Filed to story: Tangled in Moonlight Unshifted Novel by Lenaleia
Memories assault me, vivid and visceral. The jeers and taunts of my packmates. The pain of their blows, both physical and emotional. The sinking realiz
Breathe, Ava, Selene murmurs in my mind. You’re safe now. She can’t hurt you anymore.
I know she’s right, but it doesn’t stop the flood of emotions. Fear, anger, betrayalthey swirl inside me, a maelstrom threatening to pull me under.
“Ava?” Vanessa’s gentle voice breaks through the chaos. “Are you alright?”
A shuddering breath. A few beats of my heart, slowing down. Meeting her concerned gaze, I give the faintest smile. “I’m fine.”
She nods, understanding in her eyes. “I’ll be in the other room if you need me.” She pauses, then adds, “Therapy isn’t something to be ashamed of. If yo
Gratitude wells up inside me, and I manage a shaky smile. “Thank you.”
As Vanessa leaves, I turn my attention back to Selene, running my fingers through her soft fur. Her presence is a balm, soothing the jagged edges of my memories.
I’m sorry you had to face that, she says, her voice a gentle caress in my mind. But you handled it with strength and grace.
A bitter laugh escapes me. “Strength? I’m shaking like a leaf.”
Strength isn’t the absence of fear, Ava. It’s facing it headon, even when it terrifies you. And that’s exactly what you did.
Her words sink in, and I feel a glimmer of pride amidst the turmoil. She’s right. I did face Margot. I said what I wanted to. I refused to be pulled into the past.
It’s a small victory, but still a victory.
Every mile starts with a small step forward, Selene points out, and I rub my face against her.
These small steps started a long time ago. With your alpha. You regret your actions now, but look at the strength you have managed from standing up to
Leaning back, I narrow my eyes at Selene. “Are you sure you’re not just trying to put a positive spin on things now that you’re stuck with him?”
No. Her tongue lolls, though, making me doubt her. I have always told you to ask for what you want, to stand up for what you feel. Even if you regret it no found today.
“That’s like saying I should just argue with everyone all the time to become stronger.”
No. She shakes herself, as if someone had dumped a bucket of water on her.
Me. I’m the water.
Letting her go, I stand slowly, taking a deep breath. My heart is beating normally now, no longer thudding with anxiety.
Now that you’ve learned how to say no, it’s time to learn when to say no, Selene continues, sounding prim and proper.
I stare at her suspiciously, that damn husky smile throwing me off. I still can’t tell if she’s serious or not.
I am, she insists, panting.
“Fine. I believe you.”
My thigh burns.
It’s an odd ache between desire and pain. I itch, rub, and scratch, but those two perfect, circular punctures remain in the skin, though no blood seeps out.
It took so long for the desire he’d forced into me to dissipate, leaving my body feeling more like me again. The power he has to overcome my natural revulsion is terrifying, and I spend way too much time dreaming up horrible scenarios in which I’m used as a sex slave to a vampire.
Though, he didn’t seem to have much interest in the actual sex aspect, outside of… how did he say it?
Oh, yeah.
Flavoring.
The word makes me shudder. He’s going to drain me of every drop of blood one day.
And no matter how long I sit here, I have no ideas on how to fight back.
What would Ava do in this situation? I can’t believe she would sit here and let it happen to her. She’d fight back somehow, right?
But…
Ava isn’t exactly human, either.
Maybe once, but not anymore.
Shivering in the cold, I roll carefully to my other side, using my clothing scraps as a barrier between my skin and stone.
I can’t wear them. May as well lay on them.
My body aches in ways I never thought possible. The frigid temperature of the floor seeps through my bones, an insidious chill that refuses to abate no matter how tightly I curl in on myself.
Manacles chafe against my wrists and ankles. I tug at them with a weak yank every so often, knowing it’s futile but unable to resist. The metal is unyielding, the chains too strong for my human strength to break.
But I can’t give up. I won’t.
I have to hold on to hope, to the belief that I’ll make it out of here somehow.
But how?
I close my eyes, trying to summon every scrap of knowledge I have about vampires. It’s not much, just bits and pieces gleaned from movies and books…
And none of them really agree with each other.
So, that’s not super helpful.
None of them mentioned how they’re cold, either. So very, very cold.
I remember the way his touch had been like ice, his fingers trailing over my skin like the caress of winter itself. But after he drank from me, after he’d taken what he wanted… he was warm. Almost human.
Is that what they do? Steal the warmth from their victims, leaving them shivering and weak in the aftermath? It makes a twisted sort of sense, a parasitic existence that feeds off the life force of others.
But if that’s true, then maybe there’s a way to use it against him. If I can make myself too cold to be appealing, too frigid to provide the warmth he craves…
No. That’s stupid.
I’ll die from that temperature.
I’m not entirely certain I won’t die from it right now.
I take a deep breath, ignoring the way my lungs protest the damp, musty air. Slowly, painfully, I force myself to sit up, the chains clanking with every movement. My muscles scream in protest, but I grit my teeth and push through the pain.
Follow new episodes on the “N0vel1st.c0m”.
It shouldn’t hurt this much. Is it the cold? Is it from something he did when he fed off me?
Or is it just pain from laying on the stone floor for—how long has it been? A day? Two?
I can’t do much, not with my limbs bound as they are. But I can move. My body stretches, twists, and turns with some protest, my muscles tight.
Eventually, things get a little easier.
I can’t do anything I’m used to, adapting everything to my shortened range of motion, focusing on stretching and using my body weight to create resistance.
Stay strong.
Stay focused.
I can’t fight back if I just give up and laze around on the stone floor.
The steady rhythm of my movements echoes through the dank cell. Breathe in, breathe out. Each exhale is a little deeper, a little louder as my heart rate picks up. I can feel the warmth spreading through my limbs as I stretch and contort within the confines of these chains.
Progress. That’s what I cling to in this dismal place. Any small victory over my circumstances fuels my determination to keep fighting, to never surrender.
A sharp scrape of stone against stone shatters the trance, every muscle in my body tensing. The hairs on the back of my neck prickle as dread washes over me in icy waves. He’s coming back.