Chapter 19
There was a rustling sound somewhere close by but Myra did not open her eyes. She felt the ropes which were covered in wolfsbane that did nothing to her, wrapped around her body which was tied to a chair.
Myra listened. There was more than one person here in the room. She could feel Luna in her mind, growling. They had not injected her anything as she opened her eyes. Her sight was still limited to seeing everything in red.
There were two men, strangers she had never seen, standing besides the door she was facing. A woman stood besides the metal table where injections were placed, with all sorts of needles. There were no windows for her to escape from as she looked around the empty room.
Everything was so cold.
Her body shivered as she let out a breath which she saw float into the air. Frost. Cold. It was when Myra noticed how the males and the women were wearing big fur coats that seemed to keep them warm. Luna was shivering inside her mind, her name being echoed off the walls as Myra opened her mouth.
“I’m cold.” Her voice was a whisper, as she shivered, not able to use her strength to pull the ropes off her body. She felt frozen to the core, her fingers were so numb as she tried and failed to move them.
“That is good.” The woman’s voice felt like a distant sound as Myra watched her turn to the males on the side. She nodded at them and they opened the door.
Instantly the warm air filled the room and she let out a sigh of relief. There was a fire burning somewhere but it warmed her up enough to stop the shivering. She closed her eyes, feeling the hot air on her,letting it warm up her body but that second of peace was snatched away from her as someone slammed the door shut.
She opened eyes in an instant to see Jackson closing the door, a growling passing his lips as he stared at the men. “Did I fucking say you can open the door?”
The men shrunk back, as if they could hide in the door they were leaning against. Jackson turned his head around to stare at Myra who was feeling the shivers running up her body again as the tips of her fingers were coated in frost.
His eyes were taunting her with every step he took towards her. “Leave.” He dismissed the others and immediately everyone left the room.
Jackson didn’t look any different than before. The bald head, the big beer belly, the yellow teeth. Everything to do with him disgusted her.
He stood in front her with that knowing look as if to say where will you go now? Myra watched him take a step back, the forced bond inside of her indicating he was nervous. On edge for something to happen.
Elias? She tried to focus on her mind rather than the sound of a chair being scrapped.
There was no answer.
Myra knew where she was. There was only one place they could drag her body to,to kill her in the place she was tortured every night. She was home. In her basement where there were no longer her chains hanging for her to use.
It had changed, much colder than before as if they wanted to freeze her to death.
Myra could not open her mouth to curse, to say anything as she watched Jackson sit in front of her on the chair. She waited for him to say something, anything and he did.
“I think it is time to finally tell you the truth.” His voice was loud as if he knew she was finding it difficult to hear, to focus on anything other than the cold.
Suddenly the door opened, and a small heater was dragged inside by a male. He placed it besides her feet, turning it towards her.
The feet were instantly warm while the rest of her body shivered. It was better than anything as the warmth filled her body, her mind,her soul.
The man walked out and closed the door behind himself.
Jackson stared at her. She stared back, no longer focusing on the cold.
“You are alive because you have a special gift, Myra.” His voice was filled with hunger which was directed towards her. She felt his horrible gaze run over her body, slowly, admiring something that would never be his.
“Do you see this?” Jackson lifted his hand up, his palm facing the ceiling. Myra’s eyes widened as a bubble of water appeared balancing on his palm, ready to be destroyed.
“This is what we call the elements.”
Fire. Earth. Water. Air.
“For years, I have been looking for them, fascinated by the people who could wield them.” The water disappeared and a flower grew on his palm. He glanced at her. “I have gone through every pack I could, finding the elements, wolves who were favourites of the Moon Goddess.” He chuckled to her as she watched the wind twirl into a mighty storm on his palm. “A young generation of wolves who were able to control the elements, to be powerful, to be royalty.”
Myda understood everything. Her mind connected the dots before he could even tell her. Her body burned. Her sight was limited to one colour. Red. She felt like there were flames inside of her, pushing past the rage she felt every time.
Fire.
