The events that transpired next happened in a frightening blur.

Matteo recognized the predicament we found ourselves in and as an attempt to keep us all alive, he surrendered willingly.

I realized how great of an alpha he was in that moment because I could tell that every fiber of his being was screaming at him to stand up and fight. But he didn't.

He wasn't alone anymore, there were more lives at stake than just his own and he accepted this. Matteo allowed himself be cuffed and then in quick succession the rest of us were restrained in a similar fashion.

The second that the cuffs touched everyone else's skin, their faces were warped in pain. They must be silver cuffs but strangely enough, the metal was having no effect on me. Sure they were uncomfortable like any pair of cuffs would be I assumed, but nowhere near the burning pain that the rest of our group seemed to be experiencing.

Devin was outfitted with a bizarre spiked wooden collar of sorts around his neck, I had never seen anything like it. The spikes faced inward and pressed against his pale skin, I knew stakes were lethal to his kind but I didn't know wood in general was a deterrent.

After we were all handcuffed individually to Samson's smug satisfaction, he linked us horizontally together with a single chain so we were all strung along together. Even more silver with still no effect on me, at this point I was starting to become a little concerned and unfortunately I wasn't the best at hiding my emotions.

Right as Samson gave the command for us to get moving, one of his men seemed to notice my lack of response to the silver as well.

"Oi," He called out, suddenly standing in front of me effectively preventing me from walking. "The silver's not working on this one, Sam!"

Samson froze mid step, slowly pivoting around to face us. "What do you mean the silver isn't working?" He grit out through clenched teeth and then stalked over to me.

He yanked the loose chain up to his face, before quickly dropping it as the toxic metal seared into his skin. "It's definitely working alright."

Which brought him to the only other logical conclusion. If it wasn't the silver that was dysfunctional, I must be the problem here.

Samson narrowed his eyes and leaned in close to me, inhaling deeply through his nostrils. "She certainly smells funny," he commented suspiciously before his eyes landed on my mark on my neck, "Definitely a were though, get a load of that mark!"

He shoved the hair from my neck and pushed my face to the side so his men could get a better look at my festering mark. I heard Matteo growl a few feet away from me, clearly regretting surrendering in this moment.

"It looks like it's rotting!"

"I'm gonna puke."

"I've never seen a mark look like that before."

A few of the more memorable comments from the chaotic chorus of disgust that rang out after Samson brought it to everyone's attention.

I knew my mark was bad but I didn't know it looked that awful. When Samson finally removed his hand from my face, I immediately looked over to Matteo, searching his face for some kind of rational explanation. He shook his head and held and lifted his cuffed hands to his face, holding a single finger to his lips.

He was right, the smartest thing I could do was stay quiet. The more information I revealed to them meant the more power they had over me.

Samson rubbed his grubby chin thoughtfully, "Its probably the transformation that's messing with her." He concluded with a nod before gesturing to the beaten path in front of them, "The tiny thing isn't going anywhere, she's nothing to concern yourselves over. We have to get them to Lysander tonight, that's what we should be sh:tting ourselves over." Samson grumbled as he walked ahead of us for a few steps more before his men prodded us forward to march behind him.

Amias looked over his shoulder before gesturing with a pointed stare at one of the men walking beside us with the key ring sitting proudly on his hip.

My eyes widened, what did Amias expect me to do? Matteo seemed to be wondering the same thing, he aggressively stared me down and shook his head.

It was a silent stare off and I got the message loud and clear from Matteo. No meddling.

So we walked hand in hand to our certain doom in silence with no attempts at breaking free. We went like that for hours, none of us saying a word to each other or our captors, the events of the day finally settling down on our shoulders as the adrenaline rush waned away.

I thought about how quickly things transpired over the past weeks. My thoughts lingering particularly longer on Ansel. No one had tended to his body, he was left lying in a pool of his blood and probably would remain that way. He deserved better.

Ansel was a good person in some not so good circumstances. He didn't want to harm me or any of us for the matter, everything he was inspired to do was a result of fear and manipulation from Lysander.

He was the real enemy.

Since Matteo abducted me, it's been a wild roller coaster. The kind where you are forced to close your eyes and just go along with the ride because it's so terrifying, there is nothing else you can do to get through it.

My eyes were open now and the view at the end of the coaster was not pretty.

We were lined up in front of a dark, ominous building. It was beaten up and falling apart in some places, however it's stair of disrepair did little to take away from the terrifying stature.

The man who lived behind those doors was pure, unfiltered malevolence.

He was a monstrous vampire who imprisoned supernaturals and systematically enabled an institutionalized slavery within the packs.

All along, Lysander was the real evil I should have been taught to fear not Matteo. As I looked to my left he stood there staring down at me with a sad smile, he knew what was about to happen and so did I.

Somehow though, knowing Matteo was with me and that he really cared about me made walking into our certain deaths slightly more bearable.

That's what I would've said if I was a love struck idiot who thought men were the answer to everything.

No amount of compassion from Matteo could prepare me for the fate that rested just behind those looming doors and I did believe he really did care. But, I was too young to die and no relationship I had would ever change that even though I truly cared for him.

One of Samson's men got tired of my ogling and shoved me in the back from behind and if it weren't for the chains connecting me to he rest of my group I would've been sent tumbling forward, colliding with the ground.

My legs were exceptionally weak. Come to think of it, my entire body felt more fatigued than normal and my mark seemed to be hurting more than usual.

I didn't say anything though, complaining about aches and pains seemed pretty trivial at the moment.

The black oak doors suddenly creaked open on their own accord and we were practically thrown inside.

We were all alone now in the large, dimly lit audience hall, with the exception of Samson. All of his men stayed outside as the heavy wooden doors closed behind us, locking with a resounding sound across the room.

The dismal lighting that was present short circuited and left us in complete darkness.

Amias looked positively terrified, Fran seemed above it all, Devin was anxious and Matteo couldn't keep his eyes off of me.

Everyone displayed an array of different emotions but I think we all felt a degree of the same fear beneath our exterior masks. This was the end after all.

Suddenly a single light illuminated the front of the room and a man became visible. The man was hooded but even so, I could definitely tell that he was a vampire. He had freakishly pale skin and that combined with the finery he was wearing made it safe to assume that it was Lysander.

Samson jerked his chin in his direction, ushering us forward. We collectively stumbled into the theatric lone spotlight in the room, it was painfully dramatic but not as much as looking at the concern carved into Matteo's features.

I knew he wasn't worried about himself, he was agonizing over my wellbeing which was foreign and exciting and heart wrenching at the same time. It almost made it worse knowing Matteo was this distressed because of me.

Lysander calmly lowered his hood and when he lifted his eyes from the cool marble floor, he gasped loudly.

"Olive?"

😏😂