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When Rayna wakes up after inhaling that gas, the first thing she feels is pain.
Everywhere.
Her throat burns. She has bruises all over her body—cuts, as well. Her muscles and lungs ache, and she can barely feel her wolf, who is unable to heal her right away like usual. She still feels lightheaded and dizzy, but not as much. What hurts her that most is that her parts hurt, too . . .
As she comes to her senses, and realizes that she's laying on the floor, naked.
She sits up slowly, but even so, the movement makes her stomach churn. She gags, and when she realizes that her throat is sore, she crawls across the room to the opposite corner to vomit what little food she can left on her stomach and a white substance.
She hacks a bit before backing herself into her corner and curling up into the fetal position. Earlier, the last she wanted was to cry, but now, it's all she can do. Tears stream endlessly down her cheeks. Harsh sobs wrack her entire body, though she stays silent. No one should hear her sadness. Her entire body feels weak.
'Harley . . . I am so, so sorry, Harley. I'm sorry.'
She feels disgusting. She is repulsed at herself. She starts clawing at her skin, starting to make this dirty feeling on every inch of her skin go away.
Suddenly, she remembers her mates words.
"I give all of me to you and only you for the rest of my life."
"I will never leave you, Rayna. I can promise you that, and I'll tell you everyday for the rest of our lives to make you believe it."
"I love you."
"I care about you more than I thought I could ever care about anyone."
Rayna takes a deep breath. Then another, and another, and another, until the salty tears go away.
Harley won't care if she's been touched again. He'll still love her no matter what.
She looks down there, and there's isn't any sticky white substance, so maybe there's a chance that what she thinks happened didn't happen. She doubts it.
She wipes the tears off of her face with the back of her hand. Remember the plan, Rayna, she says to herself. You can do this.
*~*~*~*
A small slot in the bottom half of the door opens, instantly earning Rayna's attention, and multiple pieces of fabric are slipped through.
She waits for a second, but nothing happens. Cautiously, she crawls over. She picks up the fabrics, and they're a set of clothes. A black sports bra, underwear, and a pair of black spandex shorts. She sighs and puts them on. It's better than nothing.
A few minutes later, the door opens.
In walks a rogue in human form. It's painfully obvious by their dirty skin, messy hair, and disgusting scent.
They hold a blank expression.
"Stand up," they order in a monotone voice.
Obediently, Rayna stands up, though slowly to avoid a head rush.
The rogue pulls out a pair of handcuffs, grab Rayna's wrists, and locks her into the cuffs. Luckily, the cuffs aren't silver or laced with wolfsbane, like Rayna had feared.
"Come."
The rogue them turns around and exits the room. Confused, Rayna follows. Two more rogues appear on either side of the door to follow behind her, which doesn't surprise her. She figures that they're in a small building underground, as they quickly walk up a flight of stairs which leads to ground level.
The sky is pitch black, and the only light is from the full moon and the stars. The cold night air nips at her, giving her goosebumps. Rayna happily breathes in the fresh air, but she doesn't get to enjoy it for long as she's forced by the rogues to keep walking,
Rayna looks over her shoulder to see that there's a wood cabin right behind the door to the underground building. Her eyes widen.
Johnathan and Circes cabin? she wonders.
She lets out a surprised yelp as she falls forward. She tripped on something beneath the tall grass in the dark. The rogues pause, and she quickly stands up. They start walking again.
They enter the woods next to the cabin. Rayna tries more than once, making the rogues pause, waiting for her to get back up, and then it's right back to walking. It isn't long before she starts huffing and puffing from exhaustion due to the lack of food and water she'd had in the past twenty plus hours, making the rogues slow down to accommodate to her pace.
She finds it odd that they're being so kind as to not hurt her or yell at her, but she tries not to think much of it. She plays the plan over and over in her mind.
After about twenty minutes of walking, they reach a large clearing in the forest where tons of rogues in human form are gathered. The scent is absolutely putrid. Scattered around the rogues are the witches, controlling them. Then, there's a large group next to them of Rayna's old pack.
Between Rayna and the groups stand Johnathan and Circe, smirking.
Next to them is a flimsy foldable table with a large, sharp blade on it. That's the best they got?