She somehow had the power to control flames.
“I killed them all. I dragged them all my territory and I stole their magic. Technology is *wonderful, Myra. To extract every drop of blood and to drink it on a full moon to gain power, is so easy.” He was taunting her, dangling the promise of death in front of her.
She did not speak but listened to every sound, to every heartbeat she could hear as her body warmed up, slowly on the rise of burning.
There were a lot of wolves standing outside of the house. Where were her parents?
“There is a myth whispered over battlefields and camps about the elements. Would you like to hear it?” He asked her before chuckling to himself. “Of course you do.” He started to tell her, staring into her eyes. “They say the one that can control all the magic, will be able to control the world. With a single thought, the would could burn at their command. It is that easy to start a new life, to create and to take.” His voice was distant as if he was imagining himself with all that power.
“You want the flames.” She said to him and he blinked, a little surprised that she had caught on.
Before Jackson could answer, the door opened. Myra watched them walk inside. Her parents. Alpha Tom.
Memories of herself being tortured day and night filled her mind. No more.
“Pathetic.” Her dad scoffed at her. Myra noticed the unopened envelopes in their hands and they both ripped them apart, dropping them onto the group with disgust. “You have brought shame to us.” He said with anger.
Luna growled in her mind, the world turning into a brighter red, as if the flames inside of her wanted to be let free. She did not know how or what to do as her body burned.
Myra ignored them, her gaze zoning on Jackson, waiting for him to finish what he was saying.
Tom, not her Alpha, talked. “Jackson had found all of the elements and he had kept them safe within himself. Over the span of three full moons, he had injected himself with the blood of the children who were given the elements.” Tom laughed as if killing innocent children was normal.
Jackson continued his own story. “I was on the hunt for the fire element but last I had heard was the Rogues had destroyed the pack. It made me furious.” He chuckled to himself before glancing up at Tom and then back at Myra. “Alpha Tom reached out to me. He was the only one who believed in elements. *That is why you are alive, Myra. You have the flame, passed down by your mother.” He chuckled, glancing back at her.
Her mom stared at her, with anger in her eyes. “We were never supposed to get pregnant.” She was telling the truth to Myra as she glanced at her mate. “You were so unexpected and it was a mistake. The worst mistake I ever made.”
Luna growled loudly in her mind pushing herself forward to take control. Myra allowed her. She tried to pull her hands out from the ropes that seemed to have frozen her arms. She couldn’t move as the heater was kicked away from her. The cold in the room seemed to wrap itself around her and her alone as she twisted and turned in the chair, wanting to be let out.
The one who had birthed her, started to talk. Myra would never call her mother. “My pack was destroyed and we ran away from them. Alpha Tom helped us when I told him I was pregnant. They had been tracking me down, wanting the flames but the second I was pregnant, my magic went to you instead. You stole from me.” She hissed the words at Myra.
Myra did not say anything. She did not need to argue with them because they would never listen, never understand.
“When you were born, we waited for the flames to show.“Tom said. “The other elements were young children and they had their powers. You did not.”
“It was why you beat me every single day. To see if I would burn.” She stated, watching all four of them nod in front of her.
She never burned. She never felt the flames until her 18th birthday. Until the voices in her mind got louder and louder, until the day she ran from her husband. Until she found love.
“You never showed any signs of magic and we thought you didn’t have any until one night.” Tom grinned at her as she looked at him confused. “The day of your sixteenth birthday, the pack had nearly killed you. Remember when I allowed everyone to beat you up? To have their fun?” He raised an eyebrow, wondering if she remembered.
She remembered it like it was yesterday. She had answered a boy back who had tripped her over. Alpha Tom had come and tied her inside the basement,letting every single pack member come and whip her, punch her, hurt her. She cried and screamed but never begged.
“You lost consciousness on the 234th punch?” He thought about the number. She didn’t want to tell him that he was wrong. It was the 245th whip. “I thought to myself there must be somewhere to wake her magic up. I was going to do everything to make you angry but when I had touched your numb body, you were burning.” He chuckled to himself. “If your body wasn’t weak, that would have been the day you died and we would have the flames.”
