Chapter 203 203.She is brave

Chapter 203 203.She is brave
Sky

The iron door slams shut behind us with a hollow, final clang that echoes down the stone corridor.
The sound settles into my bones.
The familiar smells of dirt, rust, and sweat press against my skull like a foot. Every moment of this place reminds me of what it felt like to be helpless.
What Elira took from me and so many others.
My Lycan presses forward inside me, hackles raised, teeth bared. Cage, he growls. Break it.
“I’m working on it,” I mutter under my breath.
The holding cell smells like stale earth, mildew, and fear. Old blood lingers beneath the dampness. Chains hang from one wall, bolted deep into stone that’s older than the pack lands we were taken from. There are no windows. Just a narrow slit in the door where a single torch outside throws flickering light across the floor.
The guards shove Colt forward last. He stumbles but catches himself before he hits the ground. Mala moves instantly, steadying Rose before she topples over with him.
Flynn’s lip wobbles. Lilia hiccups with the effort it takes not to cry.
“Enough,” one of the guards snaps.
I turn slowly, meeting his eyes without lowering my chin.
He hesitates as the monster in me surfaces.
The one Stevie and the pack have given me no reason to use.
Good.
Even without shifting, even drained and shackled, his lycan can sense danger.
He locks the door. The bolt slides home with a scrape of metal.
Their footsteps fade.
Silence.
For a moment, no one speaks. The quiet is heavy, thick with everything we don’t say.
I turn and face the girl who been present in my mind since Elira stepped from those bushes and really look at her.
Ivy stands near the back wall, shoulders squared like she’s daring the darkness to challenge her. I’ve seen her fight. I’ve seen her argue. I’ve seen her stubborn jaw lift in defiance more times than I can count.
But I’ve never looked at her like this.
Never paused or allowed my attention to linger.
Her hair falls in warm chestnut waves around her shoulders, catching the torchlight in copper threads. And her eyes—
One deep brown.
The other silver.
Not gray.
Silver.
My Lycan goes very still.
Elira will want her, he murmurs. Marked.
I stiffen. Don’t start.
But he’s not wrong. There’s something there. Something that makes my chest tighten in a way that has nothing to do with fear.
She notices me staring.
“What?” she snaps.
The spell breaks.
“You couldn’t help yourself?” I shoot back quietly, stepping closer. “Mouthing off to our captors? In their stronghold?”
Her chin lifts higher. “I wasn’t mouthing off.”
“You told Elira she’d choke on her own arrogance.”
“She will.”
I drag a hand down my face. “That’s not the point.”
She is fire, my Lycan says, almost approving.
She’s reckless, I counter internally.
Ivy steps closer, lowering her voice so the little ones won’t hear. “You think I’m just going to stand there while she threatens you?”
“This isn’t about me.”
“It is if she decides to hurt you to make a statement.”
Mala shifts behind us, pretending not to listen. Colt watches openly.
“Give up man, Ivy’s loyal to a fault and stubborn as a bull in heat,” James says.
I keep my voice low and hard. “You gave her exactly what she wanted.”
“And what’s that?” Ivy challenges.
“A reason.”
Her silver eye flashes. “I won’t stand by and let them try to hurt you.”
My jaw tightens.
“We are pack,” she continues fiercely. “That’s what pack does. We protect each other.”
My Lycan rumbles in my chest, conflicted. She speaks the truth.
It doesn’t sit well. Stevie and Jace I understand. They want me. But her?
I look around at the others who mirror her statement with the rigidity in there body. Them?
What could I have possibility done to earn there solidarity.
I glare at her. “Protection doesn’t mean handing yourself over as the next target.”
She shrugs like it doesn’t matter. “Fine.”
“Fine?” I echo incredulously.
“If she’s focused on me, she’s not focused on the little ones.”
I blink.
“You did that on purpose?” I ask.
She doesn’t answer directly.
Which is answer enough.
Frustration flares hot in my veins. “You just put yourself on Elira’s radar.”
Ivy’s lips press into a thin line. “Then at least it’s off theirs.”
For a second, I don’t know what to do with that.
My Lycan studies her through our shared vision.
Strange female, he murmurs. Strong spine.
“She’s infuriating,” I argue back.
She is brave.
I hate that he’s right.
I step back from her before I say something I can’t take back. I turn slowly, forcing my mind into strategy instead of emotion.
We can’t afford emotion.
Not here.
The cell is roughly fifteen paces long and maybe eight wide. The chains are old but thick. The mortar between stones is crumbling in places. There’s a drain in the center of the floor.
Good.
Drains mean water flow.
Water flow means weaknesses.
“What are you looking for?” Mala asks quietly.
I crouch, running my fingers along the stone near the base of the wall.
“Anything,” I answer. “Anything that gives us an edge when we make our move.”
Colt lets out a humorless breath. “And what exactly should we expect when that move comes?”
I straighten slowly.
The little ones huddle together near the far corner. The oldest tries to look brave. The middle child keeps glancing at the door. The youngest presses her face into Mala’s side.
They’re scared.
That’s the point.
Elira doesn’t just cage bodies.
She cages minds.
“We should expect her to make an example of me,” I say calmly.
Mala’s head snaps up. “Sky—”
“It’s logical,” I continue. “I’ve been in her ranks before. I know her methods.”
Colt’s jaw tightens. “You think she’ll torture you?”