Rayna takes a deep breath in, and then a long breath out. Remember the plan, she says to herself. You got this.
The three rogues who walked there with Rayna walk her right up to Johnathan, who pulls out a key. He unlocks her handcuffs and hands them back to the rogue who had handcuffed her. Johnathan leans his lips down to her ear.
"Try to run, and you will be ripped to shreds," he whispers threateningly.
She resists a shiver, refusing to let his intimidating words visibly effect her. Johnathan pulls away, and with a simple hand gesture, the rogue take a few steps back, standing behind them.
Rayna looks out among the group of rogues in front of her. Each and every one of their faces are void of any emotion. It deeply unsettles her. She looks out among the pack, and most of them seem anxious, scared, confused. The witches stand there, impatient.
Johnathan begins a speech to the rogues, pack, and witches.
"You all are about to witness only the second performance of this ritual in the entire history of Flower Wolves," he announces, walking in front of the table and pacing as he talks. Circe stands next to Rayna with her arms crossed, smirking.
"Tonight," he continues, "you all will witness the transfer of The Flower Wolf's powers into the hands on another, rendering her useless and under full control of the inheritor. And, that inheritor will be Circe and I."
All of the witches share a surprised and somewhat confused look. Rayna notices. Then, they can't resist small smiles and even a lone, faint giggle. They know.
The entire pack collectively gasps. Some whimper in fear, but they are forced to remain silent and still by Johnathan's command.
Johnathan either doesn't notice the reactions, or he decides to ignore it. He continues.
"To do this, we will cut open each of our hands and combine our blood under the blood moon, causing her powers to make their way out of her bloodstream and into ours."
Johnathan then walks back behind the table and kisses Circe aggressively, making Rayna look away. She hears them whisper a few sentences, ending with them pulling away.
After a few minutes, the moon turns red.
"Now we will begin the ritual!" Johnathan announces, grabbing and raising up the knife that was on the table.
That's when it happens.
Pack wolves appear by every witch, catching them off guard and dragging them away from the group. Then, pack warriors in human form lock the witches hands behind their back in handcuffs before they can react. Though, these handcuffs have a special jewel inside that diffuses the witches magic.
As this happens, the rogues are freed from their control and regain their emotions. They have three different reactions.
Most of the rogues stay in human form and bow down to the pack wolves, not wanting a fight or to be hurt. Some shift into wolf form, to feel safe, but they also bow down. Some shift into wolf form and attack the pack wolves, feral. The ones who don't attack are left alone for now, and the ones who attack are killed.
"Attack!" Johnathan commands the pack, but Rayna's wolf is back and quickly raises their Queen Aura, freeing the pack.
Most of them follow the rogues lead, bowing down to remain alive. Some of Johnathan's most loyal followers attack the warriors, but they are quickly killed. Once there's no one left fighting, the warriors begin restraining everyone there to be dealt with later.
Johnathan growls, but he is powerless. Even Circe is taken backwards and cuffed.
He pauses as her magic becomes useless.
"We aren't mates . . ." he mutters.
"I tricked you for your pack, dumbass! The ritual isn't even real!" Circe shouts as she's being dragged away.
Johnathan stands still, dumbfounded. This gives Rayna the opportunity to grab the knife from him and kick the back of his knees, causing him to fall forward. She keeps a hand on his knees and then grabs him by his hair, pulling him onto his knees and looking up at her. She places her other foot on his hands and holds the knife up to his neck, pinning him there and defenseless.
"You're getting what you deserve, asshole," Rayna growls.
Johnathan chuckles.
"I bet you have questions for me?" he asks.
"Just two," she tells him. "Did . . . Did you rape me again?"
"No," he responds, honestly.
She hides a sigh of relief.
"Now, any last words?"
He chuckles sadistically. "I hired those rogues to kill Rose all those years ago."
Her eyes widen, and she quickly slits his throat open with the knife, stepping off of his hands, letting go of his hair, and pushing his harshly to the ground, dead.
Her eyes become glossy as she drops the knife and backs up.
She knocks over the table and curls up into a ball crying. There's so many thoughts and emotions running through her that she can't process them all.
He didn't rape her.
She killed Johnathan.
He killed Rose.
Soon, all of her senses fade away, throwing her into a dark abyss.
