglected Bertha's carefully laid escape route.
I should be on the shore right now. I should be breathing in the scent of sea salt, feeling the sand beneath my feet, far away from this cursed forest where wolves prowl, sniffing for prey. If I'd left Shax that day... if I'd ignored his fate, I would be living peacefully with Skai in the safety of human territory.
My body suddenly came to a halt. The grip on my hair loosened slightly as I lay on the damp ground.
"I've received a gift from you," Sylas's deep voice rang out, so close I could feel the chill radiating from it. "So it's only right that I reward you accordingly."
I froze. Who was he talking to?
"Yes," another voice replied, its tone soft yet repulsive. "I know you're sensible enough to understand that nothing in this world is free, Alpha Sylas."
My heart fell. It was Theo's voice.
My hunch was right. All the kindness, all the stories about my parents, all those offers of mateship... they were all just sugar-coated traps. Theo had been working with Sylas... perhaps from the very beginning.
"What do you want to do with her?" Theo asked, his tone sounding like he was asking about the fate of livestock.
"A fitting punishment for a thief like her," Sylas replied coldly. "She stole what was mine."
"What a shame," Theo chuckled, a sound that made me want to claw his face until it shattered. "She was beautiful enough to be used as a toy here before you brought her back."
I gritted my teeth behind the ball of cloth. I let out a low growl from my throat filled with pure hatred.
Sylas hesitated for a moment. "Are you sure you're okay with taking her away? I heard she's the offspring of your pack's Alpha and Luna. Wouldn't your pack members protest if they knew their former leader's daughter was being treated like this?"
Theo snorted. "A descendant? She's biologically theirs. But you know what's funny? It was the previous Alpha and Luna who deliberately banished her to the human world. Or rather... they sold her."
The world beneath me felt like an avalanche. That sentence hit me harder than Sylas's kick had.
"They sold her along with several other young wolves," Theo continued, his voice now sounding right next to my ear. "They loved money and power more than their own flesh and blood."
I couldn't help but laugh at the confession, which now felt more honest than ever. That's why my earliest memory was of being in a human family's rundown warehouse before Bertha found me.
I wasn't a lost princess. I was a sold commodity.
"They didn't just have you," Theo added maliciously. "You had siblings. But they were all sold to human circuses. It seems you're the only one lucky to have survived long enough."
Sylas roared with laughter, a deafening roar. "Is that why you killed them? Because they were slave traders?"
"No," Theo replied casually. "I'm just annoyed with them. They're too greedy and are standing in my way of ascending the throne."
Then I could feel someone approaching me, kneeling in front of me, and their breath on my neck.
"If only you had listened to me yesterday," Theo's voice was low, right next to my ear. "And accepted my offer to be my mate, I might have been generous enough not to report your whereabouts to Alpha Sylas. But you chose that amnesiac dog."
With my hands tied behind my back, I tried to charge at Theo. However, before I could, a hard blow landed on the back of my head.
The world suddenly went white, and a long buzzing sound accompanied me. I felt myself being dragged again, thrown into a cramped space that smelled of gasoline and rusty metal, a car trunk. Darkness enveloped me completely as I lost consciousness.
I woke up with a throbbing pain in my head. My vision was blurry, and my body felt stiff from the unnatural sleeping position.
When I managed to focus, the first thing I saw was cold iron bars. I tried to get up, rubbing my stinging eyes. Behind the bars, a woman sat weakly, her face pale and her eyes puffy. And with those eyes that had lost their light, she stared at me.
My breath hitched. I recognized that face in the dim light of this underground cell.
"Ra...chel?" I whispered, my voice barely coming out.
The woman looked up. Her eyes widened when she saw me. "You... I'm going to kill you."
"Why... why are you here?"
At that moment, it felt as if thousands of insects were crawling all over my body, tiny legs skittering across my skin, prickling and relentless.