er- The Silve

it down on my lip until I tasted blood.

ag they had given me to wear. My hands were chained above my head, my body suspended against

ed as if he had done this a hundred times before.

hing as an

at it makes him?" I had heard all the whispered insults, the disgusted looks, the way my father couldn't even bear to look at me anymore

omina

sound escaped my lips a choked gasp that

?" I closed my eyes, retreating inward

ad given myself to a stranger......a dying man I had found at the border and that in one night, he had claimed me body and soul?

They would call me mad add

ey would hu

. I let them whip me, starve me, lock me away in this dungeon where the sun never r

you again.

to the floor in a heap of torn flesh and aching bones. My body was a map

they walked toward the door. "You co

d. I didn't eve

stomed to it over the past months, learned to navigate by touch and sound alo

ags. My back screamed in protest, every movement sending fresh waves of agony thro

tears spilled down my cheeks, Every time I felt that movement that was a proof of of

ued, my voice cracking. "So

e. It was a small, crescent shaped scar, barely visible but I could feel

you even remember me? Do you remember what you promi

e broke completely. "Have you

nside me stir again. The baby was active tonight as if sensi

he words bitter and broken. "I hope

asting longer. The food they gave me when they bothered to give me anything at all was barely enough to keep me alive

el it in the way the kicks became softer, less frequent In

my belly as best I could. "I should

mate, abandoned by my family, tortured by my own pack. The only li

urning on my skin. I had waited expecting him to return. I had waited all day, huddled in t

ad nowhere

isheveled, smelling of another wolf still haunted me. My fat

said. "You're no daughter of mine." an

promise like a drowning woman clinging to a lifeline but as weeks passed and tur

meant what he said. Maybe the bond between us had

we had created together was real and I wo

my belly as my tears drying on my cheeks. "But I'm

tronger this time, as i

despair. For this tiny life inside me, I

ad