"Who is Everest?"

"The love of my life," I repeated for the thousandth time. Her image was tattooed in my mind, I'll never forget her. In result, the man shoved me back into the tub, my head banging hard on the metal floor as the toxic water burnt my entire body. It's becoming a pattern. My body couldn't take it any longer and the last thing I heard was the ringing in my ears before the darkness swallowed me.

I swore in those couple of seconds I saw Everest standing on a beach. She was dressed in the most beautiful lavender dress, she had a silly smile that she wore and I loved, her hair looked like something out of a movie the way it moved with the wind. What caught my eyes was the baby she was cradling in her arms.

His hands dug into my shoulders and he pulled me back into reality. "Not today, we aren't done with you today," The man snickered and dragged me out of the tub. I felt like I was a sack of bones. So many places. I've been to so many places. What day it is? I have no idea. The thought I had every second of the day was that I needed to escape, I needed to go home.

Everest is home.

"I don't think Everest is the reason," the woman at the corner of the room sighed while massaging her temples. "What do you mean? The only reason he won't surrender his wolf is because my fucking worthless daughter screwed with him. He needs to forget her if any of this is going to work," he spat against her and poured another bucket of wolfsbane on my body. My jaw clenched as I tried my best to ignore the burning it left behind.

"We've done everything we can! There's simply no way to separate a wolf from its human!" She argued back, tugging at her hair in frustration. The man glared at her in a way that no man should ever look at his mate. One would assume he's about to kill her.

"I already told you, Ashley! Everest is the problem! Are you blind? It's written in the book, we just have to try one last time. If he doesn't surrender his wolf then..." he trails off to the obvious. She rolls her eyes and glanced in my direction.

"The book is stupid, let's just kill him," Ashley shrugged. "No, no. We need to learn how to separate a wolf from its human. Imagine how powerful we would be with the power to turn a werewolf into a human forever," The man objected in persuasion to his mate. She groaned and threw her hands in the air before dropping them angrily to her sides. "It's taken so much work! Thousands of people are after us, Ethan. Is it all worth it?" Ashley rethought.

"Yes!" His hand collided with the table. "We almost had Everest with the poison in the tea. Multiple times we tried to take her while training, even when she was alone at the packhouse! I'm telling you, this son of a bitch is the key to everything!" Ethan continued to shout.

My hands tugged at the chains that held me back at the mention of him taking Everest. "I'll ruin you if you touch her," I warned, and thoughts of killing the bastard resurfaced. His head snapped in my direction. His face relaxes as he looked at me with nothing but pure evil. Longer he stared, the wicked grin spread across his face.

"I fucking mean it! Do what you want with me but not her! She's mine, not yours and I swear if you put a scrape on her beautiful body you will regret it. Mark my words, Ethan," I mocked his name, attempting to say it the same way as Ashley.

"Shut your mouth boy, I've seen enough of you for the day," he angrily stomped to the machine and pressed the big red button. It felt like a thousand hot pins were shot through my body over and over again, my brain being the worst.

Just freaking great.

My eyes snapped open and I'm no longer in the cave. I'm looking at the sky, a familiar sky.

The enchanted forest.

I jolt off the tree and ran to where the moon goddess was waiting for me. She has to help. There has to be something she can do. The last time I spoke to her I thought I could hold on. I thought someone would save me. I thought I could've broken free or something. She turns around at the sound of my voice. "Please, you have to help me," I pleaded desperately.

"I don't think you can hold on for much longer," The moon goddess frowned which has never really happened much before. "Please, tell them where to find me! Give me some of your powers to break out. Anything to help, please. I'm helpless," My voice shattered.

"I'm the reason the black magic isn't getting to you, I'm afraid I can't hold on for much longer though," The goddess says, looking into the distance between the trees. She completely ignored visiting others to find me. As if she wants to torture me even more. "No, no. I'm not dying! I have to see Everest again. I'm not done with my life yet. You cannot do this to me!" I denied it. My fists forming at my sides out of how angry I was at this moment.

"I can't fight off the black magic and give you your strength back. If you're powerful enough, you can escape but you won't be a werewolf anymore. The black magic would've worked on you," Her eyes drifted back to mine as she spoke. I'll be human? Their stupid torturing would've worked?

"Human. If I'm stronger then I'm human? How does that make any sense? And will I remember Ev? They're trying to get me to forget her," I bombarded her with questions. "You will have fifteen to ten minutes. That's the longest I can hold it off while you escape and as for your memories I'm really not sure, it all depends. I can't say, William," the goddess announced.

That got me even angrier. Whatever it takes, I need to be with her. "I'm killing them. Not for me, but for Everest," I bluntly said. The thought of killing those two brought me pleasure. They deserved it. Also, that got me thinking. If I kill the sources of the black magic. Wouldn't that mean the spell would wear off?

Sure hope so.

The moon goddess remains quiet as I thought about it. These dreams only last for a couple of minutes and I believe my time is running out. What do I do? So much is on the line. But if I sacrifice Rilas, then I can get justice and maybe find a way out of here. The answer is right in front of my eyes. "Okay deal. I-i'll take the fifteen minutes and then I'm human," I decided.

For some reason, it was much harder to say than expected. I'm the flipping king. I can't be human forever. I'll figure out something, I always do. "Okay, if that's what you want," She reaches forward and pressed the tips of her fingers on my forehead. The moon goddess pushes me back and I'm thrown back into reality hard.

My eyes snapped open and immediately I felt the power surging through my body. Ethan's face paled as I yanked my arms off the walls. The chains that once captivated my body shattered into smaller pieces. "What the fuck," Ethan gasped. His wife

"Hey buddy, are you ready to do this?" I called for Rilas.

I felt him pushing forward in excitement. "Hell yeah!" He growled eagerly. Rilas was gone for months without a word. For the first two months, he took every bit of my pain to the point he couldn't anymore. He wouldn't respond or anything. I could still feel him moving a bit to give me hope he's still there but never much.

Using the same needles they tug into my body, I grabbed them and shoved them deep into his ears that he bawled. The electricity was already surging through. This feels great. The sound of a gun locking pulls me away to Ashley who held wolfsbane coated in silver bullets. Those were a fucking pain. I only got shot with them twice and it felt like I was about to die. It's a miracle Evander is still alive after being shot with multiple of those a while back.

I growled and attacked her swiftly. The gun easily fell into my hands, she was already pressed to the wall with a bleeding head. "Let me shift, it's the last time after all," Rilas whimpered which paused my movements for a second. We never got along much but the last couple of months before I was taken happened to be the best. Rilas loved who I was with Everest and so did I. The damage would be worst if Rilas took control and that's exactly what I wanted so without another question, I gave him the control.

What Rilas failed to do was allow me to see what he was doing in my body. I completely blanked out in my own body, I have no idea for how long but when I pushed back into control, my body was bare and bathed with blood. Splatters of blood were on the walls and floor. The parents laid on the ground dead in front of me with their eyes wide open. Even though all that I've been through for so many months I still felt guilty. This is Everest and Erin's parents. Would she look at me differently after knowing what I've done?

I shouldn't feel guilty. They traumatized me forever. I'm happy it was me and not Everest that went through this. So why do I still feel guilty? Footsteps brought me back from my deep consciousness. The figure steps into the light. Her eyes were on mine for a long second before I lost all control over my body and faded into the darkness.

"William!"