"'Cause sometimes you just feel tired, you feel weak And when you feel weak, you feel like you want to just give up. But you gotta search within you,

you gotta find that inner strength

And just pull that shit out of you,

And get that motivation to not give up, And not be a quitter,

no matter how bad you want to just fall flat on your face and collapse,"

--

(Continuation from Chapter 67 | bad liar)

❤️

He shouted at his guards to bring him a syringe of wolfsbane and my blood ran cold at the mention of the lethal poison.

'No no no, not wolfsbane,' Aurora whispered to me, fearing the Poison that could kill her.

"Keith, don't-" we tried to speak but he didn't let us as soon a sharp needle was stuck in my neck, transferring a bit of poison to my veins, causing my throat to close up in fear.

I watched in shock, as my entire body went on paralysis mode. Aurora's voice was no longer heard, she had vanished. My vision was no longer clear, it blurred. My ears could no longer hear properly, it buzzed. And then, my body started jerking relentlessly, trying to fight the poison when I was hurled into the chest of the monster.

"No!" I screamed, my voice coming out weaker than usual, I tried hitting his chest, hurting him, but my arms were too weak. I still tried, I tried to kick his shin, disbalance him.

But soon my body started giving away and blackness started coming in front of my eyes. I blinked, through the blurriness, to get my vision back but nothing helped, and the last thing I remember before passing out was the evil, cunning grin on his face.

My eyes opened and a long breathe left my throat as I heard the door slam open. Shifting my gaze towards the entrance, I noticed the outline of a familiar body making it's way towards me.

I blinked several times, trying to get my eyes to focus but it wasn't possible. Everything was hazy.

I felt a sudden pressure on my neck and a sharp scream left my throat as I was pulled up by my collar, onto my feet.

I swayed on my feet, barely holding up when my back was slammed into the wall.

"This bitch is still not awake?" A gruff voice hissed, followed by a sharp pain on my cheek.

My weak body jolted at the force and I was sent flying in the other direction.

Ouf! I fell on the ground. My back slamming against the rocky gravel.

I looked at the person once more and he looked so familiar. Like I have seen him somewhere. My body filled with hate at the sight of him, as if he had done something wrong to me. But I just couldn't remember. All I knew was that my body pained everywhere like I had been beaten to pulp and that my mind was going slow at the moment. It took time to register everything.

"Bring me the water pitcher." He ordered, in a disrespectful, malicious voice to his slaves.

Before I could even register what happened, my face was splashed with what felt like tons of water and I coughed because some went into my nose.

But nothing happened, my eyes still couldn't focus and I still fought to stay awake.

I figured, that what had happened to me was more than mere unconsciousness. Because water didn't help me regain my memory or my senses.

"My lord, she has wolfsbane in her system. That is making her weak and her nervous senses retarded. She won't be able to respond to anything you say till it's effect fades away." One of his slaves pointed out.

I squinted at the guard as he talked to the rude person who had splashed water at me when he said the word wolfsbane. I felt that I've heard this word before, I tried thinking, but thinking made my head hurt. I tried closing my eyes but even my eyelids felt heavy at the moment. It took me some time to process, but my weak brain was able to remember that wolfsbane is some kind of poison given to us.

I gasped in realization, even if it made my lungs burn, I had been poisoned.

But the guard—or should I say, slave, had angered the monster in the room because perhaps, he the fact that someone spoke without his permission angered him and growled out loud.

"YOU DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" He growled, grabbing the slave by his neck and snapped it in a second- killing him instantly.

The sight of someone being killed in front of me, danced behind my eyes and my body went cold.

I was getting tired though, as if I had just ran a hundred miles, as if this much of activity took too much from my body and it was incapable of fighting anymore. My eyes were dropping and I started to droop and I was about to fall into darkness when a sharp, tiny sting was felt on my right arm.

I hissed and tried to escape but a tight grip kept me in place.

I blinked again, focusing to my side, and a hazy image of someone injecting my arm, formed on my retina.

If I was in a normal state, I would have pulled away immediately because I hated syringes. But I frowned and the little image transferred it's mean to my brain slowly and it took time for me to comprehend the knowledge.

Once I did, I panicked and started jerking my arm. At first I thought the person was poisoning me. Again.

But before I could do anything, the injection was out in and the needle was pulled out of my arm.

I looked at it, in shock, expecting to feel even more pain if possible but it never came.

