CHAPTER 39
1230 Words
The heavy cell door creaked open. Leon immediately stepped aside, leaving the path clear. Nor did he offer any help.
Everyone's attention fell upon Ivy.
For a moment, she remained where she was, as though her body had forgotten how to move. Then, slowly, she forced herself forward.
One step.
Then another.
Each movement looked painfully difficult.
The cell was small enough that most people could cross it in a matter of seconds, yet for Ivy, the short distance felt impossibly long.
Every step seemed to demand more strength than she possessed, as though invisible waves were pulling her backward and refusing to let her leave.
The corridor remained silent as she made her way toward the open door. When she finally reached it, her legs nearly gave out beneath her.
Instinctively, Ivy reached for the nearest support and wrapped her fingers around one of the silver bars beside the doorway.
The reaction was immediate. A sharp pain shot through her hand.
Ivy gasped and recoiled as though burned. Her weakened body lost what little balance it had left, sending her stumbling backward.
The impact echoed through the cell as her shoulder slammed against the stone wall, followed by the rest of her body.
Luke took an abrupt step forward, raising a hand toward the bars without thinking. The moment his palm brushed the silver, a searing pain shot through his skin.
He hissed and jerked back instinctively.
A bright red mark bloomed across his hand. For a second, he simply stared at it in disbelief before reality caught up to him.
The prison cells of Silver Mane were lined with silver.
Every lock, every bar, and every piece of metal inside the underground prison had been forged from the deadly material. It was designed that way to prevent werewolves from escaping. Even brief contact was painful. Prolonged exposure was far worse.
Silver did not merely burn the flesh.
Extended exposure weakened the body, poisoned the bloodstream, and in severe cases could cause irreversible damage to the mind itself. Many prisoners left the cells broken long before their sentences ended.
Luke's eyes slowly shifted back toward Ivy. She had spent more than a day down here. An uncomfortable feeling twisted in his chest.
Without warning, an old memory surfaced. It happened years ago, long before Emma entered their lives. Back then, Luke's possessiveness toward Ivy was so obvious that even Alpha Victor occasionally mocked him for it.
Ivy had always been a troublemaker.
Not the malicious kind of troublesome, but the sort that kept their parents constantly on edge. Every time the landline rang and her homeroom teacher's name appeared on the caller ID, Luna Doris's heart nearly stopped.
Luke still remembered one particular afternoon.
He had just returned home from a football match and was sprawled across the sofa, cooling down after practice. The landline rang loudly through the house.
The moment he answered, he knew the voice on the other end belonged to Ivy's teacher.
Even now, Luke remembered every word she said. The panic in her voice had sent him rushing through the house to find his parents. Within half an hour, they were driving toward the school.
They found Ivy unconscious in the infirmary.
Her face was unnaturally red. Her breathing came in weak, shallow bursts, and there were faint traces of dried blood around her mouth that someone had failed to clean properly.
For a moment, all three of them thought something terrible had happened, their hearts squeezed by an invisible hand.
"The injuries aren't serious," her teacher had quickly explained. "The class was attending a laboratory lesson when Ivy suddenly started bleeding from her nose. She collapsed shortly afterward."
Her explanation offered no comfort.
Ivy had always been unusually healthy. She rarely caught colds, rarely complained, and almost never ended up in bed because of illness. Seeing her unconscious was enough to frighten the entire family.
After several tests, the doctors finally discovered the cause of her condition. Ivy had suffered an allergic reaction to copper.
As for how it happened, the answer left everyone speechless. Apparently, unable to resist her curiosity, she had licked a sample piece of copper that had been displayed in the chemistry lab.
Ever since that disastrous chemistry lesson, copper had become something of a forbidden thing within the family.
Nobody spoke about it, but everyone remembered. They avoided it whenever possible, careful not to leave even the smallest trace within Ivy's reach.
Yet the prison beneath the pack house was filled with it.
The bars, locks, and hinges had all been forged from a mixture of silver and copper, creating restraints strong enough to hold even the most dangerous werewolves.
Silver alone was cruel. It weakened the wolf, drained strength from the body, and muddled the mind after prolonged exposure.
But for Ivy, there was another poison lurking beneath it.
Copper threaded through the prison like hidden veins. She had spent more than a day surrounded by it, breathing it in, touching it, living inside it.
No wonder she looked so pale.
Her legs could barely support her weight. Her words came out slower than usual, blurred at the edges, while the skin on the back of her hands had turned an angry shade of red. Even her face carried a faint swelling that hadn't been there before.
Suddenly, the exhaustion in her eyes and the unnatural weakness in her movements made horrifying sense.
Luke felt his stomach twist. This wasn't simply the result of spending a day locked inside a prison cell.
Ivy was having an allergic reaction.
They've been here for so long but no one noticed it.
The pack house descended into chaos once again in the middle of the night.
Fortunately, the doctor assigned to Emma's care had not left yet. Since she remained unconscious, he had been given a spare room and instructed to stay nearby in case he was needed at odd hours.
When Ivy was brought inside, a maid hurriedly knocked on his door and dragged him from bed before he could properly wake up.
The doctor arrived with sleep still clouding his mind, his hair disheveled and his coat thrown hastily over his shoulders. He looked ready to complain about being disturbed at such an hour.
Then he stepped into the room.
His eyes landed on Ivy, and whatever drowsiness remained vanished instantly.
Shock flashed across his face as he strode forward. "What happened to her?" he demanded, all traces of sleep gone from his voice.
"Doctor," Leon spoke before Luke had the chance to explain. Stepping forward, he briefly summarized the situation. "She may be suffering from an allergic reaction on top of several injuries. She lost consciousness roughly ten minutes ago."
The doctor immediately moved to Ivy's bedside while Leon stepped aside.
Ivy had already been struggling to remain conscious inside the cell. The short walk out of the prison had exhausted what little strength she had left.
When she accidentally touched the silver bars and slammed into the wall, it was as though the final thread holding her upright had snapped.
She had collapsed almost instantly.
Fortunately, Leon had been close enough to react. Before her body could hit the floor, he had caught her and carried her back to the pack house.
Even now, traces of dried blood and dirt stained the sleeve of his coat.
- Writer
