From Slave To Mate

\[Pandora’s POV\]

“Pandora! Pandora, wake up!”

My mother's panic-filled voice rings out, and my eyes fly open so I find her pulling my blanket from around me.

“Mommy,” I murmur, rubbing sleep from my eyes. “What's going on?”

“You must get up now.” My mother responds, grabbing me and pulling me roughly from my bed. “Before it's too late.”

As she speaks, she moves, leading me across my bedroom and out the door so that the scent of blood and smoke reaches my nose.

“Mommy!” I gasp while the sound of struggle from below reaches me. “What’s going on? Where's Daddy?”

“Shhhhhh,” my mother hisses as a howl rips through the air. “You must be quiet, my pet, otherwise…”

She doesn't get to finish her words before a large grey wolf rushes toward us, tackling her to the ground and pinning her there.

With wide eyes, I watch as she lifts her clawed hands and swipes at the wolf, desperately fighting to get him off of her to no avail.

“Pandora,” she hisses, turning her fearful gaze toward me. “You must go!”

Go. But go where? What was happening here? Who were these wolves, and what did they want with us?

“Mommy,” I gasp, attempting to take a step forward but stopping as my mother releases a snarl of warning.

“Go!” She repeats, her voice filled with urgency. “Go before…ugh!”

With wide eyes, I watch as the wolf she is desperately trying to fight off bites down on her shoulder, easily ripping through her soft flesh and then tearing so that she is left with a gaping wound.

“Mommy!” I shriek, watching her blood begin to pool on the ground. “No! Stop!”

Ignoring my mother's insistent pleas that I escape, I rush forward, ready to help in any way I can, but am stopped by a hand wrapping into my hair and then pulling.

“Well, well,” a deep voice rumbles as pain shoots through me. “What do we have here?”

“No!” My mother screams while she helplessly watches me get lifted into the air by my captor. “Let her…”

“Shut up!” The one holding me huffs, moving forward and pressing a foot against my mother's head. “You're too noisy.”

Slowly, he begins to step down while his comrade holds my fighting mother in place. Inch by inch, his foot moves as I flail, trying desperately to break free and help her until a sickening crunch fills the air and she stops moving completely.

Instantly, I feel pain rip through me, suffocating me as the reality of what has happened slams into me like a ton of bricks.

“No,” I rasp, my eyes filling with tears. “No, this can't be.”

At my words, a laugh rips through the one holding me, and when he turns me so that I can look into his eyes, his lips move, forming two single words.

“Wake up.”

Gasping, I shoot up, my eyes flying open so that I find myself in my cell in the auction house where I have lived for the past eleven years.

It's cold; it reeks of piss and shit, but it's the only home that I've known since that fateful night when everything was ripped away from me.

“Shit,” I hiss, brushing stray crimson hair from my sweaty forehead. “It's been a while since I've had that dream.”

Letting out a long breath, I pull my knees to my chest, trying to calm myself as my heart races and screams from the pain of the memories of that time, but before I can find any solace, a loud clanging fills the air as Geoffrey, the main guard that watches over not only me, but all the prisoners awaiting their fate in the auction house, bangs his Billy club against the bars of a nearby cell.