“They’re going to give me my magic back once you are drained of blood.” Her mother said to her, a glare fixated in her eyes.
Myra laughed. “You must be utterly stupid if you think that is true.”
The respect she had always had for her parents was gone. The mated couple standing in front of her was not her parents. They did not care for her like Ryan’s mom cared for him. They did not care for her like the mothers and fathers she had seen in the Shadow Pack. They did not care and neither did she.
“Show some respect to your mother.” The man growled, taking a step towards her.
“She stopped being my mother when she left me alone to look after myself.” Myra spat the words out to him and he didn’t hesitate to slap her across the face.
Good. Luna growled in her mind. Get angry. She urged her and Myra listened, whipping her head back to face the male. She spat on him and he growled, fisting his hand in her hair and tilting her head up.
“You will show respect.”
People demanded respect because it broke their egos when they were dehumanised and treated like dirt. The way Myra stared at her once upon a time father, made him angry. She glared up at him and spat up in his face again.
“Show me some respect.” She growled those words, her voice filled with authority that made the man let go of her in an instant, eyes wide as if he didn’t know she was an Alpha.
Her aura had changed. Everybody in the shadow pack did not look at her as Elias’s mate, as their Luna. They stared at her because she was an Alpha, equal to Elias who held her hand always and proudly said she was her own Alpha. Not the Luna of the pack.
Alphas terrified every average wolf and the male in front of her was average. He took a step back, glancing at Jackson and Tom as if he was disappointed in them for not telling him.
“Do you really think he will give your magic when he has been looking for it? That easily? He waited 18 years for the flames, yet you think he will hand it to you that easily?” Myra laughed at the woman who growled at her.
She turned to look at Jackson. “You will not be able to drain me of my blood because I will not allow it. Men who think they can easily kill me, have been proven wrong.”
“You are tied to a chair,in a room so cold, your magic will never be able to come.” He chuckled at her.
“I have a mate, a family that will come for me.” She promised them all. “But mark my words, Jackson.” She turned to look at Tom. *” You will never be able to destroy anyone’s life, because I will kill you with my bare hands and I will make sure everyone is watching.” She made a vow so powerful, she could hear the gulp Tom took.
Jackson stood up from his chair as Myra heard the three unknown voices in her mind. For the first time in years, she listened to them.
Fight.
Accept yourself and your flames will come to you. You have to accept who you are.
Who is she?
Myra questioned herself like the last voice did. Who was Myra Emerson? A girl who survived for eighteen years? Was she an Alpha or was she the mate of the Rogue King?
She felt Jackson’s hand tightened around her chin and his fingers digging into her cheeks. He tilted her head up and she stared into his eyes.
Was she his wife and Luna of the Crystal Blood Pack? Her eyes navigated towards the mate couple behind him as Jackson started talking. She couldn’t hear anything as her mind opened a pit of darkness inside of her.
Was she their daughter? A girl who cried herself to sleep every day and begged for death?
The darkness beckoned her inside, whispering her name like a prayer, to jump off the cliff she was standing on. To accept the darkness.
Myra looked back up at Jackson and she stared at him talking and growling.
She knew who she was.
Myra Emerson was just herself. She didn’t need labels or titles to explain who she was. She was herself.
She accepted it! Someone exclaimed happily in her mind as Myra closed her eyes and she jumped into the darkness that opened widely for her, wrapping itself around her.
She fell for what seemed like hours and hours, images of her past life flickering to dust. Pictures of her crying, of being dragged through the pack territory. Images of herself being abused turned to dust the longer she continued to fall.
Until images of her new life came and a flame so strong, absorbed itself inside of her. She gasped, the burning she had cooled down so many times over the weeks, finally was set free. She heard the screams of Jackson and the others as her eyes widened open. She stared at the ceiling, the cold no longer bothering her as she burned.
Flames covered the room as she heard screamed and everyone running out.
Myra burned brightly.