30 Days Left: The Rejected White Wolf's Countdown

Kacie POV:

"Arrest her."

The words hung in the sterile hospital air. Two pack Enforcers, large wolves with stone faces, stepped forward.

"Cedric, you can't be serious," I said, backing up until my hospital gown brushed the cold wall. "I need to heal. I just lost a child."

"You are a danger to the pack," Cedric said, his voice devoid of any warmth. "You conspired with Rogues. That is treason. The punishment is death, Kacie. Be grateful I am only imprisoning you."

He nodded to the Enforcers. One of them pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

They weren't steel. They glinted with a dull, white sheen.

Silver.

"No," I gasped. "Cedric, please. Silver will burn me. It stops the healing. I'm already bleeding internally!"

"Maybe the pain will help you reflect on your sins," he said.

The Enforcer clamped the cuffs onto my wrists.

Sizzle.

Smoke rose from my skin. The smell of burning flesh filled the corridor. I screamed, my knees buckling. It felt like acid was being injected directly into my veins. The silver suppressed my wolf, locking Serenity away in a cage of agony.

They dragged me through the hospital. Pack members watched, whispering, pointing. I was the traitor. The child-killer.

They didn't take me to the police station. They took me to the Moon Estate's dungeon. It was a damp, lightless basement carved into the bedrock beneath the house.

They threw me into a cell and slammed the iron bars shut.

"Enjoy your stay," the Enforcer grunted, leaving me in the dark.

I crawled to the corner, cradling my burning wrists. The pain was constant, a high-pitched scream in my nervous system.

I lay there for hours, shivering on the dirty straw.

Eventually, the elevator hummed. Footsteps approached.

It was Carol. She stood outside the bars, looking down at me like I was a cockroach.

"You should know," she said, smoothing her skirt. "Since you have proven yourself unfit and traitorous, the Elders have annulled your marriage rights. Cedric will marry Jayden as soon as her health permits. To restore the pack's luck."

"Good," I rasped, my voice barely audible. "Let her have him."

"You will rot here until you die," Carol smiled.

She left.

I closed my eyes. The rune on my chest was burning hotter than the silver. I pulled down the collar of my gown to look at it in the dim light.

3 Days.

I had three days left. I wasn't going to rot here. I was going to leave. Not just the pack, but this world.

"Just hold on, Serenity," I whispered to the silence. "We're almost free."