Defiance

4.5

Chapter 45

A L D R I C

The nightmares began in Heera's chambers. She had me tied, the silver cutting through my skin until blood dripped onto the dungeon floor, forming pools of blood. She would come in every day. The taunt would begin first. I was worthless. I was going to watch everyone I ever loved to die. She would talk about my mother, the way she had cut her open, the way her blood-splattered when she took her time killing her slowly.

And then she would begin the spells, the ones that would break every bone in my body until I couldn't scream. Until she could get no response from me. Breaking my bones was an easy day. The worst days were the silver whips. Those were the days I lied in my own pool of blood until I was unconscious. Some days, she thought it would be fun to test torture spells on my body. The ones I screamed the loudest were the success.

The ones that made me shut down were also a success. It wasn't long before I managed to escape, the moonlight guiding me home. Heera did not lock me back into the chains that night and it was my escape. I never knew how I truly escaped, just knew if it wasn't for the Moon Goddess, I never would have.

Yet, being held in Heera's dungeon had taken everything from me. She had forced my wolf to cower to the point he couldn't fight back. She had taken away my strength, my courage, everything from me in those months she captured. The eighteen years of training meant nothing when I couldn't use it to defend myself.

The illusions had brought me back to that dungeon. Telling myself it wasn't real wasn't working because everything felt real. Looked real. The pain was real when the spells began. When the Heera in my illusions brought my sister instead and tied her instead of me, I had lost it.

I screamed until I couldn't. I broke through the shield that prevented me from fighting back - every scream I cried was useless. Every cry was useless. I fought the Heera in the illusion until the shield around me electrocuted me again and again, but I didn't care. When Ella's dead body was thrown in my direction, Hunter was next. Then Freya. Then my father. Then Camille. When it got too much, the illusions shifted to a vision of my entire pack.

The witches slaughtered them all and all I could do was watch.

Every goal I had in my life to protect my wolves disintegrated that moment. I fell to my knees. Even when the whip hit me, the pain felt like nothing. Not when my wolves were dead. Not when everything I worked for my entire life was in pools of blood before me. Some wolves had swords through their eyes. Some had magical lighting that cut their bodies into parts, hanging them from the few trees on the battlefield. There were wolf children I swore to protect. The children in my pack were my responsibility. Their bodies were stacked in an elaborate pyramid.

My wolf had fallen apart. Laric was always the one who felt emotions better than I did, who took our emotions when I couldn't. He had become my safety set after Heera had first captured me. If I was going to be strong and emotionless on the outsiside, Laric would hold the true emotions inside. It is the only way we functioned without falling apart. It was the only way I could lead without letting the nightmares take over, without falling weak to every torture in my body. But it seemed the illusions had broken him completely. I was on my knees, staring at the battlefield.

And then Heera was before me. The rage, the anger - I didn't care if it was an illusion - I was running towards her, sprinting across the battlefield. I wrapped my hand around her neck, suffocating her. When I dug my nails into that neck, I waited for the blood to spill, savoring every drop of it on my hands, nails.

"Aldric," the voice made me freeze. When I blinked, it wasn't Heera in my hand.

It was Elysia.