Chapter 3: The Lycan's Cruel Initiation

Kate's POV

My head swam as I slowly drifted back to consciousness, met by a relentless throbbing behind my eyes.

My body felt leaden, weighted down by a strange listlessness that robbed me of my usual strength.

I...where am I? What happened?

Blinking blearily, I tried to take in my murky surroundings.

I was sprawled on a dank stone floor, the cloying stench of wet earth and decay thick in the air.

Dull torchlight flickered from bracketed sconces on the rough-hewn walls, casting macabre shadows that seemed to twist and undulate hypnotically.

As my senses slowly realigned, other worrying details filtering in.

Like the heavy iron shackles biting into the tender flesh of my wrists and ankles.

And the unnatural chill seeping into my very bones, despite being stripped down to just a thin cotton shift.

A prison cell...in the depths of the Blood Moon pack's den.

The harrowing memory came crashing back in a merciless torrent.

The humiliation of being traded away by my own family like livestock to be mated off to Dimitri, the monstrous Alpha of this savage lycan clan.

Then blacking out in sheer terror as the beast unleashed his brutal wolf form before my very eyes.

A tremulous whimper escaped my lips as I instinctively huddled in on myself, trying to disappear into the shadows.

What fresh horrors awaited me now at the hands of my new 'mate?'

I knew Dimitri's ruthless reputation all too well - not even his own betas were safe from his bloodthirsty savagery, let alone me, an outsider omega gift-wrapped for his amusement.

Please, Moon Mother...let this just be a cruel nightmare I'll soon wake from, I frantically pleaded. Let me open my eyes and find myself safe back in my own bed within the Twilight Fang den.

But the jarring rattle of heavy footfalls treading down the gloomy cellblock corridor dashed that desperate hope instantaneously.

I shrank back against the rear wall as much as possible, my pulse skyrocketing in primal terror when Dimitri's towering, hulking form stepped into view at the door of my cell.

Even stooped under the low archway, he looked every inch like the fearsome lycan monster rumored to haunt campfire tales told to unruly pup.

Those bottomless silver eyes sliced through the shadows to find me in an instant, gleaming with dark promise and savage intent.

I braced myself for his feral transformation to take hold as he fully unleashed his beast within...yet the monstrous change never came.

Instead, Dimitri strode forward, thunderous footfalls reverberating through my bones with each punishing step closer toward my cowering form.

"There you are, little omega." He rumbled, each grating word laced with ominous menace that made my bones quake. "Awake at last, I see."

Before I could even flinch or shirk away, his hand lashed out in a blistering blur to seize me by the throat, hoisting my helpless body off the ground until the tips of my toes just barely scraped against the filthy cell floor.

I wheezed and gasped like a landed fish, panic surging as I locked gazes with my cruel captor.

Up close, the rugged beauty of his feral features was even more intense, severe yet striking, with hard angles and sinewy scars hinting at countless battles survived.

Eyes that reflected all the savage ferocity of the wild itself, and a chiseled jawline dusted with the first hints of a shadowed beard.

This was a face not sculpted by human hands, but hammered and forged by centuries of ceaseless bloodshed and warfare.

The face of a true alpha monster.

And somehow, that stark, primal masculinity seared itself onto Kate's very soul.

"You have been quite the little handful since before you even arrived in my territory, haven't you, pet?" Dimitri mused, idly dragging the barest tip of his claw across the hollow of my throat.

I flinched violently at the feather-light touch, shuddering at how easily he could open me up with those razor talons.

Yet instead of slitting my delicate flesh, he slowly trailed his claw down until it rested disturbingly between the thin swells of my breasts, a hairsbreadth away from slicing through the frail muslin.

I whimpered, acutely aware of how exposed and vulnerable I was before this male's scorching scrutiny.

"Managed to slip your handlers twice on the journey from your old pack's sad excuse of a den." His growl deepened, lips peeling back in a feral snarl as his pupils contracted to slits. "Hunters had to trail your scent and drag you through the wilds kicking and screaming like a feral cat."

The rough pads of his fingers grazed back up over the slender column of my throat, possessive and domineering.

I trembled ever harder, bile scorching at the back of my tongue at the unwelcome skin contact.

"It seems we'll have to make an example of insubordinate behavior from the very start." Dimitri's canines lengthened, deadly fangs unsheathing before my horrified stare. "Work on taming that rabid defiance while you still have a throat left to beg with..."

Oh gods, no...he isn't... I squeezed my eyes shut in reflexive horror, every muscle seizing up as she braced herself for the brutal agony that must be coming.

Already my mind reeled with images of snapping fangs shredding my tender flesh to ribbons.

Or worse - transforming into his full lycan form to rend my fragile body limb from limb in a shower of gore.

But just as my terror crescendoed to the breaking point, the excruciating pain of slashing claws never came.

Instead, Dimitri merely leaned in closer, his bestial snarl caressing the shell of my ear in a low, taunting growl.

"Submit to me utterly and completely, or we'll see how long your human body can withstand my more...ravenous urges."

Then he released me in one sudden, shocking motion.

I collapsed to the stone floor in a trembling heap, coughing and gulping in ragged lungfuls of stale air as my pulse thundered out of control.

Blood roared in my ears, disorienting me.

When I finally managed to pry my eyes open, Dimitri had already turned away, lumbering back toward the rusted bars of my cramped cell.

Over his shoulder, he tossed one final, disdainful glance back at my quailing form.

"Don't fight what you are, omega. The sooner you accept your rightful place as my bitch...the longer you might live to serve me. Choose wisely, and your death may yet be mercifully quick..."

He let those sadistic words linger like a curse as he stormed out, leaving I huddled and gutted on the foul cell floor.

Time seemed to blur and distort as her mind spun incoherently from the shock.

I barely even registered the distant, echoing wails of pure anguish eventually tearing free from my raw throat...