A sharp pain pierced through Zero's skull.

Everything was black and she couldn't see around her even though her eyes were open. A hot sensation burned around her arms and legs, her head throbbed and something wet dripped down her forehead. But that wasn't her only concern. Their car had flipped over when they were hit by a truck.

Fuck, she cursed and blinked a couple of times to get rid of the flashes blocking her gaze. She needed to focus and save everyone.

Zero's eyes cleared and that was when she noticed that her body was shielding Severin from the impact.

"Severin," Zero called out- she hated the terror in her voice. Zero loosened the buckle free and she saved her own neck from twisting from the fall. She moved and felt Severin pulse and it was beating normally, which was a relief and she lost count how many times she thanked Maya.

"Zero-" Elijah's voice came from the front; his first words were her name.

She reached over to him. "I'm here. Are you hurt?" she asked him as she reached Tom and checked for any injuries- she didn't see any.

"My leg's jammed," Elijah grunted. "It's not coming out without help."

Zero knew that herself too when she saw how the metal of the car had dented to an abnormal shape. Their car was upside down, so there wasn't an easy way out of this disaster. Zero couldn't cut their buckles off and drop them, which could just cause worse injures or possibly break their necks. She needed help to save her mate and family. However, before she could reach for her cellphone and break free of the car. Her wolf emerged with a feral warning that the threat was still imminent.

Her best bet was to get Elijah free and he could keep Severin and Tom safe while she handled their attackers.

Zero kicked through the glass window and crawled out, the edge of the glass cutting along her clothes and skin. She couldn't even feel the pain of her skin tearing apart because all she saw was her family trapped, like animals only to be killed if they were not freed. However, something deep inside her clearly warned her that this was the moment she waited for all this time.

She ran over to the driver's side and she was quick to unbolt the car door releasing Elijah's leg. He let out a harsh snarl as his leg was rapidly bleeding out. She looked past the blood and saw that it was only a flesh wound, that would need a few stitches only.

"What about Severin and Tom?" asked Elijah, as he swallowed the discomfort. But Zero could tell from his pale complexion he was in a lot of pain.

"They're fine," said Zero, when a chill crawled down her back. "Elijah," she called out.

Elijah looked at her confused, when suddenly he yelled with horror in his voice; "Zero! Behind you!"

Something slammed against the back of her head. Her eyes blared white flashes and she fell in front of Elijah. Lots of muffled footsteps approached behind her and grabbed for her. But, she locked hands with Elijah who didn't let go of her either. She held her firm position as men thrashed their feet into her back that she coughed up blood.

"Protect them," she commanded.

"Zero!" he bellowed. "You need to run away! They'll kill you!"

Zero stared into his eyes, that were too gentle for his own good. "No, they need me alive," she told him as she passed her cellphone to him. "Call Gabriel-" another slam to the head knocked her out.

"Zero! No!" Elijah's desperate cry was the last thing she heard before she passed out and was taken.

It was cold and dark, but Zero knew she wasn't alone. She couldn't see anyone or anything, but she smelt the stench of gunpowder and sweat when it was on leather armour. Her ears honed in on the slow drip of water on concrete floor. The breeze was bitter from the barred windows but she didn't hear any cars nearby. This was a remote location, a place no one knew existed and that meant she was all alone here. She tried her hardest to come up with a strategy to get free and find an escape, but nothing came to her. Maybe it was because venomous anger filled her body and it was controlling her mind to seek murder.

Beaten half to death and tied to a crooked chair, she opened her eyes and focused her gaze on the circle of thugs that caged her.

"Who was the one that hit me in the head?" she asked aloud.

None of them replied.

"Who hit me?" she repeated.

A man standing far to the left of the dirty table full of weapons stepped forward. He didn't say anything, except he tilted his head up in a cocky manner showing her that he wasn't afraid to be found out.

Zero went quiet again. The men looked around warily, especially at the guy who answered her. There were at least twenty-five fighters here and they all wore that black uniform which she knew was Reaper's trademark. There were too many of them and there were probably more surrounding this compound.

Suddenly, the lights of the building turned on one by one in row on the ceiling. The light wasn't comforting, in fact it rather made her sick to her stomach. This meant that whoever captured her wasn't worried in the slightest to show that there was a door behind her and windows everywhere. The person who had arrived wasn't afraid of Zero, and that was a big mistake because right now she wasn't feeling very merciful.

The door in front of her opened and a few more soldiers streamed through looking rather cautious and threatening with their guns out in front of them and their masks pulled over their face. Zero could smell their intentions and they were cold and brutal. These weren't wolves nor humans. These soldiers were trained to be something else entirely and that was kill on command.

