“Please, I need your help!”
Orion didn’t even look up from the blade he was sharpening, the rasp of steel against stone echoing like a whisper of death in the cold room, his iron leg tapping rhythmically on the cracked stone floor, ticking like a countdown.
“What do you want, Gaia?” he asked lazily, inspecting the blade under the flickering candlelight as if she was nothing but another dust speck on his floor.
Gaia’s lips trembled, her wolf Kira snarling inside her, Don’t beg. We don’t beg. But the fear choking her was stronger than her pride, coiling around her ribs, tightening with every breath as she clutched the frayed ends of her stolen dress.
She had just managed to escape the pathetic life they were forcing her into, the endless days of being treated like a nobody, a worthless g