"Antidote will work in a minute, my lord. She'll be able to feel and understand everything you say, at this moment, she's disoriented." A soft voice whispered, which was answered with a satisfied growl.

"But will she fight again?" He asked.

"Yes. But she'll be weaker and her wolf won't come back immediately— or it might never come back. You shouldn't have given her the poison to begin with, it wasn't a wise decision." I figured that the voice belonged to a female now that my senses and brain worked a bit faster.

I looked at the two again and their features got registered in my mind.

One by one my brain started putting pieces of information together. One by one, things started making sense to me.

Images flashed, memories played in front of my eyes from my pack, to the car accident, to the torture, to meeting Patricia, to the monster named Keith, to Reece's letter and to the way Keith had tried to touch me.

Wolfsbane. Death. Abuse. Familiar man. Antidote. Pain.

Now I remembered everything.

"I'm sorry, will you like to repeat what you just said?" The man that I now remembered to be the bastard, Keith, growled at Patricia, who had tried to defend me.

"I apologise," she said quickly, hanging her head low, but her eyes met mine side ways and I saw so much of pain and tears in them.

I wanted to smile at her in reassurance and tell her that I'll be fine. But that sounded hollow to me. How could I be alright when this bastard exists in the world.

"That's what I thought, you're dismissed," he said dismissingly, motioning Patricia towards the door but she stood there, hesitating.

"But—" she began, but Keith glared at her, shutting her up and she discreetly looked at me.

It warmed my heart to see that she cared but I couldn't her life for mine. She was here for a mission, she had to find her mate, I couldn't be the cause for her death.

As of for me, I knew what this bastard wanted to do and I knew that I'll fight as much as I could, but I couldn't possibly sacrifice her and her love for my safety. I couldn't exploit her kindness.

So I mouthed 'go', to her when she wasn't looking and she gave me a horrified look, as if she was scared for me.

I shook my head and insisted. A tear left her eye as she curled her fist and nodded, before running out of the cellar, as if escaping before she could change her mind.

<><><>

"Well well well," he drawled, once we were alone in the room, walking towards me with slow steps. "Aren't you the lucky one?"

I wanted to scoff at his words. How was I lucky? Ever since my 18th birthday, most unfortunate things have been happening to me.

"You passed out because I poisoned you— how weak. I couldn't even finish what I started," he said, looking at me with hungry eyes as his eyes travelled down my body. He licked his lips and I shuddered in disgust, pulling my legs to my chest.

"But now, nothing can stop me. Not even your wolf," he said as he grabbed my arm and pulled me up, I screamed in pain because my wrists were still not healed from previous burns.

He clicked his tongue and was about to say something, but his eyes fogged over suddenly, indicating that he was mind linking with his pack.

He remained like that for a few minutes, his expression flashing between anger and frustration and he growled loudly at the end of it.

His cold gaze turned at me and he pulled me towards the opposite wall of the cellar, tying me to the silver chains, like he always did when he wanted to interrogate.

"What do you want now?" I growled, pulling on the silver shackles, because they burned and bruised my skin underneath.

But I didn't even flinch. Pain had nothing on me rightnow. I was accustomed to it.

It was a part of me now. A part of my past, my life. A part of Olivia Hart.

"You know what I want, you little whore!" He said, grabbing my jaw and squishing my face painfully. "You've lied to me saying that you're not the Luna. My pack member just caught a messenger that was trying to reach you with a message. And guess what the told me?"

I scrunched my eyesbrows in confusion.

Why would they send a messenger when they could have mind linked me? Maybe they had wanted to send a message after I was poisoned and they couldn't reach Aurora.

My heart sank at the thought of my wolf and I curled my fists, biting my lip as I didn't want to scream in frustration. She is all I had in this hard time, all I could talk to. But now, she was gone too. For how long, I don't know. Wolves take long to heal from wolfsbane, unlike their human forms who just need the antidote. Sometimes they never even come back.

I didn't want to think about the last probability because it made me go crazy in agony.

I shook my head, and tried to concentrate at the message my pack was trying to send. I was still confused as to why they'd do that. Aurora had clearly told them that the security was tight here and they shouldn't attack until they have a large army. Sending someone with a message is a stupid idea because they'd be obviously caught and interrogated.

But then again, they probably had a very important message and had to risk it.

A risk in vain though because the messenger was now caught and he had probably spewed out the message too.

I gritted my teeth. Stupid decision. Stupid stupid decision.

"What did it say," I asked, calmly, trying to act as indifferent as possible, as if I had nothing to hide.

