Chapter 3 – Predator Protocol

Serena POV

They were still laughing when Luca yanked me to my feet. The sound echoed in my skull, clinging like smoke. Bitter, and choking. The hall was empty when the doors crashed behind us.

His hands were iron as he dragged me down a dark corridor lit by guttering torches. The walls were stone, centuries of ash and blood. High above us, the wolves howled the moon to welcome, and the pack’s response rolled through the fortress in a living drumbeat, curdling my insides.

He shoved me through an iron door, and the smell of it hit me first.

Not musk. Not sweat. Not the wet, feral heat of a living pack.

It was iron and oil, old blood dried to rust, leather aged and stiffened with use. The air tasted like metal, tang sharp enough to bite the back of my throat. Shadow slithered across the walls, thrown long by a brazier that burned low in the corner. The light washed over chains, bolted into the stone. Cuffs scarred with claw marks, shackles that had not seen polish in years.

And above them, a shelf lined with skulls.

Dozens of them. Wolf skulls bleached white, fanged mouths frozen in a permanent snarl. Others smaller, human, cracked down the center, split by blade or fang.

My stomach heaved, bile scraping my throat.

Luca’s hand pinched at the back of my neck, shoving me so hard my knees struck stone. Pain stabbed up my thighs, rattling my teeth. The fresh brand at my collarbone flared with the motion, every heartbeat an explosion of fire.

“Kneel,” he ordered.

I was already kneeling, but that wasn’t the point.

I spat blood onto the floor between us, taste sharp and copper on my tongue. “Is this your law, then? Breaking things until they fit?”

His hand cut across my face, swift and measured. Hard enough to shatter bone. Soft enough to sting. Soft enough to humiliate. Soft enough to remind me that he didn’t need full strength to inflict pain.

“You think it breaking.” He kept his voice low and controlled. He crouched in front of me, the scar trailing his jaw catching the firelight like a pale slash of lightning. “I call it training.”

He cupped my jaw in his hand, thumbing at my chin until the hinges of bone ached.

“You’ll learn to kneel without being ordered. You’ll learn silence when I have not asked for words. You’ll learn that when I touch you, it is command, not request.”

I tried to wrench free. His grip only tightened until the pain bit sharp in my jaw.

“Let go,” I snapped.

His teeth flashed in a wolfish smile. “Say please.”

The word curdled in my throat. I bit it back, down to the place where teeth ground together.

He released me, anyway, shoving me back onto my heels. My knees slid against the stone floor, the chain of my bindings rattling like laughter.

“Defiance is all right,” he said, straightening. “It makes obedience sweeter.”

He strode across the chamber, a predator caged with prey. His steps were deliberate, each one calculated to remind me that he owned the space. He ran a hand over the chains that had been bolted into the wall, fingers ghosting over metal scarred by claws. “Others have knelt here before you. Some of them learned. Some did not.”

His eyes flicked up to the skulls on the shelf. He didn’t have to say more.

A cold knot coiled in my belly, but I set my jaw higher. “You think I’ll join them?”

“I think you’ll be better.” He turned to face me again, his smile sharp enough to slice. “Your bloodline demands it.”

Prophecy again. Always prophecy.

He crouched low, close enough that the heat from the brazier behind him washed over my skin.

His hand pressed to my collarbone, thumb grinding into the raw brand. Pain burst white. I gasped, back arching involuntarily.

“You will kneel,” he said softly. “And when you do, the pack will see their queen.”

“I’ll never be your queen.”

He leaned in close, his lips almost brushing my ear. “You already are.”

Pressure on my brand built, painful enough that tears stung my eyes. Stars swam at the edge of my vision. My wolf slammed against her cage, furious, snarling. Fight. Bite. Tear. She wanted his throat. She wanted his blood. But she also wanted his dominance. And that truth made my belly twist worse than pain.

Luca finally lifted his hand, satisfaction blazing in his silver eyes.

He moved to a table near the wall, something dragging across the stone. Chains. He snapped a cuff into place, the sound bright, final. He tossed it at my knees.

“Put it on.”

The iron ring landed with a heavy clang against my skin, open but waiting.

“No.”

He crouched in front of me, his hand snapping tight around the back of my neck. His other pressed the cuff to my wrist. “You’ll learn. You’ll wear what I give you.”

I jerked back, but he was a wall. The cuff clicked shut with a metallic clack, cold iron biting into my skin. The chain rattled when he released me.

“You’ll sleep here,” he said, tall and shadow long across the chamber. “Not in my bed. Not yet.”

“Generous,” I spat.

He ignored the venom in my words, stalking back toward the door. His voice dropped to a low rumble, but it rolled through the space like command. “At dawn, you will kneel before the pack. You will swear the oath you have already begun. You will show them who you are.”

Words dripped finality, like prophecy spoken aloud.

The door slammed shut. The echo filled the chamber, the chain rattling in response.

I stayed where I was, knees on stone, breath sawing through my throat. Every inhale scraped against the brand. Every exhale pulled fire down my chest.

The skulls watched from their shelf. Silent. Waiting.

My wolf stirred inside me, claws scraping bone. Not skull. Not yet. Bite. Tear. Survive.

Her voice filled the silence long after his footsteps were gone.