272- When the Wolf Breaks the Cage
POV Elowen Grimwald:
I found myself in a vast, empty field beneath a star-strewn night sky, surrounded by a circle of women dressed in white. Their faces were serene, yet their eyes brimmed with tears. I, too, was dressed in white, as if I were one of them—part of something.
The women began to walk in a circle around me, and their voices rose in unison, clear and resonant:
“Do not allow anyone to enter—no one but him. They abhor us and seek the end of our kind.”
As they spoke, their hands extended toward me, transmitting an energy that pulsed in the air, as though they were protecting me or preparing me for something inevitable.
The circle slowly closed, and the women stepped closer, placing their hands upon my shoulders in a gesture of comfort and strength. I felt a peace accompanied by a weight I could not explain.
...
I awoke terrified from a dream that had felt real. I could not remain awake for more than fifteen minutes.
I tried speaking to the guards and asking about Aldren, but my words evaporated in my throat before I would fall into a deep sleep. It was as though forces kept pushing me repeatedly into the abyss of slumber.
I was completely torn from my drowsy state when I heard a voice I had not heard in a long time. A voice I neither expected nor wanted to hear again.
Kehin—my captor and Aldren’s former friend.
His disgusting timbre shattered the silence of my cell, jolting me fully awake. I hated him. I blamed that bastard for everything bad that had happened to me.
“What are you doing here?” I muttered, dragging myself to the back of the cell as he tried to see me through the narrow gap between the guards.
Even seeing him only partially, Kehin’s condition was pitiful; his clothes were in tatters and exhaustion marked his face, yet his eyes still gleamed with a disturbing passion whenever they looked at me.
I could not understand how that wolf could be so fixated on me, even when it was clear on my face how much I despised him.
“Forgive me for waking you, but I caught your scent and convinced the sentinel to switch me to the cell beside yours. He ended up forgetting the gate open.”
“Kehin, get out of here!” I roared with the strength I had left.
One of the guards aimed a weapon at him and cocked it.
“Elowen, listen to me—just listen to me. Let me in!”
“No!”
“Elowen, Aldren is not who you think he is. Let me in so we can talk!” he insisted, clutching the bars.
His claim unleashed something feral inside me.
I could not contain the howl of pain and despair that tore from my throat, echoing against the stone walls and causing a small stone to crack and break loose from the others.
“Get out!” My voice came out deeper and more ferocious than I expected.
Kehin stepped back, brow furrowed, impressed by the power of my howl and the shift in my tone.
“You… you’ve already gone through the transformation?” His voice trembled.
Without understanding why, an uncontrollable fury overtook me. I rose to my feet, ignoring the pain coursing through my body, feeling as though I were about to explode.
“Get out!” I roared louder.
He raised his hands in surrender and, with one last fearful glance, staggered back to his cell.
What did I do to deserve this? What did I do…
A wave of confusion bordering on the supernatural consumed me.
Leaning against the damp stones, I looked at my hands and noticed my fingers seemed swollen. A strange sensation pulsed beneath my skin, forewarning that something terrible might be happening.
In the midst of my chaos, one of the unsettling sentinels appeared between the bars and asked permission to toss me a small bundle of pills.
“What is that?”
“Antidote, so the female does not cause problems.”
The guard gestured with his weapon, granting permission, and the sentinel threw it between the bars.
As I tried to pick up the bundle from the floor, my head spun.
A dizzying vertigo struck me, making me collapse onto the rough stone floor and scrape my hand.
With my palms raw, I reached for it. At that same moment, I realized that although it looked the same, it did not smell exactly like the antidote I knew.
“The elders ordered you to take it,” the sentinel’s cold voice commanded.
My caged she-wolf stirred inside me fiercely, more violently than ever before.
“I will not take this.”
“Don’t take it if you don’t want to, Elowen,” Bratvo growled through the bars, poised to attack.
“The elders only wish to avoid further trouble.”
Bastards…
Kehin’s voice echoed from his cell, even with the iron columns separating us.
“Take it, Elowen. You may suffer more if you go into heat here. You could lose control of the guards and the men imprisoned in the other cells in this basement.”
I opened the small bundle and picked up the green pill, coated in a thin transparent film, placing it in my mouth but keeping it hidden beneath my tongue.
I pretended to swallow.
As soon as the sentinel stepped away, I discreetly spat it out and hid it among the rags of my clothing.
Kehin, still trying to connect with me, asked:
“Is it true you’re a witch, Elo? ‘Elo?’”
That alpha calling me by my nickname made me want to vomit.
“I am not a fucking witch!” I screamed, boiling with rage, remembering the accusations of the people of Valmorin and every damned sharp stone that had cut my skin.
Then a sharp, overwhelming pain spread through my entire body.
It was as if every bone were breaking, every muscle tearing apart.
The pain was indescribable—a torture that ripped through every fiber of my being.
I screamed—not from rage or despair, but from pure physical agony.
“Elowen?” Bratvo’s voice echoed through the bars.
“I think… I think I’m going through the transformation.”
“Fuck!” the armed guard cursed.
No, it can’t be… not without him…
With every passing second, I felt my form shifting and my skin stretching. The world around me began to spin in a whirl of sensations and distorted colors.
And amid the chaos, a deep sorrow took hold of me.
I did not have him. I did not have Aldren at my side to guide me and ease my pain. To take care of me and tell me everything would be all right.
With each lash of pain across my body, my tears mingled with excessive sweat as I writhed on the cold floor of the cell, wishing he were there.
It felt as though I might die at any moment.
Aldren, you promised…
No matter how much I tried to fight the transformation, I knew it was inevitable. It would come—with or without his presence.
But facing it without him made everything ten times more cruel. I had not expected this. I longed for his comfort, his strength, his unwavering presence at my side.
Aldren had already taken root in my heart, and I hated him for it—but I could not stop yearning for him, even as the world seemed to collapse around me.
And it was collapsing.
I was collapsing. Breaking.
Between my agonized roars, I called for him. He needed to hear me. To save me.