Chapter 83

Celia

The darkness, I was once subjected to slowly brightens. My vision is blurry, forever clouded, as the sounds from the world around me begins to swallow me whole. What was once quiet now turns loud, the sound of laughter and taunts filling my ears, causing them to ring.

I try my best to move my body, but it simply does not cooperate with me. I can feel a slight tingling in my fingertips, a small sliver of hope that I can cling to, and that I am not paralyzed, not condemned to a life of complete stillness. My eyelids flutter, taking in the dim lights of the tent that I am in.

In front of me sits Bianca, her shoulders pulled back and chest pushed out, sitting upon what I can make out as a makeshift throne. It is made out of the Earth that surrounds us. Her throne is made out of stacked rocks, long branches from nearby trees, and vines from nearby plants. If she were not the one to be sitting on it, then I would think that it is a throne made, especially for mother nature herself.

But it is not. It is a throne being for a vile and evil woman.

“Good morning, princess,” Bianca's voice sneers at me, taunting me as my body slowly regains its consciousness. “Did you sleep well? The tonic I made for you was supposed to be stronger… But you are a fighter, are you not?”

Bianca slowly moves away from her throne. Anxiety and nervousness begins to form in my body, my muscles involuntarily tensing from underneath my skin. All I can do is lay in the mud below me and watch as Bianca slowly circles her prey.

I remain silent, unable to move my mouth to form the words to fight back. I do not even know if fighting back will work in my favor. For all I know, anything can set Bianca off on one of her rampages and I, for one, do not wish to be caught in the crossfire yet again.

My eyes follow her until she moves behind me. There is a dull sensation on my back, pushing into the spot that sits between my shoulder blades, pushing me face down into the mud.

Laughter erupts inside of the tent. I can hear an amalgamation of voices, their laughs mixed in with Bianca's snicker, finding nothing but humor in the way that my body is unable to fight back. How can she find such humor and gratification in a one sided fight? How is it fair?

My body is slowly removed from the mud, rolling me over. Mud covers the entirety of my face, cooling me down as best as it can. A few fingers make their way onto my face, swiping the mud away from my eyes, their fingernails digging into my eyes.

I wince, unable to disguise the pain. It causes me as my body is slow, slowly, comes back to life. I open up my eyes and stare at the bright sunlight that pours through the tent. My body’s weight rolls to my side, the rest of the tent coming in view.

Bianca steps in front of my eye line once again, kneeling down beside me. She hooks a finger underneath my chin, lifting my head up so I can properly look at her.

What kind of game could she possibly be playing with me right now? Has she not already won? She has me as her captive, she should end it all right here right now so she can get what she wants because I know that with my death, Soren would have finally shattered beneath the pressure.

Tears begin to roll down my face. Once Bianca catches sight of them, a smile spreads across her lips, nothing but joy being emanated from her eyes. Her grin is sick and twisted, making me feel so fucking nauseous that she finds joy from my tears in misery.

“Look at you cry. It is pitiful to watch and yet here I am feeling nothing but happiness at your inevitable to isa. And to think that this is all a part of my plan, this is everything that I have wished for in the past couple of months,” Bianca speaks, capturing the attention of the room.

She stands from beside me, turning her attention to the werewolf soldiers that stand at her side in the room. I can just hear the smile on her face as she begins to speak once again.

“We will finally take what is ours,” Bianca begins, her voice filled with nothing but pride, “we will take back what was taken from us. We will bring an end to all of those who wish to see us, to see us buried six feet underneath the ground.”

The room erupts into cheers. The rogue werewolf soldiers that Bianca has enlisted into her command, hang onto every word, hollering and cheering and clapping along with every word. Their chance rile her up more, giving her the confidence that she needs to continue her speech.

“I brought the missing in princess here for one reason and one reason only,” Bianca Thompson, finally turning back to look at me, her prey. “I brought her back home, her real home, the home that she was taken away from before her birth.”

Is this my father's home? Are we outside of it? Will I finally understand and see the life that my parents had run from all of those years ago?

Dread fills my body. Bianca snaps her fingers and all of a sudden the tent from around us is snapped away, revealing a run down in abandoned, looking home that sits in the middle of the forest.

It takes my breath away, just to see the history of my father, the home that I almost lived in if they didn't take me away from the Lycans. The side of the mansions walls are cracked from the years, nobody having taken care of the place while my father was gone, not like there was any need to take care of it, anyways.

We must be in the heart of the Lycan capitol. That is where all of the Lycan royalty live, just like my father. My eyes flicker around, watching as the werewolves rush towards me. Their hands attached themselves to my body, freely pushing me up and into the air.

In this moment, I realize that I want to live. I do not want to die. I do not know what Bianca has in store for me after this, but I know that it will not be good.

I feel like a trapped animal right now. There was a saying that healer Anderson told me once during one of our meetings, stating that a trapped animal will not away at its own body in order to get away.

Will I be subjected to this fate as well? Will the werewolves from all around me point and laugh as I sync my teeth into my flesh, desperate to get away from them? To get away from the danger that Bianca has clearly thrown me into the middle of?

I have to form a plan. I have to get away from the madness that surrounds Bianca if I want to live. I have to live… I have to see Soren again.