Chapter 1 Sold

The sound of metal chains dragging across the floor echoed in the dim, damp hallway. Liah, kept her head down as she was shoved forward, her bare feet stumbling against the cold stone. The air smelled of mood, blood, and something...wild.

She didn't know how long it had been since she was taken from the human village – days, maybe weeks. Time had blurred into a fog of pain and silence. Her body was weak, her spirit was weaker.

"This is her?" a deep emotionless voice asked.

Liah dared to glance up.

He stood at the top of the stone steps, tall and still as a statue carved from shadow. Alpha Kael, the man who ruled the blackfang pack – feared by all, human and werewolf alike. His presence sucked the air from the room.

The trader who had brought her nodded quickly. "Yes, Alpha. A human girl untouched. Her family sold her to pay off a debt".

Kael said nothing. He stepped closer.

Liah saw his eyes – silver, like the edge of a blade. They passed over her bruised form without interest, without pity.

"She's pathetic", he muttered.

A quiet laugh came from one of the guards.

Liah's heart shrank. She had heard those words several times – useless, weak, unwanted. She clenched her fist but she didn't speak. What would be the point?

"Chain her to the servant quarters", Kael ordered.

"If she dies, throw her out, I'm quite certain she won't last with her weak nature", he added.

And just like that, he turned and walked away.

Tears blurred Liah's vision, but she refused to let them fall.

Later that night, she lay on a cold stone floor in a small cell near the edge of the pack's living quarters. There was no blanket. No pillow. Just the sound of howling wolves in the distance, and her thoughts.

She remembered her mother's face. Pale. Desperate. Whispering: "Be obedient, Liah. Maybe he will let you live.

Live?

This wasn't living?

A sudden pain bloomed in her chest, sharp and raw. Not physical – something deeper. Her breath caught as a strange warmth spread through her veins.

Her fingers twitched.

And then ...she heard something.

A voice.

Not in the room. Not from the hall.

It was inside her.

"you are not nothing"...

Her eyes flew open. The chain rattled as she sat up, heart pounding.

She looked at her hand – it was glowing faintly under the moonlight that trickled through a crack in the ceiling.

Liah's breath trembled.

"What...what's happening to me?"

No answer came.

But at that moment, something had shifted. The weak girl who had been sold like an animal was still inside her – but so was something else.

And that something had just woken up.