Jade
“Move it, leech.”
A meaty hand shoved her forward. She stumbled, the thin soles of her silk slippers sliding in the filth and mud. The rusted iron gates of the prison groaned open.
“Don’t want to be late for your party, princess,” a second guard jeered. His laugh was a wet, guttural sound.
Jade straightened her back, lifting her chin. The silver collar on her throat was cold and heavy, a constant reminder of her fall from grace. It pulsed with a dull energy, suppressing her strength, making her feel sluggish and weak. Human.
She took a single, deliberate step into the abyss.
The gates slammed shut behind her with a deafening clang that sealed her fate. The sound echoed across a vast, muddy yard filled with hulking bodies and predatory eyes.
Every single one of them was a werewolf.
The air was thick with the stench. Wet dog, stale sweat, blood, and a choking undercurrent of pure aggression. It clawed at her throat. A low growl rumbled through the yard, a collective sound from a hundred throats.
“What’s that I smell?” a voice called out.
“Smells clean,” another answered with a sneer.
“Smells like old money and bad decisions.”
Laughter rippled through the crowd of inmates. They parted slowly, creating a path for her. It was not a gesture of respect. It was the way predators clear a space to better watch their prey.
Her stomach twisted with a hunger so sharp it felt like swallowing glass. It had been days since she’d last fed properly. The Council had made sure of that. They wanted her weak. They wanted her broken before she even arrived.
She kept walking, her gaze fixed forward, pretending she was walking through the marbled halls of her family’s estate, not a dog kennel masquerading as a prison.
“Well, look what we have here.”
The voice was close. Too close.
She stopped. Three wolves detached themselves from the crowd, blocking her path. They were bigger than the others, their muscles corded under scarred skin and prison tattoos. The one in the middle, clearly the leader, had a broken nose and pale, dead eyes.
“Never seen a vampire in gen pop before,” the leader said, circling her slowly. “They usually keep your kind separate. Afraid you’ll get broken.”
“I don’t break,” Jade said, her voice colder than she felt.
He laughed, a short, ugly bark. “We’ll see. What’s your name, little bat?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“Oh, it’s my concern,” he said, stopping directly in front of her. He was so close she could smell the rancid meat on his breath. “Everything that comes into my yard is my concern. And you,” he reached out to touch a lock of her dark hair.
She flinched back. “Don’t touch me.”
His grin widened, showing yellowed canines. “Or what? You’ll bite me? Please do. I’d love to feel those little fangs snap against my hide.”
The other two wolves chuckled, moving to flank her. The circle was closing.
“I am Jade Vance of the House of Nocturne,” she announced, her voice ringing with an authority she no longer possessed. “My family is one of the Old Blood. If you harm me, they will rain down a century of fire on this place and everyone in it.”
The leader stared at her for a long moment, then threw his head back and howled with laughter. “The House of Nocturne? Girl, your house is the one that sent you here. We heard all about it. Framed for killing an elder. They threw you to the dogs. That’s us.”
Her blood ran cold. Of course they knew. Her humiliation was their entertainment.
“She still smells like a princess, though,” said the wolf on her right. He licked his lips. “I wonder if she still tastes like one.”
“I’m going to enjoy this,” said the one on her left. “Always wanted to hear a vampire scream for real.”
“You will hear nothing from me,” Jade hissed, letting her own fangs descend. It was a bluff. The suppressor collar made her too weak to put up a real fight, but she wouldn’t die cowering.
The leader’s eyes glinted. “There they are. Pretty little things. We’ll take them as souvenirs.”
“Get away from me,” she warned, her hands curling into fists.
“I don’t think so,” the leader said. “You’re ours now. A new toy for the pack. But first, you have to be initiated. You have to learn your place.”
“And what place is that?” she asked through gritted teeth.
“On your knees,” he snarled, his face shifting, the bones cracking as his wolf nature pressed closer to the surface. “You’ll learn to serve us. All of us.”
Panic, cold and sharp, tried to pierce her resolve. She shoved it down. Dignity was all she had left. She would die with it.
“I don’t kneel for mongrels.”
The alpha’s face contorted with rage. “Wrong answer.”
“It’s the only one you’ll ever get from me.”
“You’ve got spirit,” he conceded. “I’ll enjoy breaking it. Get her.”
“You should listen to your alpha,” the wolf to her left whispered in her ear. “It will be easier if you don’t fight.”
“It’s more fun when they fight,” said the one on her right, grabbing her arm. His grip was like iron.
Jade reacted on pure instinct. She twisted, slamming her elbow into his throat. He gagged, stumbling back, his grip loosening for a second. It was all the space she needed.
She spun, ready to face the leader, to land one good strike before they tore her apart.
But he was faster. Stronger.
He caught her by the front of her dress, the fine fabric ripping with a screech. He pulled her close, lifting her onto her toes.
“Bad decision, leech,” he growled in her face.
“Let me go.”
“No. We’re just getting started. We’re going to pass you around until there’s nothing left but an empty little doll for the rest of the yard to play with.”
Fear was a living thing inside her now, coiling in her gut. She could smell their arousal, their bloodlust. It was suffocating.
“I will kill you,” she whispered, a desperate, hopeless promise.
“No, you won’t,” he laughed, his foul breath washing over her. “You’ll beg. You’ll cry. And then you’ll break.”
He shoved her hard. She fell backward, landing painfully in the mud. Her dress was ruined, her body was trembling, but her eyes burned with hatred.
She pushed herself up to her knees, then slowly, defiantly, got to her feet.
“I told you,” she said, spitting a mixture of blood and dirt from her mouth. “I don’t break.”
The leader’s amusement finally faded, replaced by cold fury. “Then we’ll just have to tear you to pieces.”
He lunged.
