Chapter 3

The pain from my wound was intense. I'd lost so much blood that I passed out.

I didn't know how long I'd been unconscious, but when I finally woke up, the bleeding had stopped, and the freezing air was jolting me awake.

The weather in this world was all over the place, sometimes warm and sometimes freezing cold.

The temperature had suddenly plunged, and with nothing to cover myself, I wrapped my arms around my shoulders and shivered hard. I could barely stand it.

A werewolf brought in some food, yet it was raw meat, the kind I could never bring myself to eat.

I pushed the bloody meat aside.

The werewolf spat at me. "Ugh, you're nothing but a lowly human. To us werewolves, you're only a toy, so quit acting like some high and mighty lady."

I held back my tears, staring at the room that felt both familiar and strange.

Everything in here had been set up by Logan and me. He'd promised that this would be our mating room.

But now, all the comfortable furniture and decorations were gone, leaving nothing but the cold, bare floor.

It felt like someone was crushing my heart in their fist, and the pain was so intense that I could barely breathe.

I'd been so wrong.

I'd actually thought Logan was my savior, but this was nothing but a gilded cage, a hell disguised as something beautiful.

I blacked out again and then woke up once more with no idea how much time had passed.

I didn't stir until I heard a sporadic tapping at the window.

I struggled to look over and realized someone had managed to force the window open a crack.

Then a face that looked quite a bit like Logan's appeared, peering in at me.

It belonged to Logan's younger brother, Grayson Ashcroft.

Logan had awakened his werewolf powers at 16, but Grayson was already 25 and still hadn't shown any sign of his own abilities.

His mother was human, which meant life in this pack had never treated him kindly.

Because of his half-human heritage, I'd always gone out of my way to look after him ever since I arrived.

Maybe that was why he'd sneaked over to check on me through the window.

He studied me with worried eyes and asked softly, "Evelyn, are you okay?"

When I didn't answer, he slipped a thin, sheer scarf through the crack in the window frame.

I grabbed it like someone who'd been drowning and finally found something to hold onto, quickly wrapping it around myself.

With that small piece of fabric covering me, I finally felt a flicker of dignity return.

I choked out, "Thank you so much."

Grayson asked again, "Are you alright?"

I shook my head with a bitter smile.

How could I possibly be fine after everything that'd happened?

If I could choose, I'd rather die right then and there.

The only thing keeping me alive was the simple fact that I refused to let Logan and Lila win.

Grayson pushed a small jar of ointment through the window, trying to comfort me. "Hold on a little longer. Tomorrow is your mating ceremony. Once you and Logan are bonded, he won't treat you this way anymore."

A bitter laugh escaped me, and before I could hold them back, tears were streaming down my face.

"But I don't want to mate with him anymore," I whispered.

The mating ceremony was the werewolves' way of binding two fates together forever, for life and death.

Logan had crushed my dignity beneath his feet and stood there without lifting a finger while Lila whipped me. No matter what excuse he might have, he wasn't someone I could trust again.

Every feeling I'd had for him had turned into something dark and burning.

I looked at Grayson. "Please help me. Get me out of here. Can you do that?"

Grayson's eyes looked heavy and sad. After a long pause, he let out a sigh. "I wish I could, but I can't."

He was telling the truth. The territory was heavily guarded, and this house had been turned into a fortress. The windows were sealed with metal frames, and the crack was so small that I could barely fit my hand through.

There was no way for me to escape.

But then a thought struck me out of nowhere. "Werewolves can only have one mate their entire lives, right?"

Grayson nodded, looking confused. "Yeah, that's right. Why?"

I reached through the crack in the window and held onto his fingers, holding them like someone clutching the only thing keeping them from falling.

I gazed at him with pleading eyes and whispered, "Would you... be my mate?"