Awakening The Silver Wolf

RAVENNA POV 

For the second time in less than a year, I found myself in a cell, but this one was cleaner and had more light than the last one. Small mercies. 

When I woke up, a part of me wished I hadn't. 

I had felt hollow, my body weighed down by exhaustion, and my mind clouded with pain. The poison had worn off, but it felt like something inside me had died with it. 

My insides hadn't felt right, my head had felt too heavy. I had nearly choked on my vomit until I managed to get up and dragged my body to the bucket at the corner and vomited what should be in the body. I had almost vomited my organs and I had to force them back down. 

After that, I dragged my body back to the thin mattress. Then the shaking began.

I didn't feel cold or anything but I had shook so hard that I feared my bones might snap. 

I had wanted to scream, to fight, but the silence of the cell had crushed any thoughts of rebellion. 

I didn't know how but I had managed to fall asleep with the shaking. When I woke up again I felt better, more cleaner, and there was food at the corner.

I ate it, not caring if it was poisoned.

And after that, since my mind wasn't clouded by pain, I had thought about Darius and I had cried bitterly. I couldn't feel him, couldn't feel the mate bond.

Was he dead? Did the poison kill him? Or did those bastards kill him first? He had taken too many shots of the poison, and if just two shots could do this to me I didn't want to imagine what that many shots was doing to Darius.

I couldn't feel my wolf, nothing. 

I cried again and lured myself back to sleep.

When I woke up again Lilith had been standing in front of my cell, something like regret shining in her eyes.

I had ignored her totally and curled into myself, facing the wall. 

"I thought you were dead," she had said, her voice shaking. "I thought he took you and killed you." 

I had ignored her, trying to drown out her words.

"I'm sorry, Ravenna," she said after a while and left.

Joseph came not long after, his eyes soft and pleading. I had ignored him too. And he left after also apologizing.

Sofia had come much later. But she hadn't come to offer any false apology. No, she came to glower and tell me how pathetic I was. 

"I never really liked you," she had said, her voice hard. "I wanted to kill you from the very first day I saw you."

Instead of ignoring her like I ignored the others, I smirked at her but said nothing.

That had pissed her off.

"I'm going to make you suffer in this place," she growled, smacking the bars. "You'll see hell." 

When she saw that I wasn't going to say anything she spit on me and left. 

I laughed after her. 

I didn't understand her animosity, but I found a strange satisfaction in knowing I bothered her. It somehow made me feel calmer that night. 

The person who I wanted to see didn't come for hours, or days, or even weeks. I didn't know. Time didn't seem to exist in this place.

They had brought food and water for me twice every day and took out the bucket which I used to take care of my needs. 

I knew what they did with our women when they captured us, so I crossed my fingers and waited for my fate. But no one came to force themselves on me, no one visited me except it was the servant who brought me food.

Other cells had visitors because I heard screaming and grunting now and then. My people were here, and they were suffering. So why was I left out? 

After an entity of wondering when someone would barge into my cell, he finally came. 

I sat up on the bed as Rowan stopped in front of my cell. 

He looked the same as the last time I saw him; his light brown hair was still styled back, with not a single strand out of place. He was wearing his black suit but without a jacket.

Everything was different, but it wasn't. He was different. 

His light gray eyes no longer held a softness. It was hard, empty, cold. His aura was just the same.

"Ravanna." Even his voice was not the same.

"Rowan." My voice was rasp from not speaking for days. 

We said nothing and just stared at each other. I looked at him and was thinking of all the ways I wanted to kill him. I wanted to make him suffer.

He was one of those people that made my people's life hell. He was one of those people that killed my mother, Darius' mother.

"I could feel your hate," he said, his voice calm.

I arched an eyebrow at him. "Can you blame me?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't." 

"Answer me this, Rowan," I said as I shook up slowly and walked to him until I stopped in front of the bar. It was just this bar separating us. If I moved fast could I reach out and snap his neck? "Why?"

"Power, Ravenna." 

I hummed. "Power." I nodded and looked him up and down. "I will kill you, Rowan. I will make you suffer for all the pain you've caused my people. Mark my words."

He said nothing and just stared at me. Then his eyes softened. "We thought you were dead," he said softly, an emotion I couldn't decipher bleeding into his voice, and his eyes. "We looked for you and when we couldn't find you we thought you were dead. I… " He swallowed before he took a step closer to the cell, his eyes now bright. "After the fight, I had wanted to confess my feelings for you, Ravenna. And after that if you had given us the chance I would have marked you as my mate." 

I tried to keep my face blank even as my insides turned. "Well, you were too late, Rowan. I have a mate." 

His lips curled into a sneer, and the brightness in his eyes darkened with hatred. "You do," he said quietly. "But not for long." 

My heart raced. "What does that mean?"

"It means soon you won't have a mate anymore, Ravenna." He took another step closer and stretched out his hand through the bar to caress my cheek. His touch burned my skin like ice but I didn't pull away. "I will kill Darius, and then I will make you mine."

The words hit me like a punch to the chest. Darius. My heart clenched at the thought of him in danger. But even more than that, it was the audacity of this man, the monster standing in front of me, that set my blood boiling.

I didn't think—my body just acted. In one swift motion, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it. There was a sickening crack, and Rowan let out a sharp gasp of pain, stumbling back.

"You dare touch me?" I snarled, my voice cold with fury. 

Rowan gritted his teeth, his face contorted in pain as he cradled his broken wrist. He shot me a venomous glare, but I didn't care. His expression only fueled my anger.

"You're nothing," I spat, stepping back and pressing myself against the cold bars. "You'll never have me. Never."

His eyes flashed with something—rage, disbelief, maybe even regret—but I didn't want to figure it out.

With that look still in his eyes, Rowan brought out a key from his pockets and opened the cell door before he stormed inside. 

I walked backward, my heart racing and he followed me until my back hit the wall. 

I stared him down, not wanting to look intimidated even as my heart beat wildly.

Rowan braced his unbroken wrist on the wall beside my head and leaned down, his face inches from mine. 

"I would have you, Ravenna," he snarled, his breath hot on my cheeks. "No matter how many people I would have to kill before I do, I will not hesitate to kill them." 

He raised my head and fixed a hard glare on him. "You're a dreamer, Rowan." 

He nodded, a crazed look in his eyes. "I am." And then he crushed his lips on mine. 

I gasped in surprise and he used that as an opportunity to push his tongue into my mouth. I twisted, buckled, and clawed with my nails but the bastard didn't stop.

Bile raised to my throat and I didn't bother to swallow it back down. It would bring me a great deal of satisfaction if I vomited in this bastard's mouth. 

Before I could do just that, he pulled away, his face facing the ceiling. 

"Fuck," he cursed as his face twisted with rage and… panic, and pulled away from me. 

A moment later I heard what made him react so. 

Screams.