Zero didn't bother with these men right now though. She looked past them to the one who walked in wearing a stylish black suit and a long leather trench coat. But the gentleman attire didn't hide the fact that the man resembled a ghoul. Hollowed black eyes and sharp cheekbones framed a rather frightening appearance. This man emerged like a monster would in a child's nightmare. The monster smiled in a creepy way while taking the child's parents away only to feed on them slowly. Blood was his food and murder his entertainment.

The man revealed himself under the light that hung right over Zero. "I finally got you," his smile made her skin crawl. "Oh, how long I've waited for this moment."

"Who the fuck are you?" asked Zero.

His smile dropped and all his pride. "Don't play dumb with me," he seethed.

Zero knew who this was, because it was unbearably obvious from the way he looked at her with such hatred.

She sighed. "You wouldn't happen to be Menza's bitch, now would you?" she asked.

She hadn't seen it coming, but suddenly, Reaper slammed his hand across her face. The sting of the hit burned to the point that her eyes watered terribly, but she hadn't let the tear fall. Blood pooled inside her mouth and thankfully her tooth hadn't loosened.

"Oh, oh, oh," he bent down in front of her and caressed her cheek with concern in his empty eyes. "I shouldn't have done that. We can't have the great Zero hurt when so many people worship you." Reaper moved her hair away, that was wet from blood and sweat. He let out a snicker as he saw blood streaming down her face. "They call you divine in our circles. So many people fear you. Yet, here you are-" Reaper got to his feet.

Zero spit the blood on his expensive shoe. "Don't get cocky, bitch. I'm bolted to a chair," she said. Her fiery blue eyes glared at him.

Reaper smiled like the fiend he was. "How do you have so much fire in you?" he awed. "I just want to cut you open and actually see if your real."

Zero chuckled then too. "I'm as hollow and bitter as you, Reaper," she said. "Don't mistake my patience right now as weakness."

"Oh, I know you're weak," asserted Reaper. "Otherwise, my men wouldn't have captured you so easily."

"You think your thugs could take me by force?" she asked and Reaper's amusement fell. He didn't say anything further. "You fucked up, Reaper. You showed me your face. Now, that's all I need to hunt you down."

Reaper's glower appeared, a darkness engulfed his eyes and she could see the real him. "You think you're so smart," he gritted out. "Well, right now, you're in my hands and my rules go."

"We'll see about that," she said.

Reaper ran a hand over his buzz-cut skull. "How about I make you an offer?" he presented. "I'll let you walk out of here with all your limbs attached if you lower your head to me," he baited. Zero raised a brow at Reaper. "It's your choice," he said, as he brought a blade to her wrist. "Hand or bow to me?"

Zero looked at him darkly. "That's all you want from me?" she asked.

"For now," he sighed. "It's no fun killing you right here. I want to hunt and I want you to run from me as I play with your life."

"That's all?" she asked again. "This was your one time to ask me for anything."

Reaper pulled her head back by her hair. "Bow your head and stop fucking with me," he snarled.

Zero laughed at him, as her hair ripped out of her skull. "Oh Reaper, I can tell your daddy didn't teach you anything," she seethed. "A head that bows without fear isn't submission."

His hungry eyes savaged for a way to make her lower her gaze. "Putting fear into you won't be hard," he retorted.

That was when Reaper's lips lifted into a grin and he collared her throat digging his nails into her skin. Her hands were tied behind her by a cable tie, otherwise she would have never let him touch her like this. He drew in closer, the ugly scent of his cologne made her stomach lurch and she remembered Severin. His scent never made her sick like this. She needed to go to him and erase this sickness off her.

"You know what else you women are good for," he whispered with his icy voice near her ear.

"Raping me won't do anything," she announced. "I'm not scared of your tiny dick."

Reaper dropped her collar and he held the blade in his meaty fist. "Let's see if the goddess will save you from me," he jested. "You're a big believer, aren't you? I heard of all your devotion to her."

Zero's eyes glared at him as she dislocated her thumbs behind her back. "Menza didn't tell you, did he?" she said and Reaper stared at her deliriously. "Maya is watching, always ready, always beside me."

Reaper scowled. "What a joke," he said. "She's not even real."

"Oh, she's real," she said, "and she's counting the days of when I send your corpse for her to collect."

"Using her won't scare me," he spat at her.

Zero smirked. "I don't need to use her for anything," she said. "Me, alone, is enough to scare you."

"You don't scare me," he snapped.

Zero pushed off the chair onto her feet. Reaper jerked back, his eyes widened when he saw her hands out of the cable ties. "You sure?" she asked.

No one had seen her move. She was too quick for any of them and if they were trained killers, then it was clear that she was in a league of her own. The whole world knew that, and now it was a time to teach Reaper why she was known as the executioner.

Zero grabbed the chair that she was bolted to and attacked before anyone could stop her. The wooden chair flung through the air and she rammed it against the bitch who dared to lay a finger on her.

Reaper shielded his face with his arm, but the impact was tremendous that he knocked back onto the floor dirtying the suit he seemed to cherish. The wooden chair shattered in her hands and was reduced to rubble on the floor around her feet.