“Yes.”
The word falls heavy.
My Lycan shifts uneasily. We endured before.
Barely.
“They’ll try to get as much information as they can,” I go on. “Pack numbers. Location. Strength. Leadership structure. Everything.”
“And if we don’t talk?” Mala asks.
I meet her eyes.
“Then they escalate.”
Silence stretches again.
The youngest starts crying harder now, small shoulders shaking.
I walk over and kneel in front of them.
“Hey,” I say gently.
Three pairs of wide eyes look up at me.
“Listen to me carefully. They want you to be scared. That’s their weapon.”
Flynn swallows. “Are they going to hurt us?”
My throat tightens.
“No,” I say firmly. “Not if I can help it.”
My Lycan bares his teeth inside me. Over my dead body.
The words spark something dangerous in my chest.
I’ve been here before.
Not this exact cell.
But stone walls. Chains. Elira’s voice echoes through cold corridors.
Flash.
“Again,” Elira commands.
I try to stand.
My legs shake.
“Again.”
I fall.
She doesn’t raise her voice. She doesn’t need to.
“Pain is weakness leaving you,” she says coolly.
Another flash.
Dark room. No windows.
Days without food.
Water only when I obey.
Isolation until the sound of my own heartbeat feels like thunder in my skull.
They stripped me down piece by piece.
Will.
Defiance.
Hope.
My Lycan had raged back then, slamming against the cage of my ribs.
Fight! he had roared.
But even he grew quiet eventually.
That was her greatest weapon.
Not claws.
Not blades.
Silence.
Control.
I blink, dragging myself back to the present.
Whatever follows every move I make now will matter.
If I show weakness, they will exploit it.
If I show anger, they will weaponize it.
If I show attachment—
My gaze flicks to Ivy before I can stop it.
She’s watching me.
Studying me.
Confused by me the same way I’m confused by her.
“Sky?” Mala says softly.
I stand slowly.
“They’ll separate us,” I say. “That’s step one. Isolation.”
The children whimper.
I force my voice steady. “When that happens, you hold onto one thing.”
“What?” Colt asks.
“Routine.”
He frowns.
“Count your breaths. Recite pack history. Repeat your training forms in your mind. Do not let them take your structure away.”
My Lycan approves. Anchor the mind. Guard the soul.
Ivy steps closer again. “What comes after?”
I look at her.
“They will try to use our emotions against us. When they bring us back together, that's when the real spectacle begins. But no matter what happens. We tell her nothing.”
“What should we expect?” James asks.
“Anything,” I reply.
“That wasn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting.”
Her jaw tightens again.
“You don’t have to carry this alone,” she says quietly.
I laugh softly, without humor. “Thanks for reminding me.”
“Don’t let her do this.” She looks at me far too closely for my liking. “Whatever headspace this is putting you in, we need you to remember we are your pack.”
Her stubbornness would almost be admirable if it weren’t going to get her hurt.
“You think this is a standoff of wills?” I ask. “This is psychological warfare.”
“Then good,” she shoots back. “Because you’re not the only one with a strong will.”
For a moment, something hot and sharp passes between us.
Not anger.
Not entirely.
My Lycan steps closer to the surface, brushing against her presence.
She would stand at our side, he says.
My heart pounds in my chest like it's trying to escape. A feeling I can’t name squirms inside, disorienting me.
The bolt outside scrapes.
All of us freeze.
Footsteps approach.
Slow.
Measured.
Elira’s rhythm.
I know it without seeing her.
My body reacts instantly—spine straightening, muscles coiling, breath slowing.
The children press closer together.
The door doesn’t open.
Instead, her voice slides through the slit.
“Comfortable?”
I say nothing.
“You always were stubborn, Sky.”
My Lycan surges forward, snarling.
Let me out.
“Control,” I whisper inside.
She chuckles softly. “I do hope you’re not filling their heads with rebellion.”
Silence.
“That would force my hand.”
My fists clench behind my back.
“Say your goodbyes, children,” she continues. “It’s time to consider how much you value your pack.”
Her steps retreat.
More foots fill the space and the gate opens. Several guards step in and start to us.
“Don’t fight it,” I order.
I know better then to think this is the moment to make our move. This is the clam before the storm.
The coil before the bite.
One of the guards yanks Ivy and and unprompt growl slips past my lips.
Thats all it takes before two more guards are on top of me moving me out of the cell in the opposite direction if her.
They move everyone except the young one, keeping them together in the cell they removed us from.
The corridor goes quiet again.
They shove me into a new smaller cell.
Seconds later the one next to mine slams shut. At least I know someone it on this side with me.
I exhale slowly.
“She’s playing with us,” Colt voice drifts through the bars.
“Yes,” I agree.
I turn back to the wall, eyes scanning every crack, every imperfection.
There.
Near the drain.
The mortar is darker. Softer.
Water erosion. The same as the cell before.
It will take time.
And noise control.
But it’s something.
“I found a weakness,” I murmur.
“Where?” Colt whispers back.
“The walls. Look for erosion.”
There is the faint sound of shuffling. “It’s here too,” He says.
I smile reaches my lips for the first time today.
Because this time I’m not alone in that darkness.
And whatever follows next—
Every move I make will be deliberate.
Every breath controlled.
Every weakness hidden.
I was her weapon once.
Now I’m her problem.
And I intend to tear down every stone between us and freedom.