Page 9 of Never Submit

I cough, wheezing. “I don’t know what you?—”

He squeezes my throat even harder, cutting off the rest of my sentence. My eyes bulge and terror spikes. This monster is going to kill me. Right here. Right now.

“P-Please,” I beg. “Let…me…”

Then, to my surprise, he releases me. Just like that.

I drop to the ground, choking and sputtering as I force air back into my greedy lungs. Rubbing my throat, I glare up at him, his face half-shadowed by the darkness cloaking the room.

His furious scowl bears down on me.

“It doesn’t matter,” he says harshly. “If the Goddess wants to play these games, then fine, I’ll play. I have patience.”

I have no idea what he’s talking about—games? What games?

“I have you here now, and you’re not going anywhere.”His gaze darts around the cage, as if he’s inspecting it. “Get comfortable, darlin’. This is your home now. With me.”

He says it like he’s never letting me go.

Suddenly, the name wriggles from the deep recesses of my memory.

“You’re…Andras?”

Torin, Mathis, Noble, Dax… One of them had said Andras was the leader of the Blood Moon pack, and that he was power-hungry and completely off his rocker.

Another understatement.

I remember seeing him on the mountain, after his pack attacked us, and then our standoff with the Moonstone. What came next is still a little fuzzy, but he must have knocked me out somehow and brought me here. He must have–

He smiles, slow and wide, showing off those wolfish canines again. It makes me shiver.

Despite the jittery fear shaking me down to my toes, I lift my chin. It might be the biggest mistake of my life, but I don’t want him to see how scared I really am. My pride won’t allow it.

“My wolves… Where are they?” I demand.

“Who? The Steel Claws? Grey Valley?” He raises his shoulder in a half shrug. “They ran off like the cowards they are. With their tails between their legs. You’ll never see them again.”

I don’t believe him. “They’re probably looking for me right now,” I say. “And they’ll–they’ll rescue me and kill you.”

His laughter explodes from him, and I wince at the terrible harshness of it. “You think so?”

I swallow roughly. “Yes, I do. You’ll see. They’re going to come for me. Then you’ll be sorry.”

“Oh, darlin’,” he says, coming in close to the bars again with that haunting grin still on his face, “I’m counting on it.”

Andras turns and shuts the door behind him so hard the rocks of the cave shudder and dust rains down all around me. The room is swallowed by darkness once again, leaving me blind, terrorized, and running out of hope.

Chapter 3

Ren

Time is untraceable in my cage.

Without a window to watch the sun, there’s no way for me to know just how long I’ve been stuck in this room.

Andras hasn’t come back. And the only interactions I have with others are brief—just a few seconds while one of his underlings brings some pitiful-looking food and dribbles of water. But that’s it.

No one speaks to me. They barely even look at me, and as I sit here, alone, my panic increases.

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