"I lured you out of your hole. I took the kids back and put them where you can't reach them. I hung your men serving justice and then I fucking dangled my victory in front you. And then what do you do, you crawl out of your hole and right into my fucking arms."

"I'll make you regret this, Zero," sneered Reaper.

"You better run for your life, Reaper," she snapped. "Run far away if you want to live longer."

"Grab her!" Reaper shouted hysterically as he backed away from her.

Zero wasn't going to make to any exit, so she knew that her only option was to fight and kill every sonofabitch here. And the only way that was possible was if she transformed into her wolf. But that was easier said than done.

Reaper's men grabbed her when they sensed that she was about to shift into her wolf. At least two held her by each arm and another had his arm collared around her throat. She struggled in their arms and while they held her down, she spotted Reaper open a metal case. He was shouting at the men near him and pushed one of them away.

Zero's eyes blurred as the man who held her by a choke-hold tightened the more she fought against the restraint. But she didn't let herself pass out. She watched with alert eyes as Reaper held a glass bottle and a syringe. He filled the entire syringe despite the objections from the men around him.

Reaper came over to her with the needle in his hand. "What will you do if your wolf doesn't come to save you?" he asked her. "See this?" He held up the needle with black liquid inside it. "It's a drug that my friend made. It stops any shifter from transforming into their wolf." Reaper let out an amused laugh when an angst emerged in her eyes.

Zero shut her eyes that she thought her lids might rip. But she couldn't help the feeling of anxiousness fill inside her when Reaper stabbed the needle into her neck. He injected her with this foreign solution, that burned down her throat and she collapsed onto the floor when the men let her go.

Zero's scream rang through the building and agony ripped through her limbs. She had never felt such pain before, like she was being burned alive from inside her body.

Fire engulfed her, like it had when she was a child in that alley all alone. Her scream echoed but no one was here to help her. She had to save herself once again, she couldn't even feel her wolf anymore. She was alone all over again...

Zero didn't know how much time had passed as her screams ripped through the air and Reaper watched with amusement. Her body went from fire to ice and her head throbbed, her vision blurred and she couldn't see straight.

A hand caressed her cheek. "You killed my father," Reaper's voice made her ears bleed. "You destroyed the only good thing I had in my life-" Zero let out another searing scream when the drug squeezed her heart and ripped through her lungs, like shards of glass- "Now, I'm going to destroy you and everything you love. I want to break you and show everyone that you are not some great hero. You're just a twisted savage who pretends to kill for justice when in reality you kill because that's all you know how to do."

Zero didn't feel the pain when Reaper kicked her stomach repeatedly. She fell back and coughed blood onto the wet floor.

"You're nothing, Zero," snarled Reaper. "You're nothing to this world and you will die pitifully!"

Zero didn't know if it was because of the drug or maybe her ears really had bleed out, but everything around her went quiet when she tilted her head back and saw Reaper with a crazed look in his eyes. He appeared as if a sinister monster ready to devour her whole. She had seen this look on many others she's defeated before, this wasn't new to her. Being overpowered and shown that she wasn't as powerful as she thought she was wasn't new to her.

Zero felt the surge of pain swallowing her into the abyss, but this time she held her scream back. She moved her limbs that weighed like concrete, when she heard the splash of water and realized that she was in a puddle. The cool water felt divine on her burning face and it cleared her eyes from tears and blood. It was momentary, but she almost felt as if the drug cooled down when the water soaked through her clothes.

Zero turned and laid onto her back, the scar on her shoulder drank the water through her clothes and it was like she had come to her senses again. That was when Zero saw the moon outside the window peek through the clouds. Maya, she thought in her head. Maya hadn't left her.

A torrent of blistering pain surged through her body lurching her forward and Zero growled out a curse and a prayer.

"You're one tough bitch," Reaper sounded as if he praised her.

She bit down on her molars and her body trembled like she was electrocuted. However, she forced herself onto her knee. She chanted her goddess's name hoping that she will save her again. Zero's knees slackened but she forced herself to stay braced as she stood to her feet.

She faced Reaper and saw the same emptiness in his eyes that she once had. He was filled with hatred for this world just like she was once.

"You're wrong," her voice was thick and hoarse. "I worked too hard to get where I am now just to be called nothing by the likes of you."

Reaper's anger returned.

"I've been on this path for a very long time, Reaper," she said even though her throat begged her not to speak. "I've seen what it does to people, but I never stopped and many who tried failed. You will fail too and you will die just like Menza did."

"Don't say my father's name!" he snarled.

"He wasn't your father," said Zero. "Menza was a monster who successfully made you just like him. But what he failed to do was warn you of me-" Zero's back straightened and her hand found the metal beam hanging on the side- "run, Reaper, run just like your dad did before I executed him."