Chapter 5 Iron Cage Imprisonment and Faint Phantom Pain

Elara's POV

"BANG!"

I was thrown violently into a rusted iron cage.

The thick iron bars were covered in dried, dark-red bloodstains. The air reeked of vomit-inducing gore, rotting flesh, and the scent of wolf Doomweed. This place was normally reserved for wild beasts who'd completely lost their minds—feral, man-eating monsters.

Now, it was my new home.

"Click." The heavy iron lock snapped shut with finality.

Doomweed surrounded the cage on all sides. Pale purple flowers and leaves swayed in the night breeze, their scent stabbing into my lungs like needles.

"What a joke—some 'noble white wolf.' Now she's not even worth as much as a dog!"

Outside the cell door, two guards spat at me viciously, their faces twisted with undisguised contempt and mockery.

"Right? Lost her kid, got stripped of her name, had her wrist snapped by her own Alpha—and she's still delusional enough to think she deserves the Luna title! Crazy bitch!"

They laughed without restraint. One of them stepped forward and carelessly tossed a broken wooden bowl to the ground.

The bowl rolled twice through the mud. Inside was spoiled leftover meat mixed with dirt, stopping exactly two feet outside the iron bars.

"Want some? Bark like a dog and crawl over here to lick it up!"

They turned and left, abandoning me alone in the freezing mud.

Night was falling. The storm had stopped, but bone-chilling wind laced with ice shards howled through the cage.

So cold.

My stomach felt like it was being gnawed on by a million ants. The hunger was so intense it threatened to swallow me whole.

I couldn't die.

My child was still in the hands of that vicious woman, Hestia! If I starved to death here, froze to death, my baby would become the sacrificial offering she needed to manipulate the lunar crown's prophecy!

I had to survive. I needed to save my strength—enough to tear them all apart!

I gritted my teeth and dragged my useless legs, crawling inch by inch toward the edge of the cage.

The gap between the bars was narrow. With difficulty, I forced my left hand—the one that wasn't broken—through the opening, fingers clawing desperately through the icy mud, trying to reach that piece of spoiled meat.

Almost there... just a little more...

The instant my fingertips were about to touch the meat, two crimson lanterns suddenly lit up in the darkness.

No—not lanterns. The bloodthirsty eyes of a fully grown beast!

A massive wolf, one of the guard beasts assigned to patrol the death cells, had crept up to the cage without me noticing. It stared at my exposed arm, drool dripping from its jaws.

"ROAR—!"

The beast let out a savage growl and lunged, its jaws clamping down hard on my forearm!

"RIIIP—"

Sharp fangs pierced straight through my flesh!

The wolf shook its head violently, trying to tear my arm clean off. I didn't pull back. Instead, I used the force of its thrashing to lunge forward with my left hand—and grabbed that piece of mud-covered meat, clutching it tightly in my fist!

Then, with every ounce of strength I had left, I kicked my right leg hard against the iron bars and yanked my left arm free from the beast's fangs!

"SPLAT—"

Chunks of flesh were torn away. Blood sprayed out, splattering across the cage.

The wolf roared in fury outside the bars. I collapsed in the muddy puddle inside, gasping for breath as I stared at my arm—the wound so deep I could see bone.

No time to worry about the injury. Trembling, I raised my left hand and shoved the filthy, blood-soaked piece of meat into my mouth.

But just as I was about to lose consciousness from the pain, the remnants of the mate bond suddenly jolted.

Through that bond—nearly smothered by Doomweed—I felt a flash of tearing pain in Kevin's left arm.

I caught a flicker of his shock, followed by the sharp crash of breaking glass, as if it came from somewhere far away, muffled by thick fog, echoing faintly in my mind.

Maybe he dropped his wine glass.

But immediately after, he used his overwhelming Alpha power to brutally erect a mental wall, forcibly severing the pain that belonged to me!

Through the dying bond, I heard his voice, thick with anger: "That damned, vicious woman—she dares to curse me with this filthy witchcraft!"

A curse?

Kevin, your arrogance is sickening! You'd rather believe this is some evil spell I cast on you than admit it's your mate crying out from the edge of death!

I closed my eyes with a bitter smile.

The wound was still bleeding, but the white wolf blood in my veins—nourished by that scrap of meat—finally began to stir again, faint but alive.

I didn't need to beg anyone for scraps. White wolves were born to be the Moon Goddess's perfect hunters!

I took a deep breath and pushed my white wolf hearing to its absolute limit.

The world around me expanded, unraveling into infinite detail.

The rustle of wind through leaves...

The snoring of guards in distant tents...

Hestia's soft, simpering laughter from the main house...

My hearing became an invisible net, spreading silently across the entire Shadow Pack under cover of night.

I searched for that faint sound—the one tied to my bloodline, the heartbeat that matched my own rhythm.

One hour. Two hours... Cold sweat soaked through my back. The strain on my hearing was too much—my ears began to bleed.

Just as I was about to collapse—

"Thump... thump..."

A tiny, fragile heartbeat, carrying the unmistakable rhythm of white wolf blood, was caught in the wind.

My child! My child was alive!

My eyes snapped open.

The sound was coming from the priest tower.

Not only that—I could hear the dull drip of water and the damp chill of stone walls.

My throat tightened.

My child was most likely locked in the darkest, coldest dungeon beneath the priest tower.

And the only person who could've done that was Hestia.

Now that I knew where my baby was, I'd tear this cage apart with my bare hands if I had to. I'd rip that vicious woman's skin off piece by piece!

I clenched my fists and reached for the lock on the iron door.

But in that exact second—

The heartbeat suddenly spiked, frantic and desperate, like someone had their hands wrapped around my child's throat. It carried the unmistakable terror of someone dying.

Someone was torturing my child in that water dungeon!

My eyes flared crimson. Even if it cost me this broken hand, I was going to smash through this cage and kill them all!

But before I could move—

"Click."

In the darkness just inches away, the heavy lock on the cage door suddenly clicked open.

The iron door swung wide, pulled open from the outside without warning.

A towering black shadow, radiating an overwhelming presence and reeking of fresh blood, stood silently outside the cell—completely blocking out the cold moonlight.