It angered him and he slapped me, causing my cheek to sting, but as I said, pain doesn't pain me anymore.

"Your lie of out, bitch, don't act now. The messenger, when my men hit him said that he wasn't afraid of dying and he was proud of serving the Luna. He even said that he would be honoured to die, trying to save his Luna but he never disclosed the message."

I gasped at the complete and utter lie and shook my head. "I'm not the Luna. He's lying—"

He didn't let me finish my sentence and grabbed my jaw, again. His eyes burning with craze and determination. "I'm not listening to your bullshit, I had started believing that you weren't the Luna because your pack never attacked even after the pain I inflicted on you, but this has cleared all doubts. Your own member admitted that you, his Luna, has been taken and he will fight for it. I know that your pack is preparing for a war, but that's not what I want. I'm giving you the last chance. I want all the information you have. If you tell me what you know and how, I will set you free. Think about it. No pain. No struggles. Your pack will be out of danger. No pack member would die in the war."

One thing that I understood from what he said was that he was lying. It wasn't possible for my pack to have send the messenger and for the messenger to say that because we'll, it wasn't true.

He was lying because he knew that I couldn't cross check and he wanted me to get worried and tell him everything.

No matter how many times I tell him the truth, he won't believe me, so I decided to play along. If he wants to play dirty, I can play dirtier.

If I trap him here, make him hope that I have the information, then he's waste his time. And in that time, my pack will attack and bring him down, rescuing me.

I have no other option anyway. If I deny, he won't believe and hit me. And if I pretend to know and not tell him, he'd still do that.

I have already tried the prior, let me try the latter now. It might work better.

Playing along, I looked at him like he said the most ridiculous thing ever and started laughing noisily.

I laughed so hard that I clenched my stomach and his face turned a deep shade of red in humiliation.

He lifted his fist in the air and punched me in the face making my jaw snap and my cheeks rammed into my teeth, making them bleed.

I cupped my cheek and spit out the blood. My jaw and cheeks throbbed in pain and my head went dizzy but I stood my ground.

"I won't tell you a thing." I told him. "I have to be loyal to my pack, my family and my people. You are not getting any information from me. I'd rather die than have it easy."

My words seemed to have hit the nerve as a crazed expression took over his eyes and he growled at me.

"So you don't want the easy way huh? What do you want? The pain? It's easier said than done. It's easy to say, difficult to endure. Women are weak and I am sure you won't be able to endure the torture "

My eyes blazed with anger as I glared at him.

"Women are NOT weak-"

I couldn't complete the sentence because he kicked me right in the stomach- my back hit the wall behind me, hurting me badly. I gasped and doubled over but the shackles didn't allow much movement.

"Remove the chains and let me show her what being weak feels like." He commanded, two guards moved in the room and soon the chains were removed.

I looked at him with an expression of pure horror as he walked towards me.

"I would have given you wolfsbane but your wolf is already dead. Poisoned at such a tender age."

My wolf is not dead! I wanted to tell at him, but those words sounded wishful even to me.

"I don't want you to pass out either, I want you to experience it fully as I torture you and have my sweet time with your body."

My eyes widened, as he looked at me with the craze returning back to his eyes. "I have given you enough opportunities, you never listened. Now we know that the war will happen anyway. Then why should I not pleasure my body with this kind of satisfaction before I have to fight. Huh? I want to give you a pain that will taint you forever. Something you won't forget and something that will scar your soul."

His words played like a sick broken record in my head as his hands moved forward to tear the sleeve of my shirt and then, the whole of it.

I was left in my brain and I my arms immediately went to cover up my body from him and the way he had touched me before came back to my mind and images of him pressing himself against me, replayed in my head.

"Don't do this Keith, you'd regret it." I told him, trying to hide myself from him. Tears appeared in my eyes but I prepared myself for a fight. Now that I no longer was poisoned, I could fight. And I'd fight as much as I could.

"Oh shut up. I wasn't able to score you the last time, nothing is stopping me now." His hands went to the band of my jeans but I punched his jaw, only to have him grab my hand and hold them against my back.

"No!" I cried, as he trapped my arms and then my legs, restricting me completely, as he forced himself upon me.

My screams, my protests, my cries and my tries were out powered that night. They were stamped, trampled upon and thrown away.

What happened that night, is something I won't ever forget.

But trust me, I fought. And I will continue fighting.

For as long as I still have some life in me. Something to fight for in me.

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