🦋ALTHEA
The room tilted violently, the walls spinning and the floor rushing up to meet me. I was left gasping for air that refused to come.
"No," I choked out, the word barely a whisper. "No, you're lying."
But even as I said it, I knew.
I knew every weakness. Every moment I'd failed to shift when the others did. Every time I'd been called worthless, broken, or cursed. I remembered every beating I'd endured because I couldn't heal the way a wolf should.
Cold fingers pinched my chin, yanking my focus back to the present. He was closer now, his touch searing, but I was too paralyzed to pull away from the creature holding me captive.
"You have been promised to me as my wife," he murmured.
I scrambled back, desperate to create distance from the man I had only known through dark bedtime stories. But he only smiled, his eyes flaring with delight. It was as if he had just tasted my fear and found it intoxicating.
